AIBU to leave council flat for private renting? 5 in a 1 bed flat.

[Hereforhelp]

Hi. So I was housed a 1 bedroom flat with council when I was 7 months pregnant with my first child. Now theres 5 of us in the same flat me, dh, dd 5 yrs, DS1 3 yrs and DS2 4 months old.

Dh and I are both employed, him full time me part time (currently on maternity leave) & don’t receive any sort of benefit.

The plan for our family increase was to return flat and private rent somewhere bigger but now private rent have massively increased £300 more than it was 2 years ago 😅 so that plan failed, leaving us cramped, in a 1 bed 🙃

We’ve tried to talk to council but according to law we’re not overcrowded as living room could be used as bedroom too and according to my room measurements each room can fit up to 2 adults (that’ll be 4 kids in each bedroom as they count a kid as half an adult).

Shall I hang in here and hopefully be rehoused after couple of years or stretch our finances and rent privately? People are calling me mad to be thinking of giving up a council home & I’d hate to give up the security of our home tbh but we are so desperate!!

Has anyone here left a council home for private renting? Or has anyone got a success story of getting rehoused due to overcrowding?

Why is expecting someone to take personal responsibility for their situation such a horrendous thing?

That's not what you're doing though is it? You're tearing apart her decisions, her children, her worth as a mother because you think the council pays for people to move??? Ffs they don't pay for anyone to move, so your ignorance is showing.

Why do you think you're so superior?

Because out of you and OP I know which one I'd rather come across in RL!

@Fairenuff

There is a shortage of social housing because we sold a lot of it off via Right to Buy at the same time as we stopped/slowed building it.

@InTheHeatofLisbon

1. councils don't pay moving costs unless you demonstrate need and can occasionally offer loans/grants in very specific circumstances.

2. OP and her family don't claim benefits so pay full rent/council tax.

3. even if they were on benefits, some of the views on here are absolutely abhorrent.

4. being a homeowner doesn't make you better, as a person or a parent.

Some stellar fucking nasty bastards on here today.

FFS there’s some bloody horrible people on this thread.m

The OP said right at the start the plan was to privately rent but they’ve risen out of the family’s reach over the last two years.

OP...don’t give up you flat....it’s security, it’s hard for you but it is a roof over your head that won’t be sold from under you.

A sofa bed in the living room is the way to go for you and DH and the children in the bedroom.

There’s a massive shortage of social housing but eventually something may well come up.

Maybe look at the space you have and invest any private rent deposits you might have saved into space saving storage.

@bluegirlgreen
Probably best to post in the morning. You get the more judgemental, vitriolic, spiteful, people (who like to stick the boot in,) crawling out from under rocks after dark.

This was only my first netmums post as well!! 😂😂😂

Hereforhelp sorry for getting on my soap box I just can't bear such nastiness for absolutely no reason.

Having your parenting, your kids existence, your entire life being torn apart for sport by people who think they're superior is fucking awful.

They're fucking awful.

I've been a council tenant (on benefits too! Shoot me quick)

I've done private let, again on benefits, and it was soul destroying.

I'm now fortunate enough to own my own home. I'm not better than anyone else, I'm luckier, that's all.

This won't netmums.

This was only my first netmums post as well

Well now I'm offended! Netmums indeed

*isn't netmums.

That's not what you're doing though is it? You're tearing apart her decisions, her children, her worth as a mother because you think the council pays for people to move???

I never said any of those things.

I said if you don't have room for three children, you don't have three children. It's a decision that thousands of couples have to make because they can't afford to move or move their house around to accommodate more than two children.

What I don't understand is why OP made the decision to continue having children knowing she didn't have space?

Sorry not RTFT as I got too angry. Funny how the language changes when talking about people's kids when they live in social housing. (3 kids is not 'masses of kids')
Social housing was created to provide affordable housing for all. If you want to get annoyed at anyone be annoyed at Thatcher who allowed people to buy their council house then the government got their money back and more when these people were old and needed to pay for their own care.

Anyway OP I would try to speak to your MP, keep talking to the council, even if it's just to be told the same thing, are there any medical issues such as depression from being so over crowded and priced out of private letting? I wouldn't give up social housing if you can possibly avoid it, as you say the security of basically a home for life is too important.

Wow the ignorance on this thread is mind blowing,

I rent from a HA

My rent for a two bedroom home is around £250 less than the same house in private rent,

The HA plough their profits into community projects which benefit the whole local area (yep even home owners) ....you’re welcome to my bit of rent which contributes to the profit by the way .If it makes your surroundings areas nice then I am glad to help.

Nobody paid removal costs for me to move here ....not even as the single parent of a small autistic child.

I paid the costs from my salary.

😂😂😂😂😂😂

@InTheHeatofLisbon
Haha they’re so similar, bloody mumsnet 😄

I'm now fortunate enough to own my own home. I'm not better than anyone else, I'm luckier, that's all.

Well done you!!, couldn’t be more happier for you, what area you in? Are homes cheaper there than say the SE?

Intheheatoflisbon - I posted my situation because that's my situation. I understand others doing things differently. Different is fine, irresponsibility is not fine. I would never call the OP a terrible mother because I don't know her as a person. I only know what she has posted on this thread. Having 3 children by choice while living in a 1 bedroom flat IS irresponsible.

OP - have to give you credit for taking responses with such good grace and a touch of humour. I'm not sure about other posters but it wasn't my intention to offend or upset you. I hope you manage to move to a bigger property.

Absolutely no one on this thread has bashed people living in social housing or people on benefits. Benefits need to be there as a safety net for anyone who get a into trouble. We absolutely should provide for people when they need it. But they should not be a way of life.

Social housing should absolutely be provided to people who need it. No one should be homeless or living in a B&B or where ever else the council stop people. Housing should be given to those who need it.
But we are not a communist society. People must take personal responsibility for getting themselves out of that situation. The OP can afford to private rent. They can afford to save for a mortgage. If they only had 1 child, saving a deposit would be absolutely doable. But they had 3, in a 1 bedroom house. They might never be able to save up to buy their own home now. And they are avoiding private renting. So, despite earning well, they are blocking a social house which people who aren't earning really need and they have squeezed 3 children into a 1 bed.

No one here had complained about people on benefits or people in social housing. We are complaining about someone making co.pleyelt stupid choices, getting themselves and their children into a really horrible situation, but then expecting the council to sort it out for them. It the entitled attitude and completely lack of responsibility that people are fed up with. Not social housing or benefits.

Hereforhelp thank you. My mum died and left a legacy so we used it to buy the house which gives the kids a head start once we're gone.

Nah, we're in North Lanarkshire, one of the cheapest LAs in the UK. That's exactly why we're here btw, more house for your money.

I couldn't afford a house in Edinburgh let alone the SE!!! Hell I couldn't afford a bedsit in the SE!

But I fully recognise that I am financially fortunate, and have been in many housing situations over the years that make me extremely grateful for the security that my kids have! I lived in a converted attic flat outside Edinburgh (before kids) that had an internal door with a Yale as a front door, no hot water bar the shower (dishes were done by boiling the kettle for 3 years!) and no heating!

Absolutely no one on this thread has bashed people living in social housing or people on benefits

Bullshit. Absolute, unmitigated bullshit.

You're both employed, so you can private rent. Your children come first in needing their own space, not your "need" of a bigger home through the council. Pisses me off. Last year, I was homeless with two children in a refuge and was told I'd be on a waiting list for social housing for 3 years minimum. We were miles and miles away from home. Yet there are people like you and your partner sitting in your social housing demanding to be given a bigger place because you don't want to pay the extortionate private renting prices. What do you think I did? I ended up taking private renting and paying way over double for a tiny flat than people pay for a three bed social housing home.

As an example OP, there's a 4 bed detached, on my road, for £160k at the moment. It's a 20 year old Barratt build, similar to ours. More expensive than ours was too!

OP I'm not jumping to conclusions. Whichever way you look at it, social housing was always intended to be for the needy. That's the bottom line. I asked in which way did it provide affordable accommodation and then decided to just look it up myself.

The social housing market is affected by the housing market as a whole. Companies that build new houses have to pay for and build a percentage of affordable homes as part of the planning permission. Land prices are so high and they have to build and sell in order to release funds to buy more land and build more houses.

If the houses don't sell, their cash flow dries up and they can't buy land or build more. This is what's happening right now. The government don't build or pay for the houses, the building companies do. But when they go bust, or just can't afford to build, there will be a even greater housing shortage.

There may be many others on this thread like you that could afford to free up social housing by renting privately which might be why you are getting to many angry people backing you up.

Personally I think those properties should be for those people who cannot afford to private rent and just need a helping hand. That's is what they were originally intended for. But yeah, you can just say fuck 'em and stay in a property that you don't really need.

OP are you absolutely tied to your current area? Are any of the surrounding areas cheaper which would mean you could stay in current jobs?

It's crazy how councils policy's vary in ours a child is counted as a whole needing a room from the 20 week scan and children aren't expected to share under 10 and this is a London Borough.

Short assured tenancies don't provide security.

Those insisting that being able to afford the rent means OP should be in one, while simultaneously attacking her for not providing a home for her children, don't you think that moving from a secure tenancy to one which means that every 6 months they'd need to uproot and move on the whim of a landlord is worse?

Private lets would be a better option if rents were controlled, living standards were set and adhered to and tenants had more protections in law.

Then you'd have a point.

Until then, you're telling a woman with 3 kids that risking her kids security is more important than considering her options.

Just so you can feel morally superior.