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?

still you are in a crap situation but it doesn’t mean the OP is wrong.

Think of those who’ve had the same 3-4 bed place for 40 years whose kids have gone leaving them occupying a family home on their own.

I am the last person who thinks people should be forced from their homes but the OP is not in the wrong here, she says she would use a privately rented property if one that’s affordable comes up.

@InTheHeatofLisbon

Every comment has been "why have you had more children than you can house". No one has said "people in social housing don't deserve kids".

If they'd had one kid on a one bedroom, I don't think anyone would even take notice or care. But to have 3 kids when you cannot house them comfortably... That's just irresponsible and selfish. I don't care if she lives in social housing, with her parents private rents or own her own home. What I care about is squeezing children into a horrible living situation. It's not like they lost their jobs and this was something which was done to them. This was their situation before they chose to have those kids, in a place where there isn't room for them.

I have 2 kids. I own a 2 bedroom bungalow. We aren't exactly rolling in space. I used to live in a lovely home, but I came home one day and my ex had taken his stuff and moved in with someone 6 years younger than me. We didn't see him again. All I could afford to buy on my own was this 2 bed bungalow. Loft conversion plus extension will cost me around £65 to £70 thousand. Through hard work and very careful spending, I have save two thirds of it. Next year, I should be able to do it and give my kids a bedroom each, and have an actual dining room. We currently have 2 bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. It feels cramped; they boys don't have their own space. But I've done everything I can to change that.
I would love more children. But I'm single, I can't afford them without taking away from my current children and I can't house them (and the environment). So I've accepted that I will never have more children, as much as that upsets me.

That's what responsible people do.

HAVE YOU FOUND YOUR LOCAL AUTHORITY HOUSING ALLOCATIONS POLICY DOCUMENT?

Hey, It’s the midlands, & unlike London or other councils, you aren’t allowed to be on the housing register until you are “entitled” to one, seeing as I’m not legally overcrowded I won’t be put on it till I am.

WHICH COUNCIL?

Sorry for shouting OP but there may be a way for you to challenge this, depending on what your specific local authority housing allocations policy says.

I'm offering to help if it's not too outing for you to name the local authority.

This happens every time someone mentions social housing on Mums net. There seems to be a hard-core of posters who begrudge anyone in a council property and expect them to be eternally grateful for living in 'tax payer subsidised accommodation'.

Except it isn't 'tax payer subsidised'. If you don't understand how this works, plenty of information just a short Google away!

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.

Lack of social housing because government sold it to tenants for life.

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.

Lack of social housing because people who could afford to move on choose not to and live in it for life.

Why is one of those things bad and the other good when they both have the same outcome?

People saying they need to rent because they can afford it are a bit deluded as to how far 35k actually gets you in this economy I bought my house and my mortgage is around £250 cheaper a month than the same house on the same street rents out for. Private renting is a crisis and it isn't getting cheaper I'm in the north where you can get cheap houses and a 3 bed private is between £400 and £800 pcm depending on area it's still high and we have brexit coming up where we don't know what's going to happen to the housing market we've barely recovered from the last recession let alone more stress on jobs and income personally I think you would be mad to give up a secure home for the uncertainty of short term let's there is no guarantee that if they moved they wouldn't be doing it all again in 12 months when the tenancy was up or that they won't end up with the landlord from hell because I've had some bad ones over the years from refusing to put in smoke detectors to not protecting the deposit and making interest off it 😕 private landlords can be a minefield or they could be amazing it's a dice roll. Also I'm shocked that 5 people in a one bed is seen as suitable living arrangements it's shocking the state of our social housing situation in this country and people should be asking the question why do we not have affordable living in the U.K. not why did OP have "too many" kids for her space besides that wasn't the question the question was should she leave security for uncertainty simple as that. People are way too judgemental on this thread!

And I claimed income support when my ex left. I couldn't keep my job because I just couldn't afford or manage the childcare alone. Benefits saved me from being destitute.
But I didn't want to be on them forget. It was for 6 months, whilst I got things sorted and helped thebkids adjust to their dad just disappearing. I don't know where I would be without the benefits system. I used it when I needed it, but then I made a plan, started my business back up, built it up and sorted our lives out. I'm not bashing people on benefits because I was one.

I wonder how many of the judgemental pps with their 'this generation' rubbish raised their kids when social housing was a viable option, housing costs were at reasonable levels and two wages would mean a comfortable life.

Yes having three kids in a one bedroom flat wasn't the best decision but people make worse. It's not her fault that the laws of this country make privately renting such a costly and insecure prospect. Parents who are both working should be able to afford secure appropriate housing and a modest lifestyle. Or should only the middle classes and above be allowed to have children?

Every comment has been "why have you had more children than you can house". No one has said "people in social housing don't deserve kids".

Nope. Your bias/prejudice/whatever is clouding your opinion. OP has had a battering, purely because she's in social housing and that makes a certain type of person feel they have the right to question, pick apart and demand justification from OP. You can't see that, fair enough, but to deny it's happened is spectacularly blinkered.

That's what responsible people do.

Do you feel better after that nasty little barb? You're responsible, aren't you wonderful. OP isn't according to you.

You're superior to her in your own mind. No wonder you can't see the posters being shitty, you're one of them.

A lot of people blame Thatcher, but I found out yesterday they now have "5 year tenancies". But even if, for instance, when the children grow up and move on, those parents are still allowed those over sized council properties and are not forced to downsize... so what's the point of the five year tenancies? Social housing makes me so so angry.

And I am on board with other posters. Why continue to have children knowing full well the poster is in a 1 bed flat and refuse to move to private renting? If you want a bigger family then invest in it. It's the whole "entitlement" thing.

@Fairenuff

*Lack of social housing because people who could afford to move on choose not to and live in it for life.

Why is one of those things bad and the other good when they both have the same outcome?*

In a nutshell because the second one will eventually go back in to circulation once the person dies or goes in to a care home where as in the first that house is now private also they have combatted people staying in houses too big for them with the bedroom tax the op is having the opposite problem though!

TheInvestigator You sound like an amazing, selfless mum who puts her kids first

Social housing is such a contentious issue because it's simply impossible to allocate it fairly.

I don't agree with right-to-buy and inherited tenancies and I'm not sure what I think of lifetime tenancies. It doesn't seem right that people who no longer need social housing can continue to block housing while other more needy people remain unhoused.

I wouldn't want to have to decide on who gets housing and who doesn't.

The disparity between the rent and the security of people in social
Housing compared with those in privately rented homes is too great. It's chalk and cheese.

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.

The law changed in June of this year I believe. Letting agents can no longer charge tenant fees and Landlords can't serve section 21 notice unless tenant is in default of rent.

Have you considered the possibility of buying the flat? It would be cheaper than rent, you might get a significant discount and then, after a couple of years (IIRC), you can sell it at market value. If RTB is available for you, that is.

@TheInvestigator

I have 2 kids. I own a 2 bedroom bungalow. We aren't exactly rolling in space. I used to live in a lovely home, but I came home one day and my ex had taken his stuff and moved in with someone 6 years younger than me. We didn't see him again. All I could afford to buy on my own was this 2 bed bungalow. Loft conversion plus extension will cost me around £65 to £70 thousand.

I am so sorry that had happened to you, perhaps I now understand your attitude towards my post. Let me give you a scenario:

If, in that vulnerable moment, somehow the local council got to you and offered you adequate housing for you and your family, would you have declined and think to yourself there’s someone out there who needs this 3 bedroom more than I do, so I’m gonna let them have it and continue to struggle in this 2 bed bugalow with my 2 kids. Would you have done that?

You say there are other people who might be in need of the home I am now & I don’t disagree, but I am not doing anything illegal here. Heck even housing says I’m legally & adequately housed. I have a legit tenancy with my local housing to stay here for as long as I want/need to, unless I break the rules on my contract. So I don’t see why I should give it up while I have a right to it and I need it myself? Yes we could just about afford private renting, But that’ll be putting my family through uncertainty which is worse than overcrowding, and give up my secure home by thinking about others, who are most likely already taken care of by local authority? Would you really have personally taken your own advice and have done something like that?

Before getting housed this property we were private renting Dh n I in a 1 bed, already expecting our first, the landlord decided to evict so he could up his rent and so we were advised to go to our local council, we stayed in a b&b for 6 weeks, then temporary accommodation in another 5 months, then were housed this place. So when you say there are others that are in so and so situation I understand them & I've been there too.

@TheInvestigator

I don't know where I would be without the benefits system. I used it when I needed it, but then I made a plan, started my business back up, built it up and sorted our lives out.

Well done, so much respect for you.

@MitziK
Have you considered the possibility of buying the flat? It would be cheaper than rent, you might get a significant discount and then, after a couple of years (IIRC), you can sell it at market value. If RTB is available for you, that is.

Yes we’ve thought of this option, RTB is available to us and we will be given 50% off given it’s a flat. But we thought about it and realised since it’s a ground floor 1 bedroom flat with its own entrance and private garden I’m sure an elderly In need will benefit from it More once we move out in the near future than investing on it and resulting on one less possibly sheltered accommodation available from social housing.

In a nutshell because the second one will eventually go back in to circulation once the person dies or goes in to a care home where as in the first that house is now private

Eventually yes. But if people stay in social housing their whole life, that's a good 40-60 years that it's not available for anyone else. Fine, if they need but not if they can afford to rent privately.

I can understand people's reluctance to go into private rent I have a friend who went into one and her rent shot up, then again and again she now is struggling so bad that the council is allowing her back on the register to find a council house as it's cheaper we live in the same block my rent is £401 a month here is nearly £1000 same size flat same layout the lot

I'm another that thinks you should wait it out in the one bedroom flat. Not ideal but kids in bedroom, sofa bed for the two of you in the lounge and then, once your eldest turns 10, you will be much higher priority as she will be classed as needing her own bedroom. Not ideal but I say this as someone who has rented privately and there is zero security involved.

The law changed in June of this year I believe. Letting agents can no longer charge tenant fees and Landlords can't serve section 21 notice unless tenant is in default of rent.

Letting agent fees have gone but a prospective tenant still needs to find the deposit and at least one month's rent in advance.

No fault S21 evictions have not yet gone. There is a consultation on this which closes on 12 October.

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/a-new-deal-for-renting-resetting-the-balance-of-rights-and-responsibilities-between-landlords-and-tenants

You keep suggesting that you did nothing unreasonable or foolish by having 3 kids in a 1 bedroom flat because you were 'planning to private rent in a few years but then the rent went up' that's not a plan at all. Is the concept of rent going up every year unknown to you when you were conceiving your children? Or did you expect the rent to stay the same indefinitely?

Some of the ignorance regarding SH is breathtaking on this thread, from unexpected posters too.
I suppose it's better we know how vilified SH tenants are.

Good luck HfH sorry some people are twats.

"Some of the ignorance regarding SH is breathtaking on this thread*

Always the same on these threads. Always goes the same way, subsidised housing, should be given to the NEEDY, people shouldn't be allowed to live in them all their lives, then how private rents are shit and expensive, then back to SH tennants should go into Private rents.... Even though they're shit.

Tedious and ignorant. I haven't even read this thread through and I know it's gone that way.