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?

@TacoLover

Yes very foolish of me, even stupid & selfish, others called me. By me admitting it will give you a peace of mind? Maybe help you sleep better?

But yes, I did nothing unreasonable or foolish by having 3 kids in a 1 bedroom flat because I was 'planning to private rent in a few years but then the rent went up'. Spot on, seems like you’re starting to understand me much better.

@TheQueef

Thank you, Queen.

I wonder what would happen if all tenants in social housing stayed there because it's a secure tenancy. What then? No housing available at all for those that find themselves needing it? Is this the way we are heading now that new builds have slowed down?

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?

I would think that's pretty obvious. When the tenant dies the home goes back into the social housing stock not the BTL stock which is private rented or worse rented from the landlord by the council for private rent market rate who charge the tenants social housing rates.

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?

So you've answered your own question, stay put if that's what you want to do. Why ask if you've decided to stay.

Jesus I wanted to rtft before offering my opinion but it got nasty and quick!

To all of those who have questioned @Hereforhelp viciously about her children/situation it must be so nice that you’ve never had shit go wrong in life and needed help/advice/support and not just some over-opinionated bullshit in response - oh wait, most people have been there at some point right? So how would you have felt when in that stressful situation in your life if all the support you got was a dressing down for ‘poor choices’ in life. Such horrific ignorance and vitriol towards a woman just seeking advice to a simple question. Should I sacrifice my housing security even though it’s small, for the potentially insecure private renting that she could be kicked out of on a whim. What do you think would impact her kids more? Staying in a small but secure home or being evicted at short notice?

So - with that being said, OP I’m sorry if I’m repeating any advice already given, when I had my twins I was stuck in a box of a flat with ridiculous rent price they hiked whenever they felt like it, no support for breakdowns or things that needed fixing and to top it off, now we’ve successfully moved out (after two years bidding on CH/SH) they are chasing us for damages despite the issues they have listed being maintenance issues that were there when I moved in! That’s not to say all Private Rents are terrible, but I understand your concerns about security.

What I did to get us out of our flat took ages but here it is:

Registered first and foremost for bidding as we could no longer afford Private Renting in our area for what we needed.

Contacted local housing associations directly for advice, they can’t change the bidding process (here any SH/CH is all put under the council bidding system) but they can potentially offer what they think could assist your situation.

When potentially searching for a private rent, if possible go with a respected company such as Thomas James or the like) they have a bit more security maybe? They’re an arse pain to register with as they do a lot of checks but less likely I think to do an out of the blue eviction from what I know.

Try for a two bed house rather than a 3 bed, we eventually got housed because we applied for a 2 bed with Metropolitan Housing who were/are fantastic.

I hope you get something sorted and if your kids are happy enough and it’s not affecting your own MH to be so enclosed then I would say keep the security of the home you have.

When I was 4-8 years old my Grandparents (who raised me) had me, my elder brother and baby sister in a tiny one bedroom flat and we never noticed the space issue really, great memories of that place too 😊

Good luck and all the best

@Fairenuff
I wonder what would happen if all tenants in social housing stayed there because it's a secure tenancy. What then? No housing available at all for those that find themselves needing it? Is this the way we are heading now that new builds have slowed down?

Good point, but why you mad at me for? I’m not the one making the rules. Unless tenancies are made less secure, people who are housed well enough for their circumstances won’t leave out of them to a less secure tenancy, why would anyone do that? Unless they uproot n buy resulting in another well earned secure tenancy or others who are unsuitability housed for their needs especially mobility needs and go private rent.but other than that, I don’t see anyone in their right mind giving up a fit secure tenancy which they have the right to, to a less secure in the hopes of someone else needing it, as sad as that sounds, that’s the world we now live in.

Although I do agree to some posts that said about the elderly who’s family has moved out & are under occupying their properties and reluctant to downsize. However not everything is as black & white as it seems.

Good point, but why you mad at me for

I'm not mad at you. I'm joining in a discussion on your thread.

You asked for opinions as to whether you should stay or go. My opinion is that if you can afford private rent you should free the SH for someone who cannot afford private rent.

I've followed this up with the reasoning that if everyone stays in SH out of choice rather than necessity the housing crisis will get worse. And yes, the government are looking into it to try and make private renting more secure but, imo, this might indirectly lead to even more shortages because many LLs won't want to commit to lifelong tenancies. Anyway, that's another discussion to be had.

It seems like you have decided to stay now anyway.

Btw, I have the @ function switched off so you don't need to use it next to my username.

But yes, I did nothing unreasonable or foolish by having 3 kids in a 1 bedroom flat because I was 'planning to private rent in a few years but then the rent went up'. Spot on, seems like you’re starting to understand me much better.

what are you on about? Are you still trying to tell us that your 'plan' made any sense? Because it clearly didn't but instead of admitting that, you want to pretend that you aren't responsible in any way for your situation

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.

This really surprises me. While you are not statutorily overcrowded, so don't qualify for priority rehousing, it is normal to be able to join the council's transfer list once you have been in your home for a qualifying period (in our area it is 2 year). Then you must have a certain number of points which you can bid for more suitable places. You must have been in your place for about 6 years. If your LA is so different, it is very unusual.

I would stay where you are for now. Private housing seems such a gamble, some people are lucky with a good landlord and a permanent home while others have no real security.

Your flat sounds very pleasant, so you could still be lucky with an exchange. Also when your baby turns one, they will also be considered as an extra person in terms of rehousing. Also look into shared ownership as this could be both affordable and secure for you.

I wonder what would happen if all tenants in social housing stayed there because it's a secure tenancy

See, that right there is the problem. The looking in the wrong place to find an answer that doesn't exist there thing.

People don't want to give up a secure tenancy to go into the hell that is private rents. High rents, unsecure tenancy along with the other shit that goes with these homes.

It's a 1 + 1 thing. What's the answer?

That is what happens in secure tenancies though. Obviously peoples housing needs change over time. You can move homes within the secure tenancy to another....

So you have a one bedroom flat when you start your family, move to a ho e with more bedrooms whilst your family grows and downsize when they move out and have their own places.

It’s often that the system itself isn’t mobile enough.

And yes, get yourself on the exchange register OP. There's bound to be someone being stiffed by bedroom tax who would like to downsize. Since you work the bedroom tax wouldn't affect you anyway.

@TacoLover
sigh
Give up already.

The answer is complicated because housing costs are so high in certain parts of the UK. It's supply and demand that drive the prices up so the solution would be for the government to flood the market with affordable housing.

But they can't because they are relying on building companies to pay for them and they in turn can't do that unless they can sell the private homes they build. At the moment not much is selling.

Unfortunately 'help to buy' schemes have kept property value falsely inflated.

It's good that the government are looking into changes to the private rental market. Hopefully that will help. Perhaps they could introduce rules that once people can afford to private rent they have to move out of SH but with some sort of assistance such as deposit loans and new regulations on tenancy agreements.

It's a 1 + 1 thing. What's the answer?

I answered upthread.

Controlled rents, better controls of the BTL industry, more protections for tenants in private lets, and better measures to ensure homes are fit for human habitation.

But none of those give the tenant a secure tenancy IntheHeart. I think the answer is for LLs to be restricted to signing up 1, 5, 10, 15 or 20 year tenancies, depending on how flexible they need to be. Maybe cap rents at the lowest rate for 1 year tenancies and allow higher rents in exchange for the commitment to a 20 year tenancy. Something like that?

This would mean that only financially secure businesses could be LLs though as individuals may not be able to commit to much more than the current 6 month assured shorthold. But mabe that's a good thing? Let the private rental market be run by companies that make profit in exchange for secured tenancies?

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

That is the most skewed bit of family planning I've ever come across

Not least because even forever two years ago the private rental system was fucked.

Fairenuff that's what I meant by more protections for tenants. I'm not sure a fixed 10 or 20 year tenancy is workable, but certainly 1-5 years is.

The ability for the private housing sector to be about profit with no security for those paying the actual mortgages and more (tenants) is the issue. But then it is the rich who make those decisions.

Several hundred Tory MPs voted against forcing landlords to make homes for for human habitation. A large proportion of those MPs are landlords themselves.

The definition of home is a dwelling for human habitation.

So while the rich control the market, there won't be changes, because like many on this thread, they enjoy sticking the boot in to those less financially fortunate, and that's not going to change any time soon.

I don't think the rich enjoy sticking the boot in, I just think buy and rent property to make a profit for themselves. If there is no profit to be had, private companies or individuals won't let houses because there's nothing in it for them.

But someone has to own the property so obviously it's going to be the rich. I don't think 1-5 years secured tenancy would be enough to tempt people out of their SH that is secure for life. I think personal choice on that will eventually have to be removed if we want to continue to be able to provide SH at all.

Fair enough, we'll agree to disagree.

Not replacing SH lost through right to buy is the biggest issue.

And shitty attitudes towards SH tenants shows there is definitely an attitude about it.

I think you need to move to a privately rented property ASAP. I can't imagine what dreadful overcrowding is doing to your children's mental health.

From my experience your children have to be 10 before they are entitled to single sex bedrooms. What will be suggested by your council is private renting because it clears somebody off their waiting list. They will also say have the children in the bedroom and you and DH have a sofa bed. This is probably the most manageable if you cannot afford private rental.

If we don't build SH ghettos will continue to be created and the housing crisis gets worse.
If we build too much SH too fast if will affect property prices.

One of those things is more acceptable than the other.

In our area there is plenty of building going on. I wouldn't really class it as affordable though. Near where I work they are building hundreds of 'apartments'. It is not the most desirable of areas and a small 1 bed flat has a starting price of £250 000. This will most likely be rented out somewhere in the region of £900 - £1100 pcm.