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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not accept house

39 replies

Jasper00 · 05/12/2019 22:08

So I've been on bidding site for a while and keep been overlooked on anything nice I bid on, or all nicer properties all go to band 4 when im a one ( only specified band get house so if it says band 4 I would not get it). Anyway that isnt the issue even though I do think it's wrong because band 4 already are housed, but whatever.
So i bid on a house with a picture so I knew exactly where it is and it's a road I would want to be on, not entirely perfect but house looked ok and has proper front and back garden for the kids. On a main road so as k said not perfect but I could have stood it, so bidded and have a viewing this month.
Now to the problem.... The house I bid on and the house that was pictured is totally false. It isn't on the road stated, instead in the middle of an old estate behind the main road, which is full of alleys drunk kids and drug dealers use to their advantage. The front gardens are all open ( houses are all in a square onto eachother) with gardens not separated by borders and the back garden is nothing more than a concrete path with the space taken up by outbuildings.
So how the hell could my kids play out I don't know ( an enclosed grass back garden is my must), and the house itself is nothing like pictured and right in a place I've been careful not to bid on because I knew I wouldn't be happy in places like it.
So they pretty much lied about everything and surely that isn't right and I do not want to accept it because I wil be stuck there in something I hate. Aibu?

OP posts:
Original poster
Jasper00 · 05/12/2019 22:17

Other problem is my banshee of a mother is acting as though im in the wrong and they aren't. Huge argument earlier with her in public carpark because she will not admit they are wrong . I didn't argue but she kept going on and on and on like she does until she gets her way and her way is me accepting this house which I hate and I haven't even viewed it inside yet

OP posts:
PumpkinP · 05/12/2019 22:25

Yanbu but if you refuse it what will happen? I would if you can.

I feel your pain about the housing system though my council only lets people who are in houses bid on house! If your in a flat then you can only bid on flats. Which I think is wrong.

TARSCOUT · 05/12/2019 22:25

Assuming it's a LA house you are lucky to he offered one. You can always put in for a swap. Been bidding for MIL for 3 months now and nothing. As I am not familiar with areas I google earth the street.

UrsulaPandress · 05/12/2019 22:28

Have you still got access to the picture you bid on?

Leetepp · 05/12/2019 22:28

So privately rent if you are so particular

Torrennce · 05/12/2019 22:29

Have you contacted the local authority making the offer and told them the one you are being told to view isn't the same one you bidder on? What is their policy for refusing offers, some give you 1-2 opportunities to say no and keep bidding.

Original poster
Jasper00 · 05/12/2019 22:30

Honestly I have bid on so many gorgeous houses , new builds with nice gardens , downstairs toilets, etc and all band 4!!! Eveey band 1 is in drug infested awful areas you don't want kids in. Think it's going to be a private rent I end up with, plus that would give me an extra room what I also can't get in social housing. I really don't want them to share as they are both disturbed light sleepers.

OP posts:
PumpkinP · 05/12/2019 22:30

Just because it’s council doesn’t mean you don’t get a choice. What ridiculous comments. That’s why they allow people to bid, otherwise they would just offer people priorities without allowing people a choice. My councils website CHOICE based Lettings

PumpkinP · 05/12/2019 22:31

Properties*!

Original poster
Jasper00 · 05/12/2019 22:31

Yes I do have the picture I bid on via screenshot luckily.

OP posts:
Daisydoola · 05/12/2019 22:34

If you can afford to private rent, do it if you want a choice of where to live.

Daisydoola · 05/12/2019 22:35

A decent choice I mean. I know you get a choice but like you say you'll be very limited against other bands.

UtuNorantiPralatongsThirdEye · 05/12/2019 22:38

My councils website CHOICE based Lettings
One says it is to, but it isn't. The reality is that people bid, but few are successful, instead they just get offered a random property anywhere in the city and are not allowed to refuse.

UtuNorantiPralatongsThirdEye · 05/12/2019 22:39

Mine*

x2boys · 05/12/2019 22:41

Is it not a house you might have bidded on a few months ago ?.I have been in my house about five-year ,s now but they offered it months after I bidded on it,it could be a mistake ,I would contact them.

ElluesPichulobu · 05/12/2019 22:41

"I think there has been an admin error. I put in my bid on a house on X street but when a viewing was arranged I was sent the details for a house on Y street which I never bidded on. I haven't yet been given a viewing for the house I bidded on - please let me know when I can see it."

look in your browser history and use the wayback machine (archiving server) to get screenshots of what you actually did.

ivykaty44 · 05/12/2019 22:43

If you’ve got screen shots then complain that the property you have viewed isn’t the property you bid on

Is the property with HA or direct through council

Original poster
Jasper00 · 05/12/2019 22:47

@ivykaty44
The house is direct HA

@x2boys
Definitely not, I would never bid on a house there in a million years!

OP posts:
dontalltalkatonce · 05/12/2019 22:48

I think I'd go to private let if that's how it's set up in your area. It is what it is, sadly. The 'choice' usually isn't great at all.

PumpkinP · 05/12/2019 22:55

Well I’m in London and it’s definutely a choice where I am. mine don’t offer you anything, you are allowed to bid on what you want. So as I was only allowed to bid on flats I waited for a ground floor with garden, I was never going to go into a high rise tower block and wouldn’t have bidded on one either.

rosesandcashmere · 05/12/2019 23:03

If the house you're being 'offered' isn't to your liking perhaps you could privately rent like many of us have to? Then you can pick and choose. There's a huge shortage of social housing, you really are lucky to be offered any.

ivykaty44 · 05/12/2019 23:03

Jasper complain to council and advice council there has been a mix up, the house on screen is not the house they have showed you

Ask what’s happened to the house you bid for?

Best of all put it in an email

Original poster
Jasper00 · 05/12/2019 23:13

@ivykaty44
That's a great idea, think I will do that and see what they say. Probably a load of BS. I was thinking about speaking to local MP, because as I said to my mother if it was a car dealer or a shop misselling an item then they would be in serious trouble.

Funny other houses had the correct images and road names though, which makes me think it was a calculated move.
I'm also wondering why the last Tennant stayed so short a time, Google shows HA buying this house as result of repo at the start of the year so in that time it's had a Tennant ( or maybe a few) and they are already moving?
Something is telling me they might have had problems there.

OP posts:
MistyCloud · 05/12/2019 23:28

YANBU.

MistyCloud · 05/12/2019 23:28

@Jasper00

Can you not just take your bid off? like remove it?

Go into your account and just click 'remove bid!'

Should be able to do that. Smile

I have heard of this happen before. My friend bid on a property in a nice area, but it showed a pic of one that had a field and some woods behind. It was around 200 feet (70 metres,) from the main road/high street. Perfect for the kids and the dog.

She had a tootle around the area, and loved it. She bid on the house, and was No 1 and was offered it. She accepted it (provisionally/ verbally, so didn't sign the tenancy agreement at this point.)

Come a week later she was offered the chance to view it, and it was one up the road, 15 houses away. Pretty much the same property, but in a different place, and only 30-40 feet from the main road/high street. (12-13 yards.) The side garden was big (as it was the first one on the cul de sac of 32 homes,) but still, it was not the house she was lead to believe it was IYSWIM.

If you have already had an offer and accepted, maybe appeal to the housing officer's better nature and say you thought it was a different house and you were somewhat mislead, and you would like to withdraw your offer. And ask them to not hold it against you.

Not sure what will happen as all councils and housing associations are different, But it's worth a shot.

Great idea to screenshot the house by the way, to prove they were promoting a different one. Probably the only way that some of the councils can get houses let, in 'hard-to-let' areas, by conning people!

I am really puzzled at Band 4 people being offered homes over and above Band 1 by the way. What's THAT about? They should not even be a priority at all compared to people in the top band surely?

My friend accepted the house nearer to the main road by the way, as the more she looked at it and thought about it, the more she wanted it (coz of the huge garden,) and the high street wasn't too busy. (The pic of the other house was used by the way, because they didn't have time to come out to take a pic of the house my friend bid on, and the houses were both the same... it wasn't a hard-to-let area, so they were probably telling the truth.)

5 years on she is still there, and very happy. Smile

Not sure you will be though. Sad

All the best. Flowers