Council house sold to resident after just 3 years

[Zaane]

An aquaintence who acquired a council property to rent only lived there for 3 years and has now bought it with a 35% discount too! Cash purchase. This makes me wonder how someone in need of council house is in a position to actually purchase it just after 3 years. Isn't the system flawed ? I rent and am far from buying my own property. There are hundreds of people waiting for housing, council isnt building new properties, and they are actually loosing the one sthey could help the neexy with?
This makes me wonder if I am just jealous or this is unfair. AIBU to think its unfair?

Of course the system is flawed
Right to buy needs to be abolished

It's disgusting when others don't stand a chance of getting a council tenancy and can't get a foot on the housing ladder either.

Chances are they had two years worth of social housing residency before they moved there, as the right to buy (with discount) applies when you've been paying rent without any outstanding payments for 5 years.

Houses are valued at market rate, it's not a cheap house which is then heavily discounted. Even old prefab stock sells at market rate. And as far as I'm aware, there's a maximum discount cap. So you can't get more than 85k off market rate (I think).

Not that this makes it any more palatable for you. Would you not purchase your home at 35% discount if you were offered it?

Just to clarify- I don't agree that anyone who can purchase a home with cash should be benefitting from subsidised rent!

Originally the income from Right to Buy was supposed to be used to build new council properties. This never happened so the number of decent, inexpensive council properties shrank dramatically. I can absolutely see why you are jealous (I would be too), but the fault is in the system which reduces the number of properties instead of investing the money into building new.

I also wouldn't blame anyone who takes it up.

Right to buy is a huge reason why there is such a shortage of council property, because most councils are run by people who couldn't organise their way out of a wet paper bag. As a result almost no properties are built or refurbished to replace the sold ones, so the housing stock diminishes. With our massive population increase in the last 30 years, obvious outcome.

Did they have a windfall somehow? Death of a relative or a won some money that suddenly enabled them to buy? If not, that does sound off!

You can have a council house and a job/income. At a guess this person was on a low income initially (student, training or between jobs possibly?) and was either on the waiting list for a long time or had other factors increasing their priority.

Then they graduated/got a job/got a raise etc and are now in a position to buy.

I agree it doesn't feel to me like what the system was initially designed for... And the system seems flawed. But most systems are.

I don't agree with the selling off of Council housing. Some HAs sell of 'hard to let' properties. I was offered mine for next to nothing. I wouldn't have wanted to be stuck there for years. I was glad to get out of there and the area.

Can we get rid of the myth about 'being in need of a council house'. In most LAs, people who are working are given priority. The new build estates, which have to have 30% HA rentals, are only for working people.

It was the working people who were stuck were I lived, those on benefits could move because the higher private rents would be paid.

It isn't up unfair, it's bad policy. Do you email your local Councillor about housing policy, or get involved in campaigns by charities? Who do you vote for? Instead of blaming individuals.

I don’t blame people for doing it but it does feel unfair when you are stuck privately renting, we would never get a council property(we could apply of course but would be a low band and many others in far more need) but cannot afford to save for a deposit on top of rent so will be stuck in insecure private tenancies:

The money they saved by paying council rent would have been a huge help, plus the discount as well. My council rent is approx half of the rent private landlords charge around here.

I don't blame them one little bit for taking it up.

Just to add, I had a Nurse move in nextdoor. She saved around £35k a year by not renting privately. She bought a (private) property cash after four years.

I also know people who've come over as low paid immigrants and have built successful businesses, allowing them to buy.

My situation was widowed, did a BA, children grew up and could buy. My DD will be in a similar position, but separated.

Just to add, I had a Nurse move in nextdoor. She saved around £35k a year by not renting privately. She bought a (private) property cash after four years.
£35K a year? Meaning that the private market rent was around £3K / month?

@Ponoka7

Just to add, I had a Nurse move in nextdoor. She saved around £35k a year by not renting privately. She bought a (private) property cash after four years.

I also know people who've come over as low paid immigrants and have built successful businesses, allowing them to buy.

My situation was widowed, did a BA, children grew up and could buy. My DD will be in a similar position, but separated.

She saved three grand a month? What kind of social housing was she in?

I can't believe this ill-thought through policy is still in operation. It makes my blood boil and I have no vested interest as I'm a home owner who has never been in the council system.

But it is so awful to deplete our council housing stock! People's lives are completely different (private renters vs council and HA renters) just due to the luck of getting a council tenancy, often passed on between the generations. Literally madness!

You don’t get the 35% in full after 3 years it’s a sliding scale and that’s the maximum amount of discount. If they sell they also have to repay back the discount within 5 year and can’t sell without council approval for 10 years.

There's a maximum discount of £82800 in most of England. We have rented here for 9 years now and our discount has maxed out. Buy we can't afford to buy, so it's irrelevant for us.

Originally the income from Right to Buy was supposed to be used to build new council properties.

No, Thatcher restricted local councils from spending the income from RTB sales. That came later, by which time many council homes were lost.

I honestly don't get it. On one hand I hear a lot about people being on waiting lists for years, not having suitable accommodation and so on,

on the other hand, I KNOW (not heard of, know) people who chose council houses and kept them for months whilst doing the work in their newly purchase house so it was less of a disturbance.

I also see photos of people trying to swap their properties on social media, these properties are beautiful, massive garden, great catchment schools .

I am not blaming anyone, I just think I have been a mug years ago not to get one too, I would have bought my current house quicker!

I really don't understand the system but it sounds very profitable. It makes it even more ridiculous when posters blame private landlords and buy-to-let owners!

Is it regional? I am talking about some of the nicer areas in Central London or the South East where I am!

@Angel2702

You don’t get the 35% in full after 3 years it’s a sliding scale and that’s the maximum amount of discount. If they sell they also have to repay back the discount within 5 year and can’t sell without council approval for 10 years.

It seems from thr government website you do.

I am in a HA house. Have lived here 13 years and have right to buy but it is at full market value, there has never been a discount. cannot afford it anyway

I also see photos of people trying to swap their properties on social media, these properties are beautiful, massive garden, great catchment schools

should they all be shit houses with no gardens near shit schools?

@Igmum

Originally the income from Right to Buy was supposed to be used to build new council properties. This never happened so the number of decent, inexpensive council properties shrank dramatically. I can absolutely see why you are jealous (I would be too), but the fault is in the system which reduces the number of properties instead of investing the money into building new.

It is incorrect and misleading to claim there was ever an intention to rebuild. The 1980 Housing Act which started this, made it almost impossible for Local Authorities to rebuild. They only got half of the proceeds and in most cases they were specifically prevented from using the cash to build any new homes at all. Not building replacements was a very deliberate Thatcherite policy.

Are you sure you’re being told the truth? It doesn’t add up.

I am afraid this is a totally flawed system that we have been living under since the 80's!! Thatcher has a lot to answer for. Councils sat with bursting bank balances but were not allowed to build new properties. Families were housed in b&b/hostel accommodation and if they were offered social housing it was mostly in poor repair and not quite fit for purpose and in a huge amount of cases they were properties that were unmortgageable. Capitalism at it's best!!!!! They trod on and kept down working people, a 2 tier society is their legacy! Keep the poor poor, keep them in their place!!!!!

She was hateful and she ruled with hateful policies. We are living with it to this day!