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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Petition about council house

146 replies

ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 30/06/2021 19:28

I just got sent a change.org petition to ask a council to let a house to a specific family.

The house had been their grandparents and they have both died and the council is reallocating it. It's not going to the family.

On the one hand I can see that it's heartbreaking to lose family and the family home at the same time. The grandparents had lived their for 58 years and put a lot of love and time into it.

But AIBU to think that it goes against the point of council housing to pass them down through families. The house should go to the next family in need, not the relatives. That's only fair isn't it? Otherwise people would be jumping the queue because of family.

OP posts:

ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 30/06/2021 19:31

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

HalzTangz · 30/06/2021 19:32

Yes it should go to the family most in need, to to a related family mémber trying to jump the queue

TheresWaldo · 30/06/2021 19:40

Unless they are near the top of the list, then no.

DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo · 30/06/2021 19:41

That is such a sad, sad story.

There is no easy answer. It looks like the older couple had the tenancy for nearly 60 years, and some of their adult children and grandchildren still lived with them and that's the house they were brought up in.

Losing such loved family to Covid, then being evicted from your home, has to be pretty high up on the horror scale , doesn't it?

Original poster

ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 30/06/2021 19:43

@DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo from what I read they would be able to take over the tenancy if they had lived their for the 6 months before the tenants died. So it's not that they are being evicted, they live elsewhere and want to move to this house.

OP posts:

PumpkinKlNG · 30/06/2021 19:43

Really? This happened to my ex, he’s mum died and he got to take over council house despite being a single man and it being a 3 bed house! His council gave it to him I never really understood why 😕

TheDinosaurMum · 30/06/2021 19:44

It's tough I know, bit the whole point of council houses is they belong to the LA are maintained by the LA and ultimately property of the LA.

It's heartbreaking for the family to loose it after so many years and the memories, but it's not their home. It now needs to go back in to the stock and given to the next family in need.

Okbye · 30/06/2021 19:47

(Just as a side note, I work for a local Council in the Housing Team)
No. It won’t go to the family no matter how much they kick up a fuss. They have zero right to it.

If the Council let them queue jump, other people will try it as well and use the ‘well we know you let X family move into X house’.

They’ll have to be on the waiting list and come up for it naturally (via the list), and if they don’t then it’s tough luck I’m afraid. I hate when people try and pull things like this, they forget it’s Council accommodation, not property to be passed down a family!

Soontobe60 · 30/06/2021 19:47

@DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo

That is such a sad, sad story.

Losing such loved family to Covid, then being evicted from your home, has to be pretty high up on the horror scale , doesn't it?

It’s not eviction if they don’t have a right to live there though. The rules on council house tenancies are clear. Once those named in the tenancy die, the remaining occupants need to move out. They would have known this right from the start of the tenancy - it’s not new news.

SW1amp · 30/06/2021 19:49

This surely happens daily where the deceased owners are private tenants, owners with mortgages not covered by life insurance, owners who have done equity release, owners who have left the estate to multiple people etc

The family would have to move out and find somewhere else, and keep the memories in their heads and via photos. No one gets the right to live in a house just because their grandparents did - exceptions wouldn’t be made for any of those situations so I’m not sure why it should here

Seesawmummadaw · 30/06/2021 19:50

It shouldn’t go to the family. It isn’t their house.

FourTeaFallOut · 30/06/2021 19:51

Yeah, I saw that and I won't be signing.

Doingtheboxerbeat · 30/06/2021 19:51

So if I'm correct, there's no one else living in it other than the grandparents and the family just want to inherit a house? I would sign it if there were grown children living there also. I knew of a family where the father died first , so it was passed to the wife and then she died shortly after and the grown up children still living there were all made homeless. There was a reason they hadn't left home ,but they weren't quite vulnerable enough to be in need of help . It was quite sad actually.

TheHateIsNotGood · 30/06/2021 19:55

YANBU

Hwory · 30/06/2021 19:58

If they aren't inheriting the tenancy then that means they didn't live with their grandparents upon their death for any amount of time.

It's pretty common for large family homes to be given to families, the children then move out and the home just has a couple or single person for many years. When the person becomes elderly or sick the now adult children move back in to get the house.

Granohlaa · 30/06/2021 20:10

If they had been living there for 6m then they would have got the tenancy. No one is being made homeless.

They just want the house.

JudgeJ · 30/06/2021 20:11

[quote ThinkAboutItTomorrow]@DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo from what I read they would be able to take over the tenancy if they had lived their for the 6 months before the tenants died. So it's not that they are being evicted, they live elsewhere and want to move to this house. [/quote]
I'm not sure about that 6 month rule, I think that was done away with some time ago because of abuse. A house near my parents' council house was occupied by an elderly couple whose children had moved away into their own homes. The daughter moved back in a year or so before the last one died and she inherited the tenancy. However she owned her own home that was now let out while she enjoyed a heavily subsidised rent!

Mumofsend · 30/06/2021 20:12

I've just been allocated a 3 bedroom HA home with a life long tenancy. My children have a right to succession when I die if certain conditions are met. The rules are clear and more than fair. It isnt their home

Daphnise · 30/06/2021 20:13

Council tenancies could in many cases be inherited.

But if not in accordance with this Council's rules and policies and residency requirement, then all they can do is ask.

I do know of tenancies being granted to a close relative of the tenant who had lived with her decades, but was not on the rent book. This was on health and compassionate grounds though.

Viviennemary · 30/06/2021 20:14

It needs to go back into the pool of council houses.

Sweettea1 · 30/06/2021 20:18

Depends on circumstances of the family. I lived with my mum in 2 bed house I had 1 dc at the time mum passed away I needed to then leave the house which made no sense as I needed a 2 bedroom anyway I got offered a house 10 doors up made absolutely no sense at all and would of Been just as easy for them to let me stay there and Some1 else have other house but no.

DeathByWalkies · 30/06/2021 20:18

I'm currently in a situation where the equally well loved family home is to be sold to pay care home fees.

Perhaps I should start a petition to have the council pay care home fees - as they would if my relative had little by way of savings / assets - so we don't lose the family home.

Can't see that one working either, somehow

OrrisRoot · 30/06/2021 20:21

They can petition but I can’t see it swaying the council. The policies are clear. I’m surprised that with eight children, they didn’t club together and buy it for a song in the 80s or 90s.

WorraLiberty · 30/06/2021 20:25

This lovely home that she built will just be a council house to anyone else but for us it is full of memories - beautiful ones.

How selfish.

I doubt it'd be considered 'just a council house' to a family whose been crammed into a tiny hostel for years on end.

That's the reality of what this sort of thing causes.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 30/06/2021 20:27

If they are over occupying their own council house and want to swap into it (for size) thus releasing their own smaller home back into council stock - fine.

If they are not a council tenant currently and want to leapfrog over those on the wait list? No.

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