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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Mumofsend · 30/06/2021 21:59

To get the 3 bed we have just been successful on it has been a very long process. We've been in our privately rented 2 bed tiny garden-less flat with 2 disabled children for 6 years. A 3 bed with a garden is genuinely life changing for us, I've sobbed a lot since we found out. It isnt just a council house. To stand a chance of getting one things need to be pretty dire. In our area only gold and emergency bands actually stand a chance of being awarded a house. To get gold or emergency is a battle and a half. One criteria for gold is being in temp accommodation for 12 months. Those first 12 months you are only silver.

Those who need the houses need to receive them.

osbertthesyrianhamster · 30/06/2021 21:59

@WorraLiberty

One of the comments from the petition...

Callum gibbins·5 hours ago
It’s my family and devastated to loose my great grandparents. we have over 100 family members just living within the same streets as the house. We all grew up in and around this house and it hurts to see it empty. That’s why we need one of our family members to be allowed to take it on so it eases the pain for us. please sign.

What a load of chancers.
Bloomsbury45 · 30/06/2021 22:00

Most privately owned family homes now are being sold to pay for care home fees for the owners.

Not sure why this family should expect to inherit a tenancy and continue to live there just because they grew up there and have fond memories.

x2boys · 30/06/2021 22:03

Well indeed ,i have fond memories of my Grandparents houses too ,not sure I would want to live in them though .

OrrisRoot · 30/06/2021 22:04

@Bloomsbury45

Most privately owned family homes now are being sold to pay for care home fees for the owners.

Not sure why this family should expect to inherit a tenancy and continue to live there just because they grew up there and have fond memories.

That’s an extraordinary exaggeration, even though I don’t support the petitioners, I have to object to “most..are being sold to pay for care home fees”. It’s not a majority experience , but it is a hazard.
x2boys · 30/06/2021 22:05

Well according to the petition nobody has signed it yet ...

TheRebelle · 30/06/2021 22:07

We all know how council houses work, you don’t own them and when people’s grandparents die they generally sell the house anyway, a lot of the time people have to pay to have them cleared never mind wanting to live in it.

incywincyspiders · 30/06/2021 22:09

I really understand how they feel. My Gran has lived in her house for 45 years. I grew up there. As My Mum lives across the road, it is already a worry for me how we will cope when we have to see new people in there when she is gone. I DO think if there is someone from their family who meets the criteria for the house who needs housing, it should be given to them. If this isn't the case then no, they can't just keep the house.

Bluntness100 · 30/06/2021 22:10

Surely if the grandparents wanted any family member to have it, one of them could have lived there and then went on the tenancy, so they didn’t live there, so I don’t understand why they are fighting for it now, unless someone in the family now fancies it, as a good house with lower rent.

gamerchick · 30/06/2021 22:11

@x2boys

Well according to the petition nobody has signed it yet ...
There's over 6000.

It won't make any difference, the rules are clear. They should have bought it ages ago if they wanted to keep a hold of it.

MargaretThursday · 30/06/2021 22:13

My grandparents designed the house that I'd love to have kept. Maybe they'd like to donate money to me so i could afford to buy it?

x2boys · 30/06/2021 22:13

Oh right just saw 0 at the top 🤣

HerMammy · 30/06/2021 22:18

The family are obviously a bit dim, at no point did any of the 100 think to club together and buy it for a greatly reduced price or someone move in and get added to tenancy??
Utter chancers, the house is empty, nobody is losing it.

OrrisRoot · 30/06/2021 22:19

@HerMammy

The family are obviously a bit dim, at no point did any of the 100 think to club together and buy it for a greatly reduced price or someone move in and get added to tenancy?? Utter chancers, the house is empty, nobody is losing it.
There’s a spot of Darwinianism at work there, for sure.
boatingL · 30/06/2021 22:22

@Mumofsend

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
Yes we have similar succession rules for our secure tenancy
WorraLiberty · 30/06/2021 22:25

@incywincyspiders

I really understand how they feel. My Gran has lived in her house for 45 years. I grew up there. As My Mum lives across the road, it is already a worry for me how we will cope when we have to see new people in there when she is gone. I DO think if there is someone from their family who meets the criteria for the house who needs housing, it should be given to them. If this isn't the case then no, they can't just keep the house.
I DO think if there is someone from their family who meets the criteria for the house who needs housing, it should be given to them. If this isn't the case then no, they can't just keep the house.

Do you realise how unfair and exclusive that would make council housing?

Barton10 · 30/06/2021 22:26

There is a massive shortage of affordable housing for families. This should be given to a family in need. You can’t be allowed to keep it in the family for sentimental reasons. If it was privately owned it would be different. However lots of families have to sell family homes to pay for elderly relatives care. They can’t hang on to them for sentimental reasons and neither should this family be able to.

MadeOfStarStuff · 30/06/2021 22:27

Of course they shouldn’t get to keep the house! If you want to be able to pass on your house when you die you have to buy it not rent (and hope you don’t have to sell it for care costs). There’s a desperate shortage of council homes thanks to successive government policies, this house should go back into housing stock and be allocated as normal

The family sound like grabby entitled chancers.

Seesawmummadaw · 30/06/2021 22:31

@Cissyandflora

I’ll sign the petition now. Council tenants are treated so badly. Just because someone can’t afford to buy a property why shouldn’t they be able to keep a home they’ve lived in for so long.
I can’t afford to buy so live in a private rental. Should I be entitled to keep my home forever for future generations? Absolutely not! It’s my home, not my house. It’s bricks and mortar.
Fairyflaps · 30/06/2021 22:34

It is very sad for them losing both parents/ grandparents in such a short time.

But Cheltenham, probably like most towns with high property prices, has a massive waiting list for council housing. There is even a desperate shortage of affordable housing in the private rental sector. Very few properties come up for rent whose rents would be covered by housing benefit/ UC.

There are ways in which the family could have kept the house in the family. The grandparents could have exercised their right to buy. Or if another family member was living with them they could have been able to take on the tenancy. But they didn't. Instead they seem to want it for some family members (grandchild and partner?) who are housed elsewhere in the town, but would like to move to this house and this area.

I don't think they are being badly done by just because they are council tenants. When my grandparents died, their house had to be sold so the money could be divided between their children, and the aunt who had been living with them had to use her share towards a smaller house elsewhere. I've just finished helping to clear another uncle's house out so it can be sold to pay for his care home costs. When my FIL dies, we will have to sell his home to pay back his equity release plan.

IcedSpice · 30/06/2021 22:35

@Cissyandflora

I’ll sign the petition now. Council tenants are treated so badly. Just because someone can’t afford to buy a property why shouldn’t they be able to keep a home they’ve lived in for so long.
Because they are not the tenants, and they have another home??
knittingaddict · 30/06/2021 22:36

Yes they do sound entitled. If people own their own houses the vast majority need selling when the elderly go into care homes or die. Not many get the luxury of living in the family home. I see no reason why these people should be any different.

My parents have always lived in council/housing association properties. They downsized when they had to and live in a pokey 1 bed flat now. Not ideal, but that's real life for you.

knittingaddict · 30/06/2021 22:39

@Cissyandflora

I’ll sign the petition now. Council tenants are treated so badly. Just because someone can’t afford to buy a property why shouldn’t they be able to keep a home they’ve lived in for so long.
No they aren't treated badly. How utterly ridiculous. As I said previously my parents have always lived in council housing and I grew up in it until I left home to get married. We were not treated badly in any way. We had a roof over our heads as long as we needed. What more do we need.
incywincyspiders · 30/06/2021 22:42

@WorraLiberty

How? I am literally saying if they have family who are on the list and fit the criteria (ie have been on the list a certain amount of time and it's the right amount of bedrooms for them) they should be allowed to take it over?

I am not privileged, I've grown up in council properties my entire life so I understand how the system works. I just think that there should be a little humanity in the system. Their grandparents would have paid rent (most probably) their entire lives so it's not like they haven't paid for that house 50 times over.

And while we are on it, you are all going on about shortages of affordable housing. Yes, that is a massive issue but these people aren't the problem. The problem is that not enough affordable housing is being built and the majority of old council stock has been sold off. Blame the government because if there was enough affordable housing this wouldn't even be an issue as there would be plenty to go around.

Canigooutyet · 30/06/2021 22:43

If they had any rights through succession they wouldn't need a petition to have the keys.

Would be amazing if we could give owners a sob story to get given a place. Well it would be for the cheeky fuckers who got away with it, but really shit for families in a hostel.

Hopefully they will be adults when a new family move in and be given the chance to make their own memories. Although I suppose if they really want it they could do an exchange with the new family.