How long to get council house?

[kvtie]

So i’m in the north east and I’m on band B, I have been on there since the end of November. I’m bidding atm and I’m usually coming around 10th for properties. I’m just wondering how long other people waited?

@Kitkat151 I have noticed a lot of new builds are due to go on spring/ summer time so hopefully mite have a chance 🙏

Agreed!

Took me 14 years in Ireland and had to move a few times as landlords were selling up in private rented. Hope you get there soon. Soo stressful having to move so much and try to get adjusted to new area.

I'm in a London borough and I've been in band B twice now. First time in 2010 it took only 6 weeks for me to get my current 2 bedroom flat. Following a car accident which left me disabled 4 years ago I was only just placed into band B November last year after OT housing assessment. I need a ground floor bungalow or house with stair lift but I keep coming up as over 20. I was number 6-11 for a disabled adapted house but I didn't get it.

Its a real struggle as I'm trapped in an upstairs flat that doesn't even have a lift. All I can do is bid but its so much harder with medical needs as the new property has to meet the requirements outlined by the OT!

I am nw, seaside town with lots of need for council housing. Just to give an idea of figures, I work with the council. The large town has 6000 council or ha properties. Of these around 600 become available every year but the waiting list is never less than 5000.

Depends where you live - we have 140 new ha homes about to be released here, some will be shared ownership but the remaining are for either social or affordable rent - the population is only 20,000 so lots of youngsters have been told they are priority as they live with parents and are technically overcrowded

I live in south west, I have been band B since January for DV and medium medical needs - I was offered a property last week. However, I have noticed a massive influx of people bidding and new people being added to the register so other people will probably wait longer now.

"Waiting list" is the wrong word when it comes to housing. With wating lists for medical operations or if you are on the waiting list for something that sold out, then when there is availability you do eventually get to the top of the list. With housing it is perfectly possible, even usual and expected, to be permanently categorised too low to ever be successful. If your points score puts you 10th in the bidding for suitable properties and the rate at which new applications qualify in the area and are assigned a higher priority than you is equal to the rate at which suitable properties become available then you will never actually be successful. If eventually the supply of suitable properties grows faster than the pool of people in more urgent need than you by a total of 10, then eventually you will be successful.

This coming winter, if the government persists in having no more covid precautions, there will probably be a spike of deaths among the elderly and vulnerable which should free up some properties. A lot of those properties will be specifically earmarked for the elderly but more elderly residents of family homes may be moved into them, snd their previous properties will then be available so I would expect a boost of availability in the spring and early summer of 2023. If by that point you still aren't being successful then you should work on the assumption that it simply will never happen unless your current situation grts even worse through no fault of your own.

@trevthecat just out of curiosity, how do so many become available? Is it mostly elderly people passing away or is it that people end up buying somewhere more desirable and moving out? In my previous area they said they would end tenancy if you started earning enough to afford private rent. Is that what frees up stock too?

We got put into emergency housing within a week and offered our permanent house within about 18mths. We were homeless due to private landlord selling the property we were renting and didn't have enough for a deposit on a new private rental. This was about 20 years ago though and there was less help and deposit security for tenants.

I've noticed lately that more and more HA developments are mostly Rent-to-Buy or shared ownership, with just a small proportion for rent.

There's a development of around 150 properties going up a few miles from me, but only 10 will be for renting. I can't see many people vacating the Rent-To-Buy properties when their discounted 5 years is up, so I guess in a few years time, so a development of 150 homes will only reduce waiting lists by 10.

A friend who was housed because of homelessness arising from DV thought she's fallen on her feet when she got a newly built HA property on a mainly private development. She ended up having to do a mutual exchange into a council place after a few years, because the service charges for maintaining the common areas were so high she couldn't afford them, and they couldn't be included in her housing benefit.

@Peppapigforlife

@trevthecat just out of curiosity, how do so many become available? Is it mostly elderly people passing away or is it that people end up buying somewhere more desirable and moving out? In my previous area they said they would end tenancy if you started earning enough to afford private rent. Is that what frees up stock too?

It's a transient town. In this number some also exchange and swap homes. The population isnt very old so i dont think much of it is age but some will be. No wage doesn't end a tenancy here. There is a serious lack of private rentals too. Its very touristy

The average is something mental like 6-8 years. You're not going to get one any time soon.

@Peppapigforlife where do you live ( out of curiosity) that end a tenancy if you earn too much? My nephews been in his council house 10 years ......he was waiting 8 years for it.....he now earsn 50k ....he loves his house .....why should he have to Move?

I was on for 10 years and gave up bidding completely (was in horrible private rental)

I got a call one day 3 years ago asking me if I wanted to go back on because they had an excess of stock due to all the building going on in the area. I live in a rural area with crap transport links so not many people want to or can’t live in villages. Slowly the villages are joining up but you can’t easily get things here like taxis or deliveries or even fibre broadband! I am SE and no one else bid on my house for some reason so I got it in a few months. When I joined I ticked like 20 villages on the list so it was quite expansive area as I do drive

@kitcat15

I know our local big ha changes you to "affordable" rent once your household income hits £30k from "social" rent. They are really pushing rent to buy, £1000 deposit and several friends kids have expressed an interest.

How would they know what their tenants earn?

I never said he should have to!

With my previous council they did an income meeting with you at the end of your five year tenancy. They would probably ask to see your pay slips and bank statements. Plus the council get updated on your income through universal credit if you're on it, for council tax discount purposes. For example when I started getting nursery fees paid for by universal credit, the council classes that as income and put my council tax up!

I live in a big city in England.....not London or the SE. But with very expensive private rent and a massive housing shortage.

I was privately renting but applied for social housing. I was put into the lowest band - band D. I was there for many years with no hope of ever getting a council property. I was normally coming in at around position 200 in the que whenever I could be bothered to bid. I would literally never ever had got place in that situation...but I did the occasional bid in order to keep my application active....because very occasionally there were initiatives/projects which meant a few lucky people in the lowest bands would have a chance e.g. very local people being prioritised for new builds in the very local area.

I experienced a change in circumstances which meant I was rebanded and went into band B. It took 11 months to get a council property after that. It would have taken longer, but I was invited to view a property with a history of anti social behaviour and serious crime from the previous tenants. I viewed it and literally but their hand off to take it! Luckily I have not experienced any problems with crime since moving in.

Can anyone explain to someone who doesn't have a clue how this works? Once you have the property is it yours for life, regardless of change in circumstance?

@kitkat15 is that fair?

@Perfect28

Can anyone explain to someone who doesn't have a clue how this works? Once you have the property is it yours for life, regardless of change in circumstance?

In the past it has been but I think some councils are moving to 5 year tenancies.

Took me 7 years in NI, I really had to fight hard to get somewhere. You feel like your life is on hold the whole time.

I was homeless with a newborn premature baby (he had bad lungs). Still never got one. I emailed local MPs begging for help, went into the housing office repeatedly.
Now in a ridiculously priced private rent that I can't really afford.
Just glad to have a roof over my head.