Page 26 | To think you should downsize your council house if it’s just you?

OuchOuchOuchh · 2023-01-12T09:58:53+00:00

Oh my goodness I have created war at work and everyone is gunning for me. My auntie has a huge 4 bedroom council house she has lived there since the 90s with her one son. That has now moved out. All i said was I think it’s unfair that she’s living in such a big family home perfect for a family to bring their kids up in. Large garden backs on to the woods plenty of visits from deers and fox’s it’s beautiful! Anyway all I said is that if you haven’t purchased the property in a certain amount of time you should have to downsize if it’s just you living there. Theres families overcrowded and can’t get anywhere then you have my auntie paying £100 a week in rent for a massive house for just herself. please tell me if I am being an asshole! I appreciate it’s her family home but it just doesn’t seem fair to me.

babsanderson · 12/01/2023 17:43

HelloJan · 12/01/2023 17:43

But the entitlement from some people still makes me wince. Misuse of a system which is so important as a lifeline to people in difficult circumstances.

I think no one should be allowed to live in a council house for 30+ years, unless they have some kind of a serious disability or are a carer of a disabled child.

Adults should eventually get on their feet and pay the full price for their own house just like everyone else. What makes them so special that they have to be subsidised by the taxpayer for their entire lives?

That attitude is why we have so many people now officially homeless.

Terven · 12/01/2023 17:44

if she were to move she probably would have to move to a flat. There’s not enough smaller properties for the elderly that like a garden. Personally I would never want to live in a flat again so I understand them. We need smaller houses to free up the larger ones.

ArcheryAnnie · 12/01/2023 17:44

JFC, @HelloJan , its already been explained on here a million times: council housing is not subsidised by the taxpayer.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 12/01/2023 17:44

Lennon80 · 12/01/2023 17:40

It’s a tricky one this - isn’t this why they introduced the bedroom tax? To try and make people only take accommodation suited to the number of people in their home?

Not if you aren't on benefits or if you're a pensioner

Eyerollcentral · 12/01/2023 17:45

CatA27 · 12/01/2023 17:38

Absolutely agree as long as there are suitable properties within a reasonable distance. People who own their own home often have to downsize, I moved from a 5 bed detached where I'd raised all my children in to a 3 bed terraced house when my husband and I split up as neither of us could afford to keep the big house. Retirement or job loss are other reasons why home owners downsize, why shouldn't renters be expected to downsize when their house is too big?

You couldn’t afford to stay in a big house on your own though. By your own reasoning you didn’t move out because it was too big did you? As long as someone can afford to stay in the property under the terms of their tenancy why do you think they should have to forfeit it?

LadyEloise1 · 12/01/2023 17:45

OuchOuchOuchh · 12/01/2023 10:16

Because the way I see it is, it’s not your home unless you’re planning on buying it eventually. You’ve had your turn to bring your family up in a lovely home. Let someone else have the chance instead of living in a big home all on your own. You are only renting after all!

I agree with you.

ArcheryAnnie · 12/01/2023 17:46

Domino20 · 12/01/2023 17:43

Interesting how the person who is living in the home is being repeatedly labelled 'entitled' when they're not expecting anything at all. Yet it's perfectly acceptable for others to grow their family beyond their means and imagine themselves entitled to someone else's home?
This country absolutely has the government it deserves if this thread is anything to go by.

Bingo.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 12/01/2023 17:46

HelloJan · 12/01/2023 17:43

But the entitlement from some people still makes me wince. Misuse of a system which is so important as a lifeline to people in difficult circumstances.

I think no one should be allowed to live in a council house for 30+ years, unless they have some kind of a serious disability or are a carer of a disabled child.

Adults should eventually get on their feet and pay the full price for their own house just like everyone else. What makes them so special that they have to be subsidised by the taxpayer for their entire lives?

They aren't fucking subsidised. Christ on a merry go round.

babsanderson · 12/01/2023 17:46

I am older and also would not want to move to a flat @Terven
Access issues can become a real issue as you get older e.g. nowhere to store mobility scooters, noise from poorly insulated flats, and gardening is a major hobby for a lot of older people that keeps them active.

Lennon80 · 12/01/2023 17:46

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 12/01/2023 17:44

Not if you aren't on benefits or if you're a pensioner

Show quote history

Oh really! I thought it applied to everyone. Maybe it should.

babsanderson · 12/01/2023 17:47

The private retirement flats have communal well kept gardens and storage for mobility scooters. Council flats do not.

goldfinchfan · 12/01/2023 17:47

I am not happy that migrants get given council/Housing Assoc houses.

This takes away any fairness in the system as they always get to the top of the list, based on need.
That is if you come here seeking asylum you need help but if you are born here you have to sofa surf with family.

Also some migrants have more children and take up the larger properties.

babsanderson · 12/01/2023 17:48

@goldfinchfan Yeah just let the kids sleep on the streets, entitled fuckers.

DonnaBanana · 12/01/2023 17:48

If council housing isn’t subsidised by the taxpayer at all then they should build and rent out a lot more of it at zero expense to the public purse however that works.

MissWings · 12/01/2023 17:48

@Lennon80

Wont apply to me in my 3 bed as I pay full rent.

babsanderson · 12/01/2023 17:49

@goldfinchfan And unless asylum seekers, most migrants do not have access to council housing, they are expected to fund themselves.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 12/01/2023 17:49

goldfinchfan · 12/01/2023 17:47

I am not happy that migrants get given council/Housing Assoc houses.

This takes away any fairness in the system as they always get to the top of the list, based on need.
That is if you come here seeking asylum you need help but if you are born here you have to sofa surf with family.

Also some migrants have more children and take up the larger properties.

I bet I can Google and find the DM article you have those facts from

Eyerollcentral · 12/01/2023 17:50

ArcheryAnnie · 12/01/2023 17:42

AIBU to think that a depressing number of posters here would cheer if the government reintroduced workhouses, so we'd have somewhere to shove inconvenient old ladies who have the temerity to survive? That would certainly solve the problem.

Or of course we could go the Jonathan Swift route.

Absolutely. Happily send them out to pick fruit in return for their lodgings and gruel - charged at the market rate of course!!!!!

MissWings · 12/01/2023 17:50

@AllThingsServeTheBeam

To be fair that is true. Yes it sounds like something straight out of the daily fail but I can assure they are not waiting for a decade like many white, British families are. Not a very woke thing to say I know.

Goldd · 12/01/2023 17:52

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 12/01/2023 17:38

The council gave my nan her 2 bed bungalow. She accepted it. She has a tenancy that now allows her to enjoy it until the day she dies.

She did used to own her own home. But had to sell it. She is able to share her home with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She is doing nothing wrong.

Show quote history

I haven’t read the whole post, but I would never argue for an elderly person to be kicked out a two-bed bungalow (my post referred to 4 bed houses). Im sorry if other people are saying that.

ArcheryAnnie · 12/01/2023 17:52

CatA27 · 12/01/2023 17:38

Absolutely agree as long as there are suitable properties within a reasonable distance. People who own their own home often have to downsize, I moved from a 5 bed detached where I'd raised all my children in to a 3 bed terraced house when my husband and I split up as neither of us could afford to keep the big house. Retirement or job loss are other reasons why home owners downsize, why shouldn't renters be expected to downsize when their house is too big?

But - according to some of the arguments on this thread - you are still blocking a family with two or three kids from living in your family home. Why not buy a one-bedroom flat if you are single and your kids are grown up? Why prevent a family from buying a home big enough for them?

And the answer is presumably because you didn't want to live in a one-bedroom flat. And that's OK.

CecilyP · 12/01/2023 17:52

I know it happened because my mother has photos of the family living with them and explained it to me. The only reason I know is because I was looking through old family photos, couldnt recognise them and said "who are they?"

How does this prove that they weren’t subletting and it had nothing to do wit the council?

Trinidading3 · 12/01/2023 17:53

I agree, I know some who lives in a two bed pays 0 rent, never worked in her life she's 59 , claims she's disabled, has been reported , she still lives in the 2 bed and claims untold money, has shower fitted all kinds of help.....these people should be ruthlessly rooted out, this shambolic government has a shitty NHS and Housing to match because it's not run efficiently someone needs to take charge of the present situation!!!.I know someone else who uses the 2nd bedroom as a gym.....these flats can easily house family's of five.....nobody will do anything until it's all run into the ground .......I just read in the local paper a lady was living in a makeshift tent for 7 years outside a empty Barclays Bank in central London....she died in that makeshift tent because she needed antibiotics for a chest infection...why wasn't she housed? Left on the streets to die in 2023!!.it's absolutely sicking the world we live in and how it's run....needs to change....💡

Tearsndears · 12/01/2023 17:53

Depends on her age and wether or not she has helpful family living nearby . Maybe the council are offering her properties an she is turning them down because they are in undesirable area

Eyerollcentral · 12/01/2023 17:54

HelloJan · 12/01/2023 17:43

But the entitlement from some people still makes me wince. Misuse of a system which is so important as a lifeline to people in difficult circumstances.

I think no one should be allowed to live in a council house for 30+ years, unless they have some kind of a serious disability or are a carer of a disabled child.

Adults should eventually get on their feet and pay the full price for their own house just like everyone else. What makes them so special that they have to be subsidised by the taxpayer for their entire lives?

Nothing special at all really, just the terms of the tenancy agreement that they signed when they agreed to move in to the house. Why do you think they should be asked to give that up now? Would you?