Social housing exchange - AIBU

[Brighton5555]

Hey

just need some assurance / reality check I guess. I have managed to find a housing swap after quite some time ( the feedback I get is lovely house but too small) so not beating off offers by any means despite my home being to a high standard and spent thousands on it…

im due to sign a exchange soon. The man has the same bedrooms as me and he has a house in a area I desire but if this house wasn’t in the area I want I don’t know if I would actually go for it..

bonus points are - neighbours on one side only, good garden size, extra toilet downstairs, larger kitchen than mine, larger bathroom and about same size of the 4 bedrooms BUT

its pretty gross. He has 7 animals including 4 dogs, it needs gutted from top to bottom as in complete new flooring and complete decoration and the bathroom will need ripped out. It’s in a very poor conditon but has passed all the checks they do for exchanging .. I viewed it for the 3rd time last week and the house had a lot of flies, I mean a lot I suspect from the animals . It was super clear to me on that viewing just how much money and work will need to be put in whereas here mine needs only a freshen up on the painting upstairs there are no other costs to him..

of course he’s lucky and it’s not his fault that our homes are very different but I just feel am I being crazy to take it on? I’m legit starting from the bottom again and will need to spend a few weeks living outside and at least £15,000 to have it okay to move into.

I have the means to do both but I know it’s going to a long slog. Again the benefits are extra toilet, larger kitchen and bathroom more manageable sized garden and a better area ..

I guess I feel daunted by it all

Apologies, Brighton not Bristol!

So if you get a housing association property I presume you will leave it in the future when you no longer need it.

i was considering a swap to a similar state of property but even the council said it was in too much of a state to swap to without remedial works being done, so swap was cancelled .
I certainly don't have 15k to do any place up. with swaps, although i wouldnt leave a place in a shit state myself, you have to lower expectations of what others will do. they'll be dog shit in the garden, the floors will be rank etc etc. I fully expected to have to bleach the place top to bottom and paint all the floors and walls. That isn't a huge expense to have it liveable to start with i think.

If the bathroom is just knackered but functional, you can get it clean to use for yourself. If however, parts of the suite are missing i doubt the swap would be able to go ahead?

I would go for it, short term pain for long term gain.

Also if you have a lifetime tenancy and mutual exchange/swap with another tenant, you lose your lifetime tenancy and have to sign a new agreement for regular assessment, initially every six months

This is correct now in a lot of cases (whilst not applying to the OP) and is one of the things that is going to make it harder for SH tenants to downsize, when DC leave home. I have a lifetime tenancy currently and no way would I swap that for one that's regularly reviewed as you're opening yourself up to failing criteria which could change over time. So even if you think you're initially ok, they could bring in a rule before your next review that sees you out on the street. So whilst I can see they're trying to phase out lifetime tenancies, currently it's going to lead to more people staying put.

the rules for exchange and lifetime tenancies vary based on when your tenancy first began, whether the property you're moving into is classed as an 'affordable rent' property and who your social landlord is.
It certainly makes swapping more difficult and can hinder the movement of people to 'correct' size properties. Another Tory fail.

Just because op has savings doesn’t mean she’s eligible for a mortgage depends on earnings as well as deposit. I wouldn’t do that exchange if I had to spend 15k tbh.
op has likely been able to save because of social housing and it being more affordable.

I really struggled in rented as a single parent paying 1k plus a month and bills (5 years ago so not recently) we were made homeless as landlord sold up and were in temp accommodation for 5 years before getting our permanent house in March. It’s small (4 kids) but we make do and I am a little better off but happy to have a bit of security and I do not grudge others that despite my own situation.

And with a bit of thought that could have sorted.

Allow people swapping to smaller properties to keep their lifetime tenancies to actively encourage them to move.

you can have one with a million pound in your bank

it’s completely disingenuous to make statements like this. Yes anyone can apply, but they are allocated to those most in need as they should be. The issue being debated is whether that should continue indefinitely regardless of ongoing need, when there are many, many others in dire need who can’t get access to affordable housing. I certainly don’t have the answers, but it’s a legitimate debate

You could have been allocated the property when you were in need then inherited some money. I’d say if the inheritance was a million you’d be unlikely to stay put but that’d be up to the individual.

Neither would I, especially if its council.

I myself live in a council house on an estate so no dissing there, just how I feel and I would not spend out that sort of cash. Different if I was buying it.

This

I done an exchange 9 years ago now, from a 3 bedroom maisonette to a 2 bedroom house (same estate, different part of it).
Both of us had to fix our repairs before they would let us sign the papers needed to exchange.
We had 3 weeks I recall and then somebody from the Housing came to sign it off. We then went to sign over possession to each other on a Friday morning and we moved to each others former homes the next morning.

Having ethics is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't pay the bills. SH is (generally) secure, more reliably maintained than private lets (usually), and cheaper.

£15k wouldn't go anywhere near a deposit where I live (London/NW Kent).

The answer is more SH - not infighting between tenants.

I think it depends on the circumstances. If you have a lifetime tenancy and you intend to stay there for life (as I do), it made sense to get the place exactly how I wanted it.

It might be different if you intend to move at any point.

Not mine.

We did have upgrades but I was in my old home then (and been here in my "new" one for 9 years)

What a ridiculous comment. People in council housing do have jobs and savings, they aren't breaking any law by doing so.

You honestly think the op should give up her life long tenancy and take a private rental (costs more, no security)?

And risk being made homeless in 6 months, having used her savings to pay more rent..?

I wish I had £15k to spend on my home…

Well is there any wonder really? I do wonder what people honestly expect.

The poor and struggling that are in desperate need of SH often can't get the housing because it is often occupied by relatively financially comfortable people with lifetime tenancies. The people with the lifetime tenancies seem to believe their entitlement to this scarce housing should be welcomed and celebrated by all? Any talk of adjusting entitlement to take account of changing circumstances is shut down immediately.

The gulf between SH and the private rental sector has meant that lower and middle earners who don't satisfy the criteria for SH are condemned to a life of inferior private renting whilst those who get themselves into real financial difficulty are rewarded with SH tenancies that last a lifetime. There was a poster on this thread who got allocated a SH property as a teenage mum. It's a hard pill to swallow for those who try and work their way out of poverty and hardship when they are denied the benefits and entitlements of the very poor but can't earn enough to be able to afford a mortgage to own property themselves either. I think this is made even worse when the SH tenants go on to earn the same or more than those that have never been entitled to SH and yet the SH tenants get to enjoy the security and often lower rents associated with SH for the rest of their lives.

What I meant was, people with ridiculous mortgages that are struggling and wouldn’t want to live in social housing anyway. It’s just a group of people to be bitter about and look down on. Yes most of the properties are lifetime tenancies. Rightly or wrongly. If any government built more affordable housing it would ease the problem we currently have but that would mean houses would lose their value because the prices are only at a premium because of the shortage so in reality those that are buying a home don’t really want housing to be in abundance

@Bumpitybumper if I wasn’t in social housing I would be “poor and struggling” and quite possibly insecurely housed.

I have a nice little nest egg in the bank due to an inheritance. It’s an odd thing because I have no hope of getting a mortgage (self-employed, cancer survivor which makes work difficult at times) and it isn’t enough to even buy a garage where I live. I can’t leave this city (not that I want to) as I cannot and would not want to move my children away from my their father. But I couldn’t afford to live here without social housing.

At the end of the day the best I can do is recognise my privilege and try to do my best to help others.

OP, sorry for the derail. If you think the cleaning really can be done, then I’d say go for it. As others have said the cleanup will be massive, but in a few months or so you should be more settled and hopefully much more happy in your new place.

"Why should anyone give up their properties because other people didn't plan their lives better - like having children when you can't afford to house them???"
I don't actually believe this 👆 but I thought I would match the energy of the more nuttier comments I have read on here.

I got my council place when I left my abusive partner. I was in a 2bed flat with a boy and girl for many years (had them both prior to leaving my partner). We waited a long time to get a 3 bed house (one DC was already at high school at this point). The one we eventually got, had been lived in by one old man until he died (his wife died 20 or so years earlier). The next door neighbour was an old lady (also 3 bed house) living in one room downstairs as she couldn't get upstairs.

The house was disgusting. The council had left the old mans pee filled foam toilet seat in the bathroom, I found the guys false teeth in a cupboard! Then fleas emerged from the floorboards! There was horrible wood chip wallpaper everywhere and the garden was a jungle. I hated the house and the area but in those days you couldn't bid, you had to just take what you were given.

I did so much work on that place purely to get an exchange. Which I did after 4 years, to my current home. I love my current home and have put a lot of work into this also to make it nice. A lot of long term SH tenants will have similar stories. You don't usually get your ideal home, just the right size, right area etc from day 1. It is SH after all!

This is why then in turn people are reluctant to move when they finally get what they want. Nobody made way for me when I needed another bedroom. I had to wait for someone to die! It's shit when you're at the bottom. So when you finally get to the top you're going to hang onto it.

You can't change the system overnight. Lifetime tenancies are becoming more rare. We'll see what effect that has in years to come.

Precisely what I was going to say!
PS - I cannot believe some of the ignorant comments on his thread about SH and also the idea that, just because you are an SH tenant, you shouldn’t be able to make a comfortable, pleasant home for your family.

What gets me (and amuses me) about these threads. That people look in others bowls to make sure they don't have more than them. The one section or housing that is secure, in their minds needs to be brought in along side the misery of private renting.

The problem isn't in SH. Private rents are out of control. Look at that rather than misery loves company.

The snidyness on this thread is well sad man. Plenty to say about how things should be, yet I'll bet the same people would NIMBY all over the shop if a council estate was planned for building near them.