All old people should sell up family homes for families.

[benigogo]

Not really an AIBU, more a hypothetical question really. This view comes up a lot on MN, and I'm interested in the detail of what people actually imagine when they say it. What type of property should they be giving up? What type of property should they be moving to? How old is old? What about younger people who under occupy a property? For example 2 friend couples, have recently downsized. Both from a 4 bed detached, one to a 4 bed semi, and the other to a 3 bed semi. Their homes were bought, one by a young professional couple, and the other by a couple in their seventies, themselves downsizing. If you hold this view what do you visualise?

I'm not jealous, I don't think we should kick anyone out of their homes. I just find the differing standards baffling.

People are working very hard to pay extortionate rents yet will never have the same right to stable housing. I dont understand such skewed and biased opinions between what different generations should have the right to.

Stalk someone else plenty of posters have had plenty more to say on the subject than I have !

It's illogical, I mean we don't bash pensioners who didn't save for their own pension & rely on pension credit @workistoomuch

Stalk someone else plenty of posters have had plenty more to say on the subject than I have !

If you don't want people to laugh at your posts then maybe a public forum is not for you...

I've responded to plenty of posts but tbf no one else has come out with a gem quite as ridiculous as

"The haves used to be the have nots they worked for it"

I worked with older people for a long time and I know that many got trapped in a home that was not adapted to their needs, inaccessible and difficult to maintain. By the time it had hit a bit too much they could not face the process of selling and moving - which is stressful for most of us at the best of times. I've seen too many people in a hospital bed I. Their living room unable to get upstairs or access a bathroom.

In reality order people can be encouraged to move earlier if there is suitable adapted housing and with help to downsize, dispose of unwanted furniture, manage a sale and move. My own parents did it having seen their parents struggle in homes no longer suited to them - they went to a flat in a communal facility and it worked terribly well for many many years.

I’ve got a house which will suffice until I die, but it has more bedrooms than I need, and it’s mine and will stay that way. No intention to sell and downsize here.

What a vile series of posts and a very sad thread.
Old people are the cause of the housing crisis, they should be stopped from driving, use ED too much etc etc

No one is going to dictate to me what I can buy and how many rooms or location when i get to that age.

My parents bought a 3 bed house when they started with a mortgage - had 4 kids. We all had to share, the concept of kids sharing now a days seems alien. When I was about 14, they moved to a bigger house and we all got our own rooms - they moved when they could afford to move.

I flat shared till I was 30 and saved hard to buy my first 2 bed place and rented out the other room to a friend.

There is definitely a want it and want it now, no willingness to graft or compromise because the self entitled generation want what their parents had - now

Where are you having trouble?.
I started with very little didn't have kids until we had our own home the plan was it would be our only home now have no mortgage it's ours and we are not shifting! I was quoting another poster who stated Have and have nots . OK

Proper and right, you bought it, you paid for it, you own it.

There is definitely a want it and want it now, no willingness to graft or compromise because the self entitled generation want what their parents had - now

How many of your peers bought a 3 bed house when they started & went on to have 4 dc?

My parents first home was also a three bed, they were late 20s, they moved a few yrs later as they wanted more space. That starter home now costs 1.2m.

@Wiccan please stop stalking me!

I think this is the silliest suggestion yet. The idea of some sort of comune for "old people" supporting each other sounds great in principle but is completely unworkable. "Old people" are not some homogenous blob, they are individuals in exactly the same way as any other age group. In any case, not one person has yet decided what old is. From the way some posters are speaking, sixty is old and seventy is decrepit. As someone approaching retirement, l can assure you l am neither. In any case, we have worked hard all our lives and made our homes - and l repeat they are our homes - the way we wish them to be. The entitlement of some people on this thread is breathtaking. We have paid off our mortgages and bought our homes. Why should we move to a smaller home?

I only got on the ladder in London because I had 6 fig help to do so despite having a good income. Someone who doesn't have that help is not less deserving then me or didn't work as hard. Its also not entitled to be frustrated at having so much money tied up in rent & want housing security.

I live with just my partner and would happily downsize as we don’t need 4 bedrooms, but I’m not prepared to give up my spacious kitchen and downstairs living space. every 2 bed property I see has tiny kitchens and small living areas. Maybe if properties were built to accommodate this more people would downsize!

I love my 3 bedroom, 3 storey house with large garden that we bought in 1985. When I became disabled in 2016 we fitted 2 stair lifts and a walk in shower. We could never afford to downsize in this area

@watersprites it is not entitled to be frustrated at high rents and the difficulty of getting on to the property ladder. It is, however, extremely entitled to think that someone who has worked hard all their lives and made sacrifices - gladly - for their families should be expected to give up their enjoyment of their homes because their children have flown the nest and they are older. Council and housing association homes are a very different matter as the tenants do not own their property but those of us who have paid hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years for our homes that belong to us outright can do as we please with our own homes and money.

@Violinist64 who has actually said that on this thread though?

And why so much moralistic language, always the rhetoric around working hard & sacrifices. As I said I didn't work any harder or make any particular sacrifices, I was just gifted a large deposit. Likewise my parents bought in a rough part of London that went through incredible gentrification.

I agree , have worked hard to get our home just as we want it and chose it not only as it was a great house for our family but because it could have everything added for us later in life without moving .

@watersprites thewhole thread is about older people downsizing out of public spirited duty to free up their homes for supposedly needier people. The entitlement is breathtaking. I am glad you are able to own a home in London and that you realise that you are fortunate. Most of us do not live in London but property almost everywhere is eyewateringly expensive. I feel very fortunate to have my lovely home too but will not be pressurised into selling it.

Ridiculous suggestion.

Maybe single parents could live together, supporting each other, giving each other company, forming a community, helping to look after each other's children while the Mum goes out to work in a factory... Oh wait a minute, that sounds like a 1900 work house.

Nope. Wouldn't want either option.

Oh come on

My grandparents will stay in their house forever because it's full of their shit. Maybe if they were minimalists, this would be more likely. Which is laughable.
If they were forced to move they would have to get rid of their things, that seems very cruel.
Kids are things that people have decided to acquire as well. I don't propose people should give them away to fit in a smaller house.
Nan loves her hoard as much as many love their children. She has things that are generations old.
Forcing her to give up her house and all her possessions sounds like we are sending her to jail for the crime of growing old.

Yes and people still,wouldn't necessarily be able to afford the houses

Absolutely this. Bought, paid for , owned..2 bedrooms, 22 bedrooms, need the room, don't need the room, it matters not, it belongs to you.

Council and housing association homes are completely different. Why should an older woman who lives in a 4 or 5 bedroomed house be rattling around in it when there are a family of 6 who need that space. The woman does not own it, she has no right to it, she was given it when she had a big, growing family who have all flown the coop now. She has no need for a house that size from the housing association anymore so by right it should be given to those who DO need that space and the older woman should be give a smaller dwelling that meets her needs but there are very few of these dwellings available and then you have those who will not give up their house because they brought heir kids up there. That is wrong, they don't own a knob on the door and yet they stay put in a huge house in the middle of a housing crisis even when they are offered somewhere else. I can totally understand how people think that is morally wrong.