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?

Me too, @OMG12 . Me and DH are knocking the door of 60 and have a lovely three bedroom cottage . Hell will freeze over before we'll ever give it up. We've got a downstairs shower room, with a loo, and one downstairs bedroom, and a nice big garden and a driveway... Like fucking hell will we ever move for any 'big family.' Fuck that for a game of soldiers. You chose to have loads of kids. Not my problem.

My plan was to sell my large 3 bed end terraced when my children are much older and settled with their own families, I wanted to move to a smaller cottage with 2 bedrooms and smaller rooms (mainly because I don't fancy cleaning the house I have now until I'm in my dotage)
Some of the comments on here have honestly changed my mind, I think I will hang onto my large family home until I die and just get a cleaner!!
Me and my husband have worked damn hard to buy our property, we received no help from parents, no inheritance, nothing! The only reason I will move out of it is because I want to, most certainly not because there is a fictional queue of families desperate to buy it.

I'm agog that anyone thinks of a three bed house as large and expects people to downsize from them.

I think it depends on the house.

Our 3 bed is much larger than my dad's 5 bed. We have a large kitchen/dinner/living area, separate lounge, separate dining room, utility, downstairs shower room and 3 large double bedrooms, 1large ensuite bathroom and a large family bathroom.

My dad has a kitchen diner, lounge, a bathroom, double master room and 3 small singles and a box room.

😂

Totally. After getting a roasting earlier up thread just for saying I worked hard getting my house . I'm going to extend the kitchen onto my conservatory now just for the fucking hell of it ! .

Well said @PurpleButterflyWings .

I've spent the last 12 years renovating my house. No-one else wanted it, it had been on the market for 18 months, and was barely habitable.

But now that I've rewired, replumbed, redecorated it. Had it reroofed, insulated, repointed, new kitchen and bathroom fitted, all windows and exterior doors replaced. Spent hours negotiating with the local planning office, finding good contractors, sourcing compliant materials, doing a lot of the work myself and worked for 10 years in the garden.

Now it is a warm, comfortable, clean, decent home, suddenly it is desirable and somehow I'm not entitled to it any more!

Err...no! Sod off. Anyone expecting me to surrender it before I choose to, will get the door shut smartly in their face.

Communism is not a good way of life.

Don't give Govt more power to take from individuals. Soon they will take from you.

The most useful thing my Council could do right now is produce a booklet for homeowners about how best to go about dividing up their family terraced homes (which are in the majority where I live) to provide two different accommodations for the old farts like me (ground floor) and the younger generation (upstairs), that can then be most easily reconstituted as a family house after old fart has shuffled.

Such a booklet could cover: practicalities like red tape (planning regs); finances; examples of successful 'conversions'; examples of successful 're-conversions'; and any other useful info, e.g. on the potential for loft rooms, garden rooms, and splitting bills like Council Tax.

Well said 👍. It's gone a bit quiet now the over 50s are putting there foot down ! 🤔🤣

I blame property porn.

"their " . Christ can't spell must be my age 🤪

I've just changed some 25 year old door knobs and I felt a bit guilty.

The problem in my city isn't older people having the larger homes but the amount of homes that need work to make them liveable. There is social housing stock but the decent stuff was sold.

A relative of my bfs lives in a social housing 3 bed and it would be cruel to move him but it is a family home that's in short supply.

If you've bought your home or rent under a lifetime tenancy and are happy there I think you get to a point where you cannot face moving. My DGM lived in a massive house that was hard to manage until she went into a care home.

I've never owned a home larger than my needs but even so to future proof I live in a small bungalow now. But that's because I didn't want to rattle around a house when I'm old.

I don’t think anyone on the thread is talking about people living in a bog standard 3-bed semi. That’s not disproportionate to their needs.

@PurelyOrnamental

My plan was to sell my large 3 bed end terraced when my children are much older and settled with their own families, I wanted to move to a smaller cottage with 2 bedrooms and smaller rooms (mainly because I don't fancy cleaning the house I have now until I'm in my dotage)
Some of the comments on here have honestly changed my mind, I think I will hang onto my large family home until I die and just get a cleaner!!
Me and my husband have worked damn hard to buy our property, we received no help from parents, no inheritance, nothing! The only reason I will move out of it is because I want to, most certainly not because there is a fictional queue of families desperate to buy it.

LOL, good for you!

@MintJulia

Well said @PurpleButterflyWings.

I've spent the last 12 years renovating my house. No-one else wanted it, it had been on the market for 18 months, and was barely habitable.

But now that I've rewired, replumbed, redecorated it. Had it reroofed, insulated, repointed, new kitchen and bathroom fitted, all windows and exterior doors replaced. Spent hours negotiating with the local planning office, finding good contractors, sourcing compliant materials, doing a lot of the work myself and worked for 10 years in the garden.

Now it is a warm, comfortable, clean, decent home, suddenly it is desirable and somehow I'm not entitled to it any more!

Err...no! Sod off. Anyone expecting me to surrender it before I choose to, will get the door shut smartly in their face.

YES!

@Wiccan

Well said 👍. It's gone a bit quiet now the over 50s are putting there foot down ! 🤔🤣

Yep, we are fierce when we wanna be! Took enough shit from people over the years, and won't take it anymore!

@Namddf

I don’t think anyone on the thread is talking about people living in a bog standard 3-bed semi. That’s not disproportionate to their needs.

Sorry but that is exactly what many people want. Even if it's a small 3 bed, with very little storage/small bedrooms etc, SOME people would still have you move out into a shitty little private let 1-bed flat, the SECOND your last child has left home! (So a BIG family can have your home!!!) 🙄

Exactly sounds like madness. If you have managed to buy a house it's entirely upto you if you want to live in a 5 bed house alone. You've bought it!

If anyone thinks that I'm sleeping in the same bedroom as my stbDH for the rest of my life, they can feck off. Dear god, the tossing and turning and the noises and different waking times ... I'd be a basket case.

I need my own decent-size bedroom-office-study for my mental 'elf and to protect my income, thank you very much.

It's never going to happen because it would have to be rolled out all over . MPs giving up their massive homes , celebs , actors the lot .anyone who had a broom cupboard more than they need . Where would Victoria Beckham put all her clothes. Well I have a ton clothes and shoes so I have a walk in wardrobe because I grafted HARD for it. I had fuck all in my teens cause my father decided to fuck off and take his money with him and my mum died broken hearted that she couldn't stop him . My house is my safe place , my everything that reminds me I deserve to have it because i nearly broke myself getting it and so did my husband 5 redundancies and we are still here and it's the only thing I have . Isn't that enough reason. It will be sold when I'm no longer here to need it until then it's my house I paid for it and I'm living in it .the rest of you will have to wait !

Definitely poor sound insulation causes misery for so many people.

I wouldn't really want to make rules about the size of property people can buy, depending on their household composition. Young families grow/have more children. Older couples may want spare bedrooms for visitors - ideally all my adult children would visit together, with their partners and children.

I’m loving the argument that social housing should be returned, though.

so poor people don’t deserve to keep hold of their memories, to have security, to host extended family for special occasions…..
interesting

@Ingrowncrotchhair I think it's really difficult. As I've said up thread, I don't think a three bed house, and social housing tends to be smaller than.orivate housing, is a large property. However, if a couple or an individual end up there alone and have to rely on benefits to pay their bills, then I find it hard to square the argument that more money should be spent than is necessary. That ought to be made clear at the beginning of tenancies, which should be reviewed every five years, both to make sure they remain big enough and if they have become too big

Regrettably one's own money buys choice. I think too that many people do downsize. We will in 7 to 10 years for the simple reason that the running costs for our house are significant and when our income has reduced we wish to reduce our outgoings. Also by then we will be 70 and rattling around on our own. Filter the money down to the next generation I say.

If you are a single person in a 3 bed council house, yes you should be moved to a smaller property.

If you OWN the property, where you go and if you choose to sell is your decision.

Social housing should be temporary to give people time to get back on their feet, not to live in until they die. There simply isn't enough housing stock to go round and it's not fair on the young families in desperate need for accommodation.

With regards to social housing, sadly there isn't enough to go around. In an ideal world the government would be building bungalows, flats and family homes so none would be in short supply and everyone was covered throughout the stages of their lives.
This isn't happening though and women with young children are living in refuges while the elderly are housed comfortably in three bedroom family homes as there is nowhere else suitable for them to go.
I don't agree with tenancies that last a lifetime, if your needs change you should be moved on to free up the accommodation for someone who could benefit from it as you did. Social housing wasn't meant to be a permanent way of life, it was a safety net and a stepping stone.
The difference with home ownership to me should be obvious. Once you own something it is yours to do with as you wish for as long as you wish.