Declining townhouse layout?

[notintowoo]

Hello,

I have been on the council register list for about 12 years. It is just DD and I (12). Over the course of those years, we have viewed four properties. I declined two properties due to price and unsuitability and the other two properties I was outbid.

I recently received a call from the council to view a property, which was declined by the first person. I went to view the property and although the location is great (for work and DD travelling to school and not far from my parent's house) and the rent is quite decent. The townhouse layout is what is putting me off. It's a terrace conversion flat. I am on the first floor (a neighbour below but no one above me) but it has a townhouse sort of layout. I have my own entrance door, the hallway/entrance is on the ground floor, the bathroom is on the first floor. The kitchen and living room is on the second floor and the bedrooms are on the third floor.

Also, a friend recently told me that if I was to consider buying the property (which I wouldn't), it would be very difficult to sell as townhouses are unpopular.

I feel a bit disheartened to consider turning this down but I wanted to gather all of your thoughts before I speak to the council. What should I do?

Yes, in all of this I'm the one whose post is silly 🙄. Not the OP who thinks stairs are an accident waiting to happen when in fact a house is a perfectly sensible housing option.

Oh and I say that as a disabled woman who actually moved from a bungalow to a house as overall the benefits outweighed the negatives of me and my family as a whole. I say this in case there's a massive drip feed on the way and I'm accused of not understanding mobility problems!

It’s just so vulgar to be scoping out the council property you want based on how much you could make off it if you ever buy it at a reduced rate, after getting years of reduced rent.

They aren’t there for you to plan how much you can make when you buy and sell it on. They are there to provide affordable housing when people can’t afford private rent or to buy.

Are you sure you want to move op? It sounds as though you like where you currently are and since it's a one bed flat and there are two of you, you aren't even over crowded.

You have already turned down two properties so you clearly aren't desperate.

I don’t understand why everyone’s jumping on the op. That’s a lot of stairs. The bathroom is two stories down from the bedrooms. It’s a strange layout. As op said, when you’re on the bedroom level, you’re so far removed from front door floor that you wouldn’t know if someone broke in. All those stairs. We just have two flights of stairs but it’s annoying to have the laundry in the basement. I realize though, most people have to put up with very inconvenient layouts, and oftentimes cramped spaces.

The good location and fair rent are the pros, and really those are big pros. But it is a dilemma.

As I said earlier; I used to work as a homeless officer, I would regularly deal with homeless families who were very picky about areas as they wanted to buy in the future by means of RTB .I would tell them that they would get the next suitable property ,anywhere in the borough, and they would go mad. They would act as though they were doing me a favour by wanting to buy. I found it very distasteful.

And she will be overcrowded, she needs one bedroom for the OP, one for her child, she has one bedroom and is therefore overcrowded.

Bumcake Dalek have evolved and can now sort of hover up and downstairs.

OP, your really should take it. I think I’ve got the layout now. I’m thinking 3/4 flight of stairs to back landing with bathroom over downstairs flat’s kitchen 1/4 flight to your kitchen and living room and another full flight to bedrooms. Are the rooms over the front door quite large? Has your DD seen it and is she excited?

You can see we are all excited on your behalf! You’ll have so much more space and it’s somewhere your DD can bring her friends back and you both can have privacy.

I would ignore your ‘helpful’ friend. She has no idea if you’ll ever be offered anything better, or how long it will be till you get another offer. Also on the off-chance you buy it, of course it will sell!

Sorry, but beggars can’t be choosers. You’re applying for a council property which are few and far between. Take what you’re offered or stay where you are.

I think you are bordering on being a bit goady now to be honest.

It's stairs FFS, not a crocodile infested moat.

Right to buy isn't the same option it once was and may not even exist at all. I don't think councils / HA even give out the tenancy required to have the R-T-B to new tenants now anyway? You don't get lifetime tenancies anymore.

I hate to sound mean but either take it or let it go and I am sure someone who really is desperate can take the house.

Agree with everyone that right to buy is immoral - but one thing at a time, let's get the OP in there first, she's clearly got a big irrational psychological block

It’s a strange layout. As op said, when you’re on the bedroom level, you’re so far removed from front door floor that you wouldn’t know if someone broke in. All those stairs.

It’s not that strange if I’ve got it right. I’ve lived in a house like that. Lots of older houses are like it. It’s the only way that only a bathroom can be on on floor.

If you’ve been waiting 12 years already and you’re desperate then turning this down isn’t an option. Doesn’t mean you can’t swap it at a later date. If you turn down 3 I don’t think you qualify again or if you do it’s back to the bottom of the list. It’s council accommodation, you’re not going to get something that’s ‘perfect’.

@MysteryBelle

I don't think the OP has an 'irrational' block. I think she's being very rational actually.

In a part of the country where entire families are squeezed into BnB's she's actually doing very well. Whatever the legal definition of 'overcrowding' is OP and her daughter in a studio are not doing as badly as, say, a house of 4 kids needing to share 2 beds each.

So she only wants to move for something that suits her exact requirements, and despite her protestations to the contrary I think future sale potential is something at the back of her mind. She isn't interested in say, taking the council house, saving up to buy with the cheaper rent /moving out. She wants to be given her forever home, and then profit from it.

That's why PP are getting annoyed.

If OP isn't sure she should just let the home go to someone else who will be happy to have it. In fact I'm not sure why she's still on the list. Other councils will kick you off after this many rejections.

Ah ok. I’m starting to get a glimmer of how the layout might be, don’t fully understand but I read your previous comment explaining it and it makes sense. Would like to see a diagram though! 😀

But I have read that townhouse layouts are undesirable.

Buying a house is a very different matter to having a secure council tenancy. The most important thing if buying is that the value does not drop.

How does it compare to your existing accommodation ?

I agree with PP who points out that there are always compromises and two flights of stairs for fully mobile people would be nothing.

Ridiculous having a bathroom two floors away from the bedrooms. Whomever designed that needs a slap.

I lived in an 1890s terrace once, so not built with original bathrooms, bathroom added onto kitchen. Going down steep stairs for a wee in the night was bad enough and I'd never do that again. I slipped and fell on my bottom a few times on the stairs too.

I have nothing to add to this thread, other than that I read it as the flat being in the "declining townhouse" style. I think my house might be the same!

My guess (from the description of only the bathroom being on that floor) is that the downstairs flat isn’t single story either and its bathroom is on the same floor.

Much cheaper to run plumbing to two bathrooms side by side on one floor rather than running plumbing all the way to the top floor.

We live in a townhouse. Garage, kitchen and downstairs loo on ground floor, two rooms on middle floor, two bedrooms and bathroom on top floor.
I love it. Yes, there's an extra flight of stairs for cleaning, which is a pain, but overall I love the layout.
However, if the house had an extra floor and only one bathroom (as the OP said), I don't think I'd go for it. Having to trug down two flights of stairs in the middle of the night to go to the loo.... no thanks!

Also I forgot to mention I lived in a similar house and what's more paid a fortune for it. No council rent here...

Yes it would be part of a 3 story late Victorian terrace. People have survived. Even when the upstairs tenants had to go outside to use the shared loo. I’m on my phone so don’t think a diagram is possible!

It sounds great to me!
Safer as burglars prefer to burgle ground floor.
Stairs - you soon get used to these and get strong legs.
Buying - well you’re not buying so irrelevant.

My only bugbear would be the bathroom on the 1st floor but if that was my option versus a studio flat with a 12 year old, I would go for this. Imagine how improved DDs life would be and you said the location was good.

You do sound scared of change, so just give yourself a mental kick up the backside as otherwise your DD will have left home before you take a chance to improve your lives.

No I don’t think you’re right. That would mean just 2 bathrooms on one floor and the downstairs flat needing an extra staircase just to access a bathroom

This is not what OP needs to hear.

Are you one of the ridiculous friends telling a woman with a teen to stay in a bedsit rather than move somewhere suitable because it has stairs?

90% of UK homes have stairs. Those which don't are snapped up by people who use wheelchairs. OP, your home is going to have stairs.

Everyone in this thread is writing on a ouija board because we all died on the stairs in our houses.