Valid Reasons to Refuse Council Property!

[PurpleRayne89]

Why would you refused a property? What would have to be the deal breakers?

I wouldn’t. I’m desperate for a home that I can afford and would take what was offered.

Loads. I would refuse a tower block

Awful neighbours and mould

Some of them are absolute shit holes and the council have no motivation to make them better.

People may have disabilities that require no stairs etc.

Top floor flat with kids? Not great.

Only if it was unsafe, like if it was mouldy.

Top floor flat with kids, not great no, but if you need a council property that badly then you can't afford to be picky. I'm a housing association tenant in a top floor flat and I'm very lucky to have it imo.

Right opposite the husband I was leaving.

No bath.

We are currently in a HA property with no bath, we accepted it straight away and accepted we'd have to deal with no bath. We are grateful and lucky, but naively accepted this property.

7 years later with a disabled child and also a 2 year old with a fear of falling water, we need a bath desperately.

Bear in mind that unless you refuse for a genuine reason (like medical, personal safety reason, the place is literally falling apart etc) and the council accepts that it's an unreasonable offer then it WILL count as one of your offers.

And (if you have more than one offer left) the next place you're offered may well be worse.

Given the fact they can say they have no obligation to help you any further it'd have to be so bloody bad that homelessness was the better option!

Having lived in a tower block I'd never do it again. Ever. Location I suppose is an element, there are so e pretty unpleasant estates round here I wouldn't want to live on.

@Hipp0campus that’s such a shame i got a house with no shower and Sen child who hates the bath I can shower him when I can get him in but he would not bathe it drove me nuts.

I refused a high rise flat due to above child who is like a baby elephant and would drive neighbours mad. However being homeless I only had 2 refusals so the next offer I had to take. It took 5 years but I am now in a little house which I love

Literally this is about the only reasonable reason I could think of to be honest. If the property was near to someone who was a risk to you or living there would be potentially putting you in danger.

Any other reason like a tower block, no garden, potentially damp issues etc would surely be negligible compared to the risk of not having a roof over your head.

what about those inflabaths that fit in showers?

If I had the knowledge I do now, the flat I am living in now. It has mould and considering it took 8 months to get our water supply fixed, I am not holding out hope of it being fixed anytime soon.

But the real kicker is the neighbour, who screams at anytime of the day or night, in the time I have been here, I am not sure I have got a full nights sleep.

But before we got offered this, we were in emergency accommodation and there was no way we could have stayed much longer in there, without both myself and my family's mental health taking a nose dive.

This flat gave us the opportunity to stay in the area, so while I am not thrilled with it, there is no way I would have held out on the off chance I might have gotten something better, at least this way I might be able to swap

Thanks for all responses. I visited a 4th floor walk up today with my 2 year old. The estate it was on looked a bit run down. Lots of people sitting around during the day. Kids kicking balls. It looked very busy. I’m a little unsettled by it. I felt intimidated.

Looking busy isn't a reason to refuse.

I turned down a one room in the next county miles from family and the hospitals one of my children were recieving care from offer from my council. I was homeless at the time with 2 school aged children and a baby. We were booted off the list and told not to put another application in.

Have you been to an estate before?

Most look a bit run down and have kids hanging around outside.

Op take it. A safe warm home is a gem these days.

Can you not call environmental health? It sounds like they may need additional input?

Are you bidding for a home currently op?

i agree. We don’t expect to stay in social housing for forever. I’ll get on my feet and then hopefully move outside of London. That way someone else can have the property. Thanks for the bringing me down to earth.

also, I don’t have much experience of estates.

Honestly that sounds like 99% of estates up and down the country, if you're being that picky then you'll likely find fault with everything they show you, if they show you anything else that is.

Ask yourself truthfully is living on a busy estate really worse than having no home at all?

We're overcrowded in social housing, on the waiting list. I'd rather stay overcrowded than move into a tower block... Grenfell is just a few minutes' walk away and I saw the fire. Hell no.

What you're describing doesn't sound too bad but... what are you gambling on? How many more offers will you get?

I just felt intimidated by the estate and people milling around in the day. I was worried about my child growing up there. I had a few reservations including 4th floor with not lift.