To think I should be able to have a council house?

[frustratedmumof3]

Ho hum - must stop my addiction to MN as will not have time from next week so my cunning plan is to piss off as many people as possible so I will be frightened to come on here .

So, my local council are building lots of lovely new council or housing association (don't care what they are) homes in my area with brand spanking new kitchens, bathrooms, lovely new carpets etc, etc and I am thinking why should the so-called vulnerable members of society (who are most probably going to wreck the places) be higher on the housing list than us.

We rent privately (since we sold our house 2 years ago as could not afford the mortgage) and I don't see that we will ever be able to afford another house. We pay well over a grand for a 3 bed (3DCs) and have the insecurity of potentially having to move every 6 months at the owners whim which is the worst thing (have already moved 3 times since started renting).

It really makes me mad that quite a few of DCs friends have council houses where they pay only 350 per month and probably earn similar wages to us (the ones that work that is). What makes them deserve one more than us? I know damn well that we will not get one of the new homes as there are about 5000 people in the queue before us and they will probably go to single parents, immigrants and and generally useless members of society who do not work and have no intention of doing so. We pay our taxes and would appreciate any help we were given (as we need it now) but will get sweet FA. Makes me want to scream!! This thread may be unusual as I am not dissing council house tenants as I desperately want to be one (in a new build anyway).

my cousin is a concil tenant, on benefits as he could not work for 2 years after a war injury, he is not a single parent,or elderly or disabled, just incapacitated, is he a generally useless member of society?? or my freind upstairs who had to run for her life from a man who beat the shit out of her everyday?? or me and dp, who after 10 years have finally managed to get a mortgage and buy our council flat?? you are fuckin out of order and as a former estate agent who did mortgages, £1000 pays for a decent 3bed any day. council tenants take almost any accomodation offered to them, you have some front to say you want to be a council tenant only in a new build, get a life !

nah it's ok SGM - you can go in front of me - I'm actually taking my Lone Parent Advisors advice of staying at home for now - getting started on my OU degree (should start Feb next year - just waiting to hear that I've got the funding - which I should have done) so will be sat at home doing a degree and running the music at church - lazy fecker I am [winnk]

no I'm not worrying about the funding - I know that I'll get the full costs paid - it's just the sitting twiddling my thumbs waiting for the confirmation in writing to come through my letterbox - with everything else going pear shaped at the moment I don't want to say I "AM" doing the course until I can say for 100% certain

A single parent with DP living abroad
Sounds dubious to say the least.

Stayfrosty, am definitely pissed off about the roof!!! We are in a block of 4 council houses - the others are tenants, I'm an owner. They all have lovely new red roofs and I have a crappy old mossy one with broken tiles.

In reality, of course, i was jealous for about 5 mins - I really have more in life to worry about than the state of the roof.

My house is definitely making our estate look untidy, though.

And no, I'm not saying that all council tenants are drug addicts - where did i say that in any post??? My neighbours on the whole are all lovely old people who've lived in their houses for donkeys.

FAQ - before I start on the op. You mentioned being worried about finding a landlord who will allow you to claim HB. I found my house then started claiming HB which (when it is eventually sorted) will be paid directly to me, I in turn pay the landlord who has no idea I claim it (I don't think they would mind anyway they own the houses next door and I know they claim).

OP - I was put in hospital by my then partner when 8 months pregnant that's how I ended up with a council house (many years ago now). Why not try it. The smell of damp was lovely and the stabbing at the bottom of the landing was of great excitement to the 8 yo lad who opened to door to the victim who had his guts hanging out. The drug dealing neighbours were lovely too btw.

I ended up moving back to rented, pay the same as you in rent but I am happy and content. Count your blessings.

KatieDD,

My situation could be described in many ways and "dubious" is probably fairly apt.

DP is here in UK at the moment but going back to West Africa day after tomorrow .

You see? Feckless single mum with mixed race kids. Do you not think I DESERVE a council house?????? I havent even got a flat screen TV!

Is it any wonder we are in the mess we are with the amont of greed and jealousy that we have breed in society. I want what they have and they get it cheaper than me attitute, it is sickness itself..........

If you have food on the table and a roof over your head you are doing alright and thank yourselves.

Put more energy into the good things in life and less negative wastage into rubbish that doesn't really concern you.

Hmm but equally he could be a Swiss Millionaire, more information is required when seeking sympathy or indeed a council property. Which as I have stated before is nothing to be envious of. What ever the state of the repair of your house the fact is you got to chose it, my flat was lovely, really really lovely but my god there were skid marks on the drive as DH and I left the day after he secured a full time job.

sb - I know but I'm not sure about actually getting the place in the first place - I mean I'm not working so have no proof of income other than my benefits - which is going to make it pretty obvious that I'm going to claim HB.

I don't know - we'll see, maybe it won't be so bad.....

SGM - I'm doing the Introduction to Health and Social care. Going to see how that goes before making any decisions as to whether to knuckles down and get my degree done before going back to work (so maybe being a SAHM a little longer) or whether to try and find work and hope to finish it/be able to afford to finish it at the same time.

In an ideal world I'll do the first 2yrs of my degree (get 1/3 or so of the point required) fine a part time job when DS3 starts nursery, and continue my degree while working.

But as we know this isn't an ideal world we live in - especially in the current climate - so may decide to "scrounge" a little longer, complete my degree and then find full time work.

One part of my head is saying, get off the IS and get into any type of work so long as you're no worse off asap. The other part is saying look at the longer term benefits of completing my degree

FAQ - sorry, just seen your comments - so many x threads. Yeah, I have been 'lucky', sold the studio and so had a deposit to put down on this house which is at least a bit bigger.

I'm sorry you are having so many troubles with accommodation - hope you sort out soon.

And to everyone else, it's not just people living in private accommodation that moan about council house tenants, you know! My neighbour (old lady, council tenant) was utterly outraged by the Lithuanian single mum with 2 kids that lost her privately rented accommodation and was - yes, you guessed it - given a council flat "these immigrants, coming here, taking our council houses"... but that's another thread surely?

I WANT a council house but we're never gonna get one because my DP works so it means we have to live in a tiny house that we share with our 2 dd's and my mum and brother.

My DP wont give up work because he doesn't want to live like a lazy fucker coz it my opinion thats what you are if you dont work unless you have a reason that is.

I would love a council fucking BEDSIT never mind a house i long for the day when it will just be me DP and our DD's but with DH work being shit(self employed)it's not gonna happen.

I was at the council paying the council tax the other day when i overheard a foreign lady being very excited because she was getting her 3 bed house and the one next door built into a big house because she has 3 children and a 3 bed house isnt big enough.
Made my blood fuking BOIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"i overheard a foreign lady being very excited because she was getting her 3 bed house and the one next door built into a big house because she has 3 children and a 3 bed house isnt big enough."

hmm I suppose it is possible depending on the age of her children - but I have 3 children - and I would qualify for a 3 bedroom house.....nothing bigger (although if there were a shortage of 3 bedroom houses, and a 4 bedroom one that came up, and there was no-one that qualified for a 4 bedroom then there's a slight possibility of getting one.......

To the op - haven't got time to read this thread but just wanted to say that you can (according to your post) afford to house your children adequately. Therefore the council has no duty to house you and you should just be quiet. I would also point out that it is grossly offensive to say ' single parents, immigrants and generally useless members of society' - but I suspect that somebody in the 165 posts before me will already have referred to this....so I'll just say - get a grip woman!

This is going slightly off the OP, but just wanted to say that I agree with the OP in that unfairness does genuinely exist where council housing is concerned. Just out of interest, once someone is in a council house is their need assessed at regular intervals after they are initially assigned one? Or is it the case that once you're in, you're in for good (as long as you don't break any rules or whatever). I know of someone who bought their council house very cheaply a couple of years ago as they'd lived there years (both having been in employment for most of that time). Fair enough, but THEN they sold it on privately for a VAST profit, and pissed off to a "nicer area". How is that fair - they clearly werent in need at the point of them selling it as they both had fulltime jobs, they'd been paying a pittance to rent it off the council for years, they profited from the sale of it to a RIDICULOUS extent and lastly and most importantly, that's one less council house available for the genuinely needy.

I also remember a conversation where a colleague at work (on same salary as me) was astonished when I said that I a) couldn't afford a PC, and b) didn't have room for 1 in our teeny 1-bed flat in London. She herself paid about 70 quid a week for her large, 2 bed council flat, and had a bells and whistles PC on its own desk in a corner of her livingroom, whereas all our income went on our huge mortgage for a 1 bed rabbit hutch. In the end, we decided that we just couldn't afford a 2 bedroom place anywhere in London and therefore couldn't afford to start a family, so we pissed up back up north where prices were much cheaper, and thankfuly found a place bigger than a rabbit hutch with room for our kids to sleep in! I still feel sorry for young couples paying out huge sums of money for private rentals/mortgages in London, and desperately wanting to start a family yet not being able to afford to move to a bigger place. Whereas if you can wangle your way onto a council list (yet again, I know of someone else whose only grounds for getting their own council flat was that it was a bit squashed for her and her boyfriend at her mum's house. A couple of years later, and there's no worry about paying huge amounts of rent for THEM - so they opt to have a baby and can easily afford to do so.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I CAN see where there ARE elements of unfairness with regards to council housing. NO, OP didn't put her point of view across in the most diplomatic of ways but it was precisely for the reasons she explained in her post, and you all fell for it.

pmsl@ this thread

Sorry FAQ hadn't thought of that.

Have you got anyone who can act as a guarantor.

I'm not sure why some landlords don't accept HB anyway - they're more or less guaranteed their rent that way.

You'll have to find a landlord like mine - they accept pets, smokers, children, HB - don't care as long as they get the rent at the end of the month and the house isn't being "vandalised"

Are you serious Peenut???

Of course your DP shouldn't give up work.

I used to live in London with my xH and most of his relatives lived in council houses/flats . And for every lucky bastard that had secured themself a new build with new kitchen, plush carpets etc, there were 3 others living in damp stinking hell holes.

Why do you not apply for a housing association/part ownership house? I'm sure you would get it as it sounds a bit overcrowded where you are

bedcuase hb fuck you around and you can wait months for the rent to actually come through.

what business man waits months for a back date that may or may not come through and then they might fuck it up again when the mum or dad gets part time or fullt ime employment but still have entitlement - every time it changes the hb office re-assess and take farkin ages, thats if they dont lose the form and say they haven't recieved supporting information because of sheer incompetance

it doesn't make a shit load of difference if your working or not.

have you got a council application, have you got copy of what the ponts are for?

be more informed before coming out with gobshite

sb - I don't know if I do - my Vicar has said she'll give me a reference - though whether a good reference is going to hold much sway (even though I should have at least 2 months rent a deposit saved by then) I don't know.

As for guarantor - not sure I do

Only reading the last page and the OP (not to mention this thread the million times before it's been posted in one form or another) it seems that a lot of people don't understand the idea of social housing. Everyone can apply to the council or a HA for accomodation, you are scored depending on your need and placed on the list depending on your score. The higher your need the less time you have to spend on the list. It's not about your employment status - in fact I know of estates with my HA that only go to key workers (professionals).

This is one area that MN lets itself down, the ignorance and discrimination that comes out through this subject is shocking.