Aibu that think 3 bed is big enough

[Phoenix4725]

I have a 3 bed council house and been trying to exchange to area for school for my son .But time and time again being told 3 bed is to small by other coucils housing associations yet where i live now .I would not get a 4bed as none left and they class lounge as a bedroom.

I would take a 3 if only they would let me

have Ds15,ds13 ,dd6 ,ds 4.5

I dont know much about how they decide on who gets a council house but three beds seems plenty to me, your room, older kids room and younger kids room.I cant see a problem with that.

YANBU I think it is up to you if you are happy with a 3 bed then you should be offered one.
We had a similar problem with council here they wanted us to have a 3 bed flat wouldn't consider us for a house because the 3rd bedroom was for dss who doesn't live with us but we would have been happy to take a 2 bed anything but it wasn't an option.

When I was reading the rules our council had for how they allocate how many rooms you need some of them are just silly.

same here but because ds3 is bad sleeper i kip on the couch so dd has own room .Am already in coucil so just swapping where i live

you would think after all the moaning govemnt does about people wanting big houses paid for there be happy tha t someones willing stay small .

Yes im single parents , yes im on benefits but also f/t carer for ds thought get out way incase anyone wants to sterotype me

yep my coucil say 3 others that i want swap with say 4 not going say would not be nice but area more important than bedroom sizes

oohh errr Im new but I had to reply.

I had exactly the same problem. I registered with Homeswapper and found a swap within 8 months. Everything was going great untill the council where I wanted to move to said I had too many kids (I have 4 also) for the 3 bed.

Anyhoo after much googling they cannot turn down a swap as its 'like for like' and your two youngest only count as 1 unit and can share.

I would take it up with the authoratay!

PS After a lot of moaning and threatening the council gave me the go ahead with the swap and we should be moving this month

A relative of mine is in a similar situation. She has 4 children and lives in a 2 bedroomed house but is not eligible to move to a 3 bedroomed home because it is not considered large enough. Daft rules.

I don't know v. much about council legislation but isn't there something about two dc of a different sex not being allowed to share, legally?

So, the adults have to have a bedroom
2 of the same-sex dc can share (but I think it is only two)
the younger 2 have to have a separate bedroom
= 4.

But I also thought that you could count a living-room as a possible sleeping space - though I'm really not sure on that ... .

And I don't know if any of this applies to swaps.

Yep, I knew someone in the same situation.
2 bed house with 4 kids, wanted a three bed but was told she couldn't have one as it wasn't big enough.

She went to her MP and got the three bed in the end.

It wouldn't be so bad if there were 4 beds, but there aren't, so they were basically saying she had to stay in the two bed.

I dunno how to put link on here lol

but from what i have researched is that in the bedford/bucks area is that kids of the same sex can share until the are 10 but I have read that in some other counties it can be as high as 12.

The only areas that cant be classed as living/sleeping areas is the kitchen and bathroom

Every area is different and they keep changing the rules lol

we only have one and a half (about 8' by 6') bedrooms in a v small cottage - it was fine for self and two babies, but fecklessly had a surprise baby and career/life catastrophes so we have stayed here longer than planned

at one point in Victorian times a family lived here with 8 children, without benefit of kitchen, bathroom and utility/garden room (all tacked on over recent years) - I think of them when it feels a bit crowded and soldier on

but as one of 7 children we never had more than 5 bedrooms between us so were probably quite crowded then too

The number of people who should live in a home depends on the number of rooms. Rooms that are counted include living rooms, bedrooms and large kitchens. Generally:
? 1 room = 2 people
? 2 rooms = 3 people
? 3 rooms = 5 people
? 4 rooms = 7.5 people
? 5 or more rooms = 2 people per room
Children under 12 are counted as a half.

i just copied n pasted

"So, the adults have to have a bedroom
2 of the same-sex dc can share (but I think it is only two)
the younger 2 have to have a separate bedroom
= 4"

Nope, because theres nothing to say the younger need seperate from the elder, you could have one room for boys and one for girls of any age. Plus in this scenario, by the time the younger too need seperate as they are boy/girl, the eldest counts as an adult and doesn't figure in the calcs as a child.

muffymk so according to this if I applied for a council house I would have a 2 bedroomed house as long as it had a living room?. how confusing! We are two adults, a 5 year old girl a three year old boy, a 10 month old girl and a baby due in the sumnmer!.

Or our current house is good for 10 people? with three bedrooms a living room and a dining room?

I think its to cover them if you say you are overcrowded. I just used it when they refused my swap on the basis that I have four kids and wanting to move from a 3 bed to a 3 bed. They told me that I needed a 4 bed! which you are very unlikely to get as they have all been bought up and turned into flats

Re. Pooexplosions - Good point. And it surely bodes well for Phoenix in that case ... does it?

It is mad, isn't it. I can see where they're coming from, not wanting to overcrowd/undercrowd (?) but madness if it means you actually can't move.

And bizarre when you think about how squashed people are when you get into the private sector. I remember my sister (who works for a council) looking around our old flat and telling me it would be illegal under council legislation.

differnt councils h/a seem have differnt rule here they count lounge there they wont count it .

Muffymk thinmk thats what there worrying about

poohexplosion seems they make rules to suit , they said ds3 cant share with ds1 and 2 because big age gap .DD and ds3 can share but they say she needs own room by 10 so wont lket me take short term as i will be overdrowded yet thats over 3 years away .

here its 10 to but there is no 4 beds they sold them all ,so be permantly overcrowded anyway

think am going to try the paperwork and argue it

were 2,1/2 rooms here to box room is 7 by 6

Phoenix. HA's often have this rule to stop people accepting swaps accross areas into houses they (HA) consider too small (in accordance with their regulations) and then once in the area the family complaining about being overcrowded, therefore forcing the HA to offer you a larger place.

They would rather you stayed in your own area.

I have a 1 bed flat for me and dd. It's ok, but any more kids or a partner living with me and I'd be extremely crmaped.

I have 2 beds and three boys, I imagine we'd be told we were overcrowded but it doesn't matter if you own you own hovel home!

This stupidity of legislation has been in place since they first started with social housing. There are dozens of tales from the fifties and sixties clearence of the London docks area that read like this.

In some cases family were living in two rooms condemned as unfit for human habitation (ie. missing roofs etc) but could not be moved into council housing, despite the council issuing the eviction/demolition notice because they had too many children for the two/three bedroomed houses being built, under the new rules. Completely irrelevant that even a two bedroom house would have been a massive increase in space/hygiene level etc, bearing in mind many of the old tenement blocks being demolished didn't even have indoor toilets!

50 years later, and nothing's changed. Daft.

ah it all depends on ages if i had 4 boys small gap i would be in a 2 bed still .

yes Hando i can understand that but lol house want swap to is bigger than mine box room 10by 10 .Trouble is i really need to be in area so looks like will have to go private rented and give up security of council/ h/a place and feck since they say i meed 4 there just going to have to suck it and pay it dons tin hat and waits to be flamed

Thank you

just talked with the lady were going to put in the paperwork and going to argue the toss that dd and ds3 can share for least 3 years so not exactly short term !! sadly by then i would need a bungalow or house with downstairs bedroom for ds3 as he will not be wanting to crawl upstairs at 7/8 .Its not liked asked for any adaptions we have none here at all other than what i have paid for

Pooexplosions explanation is exactly why nthey are saying you need a 4 as well.
By the time the 2 youngest need to be seperated by the HA/councils rules the oldest would be classed as an adult and thus the HA/council would class them as needing a room of their own so really it is for their longer term benefit as well as it all gets very confusing when they start saying things like siblings can share as long as the oldest is less than 10 years older etc etc.

In my area, if you have 4 DC's of the ages of the OP's, OP would need one room, Oldest 2 DS's another, and younger 2 DC's in the third as DD is not yet 10. But even when 10yo, it can be a 4 yr wait for a house with the extra bedroom. I am in a 2.5 bed HA house, 3rd bed is classed as a 'nursery bedromm suitable for under 10's only' DD is almost 12, have been back on waiting list for almost 2 yrs. Have just noticed who OP is, I have an inkling OP is actually from MY local authority....CBC ring any bells?? Hmmm, I am having the same problem trying to move from my area to Suffolk Coastal as am not allowed to swap 2.5 bed for a 3 bed. Grrrr.....

here the waiting list is for ever for a 4 bed they have sold them all of.and no H/a ones at all .

Loudlass not to far at all im in the district next door TDC.