Housing for families when in army?

[nonamemummy]

My partner has applied to join the army. We saw on the website that houses are available for families.

Does anyone on here live in a home on site with their partner in the army?

Hi we lived in army quarters for 12 yrs , what was it you wanted to know ?

You say partner...unless you are married, you are not entitled to army accommodation

That has changed recently. Cohabitating couples can be housed in family accommodation.

Ah! Thank you for that update. It's been quite a few years since we moved out of quarters. Glad to hear things have changed as I feel lots of people got married too quickly, too young just to be housed together

There are other changes in the pipeline something called FAM ( Future Accommodation Model) is being piloted. Basically the person who is serving is given an monthly allowance which they can then use to rent or buy a property.

@butmumineedit just some info really like was it far away from where you lived? Do you have to pay? Just what was it like really

No name mummy we lived in married quartered for 15 yrs and 12 of those were in Germany. It was a few yrs ago now. But have to say we loved our life had plenty of family over for short breaks, saw a lot of Europe. And without fail all our houses/ flats were spacious and in excellent condition . Hope that helps

Yes you have to pay rent and it's not as cheap as you might think. You'll be housed as close as possible to your partner's posting so that dictates how far away from home you are. Get used to lumpy magnolia walls, filthy carpets, shite heating, crap insulation and 30+ year old kitchens. And if you're really lucky you'll only have one room that has mould on the walls.

Sorry for the cynicism. 20 odd years in SFA does that to a person. On the plus side, you'll make some great friends.

We are in military accommodation currently. It's really nice!! We were surprised :D

Yes, the house/flat will be where your partner's posting is. Where his posting is depends on his trade, and will usually but not always change periodically (again depends on trade). The whole idea is that it gives you housing as you follow him round the country.

The house you're allocated depends on his rank and how many kids you are, roughly speaking. And the local availability too.

Pretty sure you're only entitled once he's passed all his training too.

As an example our 3 bed house is £200ish per month, so much cheaper than private rented. (cost is roughly a measure of size, quality, amenities and i think, the serving person's pay)

We had extremes of quality in terms of accommodation. Our houses in America were lovely, courtesy of the US army; our house in Germany was an absolute shit-hole (used condoms in the garden along with lots of rubbish and broken glass), as was our house in Surrey (seriously filthy when we moved in: kitchen covered with grease, carpets black with dirt etc etc). Not great since I had a baby just ahead of each move so had to deal with all the squalor as well as the move in the early weeks after giving birth. Got the distinct impression that the authorities couldn't care less.

Officer’s SFA on a married patch - huge 3 bedroom semi. £350 a month. They say it’s “council tax in lieu” but ours is still an extra £150 a month on top of the rent. That’s all taken from DH’s pay at source.

30 year old kitchen with a gas oven, urgh. Old fashioned features like a serving hatch and picture rails. The bathrooms are ugly, it’s like being on an MoD base!

It was very clean when we moved in though.

I live on camp- we pay £104 a month

We have moved 3 times in 2 years though

We moved into our own house after 13 years in officers married quarters and we’ve mostly had all very lovely quarters but many of our friends have not.

Due to the nature of where bases/camps are located, they do tend to be quite remote and a drive or bus trip is usually necessary to reach nearby villages/towns.

We’ve lived in Germany, down south, east of England (the most) and loved every posting.

The downside is not having family nearby. The upside is not having family nearby .

We’ve made some lovely friends over the years and always called our married quarters ‘home’.
The most difficult thing for us was leaving those friends every 1 or 2 years and it was especially hard for the children- leaving their homes and friends.

I have lived in Married Quarters for 2 years in Wiltshire. Compared to our old rental in Essex, it's much larger and cheaper albeit a bit old fashioned looking.
I dont have any complaints though.