FTB: stay in social housing and rent out a small property?

[CorStrewth]

I know this may be contentious but I believe completely legal.l and appreciate I'd have to check Ts and Cs of my rental.

Currently have a great social house, I've been a social tenant for 17 years and through being a good tenant was able to get a better and bigger house when I needed it 8 years ago.

Now DH and I have built our careers and looking to be FTB. We would go from £500 in rent to 1k-1.5k per month. I'm toying with the idea of buying a small property I.e. 1 bed flat and renting out, not necessarily for profit but to have that asset and essentially not costing me anything, kind of like a business venture, staying in our SH until we have a good deposit for a house to live in.

Are there any reasons financially why that may not be a good option? I have two children settled in school etx so downsizing and living somewhere smaller for a little while isn't as feasible as it would have been if we'd bought before having kids.

Thanks again, great advice yesterday re: FTB in current times

It does happen,the system is f....d!
We live in a big development with a mix of privately owned, shared ownership and a handful of social housing properties. Some of the social housing tenants have very expensive cars (a Porsche for example) or 2 to 3 cars per family (Audi,Range Rover etc). This can be achieved because the rent charged is a pittance compared to open market rents or mortgages. I can assure you that we earn above the average and we certainly don't drive a Porsche!

Same here!

It absolutely is NOT allowed! They do means testing now for social housing and any assets over £6,000 are taken into account. You have to meet criteria

It is not legal at all, it's fraud! I'm in social housing and they do checks for assets on each tenant every 5 years now without informing the tenants. My next door neighbour lost her tenancy because it was discovered that she had bought a plot of land with an old barn on it, worth £25k!

You cannot have savings of more than £6,000 if you're in social housing

That's nonsense you can have a million pounds and live in social housing.

@SchoolTripDrama

This isn’t true for my HA. I have thousands saved for a cash purchase. Then my house will be returned to my housing association.

I am a self payer though and don’t get housing benefit.

@Seventhirtyanditsearly This is total nonsense and incorrect. I was thoroughly means tested at the beginning of my social housing tenancy in 2019 and will be again next year and every subsequent 5 years going forward. Please get your facts right.

Then you are committing fraud!! Check with your housing officer, this is very much illegal

@SchoolTripDrama

no it isn’t. I don’t claim benefits and I pay full rent. I also don’t have a 5 year term I have a secure tenancy. There’s no fraud involved whatsoever and my house will be being returned in the next year or so.

Again nonsense

it will cost you far more than you make, once you take into account the whole cost of buying, cost of insuring, capital gains tax, and everything else.

@SchoolTripDrama

You are not allowed to have more than 6k in savings if you are in receipt of housing benefit which I am not. I pay full rent.

Completely agree.

@drpet49

If that was the case though I can assure you I wouldn’t have saved so much money and would have sat pretty in my social house forever. By actually allowing people like myself to move forward they actually get their stock back a lot quicker.

What the actual fuck?

Why would you consider this to be remotely appropriate?

Get out of social housing and free it up for a family in a bedsit.

Most people aren't honest.
Most people stay as honest as consequences allow.

OP I'm all for ambition and Initiative but also for integrity, honesty and equity. I can't type what I think about you but take a moment and think about those of us subsidising your housing and those you're depriving of accommodation.
You make higher rate tax payers resentful and will be the bane of this country.

Fucking hell I hope you're joking ???

As far as I aware UC stops if you have a btl

It is, I know people who end up buying their council property, there is an option to buy it from council at a low deposit I think as well as rent at same price still when back in work. So all legal. I was homeless a while back but never managed to get a council property, I was in a b&b for a long time went the private rent route, back on my feet now finally! But it was a hard slog, so worked out in the end. But I do think it's short sighted of councils, as although it's great for people to get on property ladder, they never buy replacement properties for the ones they lose. It's all really sad, there were so many families in emergency accommodation in my building, a few women who had fled violence with their children, my particular building had very inadequate heating, I found the women and her child in her car outside using the heater to warm up 😪

It might be legal but it's certainly immoral 🤷‍♀️

The OP could let families stuck in B&B’s live in her rental property.
She gets her mortgage paid, people get out of B&B and she can stay amongst her own community.
Every one a winner.

I too have a secure lifelong tenancy but they still do means testing every 5 years. You can say it's nonsense all you like but it's fact!

@NewNovember
Nope it is not nonsense it's fact! Do your research!