Council want to house us opposite paedos!!

[Ilovepugs2017]

I’ll try and cut a long story short.
We are at risk of homelessness due to our landlord wanting to sell. Our section 21 ran out in July.
we have been bidding on properties every week with no luck.
The council bid on a property on our behalf in our local area (for personal reasons I didn’t bid on this particular property - issues with threats of assault from someone living on the same street as the one advertised).
anyway we were no.2 in the queue and couldn’t withdraw the bid which gave me huge anxiety. I’d even emailed the housing officer to say I didn’t bid for personal reasons.
2 weeks later which is today they have called and offered us the property. They have said if we refuse to take it they will help us no further!!
my partner has been to speak to a couple of the neighbours and they have said to be warned that a couple of convicted paedos live opposite the back entrance!

we have three young children how is this acceptable?
Im going to refuse the house and appeal!
anxiety is through the roof!! :(
anyone been through similar?

Is the new house under a bridge, I wonder.

If not, it's pretty obvious you need to accept it for now and then try to find somewhere better once you're there.

But she doesn’t know if there are actually any convicted sex offenders living there, it was just the man who owns the house next door who mentioned it. Could be false.

The full stop in your post is in the wrong place. It should be "you're".

Not necessarily @Aussiegirl123456 that use to be the way of thinking, but in many areas of the UK it has moved on to a strengths based approach. So the more positives (education, employment, social activities, etc) a person has the less likely to reoffend. Most people convicted of sexual offences are very isolated and so thinking in some areas has moved on to that another sex offender as a friend is better than no friends and more time to sit around thinking about children.

A risk assessment will have been done, but the risk to families living nearby would be very different for example from an images offence to a stranger contact offender. The later would be far less likely to live on an estate with families.

Or the neighbour may have noticed OP's anxieties or had family bidding on the house and have been winding OP up for a laugh.....

I think I'd say I have it on good authority convicted pedophiles live opposite
She doesn't have it on good authority. "A random neighbour I've never met before told me" is not good authority.
Bloody hell.

Buy your own house..then you'll have more choice.

rent has jumped up from 300 to like 600 no justification no one to manage this

My interest only BTL mortgage has jumped from £320 to £420 with another interest rate rise not accounted yet, this is since April this year In Wales LL can only raise rent once a year (New law bought in this June), there are predictions that interest rates will need to rise to 6-7% in order to contain the run away inflation. Thus LL are having to try to guess how much to increase the rent by the safeguard for the next 12 months. If they get it wrong (as I have - small rise in April before things went bonkers) then the only options left is to Section 21 and sell or rent to new tenants at a higher rate, neither of which, I'm sure you would agree, are good options for the existing tenant.

Oh really?
My SIL was a parole officer a very long time ago, and said that they try to keep sex offenders apart as if they meet and talk about their offence, they normalise / rationalise the behaviour and are more likely to reoffend. Such a shame that has changed as there was a lot of research to back up the likelihood of reoffending if around like minded people. Crazy world. I didn’t realise that had changed, so apologies.

And to think the neighbour could have potentially been winding them up is so cruel, some people are so horrid.

But she doesn't actually know that they are paedophiles.

1 bloke who lives on the road has told her that, but he could be a liar or shit stirrer for all anyone knows.

I bought my house. On the day we moved in the old bloke from the corner knocked to give us a community newsletter and pointed at each house on the road:

• they're alright but kids are little bastards
• them ones are Polish
• they're nice but a bit odd
• them ones are murderers you know, dads in the Nick
• she's alright but a bit nosy

.........

We've been here 12 years, no trouble from any of the neighbours except the odd party.

It's the ones you don't know you should worry about. How old are you children OP? If they're young to be with you at all times then I'd feel a lot more comfortable.

Good grief, some of the responses to this thread!

People thinking this must be a troll? Honestly people up and down the country are facing similar predicaments every single day. Being issued a section 21 then not being able to find another rental they can afford is how lots of families end up homeless. The guarantor issue is a common problem.

And it might not be violent exes or local paedophiles but it’s really common to receive offers of accommodation that mean families can’t keep their children in the same school it travel to work or are up three flights of stairs when they suffer from severe asthma.

As for suggestions the OP should have fixed the leaky roof and charged the landlord - that’s not how this works, it’s not her responsibility! And she has to stay put now until a the court orders her to leave otherwise she will be intentionally homeless.

Entitled? For wanting to raise her kids in a home where she feels safe? surely that’s something everyone should feel entitled to!!

OP - as others have said, your only option really is to accept the accommodation and request a suitability review on the basis of being subject to threats of violence. You will need strong evidence about your sisters ex. I understand your concerns about having been warned about paedophiles living locally but there’s no chance this would count as the accommodation being unsuitable. I wouldn’t discount the possibility of this just being malicious gossip, but even if it isn’t, the knowledge will help you keep your children safe. As others have said there is every chance you have paedophiles living near where you live now, you just don’t know it.

This thread! I think there's been a massive lack of empathy and compassion here last night.

OP if you are still reading I hope you get sorted.

I was reading a book the other day, it was describing how people can end up in a downward trajectory. You take a knockback, can can pull yourself up, but then something else happens, you make a bad decision because you are under stress, something else goes wrong and then its a downward spiral.

From the sounds of it the OP is low income, has had to go through a criminal proceeding to prosecute her sisters ex, so has supported a sister who was in a violent relationship, has lived in a house which was not being maintained and was ruining her belongings, now the partner has lost his job, they've lost the leaky house at a time when housing is very difficult to find, it's all a really tough set of circumstances. I think the "paedophiles" thing threw a lot of people as the OP has probably fallen for a load of BS which is probably relating to a couple of men who are gay or just different. It's a dangerous thing to spread about it.

Talk to the house officer to find out if the conviction against your sister ex is enough to refuse the house but stay on the list.

I spent my childhood living opposite one of Wales most notorious murders.
Watched another program about him this week actually on Sky Crime.

Id accept the house.

@Foxglovesandlilacs86 because knowing where they are assists the police in monitoring them. It's bloody hard for the police to keep in contact with all the known sex offenders, even when they know their address. Letting them 'go off the radar' is worse for the general population. As I said, I am a retired housing officer and attended MAPPA numerous times. It's about managing risk , knowing what, if any, conditions are attached to their licence and housing officers being aware of them. We don't sentence people to death,no matter what their crimes, and the hope is that even the worst can be rehabilitated.
I'm not commenting on if that works, but just saying how it is.

It's shocking how many there are, there have been loads in our little sleepy village and that's just the known ones (convictions published in news)
It's an awful thought, they shouldn't be allowed to live around families.

Better to be in a secure house where you can lock the front door against potential perpetrators than be in the street surrounded by them.
I would take everything you've heard from the 'friendly' neighbour with a pinch of salt. He doesn't happen to have family he'd like to move into they house does he?
And if it is true then forewarned is forearmed and you can make doubly sure nothing happens. As PP's have said, you don't often get that luxury. There are some very strange people in this world and we can live right next door to them without ever knowing.

Good authority 😆

Some random bloke said so, who may have any number of reasons to put the OP off that house. Maybe his family member also wants it?

@Starstar7 I'm pretty sure if they could buy their own house then they would. It's unfortunately not that easy.

The more I think about it, the more I think that this could be the case.

I can’t imagine someone knocking to ask about the area and spreading gossip about neighbours. And it is gossip. You say they’ve lived there for 40 years. They haven’t mentioned having any issues that have actually affected their lives in their homes i.e. it being noisy, so I’d take that as a good sign.

Yes the ones in my village get driven out by some of the dads.

All the faux confusion at why someone doesn't want to live opposite a paedophile 🙄
I have a close friend that lives next door to one, there's things done to his house that affect my friend, constant shouting and disruption, graffiti, broken glass and a lot of other things I won't post because they are specific and hopefully uncommon enough to be outing.
He's well known locally and a terrible person that gets away with a lot of shit even now.
Good luck OP

Look, you never know who in your street, or in your life, has a sexual interest in children. All you can do is protect your children in the ways you would if you definitely knew that about someone, and when they are old enough, arm them with the knowledge of how to protect themselves from sexual predators.
As for the council, I would tell them why you are not happy about accepting the house, and ask them to have that put in writing on your file. Then accept the house. If you do have problems with your sister's ex, then report it to the police and the council.

Yes. You must accept and then seek review. If you refuse the council will wash their hands of you.
everyone living in a city or big town has a sex offender living close to them. They might not know it but they do.

This is an aside, but what is happening in society when almost every other poster has anxiety? Genuine question.

This is something that interests me too. I’d be keen to read responses