Family wants me to give up my social house and I'm not - wwyd?

[spicy2001]

I currently rent a three bedroom social housing property and I live on my own. Most of the rent is paid for by universal credit and I have to pay 25% bedroom tax which is very affordable to me which is for two rooms and a shortfall of £30.55p.

I did speak to a housing officer and they said I am legally allowed to occupy it, and as long as I pay the rent on time, tax and shortfall, then everything is fine. I don't feel guilty for occupying this three bedroom house, it's been my home since I was born.

Recently, I noticed that my family were talking a lot about me downsizing. I asked why are they talking about me downsizing? They said because I don't need this property and have to downsize.

I explained I'm legally allowed to stay here, this is my property and not yours. I get that I don't need this property but I'm staying here because I'm allowed too. I found out that they actually joined a site called "home swapper" and a site called "glass bob" my sibling set up an account using her email address to advertise my property. If I'm correct, I've never joined these so I don't know 100% but they're platforms where you can do mutual exchange and advertise your property.

I phoned my housing association and explained the situation, they've started an investigation and they are speaking to various departments to see if they can do it from the end to see if they can do anything as they approved it but they don't know if they can disapprove it.

The other day a tenant from another part of my cul-de-sac came round and told me she knows I'm downsizing and she has a friend whose currently living in a one bedroom flat with his wife and they've got a one year old daughter and another baby on the way. I explained to this person my family have been trying to get me to downsize to a one bedroom flat and I'm not actually looking to downsize so I won't swap with them but told her I do sympathize with their situation.

She told all my neighbours about her friend and now all the neighbours are peed off at me because I'm not downsizing. My family are also peed of that I'm not downsizing. As far as I'm concerned I don't care as I have the legal right to stay here for as long as I like or want.

I just wanted to know though what would you do if you was in my situation?

Shame on you trying to pressure someone who's fairly young who just lost their second parent into giving up their security.

One person isn't going to make a blind bit of difference to the housing problem in the UK. Small over crowded island. Not enough houses. And huge immigration issues.
Maybe everyone should be forced to sell their 3 and 4 bed houses the second their kids move out. That would make family homes more affordable.

It's not shame on the OP, it's shame on the system that doesn't provide enough social housing.

I wouldn't move in the OP 's position because morally the UK is bankrupt and unfortunately there's no guarantee that OP will ever have such good housing again.

The OPs neighbours are indulging in pack vigilante behaviour common amongst those themselves socially frowned upon, who are looking to punch down. I'm sure they'll get bored and move on when another 'disscusting' target catches their eye. The OP shouldn't give in to bullies.

She has lived there all her life - she didn't get it as a single person. You wouldn't get it as a single person. You don't need to canvas on her behalf

I bet the Ops neighbours aren't bothered. Social housing, you'd rather keep a good neighbour, than for them to move out and some unknown to move in.

Yep, no sympathy from me if they choose to have a family in a 1 bedroom flat. Their poor choice, not yours. They probably thought they could lever someone out as their need is greater. Errrr, no.

Social housing isn’t a public resource. Housing Associations are private not for profit organisations. The rents paid goes back into maintenance of the properties.

Should I not get a trolley-load today at Tesco cos other people are going to food banks?

How dare you flaunt your privilege?

How is going food shopping flaunting privilege. Seriously, get a grip.

The UK "is morally bankrupt" because of attitudes like the OP's.

Tune your sarcasm detector. Seriously.

🤣 Impossible on this thread! It's so full of nonsense. When you read people truly believe that nobody really owns a home or that SH occupants have the exact same rights over a property as homeowners...

Z

Many social housing tenants have a great deal more security than owner occupiers. If you lose your job and can't pay your rent there's benefits to help. Arrears are usually dealt with sympathetically, sometimes even written off because it's cheaper than going through an eviction process. If you can't pay your mortgage you very quickly learn who's house it really is.
Unless you own your home outright and have enough funds to maintain it, then for all practical purposes, the SH tenancy is more of a secure home for life than any other housing status.
Which is precisely why it would be such a huge sacrifice to give it up, and one I maintain few people on here would do in her place.

👏👏👏

Many of you are not engaging with this point at all. It is very unlikely the OP will be able to downsize. You are castigating her for being morally wrong because you are unaware that downsizing is almost certainly not possible.

This isn't a theoretical game of bingo. It's the real world. Downsizing is not a real-world option.

Because councils and housing associations don't redistribute housing. They don't organise swaps themselves. So people are sat around in big houses waiting to be top of the list for an empty flat. It's a stupid system, but OP should still have to engage with the system and try.

It’s an analogy. Why should OP give up her home for a less privileged family.

That analogy only works if there's a food shortage, and you were buying that food just to look at it.

And a stupid one, at that.

Able and willing are two different issues. The OP has made it clear that, although she is able to do so, she is not willing to do so.

And if OP has a baby in the next few years she would be stuck in a one bed flat probably. It’s not encouraging to downsize if you get caught in the same system.

This is quite a patronising post which contains a lot of irrelevance and misses the point. And on the last (and actually important) point (and several others) is completely wrong!

If anything dies with the occupier, it is the OP's right to live there.

She has a secure tenancy under Part IV Housing Act 1985. It can pass (and in this case has passed) to family members on death. She has as much right to live there indefinitely as you do as an owner occupier. And she has no more obligation to give it up to "more deserving" people than you do.

Her rights derive from a statutory tenancy, not a contract.

Whether she owns the airspace above is hardly relevant. (And incidentally you don't! See Bernstein v Skyviews.)

Definitely.

The OP must be on an old tenancy and her rent must be very cheap. The OP receives housing benefit which will be peanuts compared to HB if she were to rent a 1 bed in the private sector as thich point the taxpayer would pay a lot more.

A subsidy is when I make a loss and therefore somebody makes up the rest, not if I sell cheaply, but above cost. In old developments, (not even new!) leaseholders, i.e. previous social tenants who have bought their flats pay double the service charge which was once included in their rent.

I will never forget when we were given our council flat (impossible now) and there was not flooring 😱We were already in debt and had to buy the paint, spend hours washing the walls which were absolutely filthy, had to buy curtains, white goods, beds. The kitchen cupboards were delaminated, there was a massive gap between our bedroom window and the wall which the council refunded to repair and exacerbated the mould on the wall (there were leaky gutters outside causing the mould which the council never repaired in the 10 years), there was a panel in our bedroom with pipes coming from the bathroom that was broken and again the council said we had broken it. But because it was affordable we managed to save and after many years we bought a house. So the OP should swap and then have to incur all those expenses because the council have chosen to agree to tenants' proposals to buy their properties and thus reduced their stock?! It seems her parents have taken care of her house so doesn't need to shell out on repairs. I have seen threads where people are so poor that even if they get free staff on FB pages they can't afford delivery.

The people telling OP to check her privilege should check theirs for thinking that a very young person could afford to furnish, move and put flooring in a flat!

OP, do you have any siblings who would like to share the house with you thus helping themselves out too?

The UK is "morally bankrupt" because of greedy BTL landlords taking advantage of the housing crisis to massively increase rents to make a £.