housing advice/chat

[imawigglyworm]

we are currently in a 2 bed council house with 3 boys youngest being SN without Dx as of yet. At 1yr 1/2 he cant crawl or walk (isnt even weight bearing) so obviously everyone is unsure of how this will pan out in the future therefore whether he will need hoist, wheelchair etc.

Our proirity atm is the lack of space with all his equipment, toys as well as our other boys toys,etc so would like to move asap. I dont have any room to store xmas gifts and am dreading all the new stuff for xmas it really is getting silly now. But im really worried if we rush into it we might not end up with the right property and then will find it harder to be rehomed again.

Any body else been through this? How did it work out for you? I know it might be a slow process but trying to be optimistic.
How will they know if it is the right property?

*priority

sorry no advice but bumping for you

Not sure what area you're in but here there'd be very little chance of a move until at least preschool age. Though it might be different with a diagnosis. I suspect you're right in thinking that after one move your chances of another might be lower. A bit like schooling where being seen to be in dire straits is sometimes the only way of making sure that a dc needs are recognised.

See if you can have an informal chat with someone who knows about the housing allocation points system in your area. Shelter adviceline, housing advice centre, CAB, community law centre or even the town hall one stop shop (take anything said by the last one with a pinch of salt though).

Don't know your area-It usually takes quite a long time to get anything from the council;you need to write letters and get letters from doctors,social worker perhaps, any health care prof to support your application for a larger property.Another avenue to explore is a house swap. good luck

Thanks for the replies.

I have been put up to the highest list in my area with the help of letters etc from professionals so im ok in that respect. I just have to now apply for bigger properties with disability adaptions. I know I shouldnt accept anything without OT looking at it first. But thats aboout all I know.

Will definately ask someone as you suggested mariagoretti. There are less than 10 people on the same band want the same size property as me (not necessarily a disability adapted property) so that looks quite promising but I also know someone whos been waiting ages for a property.

Am on a home swap site but not having much luck as no one seems to want to downsize.

Definitely keep an eye on the home swap. Just over three years ago, we didn't think we had a chance of finding someone in the area we wanted that was interested in downsizing, but we lucked out and found an elderly couple that wanted a small place where we are. Within 6 months, we were (and still are) in their 3 bedroom semidetached and love it (although we still had a lot of fixing up to do, but that's life, eh?). You just never know what will come up!

Best of luck to you!

Hi, we managed to get a property through the council a few months ago. Both my dd's have ASD and were unable to share a room which ment i had to sleep downstairs with dd2 on the sofa, both dd's have sleeping problems, dd2 has no sense of danger (climbs the furniture) and destroyed anything she could lay her hands on. After a long fight with the council we managed to get to the top of the list (highest band) for a 3 bed house, we waited a year and a half until a house came up, the house was ideal but it ment moving further away then we would have liked. We now have to wait a year before we can swap but at least the dd's have a room each and we are getting more sleep.

You need to collect as much evedence as you can about your ds's needs, we had letters from peads, dd's nursery, speach therapist, dd1's school and the HV, we still had to appeal twice before they agreed to let us have a 3 bed and to get to the top band. It was worth the fight though, its so much better being able to share a bed with dh and for dd2 to have her own little space.