Council Housing : How long ca I expect to be waiting.

howdidthishappen

i I have been on the council waiting list since Feb and every week I make sure I bid for 3 ouses' no matter how unsuitable the available ones are. I have not heard anything from my council or been offered a property.

Yet last week I find out that a gir I used to work with ha been given a two bed house just down the road from us, when she has been on the list for 3 weeks.

I could cry at the thought of it, we are on the verge of being homeless as we can no longer afford to pay £600 a month rent, yet this girl got free board and lodgings with her mum and still got a house so quickly.

Does anyon know ifthe council are obligied to offer you something once you have been on the list for a certain amount of time?

silvercar

Are you "vunerable"? ie disabled or have young children? If not you could have a long wait as you won't be considered a priority.

Make sure you are getting all the benefits you should including housing benefit/ council tax benefit.

howdidthishappen

We had an 18 month old DD

howdidthishappen

have sorry

Ms_Chocaholic

From your OP, it appears that the housing authority in your area offers a choice based letting scheme. Unless you are a priority, allocations are likely to be based on the number of years you have resided in your current home. Therefore if the girl you referred to had bid on a property on which there were no bids by anyone with priority status, and she had the longest length of tenancy, then she would be offered the property.

I hope this goes some way to explaining why and how she may have been allocated a property recently.

Paparika

expect a long wait

You have all the disadvantage non nationals who take priority over nationals, not my words but the words of my local council. (Bristol City Council)

Then you have the young, very young who still get their council flat if they knock out enough children (the ones who do it just to get the flat)

And then you have the ones that are ill who need their homes adapted for them but unfortunately there is no money for them, nor is there available housing for them.

And people like me single mums who have divorced their partners because of the battery and abuse we got, we get put with our children in blocks of flats that are run down, lifts don't work so you need to bump your buggy/child/shopping up and down the stairs thank god my son can use his own two feet.

I'm desperate to get out of where i live, very close to town, fantastic brand new shopping centre less than a stone's throw away, wanna swap? yes?
ahh better read my thread here first.. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1185783

silvercar

You may be on the brink of homelessness, but at the moment you have a home and so won't be considered a priority. If you had no home, the fact you have a young child would mean the council have a duty to house you, though this could mean emergency accommodation rather than a council house.

As I said before, check you are claiming all you are entitled to.

PasturesNew

Some people wait over 20 years.

Every area is different in what stock they have and how many people are on the list.

As has been said, at the moment you have a home. You'll have to wait until you don't have a home before you become a priority.

Maybe if you'd bid for a 2bed you'd have been housed sooner. We can't know.

dander

There were some people on the telly the other week, there were something like 8 of them in a 2 bedroomed flat and the flat was full of damp and mould and they were the number one priority family in their local area, top of the list, and they'd still been waiting 2 or 3 years and still didn't have a council house.

davie24

Up here (South Ayrshire)you could reasonably expect to wait at least 10 years give or take a year or so.
Unless of course you happen be a teenage mother with a drug habit and have an unemployed alcoholic partner.

RecoveringAlcoholic

My local authority regards bankruptcy as intentionally homeless and of low priority.