council housing

bobsa1

HA rents tend to be higher than council but still have to be affordable.

You are probably not technically overcrowded and incidently there is no law relating to different sex children sharing a room. Council's tend to have guidelines but most local authorities have fewer three beds than two beds and hence you may find getting a bigger place difficult.

Have you asked for a "special allocation" if your LA does them. This is a move outside of the policy and decided by your Housing Manager. It takes into account special circumstances ie. disabled and in one bed flat with child.

I would not be worried about living in a HA property (I've worked for a few) but the introduction of decent homes legislation will mean that councils have to modernise their properties to a reasonable standard. Personally I would stay with the council but explore a management move or special allocation. Also consider moving to a less popular area.

Anthillmob

ha modernising the property! we were "promised" two years ago that our kitchen and bathroom would be modernised within 12 months. it never happened and when i enquired turns out the guy who came round had told EVERYBODY the same promise and was no longer working for them.

the thing with using the living room as a bedroom is that if we were expected to use the living room as well and to sleep on the sofa then technically i should be able to get them to move me as there is no way i can sleep on a sofa with my arthritis. though i dont think theyd see that.

cheers alleycat. im in london borough merton.

Savvy_Sue

suki1964 wrote:

If you get a transfer to HA then you have the same rights as you have as a council tennent - apart from the right to buy. Many moons ago I went from council to HA and nothing changed apart from the standard of accomadation - much better (in my case) and much better maintained

Actually in some cases you get RTB with the HA as well ...

Another thing to look into is part-buy part-rent through a HA. All sorts of schemes set up in the last few years. I would get over your morbid fear of HAs if you can, Anthillmob! Truly you should be no worse off financially, rents may be a little higher but you can claim HB and I do think the standard of accommodation tends to be slightly higher, with slightly more flexibility.

I'd check very carefully what the terms of doing an exchange are. I know with the HA I used to work for it was on an 'as seen' basis, and any work which needed doing when you moved in would be YOUR responsibility, not the HAs. This meant that if property appeared to be in good nick when you looked at it, but you discovered problems after moving in, that you might have to sort out repairs. Also difficult to establish whether problems arose before you moved in or afterwards, IYSWIM. I don't like to put you off the idea, but just be careful.

$17mma

Savvy_Sue wrote:

Actually in some cases you get RTB with the HA as well ...

Another thing to look into is part-buy part-rent through a HA.

Do you mean shared Onwership?

sarahlouise210

I think your biggest problem maybe that you will not be allowed to exchange. Our council does not allow any exchanges if you have a ground floor flat allocated for disabled.

Alleycat

Hi Anthillmob, just had a brief look at your local council website and there is some information regarding a move and how the allocations policy works. There appears to be three sub-registers for different sectors to apply for. If you have not already, you should make sure you have an application on the movers register. Once the baby is over a year old, you would be allocated 30 points (by being overcrowded by one bedroom). You will find that there are plenty of other households who are more overcrowded than yourself, so will have more points than you. Though just having another quick look there are points awarded for a lack of living room. I am assuming this is based on adult/s and child sharing a bedsit, but may be used if you decided to use your living room as an extra bedroom. It is less points that being one bedroom short.

Re the sofa thing. You would be expected to use a sofa bed in the living room if necessary or put the baby in there. Not practical I know, but is something a household could consider to try and tackle a situation.

It will probably be a very long uphill slog to get rehoused, but you should still put your name on the movers register and go with as many housing associations as you can. In for a penny and all that!

Poppycat

Currently out local housing association that took over cocuncil housing stock only consider people for rehousing if you have over 80 points. I have 48 points and there doesnt appear to have any chance of rehousing.

We have our name down on another housing asscoiation waiting list for shared ownership and am currently on another list where we find a suitable property with in reasonable criteria ie we need a three bedroom house and we live in a 2 bedrrom hous at present and we out some much towards a house and teh housing association pay a precentage. We domt pay rent on the remainder but when we come to sell they recoup the precentage of the house ie they pay 25% at start they get 25% of teh property what its worth when you sell

There very few family housing where I live most are for old or semi retired people you can easily get a flat but a family can't.

Anthillmob

sarahlouise210 wrote:

I think your biggest problem maybe that you will not be allowed to exchange. Our council does not allow any exchanges if you have a ground floor flat allocated for disabled.

my flat hasnt been adapted for my disability but i was moved on grounds of my disability so i think an exchange will be ok.

Savvy_Sue

$17mma wrote:

Do you mean shared Onwership?

Almost certainly but my brain doesn't always function as well as it used to ...