will i be forced to give up my 3 bedroom house now i live alone

michellet11

hi, i live in a 3 bedroom former council and now a housing association house..my children have just left home..will i have to give up this house now and move into a smaller place or can i carry on living here..does anyone know if i will have to leave..thanks

whitesatin

I couldn't say for certain as it is now housing association but I do know that my mum was allowed to live in her council house long after we had left home. She eventually left to go into a care home aged 90 so gave up the house at that time.

I would get in touch with Citizens Advice if I was you, they can probably reassure you.

Good luck.

ILW

michellet11 wrote: »

hi, i live in a 3 bedroom former council and now a housing association house..my children have just left home..will i have to give up this house now and move into a smaller place or can i carry on living here..does anyone know if i will have to leave..thanks

You may consider it would be the right thing to do to give it up to a family who need a three bed house.

Jowo_2

Usually, a social housing tenant with an assured tenancy has security of tenure for life and cannot be made to move out if their personal circumstances change (for example, if they inherit money or if the property has unoccupied bedrooms,for example).

Check your tenancy handbook or contract. Shelter or CAB will help you interpret them if its not clear.

Some social housing landlords offer generous terms to their tenants who want to downsize, such as moving/redecoration grants and high priority to select properties that become available. My aunty was thrilled to move into a better area than she lived, to a nicer property and to have money to decorate and furnish it. Her social housing landlord showed her lots of properties and didn't put any pressure on her at all.

BitterAndTwisted

Angel, they can't force you and how would they know that your children would have left home in any case if you choose not to tell them? So force, no. Encourage you, yes with carrots

G_M

ILW wrote: »

You may consider it would be the right thing to do to give it up to a family who need a three bed house.

Do you actually need a 3 bed house now? 'cos lots of other families do!

barrybarryr

I think they should force you to move.

I know it is your home but ultimately it is being paid for by taxpayers and you don't need a house that big.

jw2003

My parents are in a similar situation and have not been asked to leave or offered somewhere smaller to live, and while they have a 3 bed house with no children living at home they do have my children sleep over.

SailorSam

Don't think you could be forced out, but it may be an opportunity to do a swop to something smaller in a nicer area.
You needn't stay in the same area, if you're in a city perhaps someone in a small house in the country or overlooking the sea may want to move into a town.

whitesatin

Home, for many people, is where they brought their family up. It is difficult to give up that home where so much emotional and otherwise has been invested.

My mum would have been devastated to have had to move out of the family home. She eventually became confused and unable to cope alone, I think that would have happened even sooner had she been moved elsewhere. Fifty odd years of living in a house, making friends, watching the world go by from the window, neighbours popping in, I am glad she was able to stay there as long as she did. She paid full rent all her life and did not opt to buy when we offered to help. A family did get the house eventually but they were very different from the remaining tenants, shall we say, and had everything paid for them, the house refurbished etc. etc. By all accounts they have not turned out to be very good neighbours either. I think it is important to have continuity in the interests of community.

delain

ILW wrote: »

You may consider it would be the right thing to do to give it up to a family who need a three bed house.

Hear hear.

There are families of 4 and 5 here living in bedsits after being made homeless because people just want to live alone in a 3 bedroom HA house.