Applying for Council House - Tips / Advice

tupac662

I hope you get a place soon OP.
I'm in a similar position, with my partner and I both being mature students, working part time (less than 20hrs P/wk each) and paying £400 pcm to a private landlord.
That's almost half of our joint income(s)!:eek:
We are left with £400 a month for food/household bills, books and travel. Tried the local council, but we aren't classed as priority; so we'll definately look into Housing Associations as our rent will be increasing in October:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Gotta love these landlords!

BLT_2

I wish you well but suspect you will wait a substantial amount of time, given your current situation you would be placed in Band D, possible Band C at best, and would be entitled to a one bedroom flat. You are not homeless or at risk at present so there are no welfare issues.

For every Band C/Band D type property which comes available there can be 300+ applicants. Artificially hyped housing prices mean that very few, if any, young people can afford to buy, these inflated prices have also resulted in a rise in private rental costs. The net result is that there are thousands of young people who seek social housing due to its low costs, but have no chance of acquiring such.

On 20k per year rental in the private sector will be tight. To put the costs in perspective you would have to pay, rent, gas, electric, water rates, council tax, at a conservative estimate, based on rental of 500 per month, you could expect an outlay of circa 750-800 per month, or around 10k per year, this does not even include the ongoing day to day costs , eg mobile phone contracts, TV licence, car expenses etc. Once the government has taken its chunk of your salary, there will be little left over.

mufi

Wee_Willy_Harris wrote: »

The OP has indicated a level of need.... "overcrowding and family disputes at my current home."

Um, I read that as a little bit of an afterthought.

Wee_Willy_Harris

mufi wrote: »

Um, I read that as a little bit of an afterthought.

Afterthought or not, you still read it.

concerned43

You would need more points than overcrowding to get a house. You would need to be homeless or threatned to be homeless in the next two months (of application) to get high up the priority list i.e. your parents would need to give you notice to quit their house and show a letter to this effect to the council.

Wee_Willy_Harris

concerned43 wrote: »

You would need more points than overcrowding to get a house. You would need to be homeless or threatned to be homeless in the next two months (of application) to get high up the priority list i.e. your parents would need to give you notice to quit their house and show a letter to this effect to the council.

It depends on the individual LA and provider. Not every area has the frightening levels of witing list applicants you may have read about.