someone coming to do assesment on house for bedroom tax

lighting_up_the_chalice

nannytone wrote: »

our cganves of having a productive and financially viable future are much less than people without additiona problems.
even fit, healthy, experienced people are struggling to find employmenr ... so what chanve do we reallistically jave?

and then to top it off, our benefit is vut because there are no 1 beftppmed properties.

You could always move.

nannytone wrote: »

none of our problems is of our own making... we HAD no choice to have the disabilities we have and yet you think we should be happy just because we have social housing.... eben if it costs us 10% of our already meagre income. ( yes i am very grateful to have social housing.... but would have been just as happy with a 1 bed and now im being penalised for something i can do nothing about)

You could always move.

nannytone wrote: »

sorry for the rant, but it does annoy me when people say all under occupiers have any choice at all as to where they live!

They could always move.

lighting_up_the_chalice

Lou76 wrote: »

Am I missing something here? I so, could someone please correct me?

What's the difference between someone in a Council House having to pay more, from their income, to pay the difference in rent/HB to subsidise their over occupancy, than someone in a mortgaged house paying out more due to interest rates/partner moving out etc?

The "Well get a better paid job" isn't exclusive to either group, as far as I can see. However, on this thread it has used as a stick to beat the homeowners with.

Does owning, albeit via mortgage, give you more chance of getting a better paid job - assuming any exist in the area you're tied to - unless you can sell up?

I recently had to sell up (due to constant maintenance costs trying to maintain an old building, which I could no longer afford), and was shocked at how much it cost me just to sell - and that was sold via a private sale (I was one of the lucky ones) so no estate agent fees/ the cost of tarting the place up (hadn't been painted for years, was looking really tired/grubby) just to get it on the market etc.

The costs just for homebuyer report, umpteen different reports of which I can't remember what they were called, lawyers fees... All in, I had almost £3000 in upfront fees to find, before I could even think about selling up.

As I said, that was without Estate Agents, and the cost of redecoration (without which - nobody would even have viewed it on the open market, let alone put in an offer).

So, it's not as easy for homeowners to just up sticks & move either, hence many have to make do regardless.

You clearly feel hard done by. Have you considered applying for social housing? Or getting a better job? Or just working harder?

princessdon

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

You clearly feel hard done by. Have you considered applying for social housing? Or getting a better job? Or just working harder?

Aye probably not a bad idea. So as you clearly know how it works if I rang my local HA and requested a house - I need a 4 bed - ideally a 5 bed, how long would I wait. Would it be a week, month, year? What would happen to my house can I stay in it. Can I then rent it out etc.

Any idea of the approx rent on a 4 or 5 bed?

lighting_up_the_chalice

princessdon wrote: »

Aye probably not a bad idea. So as you clearly know how it works if I rang my local HA and requested a house - I need a 4 bed - ideally a 5 bed, how long would I wait. Would it be a week, month, year? What would happen to my house can I stay in it. Can I then rent it out etc.

Any idea of the approx rent on a 4 or 5 bed?

Depends where you are. Many areas could have you re-housed within a very few months, certainly sooner than you could sell. As for what you do with your house? As long as you don't live in it, that's YOUR business.

Typical social housing rents for a 4 or 5 bed house, £80 - £120.

Don't be fooled into thinking that social housing in London and the South East is typical of the situation for the rest of the country.

princessdon

I'm in the North - May give them a ring out of interest to see how long the lists are.

I'd probably get approx £400 a week for renting out my own home.

lighting_up_the_chalice

The north? Easy. Nice 4 bed by the sea - Deerpool Close,Hartlepool. Just a short walk from the beach. Let to a band 4 (lowest band) bidder in May who only applied in October last year.

http://www.compasscbl.org.uk/Data/ASPPages/1/56.aspx?LettingCycleID=630098

That's a wait of just 7 months. With a little bit of overcrowding, band 3 would be awarded and I'm sure we could do better then. But not bad for a first attempt.

princessdon

Not bad at all - not the wait that people lead me to believe. I am nothing thinking personally (before anyone jumps on this, quite happy with my own home and location with sea views etc), but people always say they would wait years so just wondering.

Many people I come into contact via my employment will be crippled by a small % interest rate increase, it's good to know the alternatives are not as bad as people seem to indicate.

lighting_up_the_chalice

Most areas now have a Choice Based Lettings (CBL) system of allocation for social housing. Fortunately, most publish their successful lets so anyone can see how long a successful bidder has waited and in what band they were placed. It gives a pretty good idea of demand for particular housing stock and the results can often be quite different from the perception.

As a matter of interest, on the page of successful lets I linked to, a 3 bed house in Eston, a 1 bed bungalow in Redcar, a 1 bed flat in Guisborough, 2 x 1 bed flats in Middlesbrough, 2 sheltered flats in Billingham, a 2 bed house in Eston, a 2 bed house in Brotton, 2 x 3 bed houses in Middlesbrough and a 2 bed house in Stockton were all let to band 4 bidders who only applied this year. The shortest band 4 wait was for a 3 bed house in Middlesbrough. The bidder for that applied on 21st May and bid successfully within 24 hours!!