Gaining social housing when working.

samwich1979

Marisco wrote: »

Then you have very few options!! You could either move area to a cheaper area, partner get a job or save for the "top up" you need for the LHA rate. With social housing round here, there is nothing in, no carpets, curtains, appliances etc, it's totally empty. But to have any chance of getting social housing you do have to be on the list! So that should be the first priority, sort of hurry up and wait!

We are already in one of the cheapest housing areas so going any cheaper isnt an option. Our current rent is £475 per month.

My husband is trying to get a job, any job but there just isnt the work in this area and saving up? I wish. Id be lucky to put a fiver a month away and even that would end up getting spent by the end of the month.

Im not rubbishing anyones ideas at all here but we really do have a severe lack of options and its so frustrating.

Dunroamin

samwich1979 wrote: »

We are already in one of the cheapest housing areas so going any cheaper isnt an option. Our current rent is £475 per month.

My husband is trying to get a job, any job but there just isnt the work in this area and saving up? I wish. Id be lucky to put a fiver a month away and even that would end up getting spent by the end of the month.

Im not rubbishing anyones ideas at all here but we really do have a severe lack of options and its so frustrating.

Then why rent in that area and, even more so, why try to get social housing there? One of the advantages of renting privately is that you can be flexible and move to an area with better opportunities.

samwich1979

Dunroamin wrote: »

Buying floor coverings, blinds/curtains and white goods isn't renovating a place - it's what anyone renting an unfurnished property (whether social housing or private) has to provide.

You know what i meant!

Only in one property have i had to provide any of these things whilst renting privately and that was because we were about to be made homeless and had to take anything we could afford.

I spent a small fortune on flooring and paint etc even though i couldnt really spare it and ended up having to move 6 months later due to the landlord having bailiffs knocking on our door for her unpaid fines in London.

We left mighty quick and needless to say i regretted spending so much.

samwich1979

Dunroamin wrote: »

Then why rent in that area and, even more so, why try to get social housing there? One of the advantages of renting privately is that you can be flexible and move to an area with better opportunities.

Trust me i live in the North West and there are no places nearby with better opportunities.

Its all the same round here wherever you go and i certainly havent got the money to relocate anywhere else.

BigAunty

PippaGirl wrote: »

My local council has a waiting list scheme where 97% of all houses are allocated to those that have waited the longest. 3% are people who are deemed higher priority due to health/medical need (and nowadays this needs to be life threatening so rarely includes mental health needs) and domestic violence. They say that as so few houses become vacant at all it is not fair to accept many into the high priority band, in order to make it fairer to those waiting.

...

I doubt this very much indeed and will continue to doubt it until you provide evidence. A local council has a statutory obligation, that is a compelling legal requirement, on a national basis, to prioritise those in priority need.

They have absolutely no discretion whatsoever in how they treat their applicants, other than minor regulations like how they define local connection, for example. Lower priority applicants get whatever is left over and therefore tend to be low in number due to the shortgage of stock versus strong demand.

The waiting list principle as the main way to allocate was overturned by a key piece of housing legislation decades ago, though I forget what year, and this ushered in the needs based system.

There is choice based letting which does take into account time served on the list between those in the same band when it comes to applicants bidding on properties but high priority applicants will always leap over lower bands. The local council has to follow very strict national guidelines in how it defines those in priority need - it can't just say 'oh, we want to be a bit fairer to those who have waited a long time'.

I think you are confused by the conflation of needs versus date of application - the priority band is not something the council can ignore, the date of application is a secondary driver with a much lesser influence on Choice based letting schemes (which not all councils operate anyhow).

For example, a homeless person doesn't have to have an illness (physical or mental) that is "life threatening" before they get housing, they have to have one that makes them 'vulnerable' and there is a further definition to guide them.

Councils don't make up their own rules - the last time they have discretion, there was mass corruption in them allocating properties to their friends and relatives, plus discrimination against religious and ethnic groups, such as the failure in the east end of London to house Bangladeshi homeless and the way that Catholics frequently struggled to get social housing. That's partly why their powers to allocate at their own discretion was taken away.

FBaby

I know my post will most likely not be well received, but you chose to reduce your working hours to three days despite your husband being unemployed for some time. Of course times are going to be hard.

Norman_Castle

The house we are in at the moment has had a damp problem which has made the wallpaper bubble and peel off the walls at skirting board level, we are also sure there is a leak in the loft as the whole house smells of damp every time it rains.
We are too scared to ask the landlord about sorting all this as when we had a problem with a mouse that had got into the wall cavity in our living room wall he said we were over-reacting and it took us 3 complaints for him to sort it.

You complained about a mouse!. Three times!!. You were over reacting. If you were in social housing they would do nothing about this. As you landlord did "sort it" he may be interested in the leaking roof or gutter which may be causing expensive damage to his property.

samwich1979

Norman_Castle wrote: »

You complained about a mouse!. Three times!!. You were over reacting. If you were in social housing they would do nothing about this. As you landlord did "sort it" he may be interested in the leaking roof or gutter which may be causing expensive damage to his property.

Yes ok whatever you think.

You didnt have to sit there at night listening to it chewing through things in the wall close to mains electrics right under my sons bedroom. That is quite frankly scary and bloody dangerous, so no i wasnt over-reacting.

Dont comment if you dont know the full facts of the story.

Pippin12

It's a really difficult situation to be in and I do sympathise. The Right to Buy legislation brought in by the Tories in the 1980s was a real disaster in terms of the supply of social housing. Council housing stock has been decimated and it means the only housing that's available is in the more run down estates, and then only for the homeless in priority need. It's left so many families like yours at the whim of private landlords. To put it bluntly the whole situation sucks.

BigAunty

My last local council said pest control issues were the responsibility of the landlord so the tenants should expect the landlord to resolve this.

Having said that, one of my pals let out their property and the tenants expected them to come round and change the lightbulbs, tighten up loose screws on door handles, unblock the sink when it was caused by their food scraps - minor DIY/household tasks are actually the responsibility of tenants. There was a legal case many years ago that set a precedent which now forces tenants to act in a houselike manner and do the day to day basic maintenance.