We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Rental help and advice
djh77
Posts: 99 Forumite
Good morning all,
Need some advice really with renting. Our situation at the moment is that we rent from a housing association. We moved into the property in August 2012. We did this via a mutual exchange, for ease of explanation we had a housing association property already and found someone that wanted to do a 'swap' with us. We moved in here to be closer to schools, family & work. We currently have a 2 bedroom flat. We have 2 boys who share the same room.
Hope that is all clear so far? 2 days after we moved in we found out the wife was expecting our 3rd child, a girl. We had been trying for another child for about a year. We decided that we were putting too much pressure on ourselves so decided to stop trying and leave it for a year or so before trying again. Sod's law it happened in what must have been the last week of trying.
So, we spoke to the housing association and told them that we have a third child on the way in April. They have told us that they do not class a child as a 'person' until they reach 1 years old. Until that time they are expected to be able to stay in the parents room. After they are 1 years old they count as a half person and our housing needs would be reassessed.
We had environmental health out on Wednesday to asses our living conditions with reagrds to possible overcrowding. They measured the size of our rooms etc. At the moment the wife and myself have the smaller of the 2 bedrooms. The boys have the bigger room so they have some sort of play area. What environmental health have said is that even with 3 children we would not be 'statury overcrowded' as the rooms are big enough.
At the moment there is no way we can fit a cot in the room that me and the wife currently have. A Moses basket will be okay, we can get that in, but when the baby reaches 6 months (or whenever she needs to come out of the basket), we will have to swap rooms so we have the big room so we can fir the cot in. The boys will have to move into our room, which fitting 2 single beds into is going to be a squash. My concern here is that they are going to have no room to play in. Obviously being in a flat means they have no garden. The living room is quite small so they don't have much room there.
Our financial situation in terms of credit history is not great. I was declared bankrupt in 2007, so I have been told, at the moment, a mortgage is out of the question. We could obviously rent privately, but we can't really go through an estate agent as they want 6 months rent in advance due to the credit history.
I'd like some advice as to what anyone thinks I might be able to do? We have tried the house exchange sites, but nobody wants to swap a 3 bed property for a 2 bed flat (with us being on the 2nd floor, I don't think that is helping). The housing association are offering no real help, last time I spoke to them they told me I could always turn my living room into a 3rd bedroom, they couldn't answer as to where we were supposed to 'live' then. My concern with renting privately is security for the children. With the housing I know I can stay here as long as I want, with private it can be a bit of a minefield.
Ideally we would have liked to have stayed in housing association for another 3 years and then get a mortgage (hopefully).
Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Need some advice really with renting. Our situation at the moment is that we rent from a housing association. We moved into the property in August 2012. We did this via a mutual exchange, for ease of explanation we had a housing association property already and found someone that wanted to do a 'swap' with us. We moved in here to be closer to schools, family & work. We currently have a 2 bedroom flat. We have 2 boys who share the same room.
Hope that is all clear so far? 2 days after we moved in we found out the wife was expecting our 3rd child, a girl. We had been trying for another child for about a year. We decided that we were putting too much pressure on ourselves so decided to stop trying and leave it for a year or so before trying again. Sod's law it happened in what must have been the last week of trying.
So, we spoke to the housing association and told them that we have a third child on the way in April. They have told us that they do not class a child as a 'person' until they reach 1 years old. Until that time they are expected to be able to stay in the parents room. After they are 1 years old they count as a half person and our housing needs would be reassessed.
We had environmental health out on Wednesday to asses our living conditions with reagrds to possible overcrowding. They measured the size of our rooms etc. At the moment the wife and myself have the smaller of the 2 bedrooms. The boys have the bigger room so they have some sort of play area. What environmental health have said is that even with 3 children we would not be 'statury overcrowded' as the rooms are big enough.
At the moment there is no way we can fit a cot in the room that me and the wife currently have. A Moses basket will be okay, we can get that in, but when the baby reaches 6 months (or whenever she needs to come out of the basket), we will have to swap rooms so we have the big room so we can fir the cot in. The boys will have to move into our room, which fitting 2 single beds into is going to be a squash. My concern here is that they are going to have no room to play in. Obviously being in a flat means they have no garden. The living room is quite small so they don't have much room there.
Our financial situation in terms of credit history is not great. I was declared bankrupt in 2007, so I have been told, at the moment, a mortgage is out of the question. We could obviously rent privately, but we can't really go through an estate agent as they want 6 months rent in advance due to the credit history.
I'd like some advice as to what anyone thinks I might be able to do? We have tried the house exchange sites, but nobody wants to swap a 3 bed property for a 2 bed flat (with us being on the 2nd floor, I don't think that is helping). The housing association are offering no real help, last time I spoke to them they told me I could always turn my living room into a 3rd bedroom, they couldn't answer as to where we were supposed to 'live' then. My concern with renting privately is security for the children. With the housing I know I can stay here as long as I want, with private it can be a bit of a minefield.
Ideally we would have liked to have stayed in housing association for another 3 years and then get a mortgage (hopefully).
Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
0
Comments
-
You can turn your living room into a bedroom at night and a living room by day. It is considered a room for overcrowding purposes.:footie:
Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. 0 -
Thanks, how can I do that. Move a bed in each night and move my sofa/TV/table etc out?0
-
That sounds like a good idea. You could make it easier by replacing the sofa with a sofa bed...Thanks, how can I do that. Move a bed in each night and move my sofa/TV/table etc out?:footie: Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. 0 -
But, then we still don't have a living room? What happens when I work night/twiglight shifts and come home and then wake up the wife who is in bed in the living room?0
-
Get bunk beds for the boys to save space in the smaller room.
In the meantime, put yourself down on the housing association exchange list again to see whether something larger comes up in your area.0 -
You might find a good set of bunk beds for the smaller room on Freecycle, Realcycle or Freegle as a short term solution. Good luck.:A Thanks to all the lovely people who contribute their advice! :A0
-
Yeah, they are in bunk beds at the moment (which environmental health were not happy about with them only being 5 & 2), but the lay out of the small room means the beds would block/be against the window, and again not sure about that if they decide to open the bloody window and hang out of it!0
-
Yeah, they are in bunk beds at the moment (which environmental health were not happy about with them only being 5 & 2), but the lay out of the small room means the beds would block/be against the window, and again not sure about that if they decide to open the bloody window and hang out of it!
Put some bars over the window or some locks on the windows to stop them opening them.
I am probably going to be shot down for saying this but it is hard for me to understand why you and your wife planned a third child that you cannot find room for. Sorry.0 -
You are not overcrowded and legally the HA would not have agreed to the exchange if it would have made you overcrowded.
You complain about no garden - yet you chose to move into a second floor flat with no garden.
The only issue that has changed since you accepted the swap is that your wife is now expecting a 3rd child. The advice you have been given is correct, that you do not need an additional bedroom for that child yet - but your banding can be reassessed in 15 months time.
I do not see why you cannot swap bedrooms with your boys. If 2 single beds do not fit then you could consider bunk beds - start looking on freecycle now.
EDIT - I see you have bunk beds so how can they not fit? And why did you state that fitting 2 single beds into the smaller room would be a squash when the reality is that you have bunk beds?
Once the baby is ready to go out of your room, you could then swap the rooms back again and have the bunk beds and a single bed in the larger of the two bedrooms. This will be while you wait for a 3 bed property.0 -
Okay, the windows have locks on them but we have no keys for the locks. The HA said it is not their issue and we need to contact the previous tenant to find out where the keys are. We do not have contact details for the previous tenant so can't get hold of them. Catch 22. And its not just the opening of the windows, what if the fall through them or something? I know its double glazed, but that doesn't mean it is unbreakable.
And LittleMax, I have not complained about having no garden. We are fine as we are for the moment. The kids have room to play in etc. When another baby comes along, they won't. Not sure how that is complaining I on't have a garden?
Look, I am looking foe sensible advice here, thought I might get some. We are in the situation we are in now, I accept that, nothing we can do about it. We did not 'plan' to have a third child here, I already said that. If we would have known we were having a third child we would never have moved here. But we are where we are.
I can put the baby in the bigger room with the two boys once she reaches a year old, but then again, it gives the kids no play room at all.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 352K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.5K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 454.2K Spending & Discounts
- 245K Work, Benefits & Business
- 600.6K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177.4K Life & Family
- 258.8K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards