Living near Affordable Housing - Whats it really like?

borkid

Fishingtime wrote: »

I have always believed ( rightly or wrongly ) that affordable housing is mean for nurse,fireman and people like that on a lowish wage. not people on the dole

That's what I thought as well. I live in a small new build estate, 33 houses 5 of which are affordable housing. No problems at all in fact apart from lack of garages in the affordable housing and generally smaller houses there is no difference. One belongs to a single mum with 2 teenage children (twins). If I hadn't have been told she had children I wouldn't have known. Big bonus is she is a beautician and works from home so very easy to nip out for a quick massage when feeling stressed

I must add that it is a small village, population about 800, so the affordable housing tends to be for locals who otherwise couldn't afford to live in the village. Maybe a larger town or estate and things would be different.

bclark

bodmil wrote: »

Call them different names but you'll be speaking to the same person in the call centre regardless what trading name put you there. That is my point, I own my property outright yet because my neighbours are affordable, shared ownership AND council tenants, I have to deal with their systems and I still have to step over my neighbours' refuse to get to my door.

What systems, what call centres?

I suggest that you don't understand what shared ownership is?

borkid

MrParsons wrote: »

No... nor did I say every person who is unemployed will be. I'd love for you to introduce me to a person who works hard, owns a 300k house, has a good job but is still anti-social, takes no care of the house or nearby environment though. But anyhow, that's nothing to do with my question.

.

Does letting his dog roam where ever it likes, terrorising neighbours livestock and generally making a noise and mess count?

OddballJamie

borkid wrote: »

That's what I thought as well. I live in a small new build estate, 33 houses 5 of which are affordable housing. No problems at all in fact apart from lack of garages in the affordable housing and generally smaller houses there is no difference. One belongs to a single mum with 2 teenage children (twins). If I hadn't have been told she had children I wouldn't have known. Big bonus is she is a beautician and works from home so very easy to nip out for a quick massage when feeling stressed

That's an iffy one, I was under the impression they would be a covenant in place to stop people running businesses from home. Don't think that will end in a happy ending.

bodmil

bclark wrote: »

What systems, what call centres?

I suggest that you don't understand what shared ownership is?

I suggest not. The non-owned part of the property is managed by the housing association, meaning that any problems particularly with shared conveniences, for example communal areas, sinking funds, communal cleaning etc is managed by a system that in my experience is geared towards social housing and NOT private ownership. It all makes for a very inconveniant time, instead of being run by the residents or for the benefit of the residents, it is run for profit for the benefit of council tenants.


It may say shared ownership, affordable housing whatever you want but whilst it is anything to do with a housing association providing for council tenants, they will behave as such.

voucher

MrParsons wrote: »

The house I'm going for is listed at £285000 and I've been given 5% off without even asking so I'm not trying to judge what the actual price of the house will be. The area is a very reputable area in general and I would hate to make this investment only to find that were surrounded by chavs and crap house families who are antisocial.

Any advice appreciated.

id suggest not investing, simples, by the sounds of it you would be better getting yourself a motor home it would be far cheaper and you could move at the drop of a hat if the chavs got to you;)

££sc££

affordable rent - the governments new social on new developments. rent charged at up to 80% of market rent. Allocated in exactly the same way as social rent and HB eligible so will be same tenants essentially as social rent. But it enables HA to finance build of new homes better now government has reduced capital funding so much.

Racml34

Bodmin there are some good HA's out there! I too work for one. We work early till late specifically to cater for those who cannot make appointments during office hours. We have an excellent call out service too. Not saying we don't get things wrong sometimes but 95% of the residents I deal with treat their homes and neighbours with respect.

My company does have many tenure types. Somebody else suggested that HA's move problem tenants to alleviate issues. In actual fact in cases of Anti social behaviour the only person that would be likely to be offered a move is the victim not the perpetrator. Most social landlords will also not offer a new tenancy to any one who has a history of ASB within the last to years.

However I am getting off the point. When I was looking at houses to buy I did look at several that were in an area with quite a lot of social housing. The reason that we didn't buy was that there was a ceiling on the properties in that area which meant we would never make any money on it.

Many HA's have several subsidiaries dealing with various areas of the business but until you can get hold of them you're not going to know what the tenure type will be. Sometimes the local council website will have a paper on the new scheme which will say percentage, type and local letting a plan to be used for HA tenancies. Might be worth a look?

bclark

bodmil wrote: »

I suggest not. The non-owned part of the property is managed by the housing association, meaning that any problems particularly with shared conveniences, for example communal areas, sinking funds, communal cleaning etc is managed by a system that in my experience is geared towards social housing and NOT private ownership. It all makes for a very inconveniant time, instead of being run by the residents or for the benefit of the residents, it is run for profit for the benefit of council tenants.


It may say shared ownership, affordable housing whatever you want but whilst it is anything to do with a housing association providing for council tenants, they will behave as such.

Shared ownership owners are fully responsible for their own homes like anybody else, with houses there aren't common parts etc so there isn't that problem.

borkid

OddballJamie wrote: »

That's an iffy one, I was under the impression they would be a covenant in place to stop people running businesses from home. Don't think that will end in a happy ending.

I don't know what restrictions there are on the affordable housing but as long as we don't have a caravan or the like outside in the drive there are no restricitons. The lady concerned has 2 parking spaces so no parking problems, no noise and nuisiance to neighbours etc so unlikely anyone would complain.