Moving Housing Association Properties

djh77

Evening all,

Need a little bit of advice please concerning renting and moving to and from a Housing Association property.

Okay, so we currently rent a HA flat from BPHA HA. Due to an increase in family size recently we went back onto the housing register. We have been lucky enough to be offered a new HA property that better suits our needs.

However, the HA are saying that in our contract we have to give 4 weeks notice to leave our current property. This is correct, it is in our contract. They want us to start our new tenancy at the new property from Monday 10th June 2013, but still expect us to keep and pay for our 'old' property until the 4 weeks notice period is up. We are staying with the same HA, not changing to a different one, just moving into another one of their properties.

When I said to the Housing officer on the phone that I didn't think it was fair to ask us to pay 2 lots of rent, I got told take it or leave it. Now, please don't think me ungrateful, I know we are lucky to be offered a property at all, however I feel it is totally unfair to hold me to a 4 week notice when I am still staying with the same HA.

I guess what I am asking here is, has anyone been in the same situation, if so what did your HA do? I really don't feel like I can make an official complaint regarding this, as I feel they will just say 'don't bother taking the new property then'. Or is it me being unreasonable, should we just accept it?

Many Thanks.

RAS

If you recieve HB, you can claim on both properties.

djh77

Nope, do not receive HB.

lighting_up_the_chalice

Your new property is a new tenancy, and your current tenancy is bound by the 4 weeks notice. So, the notice period cannot be moved, so get that in ASAP to keep any overlap to a minimum. All you can do to reduce it further is delay signing for the new property. But I'm guessing you will be quite keen to get the keys ASAP, in which case, I'm afraid you will just have to swallow the extra rental. On the plus side, you will have a nice, long move-in schedule, or even an empty house you can decorate, should you wish to.

££sc££

can you confirm the old and new properties are with the same HA? If so - they're being harsh. I work for a HA we insist on 4 weeks notice if tenant moves out (dies, moves to another landlord, moves to private sector, purchases home etc) BUT NOT if they're moving within our stock. They don't have to give any notice and they get to keep both sets of keys for 3 days at no extra cost. E.g. one tenancy ends on a Sunday and the next starts Monday but they get both properties from the Fri to Monday lunchtime to move.

££sc££

i'd take new property and make complaint. worst they'll do is not uphold complaint and you'll have to pay double rent. but they might credit you some of it back if you're lucky

djh77

££sc££ wrote: »

can you confirm the old and new properties are with the same HA? If so - they're being harsh. I work for a HA we insist on 4 weeks notice if tenant moves out (dies, moves to another landlord, moves to private sector, purchases home etc) BUT NOT if they're moving within our stock. They don't have to give any notice and they get to keep both sets of keys for 3 days at no extra cost. E.g. one tenancy ends on a Sunday and the next starts Monday but they get both properties from the Fri to Monday lunchtime to move.

Hi, yes, the old and new properties are with the same HA.

We do feel they are being very harsh tbh, but also don't feel that we can rock the boat, because it seems like if we make too much fuss about it they will just offer the new property to someone else.

djh77

Sorry to bump this, but just a little update and another quick question.

We had the Housing officer round today to inspect our property, everything okay with ours. She has said we need to pull up all flooring and fill in any holes in the walls (picture holes and mirror holes etc - not holes that we have just smashed into the wall!! lol).

We are going over on Friday 7th to sign for our new tenancy, however she said we can not give notice for our current tenancy until Monday 10th. So we will definitely have 4 weeks where I have to pay 8 weeks rent. Now, I know this is supposed to be social/affordable housing, but honestly I can not afford to pay 8 weeks rent in 4 weeks (and I am on paternity for the next 2 weeks - sod's law!). We are a little lucky in that we have about 1.5 weeks rent in credit at our current property as we build it up over the year to give ourselves a few weeks rent free at Christmas. The rent on our current property is £115 per week, and the new property will be £165 per week, so over the next 4 weeks I need to pay £947.50, when for 2 weeks I will only get £130 (or whatever paternity pay is).

Now after going on turn2us, we will be entitled to claim housing benefit at the new property (about £40 per week). What I'd like to know is if I can include our 'current' property for the next 4 weeks? How do I go about this if I can? On the HB form it asks for your weekly rent etc, not sure how I would tell them that we have to pay 2 lots of rent for 4 weeks.

And, we will be making a formal complaint about this once we have signed. As I said we have been told to fill in holes etc before we leave, yet the property we are moving to needs holes filling in, garden not been cut for months by the look of it. We asked for decorating vouchers (which on their website it says they give), but were told no. What I would also like to know is, as we are going to complain with regards to having to give 4 weeks notice, do I hand the keys back asap? She said they don't want the keys back until Monday 8th July, but I was of a mind to hand the back asap, so they can't say we had the flat for the full 4 weeks.

We are not ungrateful, sorry if it comes across that way, but it just seems totally unfair that they have done nothing to help and expect everything back.

PloddingAlong:P

Sorry, I dont have much to say if you want to argue it but yes I have been in the same position.

I asked if we could change the dates, they said no. We just paid the double rent, it was just one of those things and was sooo worth it to get a bigger place. Tbh, I would have paid ANYTHING to get a bigger place by then! It worked out really well as we had such a lot of time to organise things while moving things over, better than just moving everything in one day and throwing it all in.

We were very, very broke at the end of all this, we just had to find the money as didnt want to lose it. It was hard but at the end of the day even though housing associations are generally b******s we really appreciate having a HA property.

Good luck.

djh77

Just called the council to ask if I can claim HB on both properties for the 4 week period and they told me I could, they call it an overlap period.

Having never claimed HB before, what do I tell the HA? Do I pay them anything on our current property at all if we can afford to? Not sure what I have to do now!