Council housing: Down sizing

paddedjohn

OP, it sound to me you are more worried about your own house move. Is there no room for you at her new house?

oxfordmark

Hello

Its nothing to do with our move, we have contingency plans in place. The whole point is that we are unsure whether she should be liable to pay the rent or not. We are adamant that the council man said she wouldnt until after the 4 weeks notice period.

witchy1066

you are liable to pay rent from the date on your tenancy aggrement
check the date , and that is when you start to pay rent,

if you move in on that date or not is up to you but you will still have to pay the rent

regardless of what the council man said or may have said

Errata

oxfordmark wrote: »

Hello

Its nothing to do with our move, we have contingency plans in place. The whole point is that we are unsure whether she should be liable to pay the rent or not. We are adamant that the council man said she wouldnt until after the 4 weeks notice period.

Have you spoken to the "council man" again?

pivotalgubbins

People should bear in mind that considering the lady is downsizing and therefore freeing up a larger property for (presumably) a family to move into it isn't overly harsh to expect some leniency from the Council. I would have certainly expected it from my experience of working there (admittedly six years ago now).

However, the OP needs to get a grip in regards to this specific situation - hardly any property is 'ideal' when you move in and saying 'the council man said this or that' is hardly going to get you anywhere. If you wanted strict terms on rent liability then you (or more specifically, your mum) should have got it in writing so that it was clear cut.

Anyway, I hope she is in and enjoying the property by now!

witchy1066

pivotalgubbins
if you worked for the council then you should know that the "staff" can only follow the guide lines , they are not the ones making the rules,
they don't make it up as they go along but some may say what they think the tenant wants to hear , just to get them off their backs,

(you will have dealt with some in your time I am sure)

(I am not saying this is what has happened in this case)

if the lady has been given a moving in date and signed the tenancy then she has to pay the rent from that date , it really is that simple.

Wicked_witch

We had a week to move (not downsizing, moving to different area under same council). As is usual nowadays, it was perfectly safe and in good structural repair, but had no carpets, just concrete and gappy floorboards, swathes of paper had been ripped down or splashed with plaster because of the rewiring and it was all 70's and 80's designs anyway

We were lucky in getting £250 in B&Q vouchers towards decorating, although that's not much in B&Q of course- Wilkinson's would have been better value for the HA too imo. But that's not a complaint

Anyway, although it is a wrench if she's moving from a house that's been decorated to her own preference to somewhere that needs work, she's best moving asap and saving the money on rent. Work out the best and quickest way to get say the living room and bedroom done to her taste, so she has a couple of places to relax- if you and your partner can't help her maybe hire a local handyman to put on a couple of coats of paint over a day or two. Again, it'll be far cheaper than paying extra rent for weeks. Get a couple of rugs to cover the floor a bit if she can't take the carpets (the council will rip them out anyway, so she may as well).

Alternatively, what would be cheaper for you- paying the two rents and decorating over the course of weeks, or getting a rental house and vacating the old house straight away?

pivotalgubbins

witchy1066 wrote: »

pivotalgubbins
if you worked for the council then you should know that the "staff" can only follow the guide lines , they are not the ones making the rules,
they don't make it up as they go along but some may say what they think the tenant wants to hear , just to get them off their backs,

(you will have dealt with some in your time I am sure)

(I am not saying this is what has happened in this case)

if the lady has been given a moving in date and signed the tenancy then she has to pay the rent from that date , it really is that simple.

I understand where you are coming from and you are complete right of course - the key here would be getting agreement prior to signing the tenancy agreement. Downsizing was so rare where I worked that it wouldn't have been at all unusual for a manager to step in and make sure it all went smoothly.

Decorating vouchers, possibly new carpets, etc. can all be used in lieu of an actual holiday on the rental payments themselves of course. Council staff have to follow the guidelines but there were still ways to be flexible from my memory!