Should we bother putting our names on the council list?

mariagti

beingjdc wrote: »

You've said this twice now, but in my experience one of the big advantages of renting over owning is that the landlord is responsible for the maintenance and service charge.

I think the answer is going to be, unfortunately, that one or both of you needs a new job paying over £10k a year...

Doh! You are so right! You only pay them when you buy a flat...silly me!:rotfl:

Murtle

mariagti wrote: »

Yeah to tell the truth i'd rather go with a housing association than council list as they seem to have flat/houses in much better areas!;) Not sure where i go to get information about the housing assocations though?

Running horse - Oh no, i live in chelmsford essex which has good jobs if your qualified and only 20 min train ride to london, but not my cup of tea working in london. Im always looking for a better paid job!:D

20 minute train ride into London...

I think if you really wanted to be able to afford a nicer place you would do the 20 minute train journey into London for the higher salary, 20 minutes is nothing, it takes me 20 minutes by bus to get into town before the train journey that hundreds of people do everyday.

Lavendyr

mariagti wrote: »

Excuse me! Lavendyr and cheltenhamgirl I knew there would have to be someone like you two say something like that. I too pay tax thank you very much!

I never said you didn't. Did you read my post?

mariagti wrote: »

Im working trying to save up

So are my OH and I, but we don't think we should get a council house just because we can't afford to buy one. Instead we're renting privately. I would feel terrible if I knew that I was taking up a house that could be going to someone who genuinely needed it.

And by the way, I'm not angry - I don't get angry about strangers on the internet.

mariagti wrote: »

Yes council places charge rent but not like the prices of private flats which we cant afford!

You didn't say that earlier, you only said you didn't want to rent privately - hence my response. I would have a good look around for private housing though, and remember that you can always try and haggle down the price.

mariagti wrote: »

Private renting is expensive, too expensive for us after you've added on the mantaince and ground rent on top of the bills.

If you rent, you don't have to pay maintenance or ground rent - that's usually what the landlord is responsible for.

eldowardo

i got a bit confused reading though this post.

how long do u have to travel to work at the moment? 20 minutes is nothing...

i cant help but feel this is someone who doesnt want to get a better paid job, but expects to be able to buy a house on their current income.

Sorry but wake up and smell the coffee. buying a house is not a right, its a priveledge. if you cannot afford to buy a house/flat outright, then rent. if you really dont wanna put your name on the council waiting list rent privately. you have options open to you via renting but you dont want to take them.

the only other alternative is shared ownership, but you seem to poo poo that if I remember rightly.

All you want is to buy your own house.... which is fine... but youll need to earn more money or win the lottery.

Lavendyr

Indeed, I commute over an hour to work each day - 20 minutes is very little.

fc123

beingjdc wrote: »

I think the answer is going to be, unfortunately, that one or both of you needs a new job paying over £10k a year...

Put your name down + wait and see...
We started out married life in a concrete tower block on one of the roughest estates in S London (back in 1987 ) and it was a fight to get offered it.

We had new baby and I had a fledgling business.

I had to contend with pharoah ant infestations, cockroaches, chronic damp / mould, packs of wild dogs prowling the estate during the day, loud, noisy nieghbours...the list goes on + on. But it WAS cheap and all we could afford at the time.
I had 2 choices....have more kids quickly (so we could apply for a better place) or work full-time (and more) growing the business...OH got a job window fitting.
But we were early twenties and full of energy!

I chose the latter, we spent absolutely nothing, just basics, and saved for a deposit to buy (the housing mkt then, seeming forever to go out of our reach).
After being plagued by a group of young burglars + pitbull who fept trying to break in....we bought a near derelict house in 1989...price falls after that time are a whole new thread.

We also returned the flat to the council despite being offered a large sum of cash for the keys (I was a good socialist then).

My point is we chose to earn MORE ££££ because we wanted a different home..........

I'm older now and I would suggest that sometimes one just has to do what needs to be done. I knew loads of other people who got wicked places and then bought them cheaply uinder RTB....I used to feel it was so unfair...it was but we just weren't lucky.

other

hi, found this thread interesting reading.....

If the combined income is less than 20k, then I would really encourage trying to get a better paid job, or at least one with better medium-long term prospects! So there are some rags to riches stories about sales floor staff going on to manage the business, but that is rare...

£6 a hour (requires very few qualifications as far as i know) x 37.5 hours a week x 52 weeks gives £11700 gross. So, one or both of you are on less than £6 a hour. Please please find another better paid job! You guys are computer literate, are trying to deal with your housing situation-shows intelligence. Keep looking for jobs, even if with agencies. Of course you get less benefits sometimes, but do you get any benefits with your current jobs?

Also, regards private accommodation....you can look for private lets thru newspapers and shop windows, these might have a lower rent (no estate agent to pay) although of course perhaps less protection from these. Finally just to confirm you are living at home with parents? and your OH? perhaps think about serious tight budgeting to get a privately rented place, or even renting a studio flat.

blue_monkey_2

I was pondering on this last night. I think a lot of the perception is that council should house anyone who can;t afford it but even I (and yes I am on the list) don't think this is true. I think they should house people that have children that need the security or people that get disrupted by having to move (such as people with disabilities or mental helath problems). Yes I am on the list but this has only been since I had my daughter and before this I would have been expected to be housed in the private sector and always had been. The reason I am asking them to help me now is we have no other options, the houses in this area are executive houses and so the council say they won't help us with housing benefit. if I did have another option then I would take it as we face the prospect of living in a hostel - not one I would take lightly for my family - but that is it for us.

Before I had children if I did not have enough money then I got another job, when I was on my own on low pay I had various part time jobs as sitting on my backside didn;t pay the rent. I had 2 bar jobs that I did in the evening on different days to pay for the extras I wanted as I had to rent a room in a house. So I finished my job came home got ready and went out for another, my job was my social life as far as I saw it and I got paid for it too!!

OP, if you are bringing in a combined income of less than 20k then you are either not on minimum wage or not working full time hours as my sister and her bf are both in low paid jobs working full time and they earn more than this. Another part time job (each) working 10 hours would bring in abother £100 each a week after tax and then that would be around enough to pay the rent on a place.

At the end of the day sometimes if you want things in life (such as you and your bf wanting to live together) then you'll do the extra to make sure that happens, if you can't afford a holiday or a new TV and you want one then you work more to get one (overtime or extra job) as they don't just fall in your lap, having a home should not be any different. You can also get housing benefit if you are on low pay so I can't see why this is an obstacle really. If you REALLY want this and you have been honest about your circumstances there there is NOTHING in your way a few extra hours work each week is not going to pay for. I think that your post read - and I did read the same - is that you begrudged paying someone elses mortgage for them by paying rent but you can look at everything this way - Richard Branson invested in planes because we can't afford them and we use them to go on holiday. The profit goes in his pocket!! The council had to pay to build the homes so you are lining their pocket too.

A few years ago my husband faced redundancy - he would not have got a lot money wise but we looked around and realised we could move further up north, the temping jobs were there and we could have got somewhere to live much cheaper than here - but the redundancy never came baout and so we stayed here as his job is here and as we had 2 children him leaving his job was not an option. The thing I am saying is that you are both young, no kids and are already on, what seems to be, minimum wage so why not take 2 weeks off work after having a look around on the internet and see if there is something around further north that sounds like a good place to live. Post for advice on the local boards on here and I am sure there will be planty of people to give you advice. Take a look in the local papers for that area (easy to see online now) and move further north for a little bit. If you are living with family now then I am sure they won't mind if things don't work out and you have to come back then I am sure they won't mind you going back.

It is easy to get stuck in a rut of working just the hours you do and living in the place you so and not wanting or expecting anything more out of life than what you have but please think about it and make the most of the fact that you are both young and you can move onto better things or move around and then in 10 years time when you have kids you'll be able to look back and say 'LOL, we did that!?!'. Sometimes the risk itself is worth it!! I've done it twice myself getting another job miles away and moving, you can only better yourself if you want to though.

At the age of 29 I was in a dead end job as I did not have any qualifications but I fell ill and lost my job so I got onto the PC and learned how to use it, managed to get myself an office job, learned accountancy by being pushy and asking to help, took a course in accountancy (everyone has a niche they can follow) and a year later I was running the accounts department of a small business (in Gt Dunmow as it happens), then I got a job working in the accounts department of a worldwide company in London earning double what I did in my dead end job. Sure I had to pay to travel but when I look back on my life I feel pleased I have memories of my life thinking 'hey, I did that!!'. Sure some of the memories are pretty crap but I've had a bit of excitment and risk and I think it's ben worth it. I've lived away from home and done my fair share of crap jobs (I packed rubber bands! And it included having to weigh them before packing them - whoo hoo) but if you need money you'll do the work IMHO. i used to work with a bloke who put the cherries on St. Ivel trifles!! LOL, but if you want something then you have work for it and you cannot expect other people to give it to you if you don't need it. Why not get another job, stay where you are and start saving as you don;t know what is around the corner. if you and your BF can save £100 a week each and put it in savings, IF (yes, I said IF) thre is a property crash in a years time you'll have £10k in savings and with your wage you'll be able to get a mortgage for around 60k. you never know what is around the corner. Looking back, if I had the people to tell me what I know now I would have saved more than I did - it is easy to spend it and look back and think 'Doh'. The difference between you and how I was back then I never had the support of friends and family or, as you have here, the advice from others to get you through life and how you can make life for your own - I have been pretty much on my own through life with no help or advice from anyone. Just think, if prices do drop and you can save 10k or more then you'll be able to buy your own place. You are only young and you have this on your side and if you and your bf want to be together then you need to get your heads together and get serious about things, not expect help from everyone else/the council because you don't have what you want today.

If getting pregnant just to get a council house looks like a good option then these teenagers surely have nothing to look forward to in life and I pity the fact they think that this is the only way to get them anything. I have a friend who wanted a baby so invited some bloke down from some dating website, got pregnant and now he is now paying for kids he is never going to see (yes I said KIDS!) - just because 'she wanted kids' and though 'she would get a council place' (she didn;t by the way so is in private rented accomodation! The thing you have on your side is that you are young and have no ties and only you can make things better than they are now - but this can only be if you want it and if you work for it. Not everyone has huge paid jobs and rich parents but they work extra to get the things they want.

Anyway, enough of the nagging and sorry for the long (very long) post. I hope everything works out whatever you do but Chelmsford, LOL, get out, get out now before you get trapped inside and have a fake juicy tracksuit, handbag and stilletos and a boyfriend with a souped up white Mk3 escort..... LOL.... (Don't worry guys, I live on the Essex border, I do know what I am talking about it's like living in a different country once you get past the 'Essex' sign, it's almost a relief to get back into Herts!! I used to work North Weald Market - I've seen things to make your hair curl) :rotfl:

Lavendyr

Brilliant post blue_monkey

mariagti

I started this post to ask if it was worth me putting my name on the list? I dont need people putting me down, its not for any of you to judge me on what i earn etc. I came to this site for help and confidence , instead i get people slagging off the place where i was born and live and that i dont deserve help. Remind me never to come to this section again.

You think i dont want a better paid job? Do you think i would be proud to live have a council flat? And yes i work a 30 min drive from my home if you read what i wrote it says london is ONLY a 20 min train ride, i didnt say 20 mins was too far.

Dont start slagging off peoples hometowns it has nothing to do with the thread,and didnt you see best places to live in the uk?