Manchester City Council Vs. Southway Housing Trust

sho_me_da_money

Delete thread please.

Zingara

Hi,

Manchester City Council transferred all their Council Housing Properties to a new Housing Trust - Southway Housing Trust in November 2007. This was done following lengthy consultation with tenants and a tenant vote in July 2007 where the majority voted for the transfer.

As such your parents are now tenants of Southway Housing Trust not Manchester City Council. They haven't the option of staying with the council, it's an all or nothing move. As you have said they still have all their rights - Right to Buy, discount etc.

If they don't sign the new tenancy agreement for Southway Housing I'm not sure what the consequences would be in the future. I work for another HA who have gone through the same thing - I seem to remember there being some problems for people who haven't signed the new tenancy agreement but can't for the life of me remember what they were! It was all linked in with rent arrears and legal stuff when taken to court, very long winded.

Anyway, I digress. If you let the HA do the rewiring, new kitchens/bathrooms/windows then the price you pay for the property will increase in line with these improvements. Bear in mind as soon as you put in a request for a right to buy most HAs will not do anything other than emergency repairs, and certainly nothing which will improve the property. If anything needs doing desperately then ask for it be done before putting in the RTB - most repairs don't add a lot of value to the property but they still wouldn't be done.

Hope that helps,

Karen

Running_Horse

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

Hello,

My parents have lived in a council house for a number of years. The property as i understood it was/is owned by Manchester City Council.

Residents were sent some paperwork to sign over their property to Southway Housing Trust, a new independant body that aims to improve estates etc without taking away benefits like Right To Buy and council discounts.

My question is for anyone who is famiiar in this department - is it worth staying with the Manchester City Council or is Southway a better way forward.

Now we are soon expected to buy the house of the council - would it be better for us to wait and have our house improved throught a scheme they are now working to - fixing problems, re-witing, new kitchens etc etc or should we buy it in the cindition it is now?

I would imagine the value of the house would work to our benefit if it was bought in its current condition rather than have it go up in value with a few fixes?

Any advice would be brilliant?

Thanks

Yes, but what's the dealio?