Council housing waiting lists.

[cookielucylou]

What is it like where you are?
We desperately need somewhere yet we are 150th on the list and basically been told we can afford to private rent despite only living on my oh's wage which is about £1200 a month. We have been on the list 6 months now.
My friend lives in a different area both work full time and private rent a 3 bed house yet they have just gone onto the council list and first week where 25th on the list!
I was so shocked when she said where they were, I assumed all councils had huge lists.

 

[Kate&Lucas]

There isn't one where I live (or there wasn't when I was on it, I was the only person for some time). There are quite a few empty houses, but generally on streets a decent family wouldn't want to live on. 'Good' houses tend to be allocated to friends/family of employees, so I still waited a year as I wasn't willing to take a shithole

 

[Jem88]

We've had our name on the council housing list for 4 years now, they then changed it all to a bidding system so we had to register again only to be told we can't bid on any houses as we are currently in Band D which is the lowest one and is low needs as we are already in a 2 bedroomed house (Private renting at the mo though.) But Sophies room is tiny it just fits her cot, drawers and few toys in. x

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Ours is not a list either, its done by date x

 

[xcharx]

My friend waited 3 years for a council house.. she was low on the bidding score.

Cx

 

[KayBea]

ours is a bidding system but im private renting & they pay my rent..

as a single mum im on £500 a month & private renting so i dont see why you cant op & ask council to pay the rent?. or does it not work like that in your area? im in south east UK by the way. (Hampshire)

 

[cookielucylou]

We can claim housing benefit but according to the estate agents around here we can't afford much of what they have on there books. Most say they won't except housing benefit.

 

[summer rain]

The area we used to live when we joined the list there were only 200 people on it, three years later there were 2000 people on it this is because people had realised that that area hadn't sold off much of their housing stock at all in comparison to some neighbouring boroughs where they'd sold off 90% of it, also their only requirement was to have lives in the borough for 6 months and another plus was they had a lot of housing association properties on their books as well again other neighbouring boroughs didn't have this. In that area very few people wanted to move outside the borough so you'd get 1000 people bidding on a property in the borough and as few as 16 bidding on a brand new build house or flat in a neighbouring borough (old area had properties in other boroughs allocated to them occasionally). We'd come anything between 60th to 200th when we first joined the bidding list and for properties in that borough our position had improved slightly after 3 years but not much. When we bid on out of area properties though, huge difference, we kept coming 2nd or 3rd. This place, we were 3rd, then just before bidding closed someone withdrew their bid and we were 2nd, and the housing association then took over a month to arrange viewings so the other party who were first got annoyed and withdrew their bid too. Where we live is a flat (new build) and quite nice though it is on the third floor and doesn't have a garden, but it's bigger than our old place and the area is much better. This actual development has had serious ASB issues in the past but the housing association did crack down on it eventually and things have improved 95%. Xx

 

[staycutee]

I'm in the same position, the waiting list for a 2 bedroom flat around here is 6 years (or so they predict) so now I'm desperately looking for a private landlord who accepts housing benefit, its proving difficult though. Hope you sort something out

 

[maryp0ppins]

My oh looked into this out of curiosity and there is an average 12 year wait for our area for a couple like us! We private rent a 1 bedroom and our rent is £850 a month with no bills added on.

 

[KayBea]

have you looked on gumtree & local papers for a private landlord rather than an esate agents? x

 

[LuckyYem]

We have been on our local housing list for 3yrs! We private rent, we have never mentioned housing benefit to our landloards as it is paid directly to us and not to them, neither landloard - one done thru' and estate agents, one private have said anything to us! We pay £750pcm - no bills for a smallish 2 bed first floor flat. We live in Oxfordshire and house prices are stupid. I saw a 2 bed house, in what is a bad part of Oxfordshire for £920pcm and we could never afford to buy on our combined salary - last year £21k .

 

[summer rain]

In London though it's a lot different. In most areas there is no way you can be on a moderate wage and then top up with housing benefit because the landlords do ask and they just won't rent to you. They want to see proof of earnings and a guarantor, even many landlords who don't go through an agency have been seeking legal advice and been advised to do this. One of OHs family was looking for somewhere recently, he is self employed and despite earning a decent amount they would not let him self-cert and said he needed a guarantor but a guarantor who was earning more than 45k which he just couldn't find. In the end he did find one letting agency who would rent to him and his family but they only have properties in one particular area. He had to accept it because he had no other options. Honestly this guy thought it would be better to quit working at all and just claim full HB because some letting agents will rent to people on full HB but not those on partial HB or working but not earning ridiculous amounts. It's a joke xx

 

[isil]

Here it's done on need, and you get points depending on your need. We were homeless and staying with friends. It took about 2 1/2 months to get a house. I could've settled for a really rough area and got a house straight away, but I held out for this one. I think if you are in any kind of need (threatened homeless, dependents...) then it's pretty easy to get somewhere, although it might be in a rough area.

I kept coming 2nd and 3rd for properties, but that's because if there is someone with the same 'points' as you, if they've been registered for longer, they get priority. Even if they haven't had the points for as long.

 

[Cashewnut]

The council house waiting list here is huge, so we joined the list but in the mean time private rent, with the council paying towards some of the costs (housing benefit), perhaps that could be a good option for you?

 

[Rockell8788]

We have been on the bidding system since it started 3 years ago. We was in band d and finishing are 20-30 for a 2 bed house. When we had ds we moved up to band c and are now finishing 50-60 for a 2 bed house and 150+ for a three bed home.
I think it's a joke to be honest the system doesn't work also a friend how has 2 children 10months apart and of the same gender is higher up the list than we are. How does that work when we have been on the list longer with children 4 years apart and of opposite gender in a small property

 

[Tasha]

Here it is done on a bidding/banding system. We are band B (A to E with A being highest) and we have been on the list for nine years.

 

[Chatterwockin]

When you are on a housing list, you have to be proactive, when i first went on, i was told i would never be housed bla bla bla..... In reality i made a complete nuisance of myself, just called them and screamed at them for two hours a week, in the end they bumped me up the list.

Never underestimate the power of kicking off. Also play every card you have! and i mean that, every possible card. Good luck xxx

 

[Kimboowee]

I was on it for 2 years and nothing. In that time we scraped the fees and money to rent privately.

 

[cookielucylou]

We have saved up to private rent but finding it difficult to find anywhere within our budget. We have been told we have to move from where we live now so just waiting to hear back from 2 other councils other than the first we applied to. Not holding out too much hope though
It seems to be really easy for some and not for others. I've heard of several people recently that have been given housing based on practically nothing.