Housing associations

Lima · 23 Jul 2015 at 09:37

Kaeo said:
You are so ignorant it almost literally hurts to read your posts. Having previously lived in social housing whilst saving for a deposit and still being on the board of a housing association I can tell you quite definitely that just as many "private" rents are inhabited by people that are unemployed and are a nightmare to deal with as are in social housing. Peoples misunderstanding of housing association renting is staggering, and shows just how in the past many people of this country still live.

How is dowies post ignorant? I thought he summed up the situation perfectly.

He at no point said all housing association people are bad, he just said it's much higher risk that they will be trouble. From my personal experience and from the experience of many friends and family, dowies post is spot on.

kkelly · 23 Jul 2015 at 09:38

Nothing wrong with them, your neighbors could be bad regardless of their perceived 'status'

regulus · 23 Jul 2015 at 09:50

Kaeo said:
You are so ignorant it almost literally hurts to read your posts. Having previously lived in social housing whilst saving for a deposit and still being on the board of a housing association I can tell you quite definitely that just as many "private" rents are inhabited by people that are unemployed and are a nightmare to deal with as are in social housing. Peoples misunderstanding of housing association renting is staggering, and shows just how in the past many people of this country still live.

Haha, no it's not and he's quite correct in what he says. I have the benefit of having worked on buildings and properties inhabited solely by council tenants and I've also had the benefit of working on private buildings and houses on behalf of insurance companies. Both totaling to within the 100s so I have the benefit of experience. Without a doubt your council tenants are on average a bunch you absolutely do not want to live anywhere near to. I've met full grown adults that literally cannot have a normal conversation due to not having the necessary vocabulary. And not just one either.

But also to be fair, I have met some lovely people in council properties too, some older people I still visit often and have tea with.

But on average. I know where I'd rather live.

FortuitousFluke · 23 Jul 2015 at 11:11

I live in a house purchased for £225k. Across the street are a load of social housing tenants, never any trouble. Their kids play out in the street and can be a bit noisy but what kids aren't? Other than that, all is well. Also judging from car movements I feel quite confident that the majority of them have jobs.

Living on a new build estate involving some element of social housing doesn't equate to moving to the Jasmine Allen estate from the Bill.

danielanthony · 23 Jul 2015 at 11:13

On every new housing estate there has to be a %age of housing association homes. They tend to be the semi's in the centre of the development with the better detached houses on the edges with views outwards rather than the tops of each others houses.

I just can't reconcile buying a new build in order to subsidise other peoples housing when I already pay massive amounts of tax on my income. It would only be remotely attractive with some part-exchange/stamp duty paid/loads of extras type deal.

dowie · 23 Jul 2015 at 11:18

Arthur Hucksake said:
People haven't lived. To really judge someone by their housing status is something else. lol

no one has done that if you read the posts properly

dowie · 23 Jul 2015 at 11:19

mid_gen said:
Erm....not judging people by their housing status, but labelling housing association tenants a 'risk' in the same sentence.....

yup, it isn't a hard concept to understand

deuse · 23 Jul 2015 at 11:25

dowie said:
the issue is simply one of risk - living next to students or people who are likely to be unemployed(the majority of social housing tenants are) increases the risk that you're going to be exposed to noise etc..

Citation needed.

dowie · 23 Jul 2015 at 11:35

Kaeo said:
You are so ignorant it almost literally hurts to read your posts. Having previously lived in social housing whilst saving for a deposit and still being on the board of a housing association I can tell you quite definitely that just as many "private" rents are inhabited by people that are unemployed and are a nightmare to deal with as are in social housing. Peoples misunderstanding of housing association renting is staggering, and shows just how in the past many people of this country still live.

no you can't tell me that, unless you're actually (ironically) rather ignorant yourself

for starters only a subset of private accommodation is affordable to people on benefits and the majority of private rented accommodation isn't going to people on housing benefit - some is for sure but if the OP is looking at 300k flats... is a single person with a drugs problem going to be in a private rented 300k flat in Kent - not so likely, there is a cap on how much rent they can get paid.... but it is quite feasible for them to be in social housing(albeit with a sensible limit on bedrooms these days).

If you're going to live in a new development of say 250k to 300k 2 bedroom flats in Kent... and some of those have been allocated to housing associations, it would be prudent to pick the ones that aren't next to the housing association homes. It doesn't mean all housing association tenants are scum or I hate the poor it is just a sensible precaution.

MichaelAwkward · 23 Jul 2015 at 12:07

danielanthony said:
I just can't reconcile buying a new build in order to subsidise other peoples housing when I already pay massive amounts of tax on my income.

You don't pay masive amounts of tax on your income. Taxation in the UK is at historically low proportions.

You can either subsidise it through the price of your house, or through increased taxes elsewhere. Or as I'm sure plenty of people in this thread would prefer, we can just leave poorer people to die by the wayside.

LordSplodge · 23 Jul 2015 at 12:18

There's a social housing block, flats and houses, opposite the green that our house borders against. Amount of trouble from them? None. Sometimes in summer a house over there might like a bit of loud music.

Don't see an issue with a mix of social housing in new estates but then I don't judge people by what type of housing they have.

regulus said:
You won't be a railway 'engineer'. You'll be a railway worker. Coss or Craney or something. Nothing wrong with that, but you're not 'engineering' it.

Ahh, not only do we have 'house snobs' we have 'job title' snobs too. All we need is for immigrants to be mentioned...

MOOGLEYS · 23 Jul 2015 at 12:36

It always makes me chuckle that people with mortgages say they own their own home.

dirtychinchilla · 23 Jul 2015 at 12:38

In the development that myself and my girlfriend are buying, there are 361 homes and I think it's 60% that are to be housing association properties. The council owns the land, so they put out a tender for those quantities - so it's not the developer that does this. I'm sure the developer would much rather sell all 361 to private buyers.

dowie · 23 Jul 2015 at 13:12

MOOGLEYS said:
It always makes me chuckle that people with mortgages say they own their own home.

why?

antran · 23 Jul 2015 at 13:19

^^The bank own your house

FortuitousFluke · 23 Jul 2015 at 13:31

antran said:
^^The bank own your house

No they don't, the bank have loaned a sum of money to an individual with which to purchase a house. This sum is then secured against the property as a security against non-payment. The deeds for my house are in my name, not Mr Halifax.

neil3k · 23 Jul 2015 at 13:35

FortuitousFluke said:
No they don't, the bank have loaned a sum of money to an individual with which to purchase a house. This sum is then secured against the property as a security against non-payment. The deeds for my house are in my name, not Mr Halifax.

boom headshot

chief barker · 23 Jul 2015 at 13:36

FortuitousFluke said:
No they don't, the bank have loaned a sum of money to an individual with which to purchase a house. This sum is then secured against the property as a security against non-payment. The deeds for my house are in my name, not Mr Halifax.

The deeds will be in Mr Halifax's name if you miss a load of payments

MOOGLEYS · 23 Jul 2015 at 13:40

dowie said:
why?

Because until it's paid back in full it's not really yours in my opinion.

Uther · 23 Jul 2015 at 13:49

MOOGLEYS said:
Because until it's paid back in full it's not really yours in my opinion.

My opinion too. A friend of mine 'owns' his own house, mortgaged up to the hilt and beyond, it will probably never be paid off in his lifetime. He still looks down his nose at social housing tenants though. :rolleyes:

The estate I live on, build 15 years ago, has a mix of social and private housing. The social housing looks in much better condition, whereas most of the £250k and up houses seem to have rotten, unpainted, misted up windows. Nice BMW's in their driveways though...