Privately rent a council house?

R0C

[mods, if this is the wrong section, please move]

Curious, has anyone ever seen a council house being rented out privately [legally]?

There’s a council house in a rural region directly adjacent to land I own.

It hasn’t been lived in for a couple of years and is becoming quite run down and would need a lot of maintenance and tidying up before anyone would live in it again.

It’s quite an old house, probably 1960s built. In more recent times a lot of the tenants through it didn’t last more than a couple of months as it is a long way out in the country and the nearest small town has a large modern council estate so they all wanted to live there instead, within walking distance of shops etc. (I know this from talking to them). As soon as something became available in the town, they moved.

Up to about 2 years ago the house was sublet privately, illegally. The last council tenant in it pretended he had purchased the house from the council and not knowing any better, a tenant rented the house privately from him for about 5 years. When she learned her landlord didn’t infact own the house and was illegally subletting, she moved out and no one has been in it since.

The house would suit me perfectly given its location but I would not be interested in buying it. I’d happily rent it for a year or two and do the necessary maintenance myself but I would not be entitled to a council house.

Would it be ridiculous for me to contact the council and ask about renting privately? Surely they would be better to have someone living in it and maintaining it, rather than leaving it as an eyesore, and I’d be willing to pay the going rate for that type of house.

It would not appeal to anyone else and I imagine it will remain vacant long term as there is plenty of modern council housing available in nearby towns. But perhaps paperwork hinders the council from doing this type of thing?

Henry Ford III

Couldn't hurt to ask them.