Council buying home for tenants.

princesstrixie

Neighbors of me are renting a house in our street. They have 4 kids and are on social welfare. Their landlord served them their notice more than 1 year ago as he wants to sell the house. Upon that the tenants made a claim with the PRTB so the notice will be frozen untill the outcome of the PRTB case.
Today the neighbor told me the council will buy the house and they will pay the rent to the council. The rent is 45 euro a week. The neighbors are delighted and actually told me we should do the same as we pay 1250 a month in rent. She said give up your jobs and you will get a house.
Can someone please tell me this is not true??

athtrasna

It is not true in general. The social housing waiting list is long, years and years long. We don't know your neighbours circumstances, they may be on the list and may be near the top.

But giving up your jobs to go on the dole in order to get a house is just not on, and you won't get a house for a very long time. Think of the interim. It's also borderline social welfare fraud, willingly giving up your jobs to try and screw the system.

princesstrixie

We have absolutely no intention giving up our jobs. This is what out neighbor told us. We live in the same street for 6 years. They are on the list and have been on rent allowance for the 6 years. They will pay the same rent as now when the council buys the house and will be able to live there forever. Where as we are not sure of stability at all. Is just seems very weird to me. The saddest part is that they see it as an achievement.

dissed doc

princesstrixie wrote: »

Neighbors of me are renting a house in our street. They have 4 kids and are on social welfare. Their landlord served them their notice more than 1 year ago as he wants to sell the house. Upon that the tenants made a claim with the PRTB so the notice will be frozen untill the outcome of the PRTB case.
Today the neighbor told me the council will buy the house and they will pay the rent to the council. The rent is 45 euro a week. The neighbors are delighted and actually told me we should do the same as we pay 1250 a month in rent. She said give up your jobs and you will get a house.
Can someone please tell me this is not true??

You are part of the big society and your contribution via PAYE is helping these neighbours achieve their goal of having a house of their own. Well done, feel better about your good deed

Gatling

I call bs sounds like your neighbours are having a laugh at winding you up .

The current housing list average wait to be housed is 8-12 years country wide

pablo128

For all their bragging, they still have to survive on social welfare payments. Don't listen to them. You are far better off working.

the_syco

princesstrixie wrote: »

Today the neighbor told me the council will buy the house and they will pay the rent to the council. The rent is 45 euro a week.

I'm thinking they are RAS without fully knowing it?

MayoSalmon

pablo128 wrote: »

For all their bragging, they still have to survive on social welfare payments. Don't listen to them. You are far better off working.

In fairness this is fairly managable when you don't have a mortage:(

Labarbapostiza

princesstrixie wrote: »

Today the neighbor told me the council will buy the house and they will pay the rent to the council. The rent is 45 euro a week. The neighbors are delighted and actually told me we should do the same as we pay 1250 a month in rent. She said give up your jobs and you will get a house.
Can someone please tell me this is not true??

If the neighbours are on social welfare, then their rent is paid through rent allowance. If their rent drops so does their rent allowance. They may get the councils social rent rate, which could be quite low, but their rent allowance falls accordingly.

There are caps on rent allowance, and there have been very significant cuts in the allowance over the years. Thousands of families have lost their homes. I personally know some of these people.

Where do you live? (I don't need your door number). They're are many parts of the country where you can rent a house for as little as 400 quid a month.

People seemed to get very upset about people on social welfare. That they're lazy parasites scrounging of the rest of us. But what are landlords?

Youngblood.III

It's sickening alright, I know two families who stayed in council housing while they earned good money, they both have their holidays homes in Kerry.

Piriz

Youngblood.III wrote: »

It's sickening alright, I know two families who stayed in council housing while they earned good money, they both have their holidays homes in Kerry.

At least they are working, hopefully declaring it and paying tax, i think the rent paid on council / state provided property is means tested and linked to affordability..

pablo128

Forest Demon wrote: »

This does happen. I did not believe it myself when I was told by somebody in my estate but the council confirmed it. There seems to be some behind the scenes stuff going on with banks and the council.

As per usual they are the only ones who don't have to register the sale with the property sales index so it is not even clear how much was paid. Nice for people knowing while they pay their mortgages over the next 20 years that the same house in the same private estate was given to somebody for nothing.

I'd like to add I have no problem with people on welfare. But they don't get a house for nothing. They pay rent.

Youngblood.III wrote: »

It's sickening alright, I know two families who stayed in council housing while they earned good money, they both have their holidays homes in Kerry.

You have to pay a percentage of your wages as rent, 10%-15% or something like that. So If a couple are on 600 each, they will be paying at least 500 per month rent.

FishOnABike

Youngblood.III wrote: »

It's sickening alright, I know two families who stayed in council housing while they earned good money, they both have their holidays homes in Kerry.

If they are in a council owned house they may be paying differential rent where the rent is based on their income. Someone with a good income can be paying more in differential rent than another person renting a similar property in the private rental market.

It's also possible they are in a rent to buy scheme - I don't know if any of the local authorities still have any social housing stock left that they are selling to long term tenants who have the means to buy their house.

In either case there is no reason to assume their housing is being subsidised.

ComfortKid

You don't have to be unemploymed to get a council house, anyone can apply.

Theres no way their rent is only 45 quid! More like 60 at least. If they get a job the rent will go up.

princesstrixie

<Mod Snip>

Grand so I sign on. Another family to be paid for out of tax money. Dont be giving out when taxes go up. You can simply not justify the council buying a house in a street with prices of 320K on average and people living a council house who both work.
Only in Ireland this is happening.
If you live in a low rent (council) house in Belgium, the Netherlands Germany France etc. and you earn a good wages, you simply lose the house and have to rent a house with a higher rent.

Kelly06

Gatling wrote: »

They wouldn't be paying 30 pw .

They would be paying between 12-15 per child per week

So around € 48 -€50 pw for the kids alone

And another between €30 -€50 per adult pw + depending on various financial situations

This is incorrect I'm afraid. Council's use a differential rent scheme now. The rent is set at a certain percentage of household income. Different councils charge different percentages most of the Dublin ones charge 10% I think. Where this gets difficult is where there are adult children in the house who are earning a wage. They may be earning 400 a week and this will put the rent up by 40 to 60 euro depending on percentage. There is also a max rent charged as far as I'm aware. It's still a great deal but if you've adult employed children they will have to contribute!

ComfortKid

princesstrixie wrote:

>Mod Snip> Grand so I sign on. Another family to be paid for out of tax money. Dont be giving out when taxes go up. You can simply not justify the council buying a house in a street with prices of 320K on average and people living a council house who both work. Only in Ireland this is happening. If you live in a low rent (council) house in Belgium, the Netherlands Germany France etc. and you earn a good wages, you simply lose the house and have to rent a house with a higher rent.

Lose the house and get one with higher rent. Would keeping the same house and paying higher rent not be better? Why make people leave there house because they got a job, that would encourage people not to get a job if anything.

Kelly06

Youngblood.III wrote: »

It's sickening alright, I know two families who stayed in council housing while they earned good money, they both have their holidays homes in Kerry.

If this is correct, and the council gets wind of it they will also have a big fat summons for possession of their council house! You are not entitled to own property if you have a council house! It's a condition of your tenancy agreement that you are in need of housing, if you own a house in Kerry you will be told to go and live in it so that a family who is actually in need of housing may take up your council house. These people are probably having you on or perhaps they bought their council house when it was offered for sale and said nowt. If the situation is as you describe and they are found out they will be forcibly removed throughthe courts and it will be a long protracted legal battle.

Gatling

Kelly06 wrote: »

This is incorrect I'm afraid. Council's use a differential rent scheme now. The rent is set at a certain percentage of household income. Different councils charge different percentages most of the Dublin ones charge 10% I think. Where this gets difficult is where there are adult children in the house who are earning a wage. They may be earning 400 a week and this will put the rent up by 40 to 60 euro depending on percentage. There is also a max rent charged as far as I'm aware. It's still a great deal but if you've adult employed children they will have to contribute!

That's what my sister inlaw currently pays with her 4 kids and partner in college to sdcc .
so it's not incorrect at all

princesstrixie

ComfortKid wrote: »

Lose the house and get one with higher rent. Would keeping the same house and paying higher rent not be better? Why make people leave there house because they got a job, that would encourage people not to get a job if anything.

no because people with lower income need them houses. Hence the waiting list for a house only be about 6 months. How can the council sell council houses while there are families waiting for 10 years.

athtrasna

Mod Note: Just a reminder, this is accommodation and property, not the moan about the social welfare system forum. A lot of Off Topic posts have had to be deleted. Cards will be handed out to anyone continuing the off topic debate from now on.

Grab All Association

You can't just give up your job and go on a Social Welfare payment. You will not be allowed to claim anything for at least 2 months unless you were laid off or lets say you were bullied in the workplace and have a case with Employment Appeals Tribunal. And once you go on JSA you have to be actively seeking work and show proof of it.

<Mod Snip>

Lets say if this story was true though. They would have obviously have had a need for social housing and met the councils criteria.

Mrs OBumble

Kelly06 wrote: »

If this is correct, and the council gets wind of it they will also have a big fat summons for possession of their council house! You are not entitled to own property if you have a council house! It's a condition of your tenancy agreement that you are in need of housing, if you own a house in Kerry you will be told to go and live in it so that a family who is actually in need of housing may take up your council house.

That is not actually correct.

You must be in need of housing at the time when you are allocated a social (ie council or voluntary) house.

But once you have it, it's yours for as long as you want, provided you keep living there, pay the rent (usually income-related with a maximum), provide the council or trust with access to do maintenance, and don't get caught for anti-social behaviour.

That means you can indeed get a high paying job and buy a holiday home or fancy car etc - and still keep "your" house. Some people have done just that. Others have sent their kids to college. Etc.

Some people (including me) believe that this - technically called security of tenure - is just plain wrong: continued social housing access should be based on need. But they law as it stands doesn't agree with us.


What the OP asked about (ie the council buying a specific house for a specific family) certainly has happened in the past. I don't know if there are any current schemes which allow it, though. And I would not believe everything that a neighbour told me.

princesstrixie

Today the neighbor has showed me the contract they now have with the council. They pay a rent of 55 euro a week. They are also getting a cheque to buy new furniture.
A new front door will be put in and the attic will be converted as the house has only 4 bedrooms and they have 4 kids.

Stheno

If they are on benefits with four kids, then they are getting aroundabout €432 per week in welfare.

They don't get rent allowance for a house rented from the council, so €55 per week is 12.73% of their income, which is in and around the norm. It can be as low as ten percent

Labarbapostiza

Stheno wrote: »

If they are on benefits with four kids, then they are getting aroundabout €432 per week in welfare.

They don't get rent allowance for a house rented from the council, so €55 per week is 12.73% of their income, which is in and around the norm. It can be as low as ten percent

So, let's just say they're paying 10% of their dole per week; €43.20. Leaving them with 388.80. Now eating take out every night, how much would that cost, let's say 7.99 per head. €335.58, leaving them with €53.22, to pay for electricity, the purchase of cars, petrol, soap, foreign holidays, cornflakes. Divide that six ways and you have €8.67 per head for the rest of the week after their takeouts.

Not pointing any fingers.....but I'm having the feeling someone is pulling at my leg. A "No" voter type of leg puller. A little bit of a Pinocchio; like my landlord, the "service provider".

Stheno

Labarbapostiza wrote: »

So, let's just say they're paying 10% of their dole per week; €43.20. Leaving them with 388.80. Now eating take out every night, how much would that cost, let's say 7.99 per head. €335.58, leaving them with €53.22, to pay for electricity, the purchase of cars, petrol, soap, foreign holidays, cornflakes. Divide that six ways and you have €8.67 per head for the rest of the week after their takeouts.

Not pointing any fingers.....but I'm having the feeling someone is pulling at my leg. A "No" voter type of leg puller. A little bit of a Pinocchio; like my landlord, the "service provider".

Or eating home cooked meals at a total of max. 175 per week which is entirely doable?

Leaving them with 213.0 for electricity, gas/water/refuse/medical costs/school stuff/clothes/internet/tv/phones etc

This family however are paying more than 10% (Maybe it includes childrens allowance and so is ten percent) so they've even less

So between six of them after housing and feeding themselves, they've got about 36.50 per person per week to cover all additional costs?

ComfortKid

Stheno wrote:

Or eating home cooked meals at a total of max. 175 per week which is entirely doable?

OP said that the family is eating take aways every night of the week. They can't be doing that for less than 250 a week

Stheno

ComfortKid wrote: »

OP said that the family is eating take aways every night of the week. They can't be doing that for less than 250 a week

I don't see that in the OPs posts, where is it?

Labarbapostiza

Stheno wrote: »

Or eating home cooked meals at a total of max. 175 per week which is entirely doable?

175, divided among six, over seven days, €4.16 per person per day. Let's say three meals; €1.4 per meal. Doesn't really sound that high on the hog.

princesstrixie

Im not a society lady at all. Just wanted to know how these things work. I work 40 hours a week in a call center and earn 378 a week. My husband is a administrator and earns 532 a week. Our rent is 1250 a month and we have 3 kids. What percentage out of our wages do we pat in rent?