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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Right to Buy Gravy Train


imi

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Seen a similar programming the other day, council tenant bought his four bed council house for £150000 and immediately put it on the market for £1M+ and sold it soon after. Making a load of people on benefits millionaires almost over night. Unbelievable that the purchase of 'their' house doesn't come with very strict sell-on clauses.

 

There was also the programme on two nights ago about a Romanian man who came over with his family, set themselves up with every benefit going before the family returned home and he stayed and continued sending money back home. He had a five year plan to send 40-50k in benefit money back to Romania to allow him to build his own house, once he had enough money sent back he planned to return home. He had sent 9k back and it wasn't even a year in yet.

He couldn't understand the negative stigma attached to people on benefits, as he thought it was brilliant.

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We would all do the same if put in that position

 

Depends if you're talking about someone living in a council house for 30 years, buying and selling, or you are talking about that Romanian example.

 

I have never claimed benefits, even when I have been entitled to job seekers allowance. And in addition, I still paid my council tax which I would not have had to if I had been claiming. Benefits should only be for those who are desperately in need of them.

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Benefits should only be for those who are desperately in need of them.

 

AGREE

 

Benefits should only be for people that are NOT able to work.

As for support for people that were once in work and are not currently - they should be allowed a temp allowance to get back into work - just like in Europe.

 

I was hoping that the tories would take more significant measures in forcing ABLE people off their backsides by clamping down on their benefits.

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I was under the impression that you had to stay in your current address for 2-3 years, for whatever discount from the house value to be fully credited to you?

 

According to the program - 3 years - certainly back in the 80/90s. not sure what the current rule is.

 

Do all council tenants get the right to buy option?

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Council tenants should not have any right to buy the house.

 

It's not their home. They rent it.

 

This is the sole reason why council housing is short, and that for any new build, a certain percentage is for social and council housing, which really winds me up.

 

My ex girlfriends sister bought a flat for £350,000 and her next door neighbour was a council tenant.

 

How is that fair?

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According to the program - 3 years - certainly back in the 80/90s. not sure what the current rule is.

 

Do all council tenants get the right to buy option?

 

The right to buy ends completely for everyone in Scotland from 1st August 2016, and in most of the county I live in, only tenants whose tenancy has been continuous since prior to September 2002 can currently purchase their council homes (or certain housing association homes) at a discount.

 

 

The rule used to be that 100% of the discount had to be paid back if selling in the first year, 66% in the second year and 33% in the third year, so that only after four years had elapsed since the sale, you could pocket the all the profit.

 

If the tories have done away with that, then they are even more stupid than I thought. Selling council homes in Scotland was found to drastically reduce the higher quality social housing stock and create an underclass of owner occupier who can't afford to maintain or improve their homes, without access to publicly funded grants!

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Council tenants should not have any right to buy the house.

 

It's not their home. They rent it.

 

This is the sole reason why council housing is short, and that for any new build, a certain percentage is for social and council housing, which really winds me up.

 

My ex girlfriends sister bought a flat for £350,000 and her next door neighbour was a council tenant.

 

How is that fair?

 

Agree, the housing is there to help people who are unable to rent or buy a normal house. It makes no sense to me at all and should never have been allowed in the first place. It's another way of sponging off the state to get more than what you deserve. Everyone else works their arse off to be able to afford a crappy run down house that they have to do up, why should people get a free ride ?? The council has just redone all the roofs near me what's betting some people are buying now ? There are too many handouts from the state and it's destroying the country.

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Agree, the housing is there to help people who are unable to rent or buy a normal house. It makes no sense to me at all and should never have been allowed in the first place. It's another way of sponging off the state to get more than what you deserve. Everyone else works their arse off to be able to afford a crappy run down house that they have to do up, why should people get a free ride ??

 

Council housing was started as a result of the slum conditions and high rents that ordinary working people had to endure in the early years of the 20th century and in particular, immediately after WW1.

 

In the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, council housing was of a standard as high, if not higher, than the private houses of the day. The cost cutting in the 1960's and 1970's led to poorer quality housing, which has led to the poor reputation that it now has. The reason for that is that councils are political organisations and politics and housing are uneasy bedfellows. Most European countries have social housing of a sort, but it is provided by Housing Associations, which are non political and non profit making organisations.

 

The rental market on the continent is much larger than here in the UK, with the majority of people renting at affordable rents, with long tenancies. Their rents are much lower than the private rentals in the UK, which means that it doesn't have to be subsidised by the tax payer in the form of housing benefit. Housing Benefit is effectively a reward for landlords charging higher rents and paid for out of general taxation.

 

Council houses need to be transferred to housing associations here in the UK to de-politicise social housing and to allow it to be improved to a higher quality. The right to buy social housing is an aberration, if tenants want to buy their properties, let them do so at the market value, not at a subsidised discount.

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Agree, the housing is there to help people who are unable to rent or buy a normal house. It makes no sense to me at all and should never have been allowed in the first place. It's another way of sponging off the state to get more than what you deserve. Everyone else works their arse off to be able to afford a crappy run down house that they have to do up, why should people get a free ride ?? The council has just redone all the roofs near me what's betting some people are buying now ? There are too many handouts from the state and it's destroying the country.

 

The council are doing a load of roofs in the area I'm buying my house.

And the house im buying is ex council house, with the next door neighbour being council owned, but ours isn't getting done.

 

Once I've moved in I'll be ringing them to say they will replace the roof.

 

It's annoying

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Personally most people will wait until the roof or boiler needs redoing and then snap them up afterwards to save a few £k. Regarding the standards of building quality some of these places have, you could have a snagging list longer than the F&F runway after a nose about.

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The council are doing a load of roofs in the area I'm buying my house.

And the house im buying is ex council house, with the next door neighbour being council owned, but ours isn't getting done.

 

Once I've moved in I'll be ringing them to say they will replace the roof.

 

It's annoying

 

Council were offering to do ex council houses too at a reduced rate if the house had been bought with in so many years can't remember exactly.

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Up until recently I worked in a housing association.

 

The fact these days is very few people still have the right to buy option with these high discounts, they need to have been tenants for a long time and often aren't in a position to afford to buy even with the discount.

 

Most other tenants have the right to acquire option which whilst it sounds the same it has very minor discounts in comparison (certainly not headline making ones) and isn't taken up much in my experience.

 

Government implemented those sort of rules.

 

Housing association's are generally formed by taking on ex council houses and there maintenance, so just like homeowners or landlords there is a cycle of major works, ie Boilers, kitchens, bathrooms, windows etc every 10, 15, 20 years. They are not for profit organisations, which effectively means any surplus from rental income, goes back into building new homes. There are government guidelines on rent levels that can be charged, there is a decent homes standard set and HA's have to bring up their stock to this level, so again generally strict government guidelines on how they are run.

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My parent bought their council house after living their for 15-20 years, they were given a substantial discount as they had been tenants for quite some time. I recently bought a house down the road from them as an investment, and paid more than 5 x the price they purchased their home for.

 

Scary thought, but each area has different circumastances.

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Guest Nicholas

I find this really strange, if you're a private renting tenant you have no right to buy the house you're renting so why do the council offer substantial discounts to people so they can. Perhaps im missing something, just seems like an easy ride.

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