Council housing

youandme13 wrote: »

I'm not. I love with family so am a sole applicant I'm not scamming it 😞

Funny another account asking the same question on a different thread.

sallyanne12 wrote: »

A few questions I have about social housing
-are the houses generally all grouped together or do the council housing occupants live beside people who own their own homes? Like is it mostly council housing estates?
-if you get a council house and start saving money each month and manage to save a large sum over many years e.g. €100,000, would u still be entitled to the council house? Would u have to pay more for it or not? I mean if your earnings stay the same but you're just sensible with money and save instead of spend?!
-if you die, can your children inherit the house or does it always belong to the state? Im assuming it belongs to the state.
-if you buy the house, I understand you buy it at a reduced rate. But let's say the house is worth €400,000 and you buy for €200,000, can you resell it for €400,000?
-do you get to keep staying in the house if you get a new job and your income increases to €50,000 from €30,000 ?
-what percent of your income do you pay as rent?
-if you lose your job and have no income what happens your house? Or if you get cut from social welfare what happens your house?
-can you stay in a council house while you save for a mortgage in future?
-which area has the nicest council houses to apply for?

Sorry for all the questions I'm enquiring for a friend in a bad situation

1 - Pretty much all new builds are part of council estates, these maybe added onto an existing private estate in some cases, but even then they are kinda an estate on their own. For eg our house is 3 years old, it is in the back of an existing private estate, but they see us as a separate entity, there is maybe 200 private houses and 55 council ones at the back of the estate, they are very obviously not the same also as ours are plain white and smaller than the pebble dashed private homes which are a different model.



2 - After 12 months of renting a council home you are then eligible to begin buying said home, you get a discount on the buy value depending on your income, I think its 40/50/60% . You are then paying a mortgage to the council instead of rent. But there are limitations on when you can sell and how long you need to reside there etc, you can check these buy googling buy council house


3 - If an adult child is living with you, after a few years you can add them to the lease, if they have been on the lease for 5 years i believe when you die and actually reside in the house they may then be entitled to rent it from the council in their own capacity (Im unsure what the rules are surrounding this) But typically if you die the council take the house back if this is not the case, unless you do the whole buying scheme


4 - There are strict rules on reselling the house and i believe you need to offer it to the council at the reduced rate first in many of those. And for a number of years you need to get the councils permission to even sell it.



5 - If your income increases over the duration of your life/tenancy then you inform your council and your rent increases accordingly


6 - if you google your local councils rent rates it will give you the breakdown of the system they use to determine rent. But it is nothing like private renting!



7 - In most cases when you lose a job you are entitled to some sort of welfare, in this case again you notify the council and they drop your rent to he lowest level based on the number of people in the house, however if you have a grown child they can take their income into account for rent also. If at any point you stop paying the rent the council have the right to evict you



8 - Staying in a council house and saving for a mortgage kinda defeats the purpose of having the council house, which is generally for family's who cannot afford to save for a mortgage, if your income is so high that you can afford to save and get a mortgage then it is unlikely you would qualify for social housing, for eg in cork the income limit for a couple is only 36.5k a year


9 - There really is no area nicer than another. That is something you need to decide on your own really

sallyanne12 wrote: »

Thank you SO much for your reply. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me!!
You really answered all my queries.
Without sounding snobby, would ther be a lot of rough people around or is it generally a safe place to live in the council houses? Thanks again

People are thoroughly screened before being offered houses, if theyve got convictions or asbos they are less likely to be given a home.

I was apprehensive at the thought of a whole housing estate, but tbh weve been super lucky, all our neighbors are lovely and weve not had a single issue in 3 years.


And a few of the people have already began the transition to the buying scheme, were trying to work towards it ourselves atm

Would everyone in the estate know you’re in a council house or is it not obvious who is and who isn’t?

If you get the council house and at that time only 1 of the couple is working, but a few years later the other starts working and now you have 2 incomes, would you have to leave the house or would rent just increase? It’s confusing because if you applied in that case you would be refused, so why do they allow you stay?

And in the case you are allowed stay in the council house and you save up for a mortgage to buy a different house, would the bank decline or would having a council house go against you in any way?

sallyanne12 wrote: »

If you get the council house and at that time only 1 of the couple is working, but a few years later the other starts working and now you have 2 incomes, would you have to leave the house or would rent just increase? It’s confusing because if you applied in that case you would be refused, so why do they allow you stay?

If household income rises, then the rent rises.

There is a TD who is a social housing tenant.

One of the main reasons for social housing arrears is tenants not telling the council of higher incomes, and then owing back rent.

I'm paying €93 a week in rent. I'm a lone parent with 3 children, although the eldest is working atm. The younger two are still my dependents. I'm earning less than 25k a year. I queried it as to why they are basing it on my gross weekly earning and not my net take home but to no avail. They haven't even taken childcare costs into consideration for my youngest.

Gatling wrote: »

Who's your local authority

Laois

Gatling wrote: »

Sounds high but it could be based on house size Vs income ie 1,2,3,4 bed

When I appealed it the only response I got was;

Laois county council has considered an appeal of your rent increase and the decision is as follows, your rent will be increased to €93 in two stages.

Like ffs, they're still increasing it just staggering the increase.

It's a basic 3 bedroom semi detached and there is 4 of us here, I share my bedroom with the smallest so the older 2 can have a bedroom each for some privacy.

Scotty # wrote: »

The MAXIMUM rent per week is €21 per person with a household max of €84 per week.

So two adults earning €80k each per annum will pay a max rent of €42/week.

Dublin City council Rates 2019 - other councils may vary.

That is for subsidiary earners.

For the primary earner it is 15% of weekly assessable income.

So in your example, a couple on 80k each would pay about €250 per week.

@wifey28 maybe this is a silly question but how long after a meeting should you expect to receive an offer letter ? I am now in the same situation myself and checking the post everyday. Also is there certain days they send these registered letters ? Thank you I haven’t really been sleeping since my meeting