Letter: I’m trapped in a rented property that needs repairs
Tuesday 19th October 2010, 9:02AM BST.
Letter: I have now been on the waiting list for a house for two years and was forced to move into a privately rented house with my three children 18 months ago, following the breakdown of my marriage.
Like many other people I am now trapped in the private rented property as I am not working and am therefore unable to obtain another privately rented property.
I have been pressing the landlord to undertake numerous repairs to the property for 18 months.
Amongst other issues, I have water leaking through the walls of the property and running into the kitchen which has caused the ceiling to collapse.
Despite my repeated requests my landlord has failed to undertake the required repairs.
Telford & Wrekin Council has recently stated that they will shortly serve notice on the landlord to force him to undertake the repairs and yet I am still having to raise my young family in an unsafe environment.
I am not alone in this experience and many people on my local estate are also living in properties that do not meet the basic requirements. A large portion of the housing stock on Sutton Hill is in desperate need of regeneration.
I think it’s disgusting that local Tory councillors feel that it is more important for them to build themselves new offices rather than ensuring there is reasonable public housing for the people whom they are supposed to represent.
Carrie Jacks
Telford
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the simple answer would be for you to get a job and drag yourself out of this “pit of despair”
After the spending review on Wednesday, the emphasis will be on everyone to pull their socks up and look after themselves. Hanging around the council offices, cap in hand will no longer be an option. There won’t be anyone there to help.
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Gringo – fantastic comment, i totally agree with you.
If the lady had identified these issues quickly she could have called T&W Council Enforcement team who would have assessed her in a matter of weeks and put in measures to ensure the repairs are fixed.
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You can tell this is a person that as never had to struggle with life . Why our we making life for our own people a struggle when we are paying 40,000 polish people child benefits government figures and that’s just Poland why ? These children don’t live in the uk why do we hit our own people Tories don’t want these people to go home it keels the wages down for the working class and we all know they hate the working class always have always will .
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Ray, thanks for your response comment.
Sadly you are incorrect, my home is currently being repossessed.
Can i ask what makes you think i am not struggling? Is it because i believe these people should work and not have children unless they can provide for them, i thought that was common sense really, or was it the sensible comment i also posted about sorting the issues yourself, seeking help from your local Council.
Did you know Ray i actually have two jobs myself, the reason i haven’t had children is because i know i can not provide a decent roof over their heads, just yet!
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Hey Bear,
Obviously you live within your means and like me do lots to try and help yourself. I think the lady in the letter actually mentioned that she was able to look after her and her children while she was married, and the unfortunate collapse between her and her husband. Which makes the point of “she was able to look after them and she is not complaining about looking after them. She is complaining about the living situation”
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Great comment Gringo.
Carrie, you are not trapped, what you need to do in this situation is move into another privatley rented home.
When you spotted the issues in your current home, you should have contacted the Council straight away,, the matter would have been sorted within a week.
Also two years is not a lot of time on a Housing Assotiation waiting list, it may be 5 years or more. My opinion is to move id you don’t like it.
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pray tell us how do you ‘JUST FIND A JOB!!”
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There has to be an element of personal responsibility here:
why should it be acceptable that you have three children and no plans to provide for them?
I assume the father, (or fathers), are also on benefits, otherwise you would have an income through maintenance.
While it is unacceptable for the landlord to reap rewards in the form of rent for a property that is unlivable, and the merits of the Telford municipal palace are questionable, there is still a shocking lack of personal responsibility from the letter writer. She should be happy we live in a country where if you cant be bothered to provide for your family you dont simply starve.
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I agree Andy, your children, your responsibility.
These people really do frustrate me, just expect from others and handoouts.
Should be grateful for a roof over their heads.
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Have you invited your MP to view your property ? have you invited your councillors to view your property? have you invited the Shropshire star .
NAME AND SHAME THE LANDLORD WHO IS HE/SHE??.
It is grabbing immoral landlords like this that give others a bad name he is I assume being paid rent by the state your MP should be interested in this abuse of government money and if he is not ask why?.
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with the coming “social” housing cuts of upto 50% expect to see more of this from private landlords as people are forced to take private renting, the end of social/council housing started under Thatcher in her quest to wipe it out selling them off and failing to build new ones, The condems are just finishing the job.
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Not exactly correct it is my belief the building of affordable homes will continue.Lets be blunt about this the conservatives love their cheap labour they are well aware they need to provide affordable homes for that luxury.Many posting on here on this subject are being blinded by the benefit element, that to any decent moral person is not an excuse for some immoral landlord to exploit the tenant by ripping off the tax payer .
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Your/their property is depreciating by the day. Can you not make them realise that? That they save or make money by getting the jobs done! Get an estate agent, preferably several, to come and value it making a perfect opportunity to engage them for advice. Failing that or also go your nearest Citizens Advice ASAP. And of course councillors as previously advised because one delapidating property is going to degrade the worth of those around it.
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Just for info, if it is not your property, no estate agent will come and value it
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Try being on a waiting list for over eight years whilst watching dishonest people jump straight on into social housing and spend the subsequent time wrecking said housing for kicks. I actually complained to my local MP at one time after having encountered a number of people, in a short space of time, who had either gone to their GPs feigning depression to gain the medical need criteria to jump the list or had whichever family member they were residing with write a letter stating they were no longer welcome in the home, again enabling them to jump the list. The MP in question told me not to ‘believe fairy stories’. That MP lost their seat recently which gave me some satisfaction, however the big knock to my self-esteem caused this disdain afforded to me by someone who clearly viewed me as one of the ‘little people’ remains. Those who work in public service never seem to remember that the little people effectively pay them. It just doesn’t pay to be an honest person in this country.
It is also increasingly difficult to find private rentals that accept children these days, which I find hilarious because the rental properties I’ve seen in the most diabolical condition have been those rented by the apparent holy grail of tenants…the young professional. On the one hand I’m exceptionally lucky to have a privately rented property over my child’s head, but on the other hand several windows are literally falling out of the frames, the fridge loses power when anything else in the kitchen is turned on and there are places where nothing but sheer good luck keeps the floor from falling in…and then there’s the holes I’ve had to fill in with mounds of newspaper and carrier bags to stop the incessant invasion from the local bug population.
Well that’s desperately striving to be middle class Shrewsbury for you.
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Well, several points arising here:
1) Thanks to the stupidity and naivety of the last government, housing benefit is based on the median of rents in a local area, which means that every time a rent goes up, this will reflect in council records and the amount payable over the average will also go up, with no consideration at all for condition of the property. Hence a continuous upward spiral of housing benefit payments – currently just short of £20 BILLION, (i.e. £20,000,000,000)!
This has resulted in canny landlords buying up huge swathes of Sutton Hill, Brookside, Woodside, etc for next to nothing and then renting the properties out expressly to benefits claimants who are the only ones who benefit from the bottomless pit of money available.
On a house bought for £60,000 (not unusual in these less than desirable areas), a monthly rent of £600 (probably more for a single mother with three children in a three bed house) gives the landlord a return of %10 against which can be set deductions against tax, a much better rate than banks or building societies, and all funded by local councils.
There’s no incentive to repair houses as long as the basic legal niceties such as gas safety certificate are met then there’s no legal obligation to make sure that the ceiling hasn’t fallen in.
Thankfully, the coalition has announced a cap on housing benefit and a reduction in calculation of payment of local rent from median to 30th percentile, which should have the result of reducing rents and making such returns more difficult to get, which will go some way to knocking feckless landlords out of the chain, resulting in more responsible landlords. If landlords want the money, they will need to supply a decent product.
2) Not sure why, if the writer is already in private rented housing, they cannot switch to another house. Why is there an obligation to stay in a wreck of a house when there are better ones elsewhere? Bad references maybe? Lack of gumption and total reliance on others? If you wanted out badly enough, you’d find a way, especially for the sake of the children.
It may be the case that the experience of many private landlords has been to have housing benefit funded tenants default or wreck their house in the past, so are more picky about who they take, meaning that tenants with such a history do end up in wrecks that are used solely as a cash generator, with landlord not worried about condition and just walking away when it’s “exhausted”, leaving the boarding up and demolition to the council.
3) There are many houses in Sutton Hill that require regeneration, but many of those, if not most, are privately owned by landlords looking to benefit from the system as outlined above. I hope that no-one is suggesting the TW Council regenerate private properties to make them more comfortable for tenants of private landlords. TWC have a responsibility to maintain public housing stock,but I suspect that, in common with all councils, they actually do keep them at highest possible levels of repair.
4) Before to many shout at me, I also do recognize and criticize the wholesale sell-off of public housing to tenants in the 80′s and beyond. It was a rip-off to the taxpayer as well as future tenants; but in the intervening 20 ears and a three term socialist government, the situation has deteriorated, not improved.
BTW, I have just got a leaflet from CHEC pushed through my door. Services include “signposting to a wide variety of support services”, so if you really are as reliant on others as you make out, then go down the Madeley and get some more advice.
Sorry to sound hard, but Gringo’s right – good times were here, but hard times are coming and you need to learn to think for your self now.
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Afaid I must agree with Gringo (comment 1).
Get yourself a job and stop sponging off those of us who have got one and pay their taxes.
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I pay a huge amount of tax, I have a massive mortgage, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink…. to be honest I don’t even go out really as me and my wife have bills to pay! Obviously we both work, and don’t get any handouts or benefits. Therefore we use something called contraception, as it would be wholly irresponsible for us to have children and not be in a position to financially support them or us to the level we all deserve!
When my heating breaks down, or my roof starts leaking I have to pay for it myself as there is no-one else to complain to!
I have controversial views on housing benefits and I’m sure that the human rights brigade will want me hanged for my views but here goes anyway!…. There are empty warehouse units all over the place, lets house everyone in them, lets sell off the council houses to private buyers and offer no discounts to ex-tenants (no one gave me a discount on the house I worked hard for). If tenants are not happy with their windowless warehouse shared with hundreds of other people, they can make a choice…. live with it or work hard to get out!
There is little incentive to work hard these days as the better off get penalised for working hard and being successful while the poor get rewarded.
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Well all I can say squire is you should not have lumbered yourself with such a high level of debt .The housing benefit issue I am not totally aware of how it works but I understand many are on it in the private sector, and also many who will lose jobs will be on it in the coming 5 years home owners/ mortgage payers /tenants etc many who I assume may think it will not happen to them and comment on such forums as this.
The no discounts to ex council tenants is an interesting one you have no valid reason for this other than YOU never had it mmmm so you would then have taken it if offered???, nobody turns down free money.
You will always have low paid workers who work very hard up to 60 hours a week and may not be bright enough to better themselves however these very same people NEED DECENT LOW AFFORDABLE HOMES they may be helping you on and off the toilet when you are old and can’t look after yourself in the future squire, in my opinion it may be not be pc but you should not get old squire and if you do and become incontinent sort it out yourself..
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I agree, people do need affordable homes. This is why I’m suggesting that council houses are sold off at market value, this flood of houses would force house prices down. Council estates are full of affordable housing which are pretty much gifted to people that can afford to smoke, drink, drive nice cars and have holidays to Benidorm. Its these houses that should be sold off and the work-shy inhabitants housed in warehouses. Therefore the low paid but hard working people will be able to afford houses without assistance, and the job dodgers can have an incentive to work.
I understand that the welfare system is there for good reason, and that there are many that deserve the benefit of free housing etc. so please don’t misunderstand me. We need to be harder on those that chose not to work as a lifestyle choice.
PS. I know I have generalised a lot above, so please read my comments in the context with which they were intended.
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Squire. Your big fat mortgage facilitated by a big fatcat mortgage provider has been sucking money out of the economy for years. You claim not to be on any benefits yet the appreciation in house prices over the last ten years far out weighs money received by benefit claimants. Bet you were not complaining when you sat back on your leather recliner getting the missus to get you another whiskey when you read the value of your house had gone up 20,30 grand year on year. Thats where the money went. On your bleedin the ecomnomy dry mortgage. Greedy.
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Who is getting free housing? association house rental is £390 pm 3 bed yes lower than private but that is why it is classed as affordable, ok some tenants may be on the dole but not all are (and it does depend on what part of the country you live in) and as such they get help with rent this though includes the people in private rentals and mortgage payers who have lost jobs.Many council houses have been sold off and many councils have sold off council house or handed them over to Housing associations so if we focus on the council house estates left in the cities etc nobody would buy these as they are run down and only fit for knocking down and redevelopment .
I agree with you the long term unemployed and long term sick needs to be looked at and benefits cut as it is a major issue but is being dealt with however we now have to factor in the new unemployed, graduates, etc . I would also add it is easy for a well paid mortgage payer to take the high ground but we live in shropshire a low paid county so getting on the ladder is or could be impossible for many no matter how hard they work . Many of my family worked in low paid jobs but all own their own homes but they were buying 25-30 years ago when houses were cheap.As for people smoking, drinking, holidays abroad, driving new cars you are I am afraid making a lot of assumptions you do not know peoples situations . I used to go to work at 4am in the morning and be home for 2pm and I remember some in the village thought I never worked and when they found out I had been doing the same job for 15 years the odd little bigot did look rather silly as what had they been saying for years was clearly made up .It is best left to the government as they no the figures and facts and they are paid to deal with it many just need to think for themselves and stop reading the tabloids.
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Andrew Finch:
“It is best left to the government”
The only question this could possibly be a valid answer to is:
“How can we best muck this up?”
Nice to know there are still those who believe in magic and fairy tales, and the competency of government – and in that I mean ALL parties.
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dear andrew
i have seen your postings for many a day and not agreed, especially as a teacher. however, this time i appreciate your cohesive understanding of a real problem. i bought my house on woodside when i got a full time job because i could not afford the rent. this did not stop the mould, water coming through the roof, etc because of the poor build. it is easy to say x,y and z but life is not that easy.
so andrew i may not appreciate everything you say BUT you have gone up in my estimation [for what's that's worth!]
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What a horrible attitude Squire! Andrew is right, I totally agree with him. No one knows what might happen in the future, you might lose your home and need help. But maybe instead of affordable housing you’ll end up in a windowless empty factory. Helping families to live in a nice, warm home and bring their kids up properly will only help society. And I bet you’ve had help somewhere down the line.
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As I said above, I fully appreciate that the system is there for good reason to help those that genuinely need it. But if the worst did happen to me and I were living in a horrible environment, you can be sure I would be doing EVERYTHING I could to resolve the situation. Like it or not there is a massive amount of people in this county that are happily abusing the system!
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Im a single Father.. I have to go out and work to pay to improve my families life, maybe I can do a few extra hours so that the taxman can take a little more off me to give to you.
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Whilst this particular lady has stated she is currently not working, you don’t know her personal circumstance and so to assume she is happily ‘sponging’ off the state is wrong.
Time and again when the subject of social housing rears its head the same assumption is always spouted out in one vitriol filled diatribe after another, the assumption that every social tenant or prospective social tenant is supported financially by the state. This is a gross inaccuracy. Your average national minimum waged worker works just as hard if not harder than those on middle incomes however they will bring home approx 12,000 p/a. Unfortunately due to greed the property market has inflated itself to such an extent that the most frugal low income earner can never hope to save a deposit let alone afford a mortgage, in fact we are now at the point where our middle income earners have little hope of reaching the echelons of home ownership unless they reside in the key-worker category. Take a look at average rents in Shropshire and you’ll see that the sort of basic accommodation that most people would turn their noses up at has outstretched your frugal low income earner too. Also the assumption that all those out of work, especially in the current economic climate, are so jolly happy to be so is insulting to your countrymen and detrimental to the nation as a whole. And before some bright spark shrills ‘well they should aim higher and get a better job’ I’d love to see you deal with your own waste, sewage, power, transportation networks and the personal care you may need should you become infirm all on your lonesome. No really I would love to see that.
The greed of home-owners and landlords is bringing us us back to times when only the wealthy owned land and everyone else from doctors to teachers to house maids were looked down upon as far inferior beings. It used to be that people would have ambitions for achievement, now all you want is more money money money.
So let’s solve the housing problem, let’s pass a law that knocks everyone’s property value down to the cost of materials, labour and land. Anything more would be simply unethical. Lets limit by strict license the number of properties any landlord may own and make it compulsory that all lettings are to be commissioned through government agency. Any landlord who does not maintain their property to widely held ideas of ‘acceptable’ should be stripped of the ownership of said property and the proceeds of the sale will be retained by government in what we’ll call the ‘greedy bugger tax’. This tax can then be pumped into education, healthcare and a compulsory scheme somewhat like national service whereby all those with privilege must spend time with those who, through no fault of their own, live in poverty. This scheme will unable the privileged to learn what it is to be a responsible well informed citizen and in the process we will greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to these individuals learning to stop huffing and puffing hot air into the ozone, one or two may even be prompted to get their hands dirty and do something for charity.
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Nic,
That sounds a tad too like communism for me!
Wer had the opportunity to reset the housing market when the crisis hit: let the banks go. All that public money only served to prop up the housing market which is still an inflated bubble.
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Whilst I agree to a certain extent with those who say get a job, it seems deeply unfair for anyone to tell the author that she shouldn’t have children if she can’t support them. Presumably she was financially stable when the children were born but her circumstances have changed due to the break down of the relationship. How is anyone supposed to know 100% that their relationship or financial status will never change? The benefits system exists to help those who need it. She can’t go back in time and not have children just in case one day her husband leaves her.
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Sue,
I think it is you making the giant assumption, there is nothing in the letter to support your presumption of her previous financial state.
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True, but it’s still not helpful for people to say ‘Well, you shouldn’t have any kids if you can’t afford a decent place to live’. The children already exist and the letter implies that they used to live somewhere better or she wouldn’t be resorting to writing letters to local papers to try to get the landlord to take action.
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I agree with Sue.
It never ceases to amaze me how small minded the people of this so called town are. I like to put it down to ignorance. I think a lot of it is due to people not actually seeing beyond the end of their own back yard.
People should not assume what other people’s circumstances are like, from, their own ivory towers.
None of us know what will happen to us in the future. We can have comfotable lives on year and then land on hard times the following year through NO fault of our own.
This lady has ended up in a rented home through no fault of her own, with what sounds like an idiot of a landlord.
I suggest everyone takes a look at their own lives before they start poking comments at this lady. For all any of you know she may have paid quite a lot of tax for quite a number of years and is therefore ENTITLED to some help.
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Have you registered on http://www.chooseyourhome.org.uk ? If your current house is unfit to live in you may be banded as more needy than some others and may be able to choose an alternative home.
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Well Nic, despite being a “hard working, home-owning, tax-paying minor capitalist” I’ve got to say that I agree with about 95% of what you say.
I suspect that the bile and ignorance poured out by most of the previous commentors is at least partly due to the fear of finding themselves in a similar situation to those they claim to despise.
One thing that living through Thatcher’s reign taught me is that there’s no bigot more bigotted than a low-income, working class Tory.
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Get the issues fixed and bill you landlord for the repairs. He can hardly punish you for improving the property!
If all else fails, take a small claim against your landlord for the cost of the repairs.
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Not sure that she’s getting enough income to be able to afford a ceiling replacement in the hope that she might win the case in court in a few months time. Even if she does and does win, the landlord probably won’t pay up anyway.
If she could afford major repairs, then she could afford to put a rent deposit down on a new property and move out of this one.
Best advice: move out, live somewhere else and do it quick before winter sets in.
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What right do some of these people have to label this lady a benefit scrounger?. They have no inkling of her true status, and Gringo’s reply is stupid beyond belief. She has 3 children to care for, how many jobs can you find in that area that would support a family of 3 and pay for child care too?. Maybe she has no qualifications to boost her employment prospects, and I believe, there are many qualified, able bodied, and unencumbered people in Telford who cannot find a job.
I have no sympathy with the true benefit scroungers, but would not stoop to class this lady as one without being aware of the true nature of her situation.
A little compassion and a fair trial is not too much to ask. I would like this lady to write again and tell us exactly what her situation is, might make a few people here think again. I wish her luck.
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All those who think it’s so easy as a single parent to go out to work when you have children, I take you’re all happy to provide free childcare for the lady in question?
Maybe she cannot get a job that pays enough to cover the benefits she will lose if she chooses to go to work thus making her financially worse off and unable to pay her rent making her and her children homeless.
Maybe she had her children before she found herself in this inmpoverished state.
Maybe the fathers are as irresponsible as mine was and go out of their way to make sure the relevant agencies can’t catch up with them for maintenance.
Maybe she is irresponsible.
Until you know which one of these maybe’s are fact you have no right to accuse her of being a sponger. You have no way of knowing that’s waht she is.
No one likes paying taxes and higher bills but we’ve all got to do it and blaming others for it is a waste of time and energy. What about a bit of good old fashioned human empathy, doesn’t cost anyone anything so why is it so hard to find these days?
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I think most peoples issue is not with the lady above, but more the hideously flawed system that we have today.
You said it yourself above regarding being worse off if she chose to work. Surely this is not right….. worse off working, its a joke. I know of an employer locally that has been struggling to recruit staff over the past few months because previous employees that had to be laid off due to the recession are now better off, and they get 365 days holiday a year. Things need to change!
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Perhaps if this employer you speak of were to offer a salary and conditions more favourable than the benefit system, then they might not find it so difficult to recruit.
Catch 22
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Aww, bless! Despite her obvious great personal difficulties, Carrie Jacks still finds the time to attack her Tory councillors.
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The reference to “affordable Housing” is laughable – just what is affordable?
Some new builds now require a 30% deposit and are aimed at key workers, but no one clearly defines a key worker and no one has contol of developers to ensure they are sold to key workers.
Cllr eade was given a reply to a housing summit report months ago and promised a reply within 4 weeks of receiving it. Guess what, he never relied has continues to duck the issue completely.
First time buyers are becoming an increasingly rare species, so what chance do people have especially when the west midlands could loose 300,000 jobs in the coming few years.
Don’t blame this lady, have a closer look at the system that is failing her and the 15,000 currently on T&W Housing waiting list, or are people going to say they are all scroungers etc.
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“Affordable housing” includes rented accommodation and as anyone below the set threshold gets housing benefit anyway, that makes almost all housing “affordable”.
I have not rushed to get on the “writer is a scrounger” bandwagon, but I can be 99% sure that the money that pays for her to live in this property does not come from her owned earned money. It’s actually the state paying for (and being ripped off if the house is not habitable) not the writer. That is how the state provides “affordable housing” nowadays – not everyone has to be, or wants to be, an owner-occupier.
And while I concur that said housing should be decent, I also believe that if it is decent and someone wants better, then they need to spend their own pennies to get it.
I have a decent car, but would like better, but why should I expect the council to pay for it – ditto accommodation.
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Rented accom in the private sector is more expensive than council or housing association and requires large deosits many cannot afford to pay.
Job losses that have happened and will continue to happen have seen a considerable rise in repossesions, credit ratings reduced to zero etc etc, social housing is far more cost effective than the private sector and more and more are in need of it, the waiting list in T&W alone clearly displays that.
Maybe if housin associations reinvested the money from property sales they make in T&W rather than places like the potteries, less would be in need.
The Council has about 60 proerties which is just below the magic figure of making them a social housing landlord.
It is very clear that many are very short sighted in their views on the current and pending housing problems, but that will soon change when they are marching to join the housing queue, watch the figures rise and substantially at that.
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A little off the subject but we live in a society that expects high standards of everything…for nothing. luxury items are now considered the norm rather than a privelege. I agree that everyone has the right to safe and secure housing, but the attitude seems to be that this should be at the expense of everyone else bar themselves. I hope this new government will start to ‘reward’ those who work and strive to be successful. With all of our handouts we have taken the insentive away from being a success and working hard for a better life.
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No shrews you have missed the point the landlord is taking money from the government via the tenant and for that he provides poor housing and is getting away with ripping of the tax payer. If the lady was living in a private rental and working would that be any different??? because these landlords are still doing it to them .luxury is not the issue here we have a collapsed ceiling water down walls etc etc any decent person would see that as wrong .
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The simple solution is:- IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT MOVE, if you can afford one private rent you can afford another, regarding a housing waiting list, they take years, what do you expect???
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It’s painfully obvious that many of the above have never had to live quite as hand-to-mouth as a single-parent mother of three has to.
None of us have any way of knowing how she came to be in that situation so we cannot comment on her morals. But I can imagine the difficulty and isolation of her rental problems. She can’t move to another private rent because she’d need several months rent in advance and a hefty deposit which she no doubt paid on this property when she moved in but will never get back because the morals of many landlords are much more questionable than those of their tenants, DSS or otherwise. It can cost anything up to a couple of grand each time you rent a new property. And if she had that sort of money to hand, you’d all be condemning her for that instead.
Get back into the real world, you lot. If only life were that simple.
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“The simple solution is:- IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT MOVE”
I believe the rather blunt reply to that should be “No s**t, Sherlock”.
Do you know, I think someone who can write a coherent letter to the paper clearly explaining her problem has just possibly thought of that one and would have moved if she could.
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I wouldn’t have thought so Kath, because if she had of contacted the correct people, they would have helped her – it really is as simple as that….
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well after panorama last night we do seem to have an issue with landlords fleecing the tax payer .No better than benefit cheats and scroungers in my view.
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Coherent? Dosen’t this mean logical?
Why dosen’t she move if she is not happy in her present accomodation, to help herself?
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This is a disgrace.We are one of the wealthiest nations on eath No one should have poor housin g no matter what their situation.Private rentals are a sham and should be better regulated.
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Totally agree Ian. I wish people would stop giving this woman stupid, fatuous advice or trying to blame her for this, her situation is intolerable.
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Agree people should be looking at the big issue here especially the “its my tax that is paying for it brigade” and that is this woman’s landlord is ripping the tax payer off, one moron says move and ignores the fact we have a scummy landlord ripping the tax payer off for thousands .
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Andrew, your comments are so boring, why don’t you contact the lady in question, as your knowledgable self seems to know everything on every topic (or you think you do)
You believe this women in Intolerable circumstances should stay in her home then? How strange?
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Maybe she should get some advice herself then?
If it is so intolerable, personally i think she should move.
Who’s the best person to blame here then Kath?
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I quite agree with Pat , this lady is at the bottom of the social housing structure and possibly due to no fault of her own, and this is where all the support should be.
It is interesting to note that the Chancellor has RESTRICTED housing benefit to a maximum of £20800 per annum and that a recent statement was made to the effect that the maximum currently payable is about £104000PA, who are the people getting this sort of money and why,are they Jobseekers or MP`s [which is most likely the case], I`l bet there are not many of them in Brookside or even Shropshire and The West Midlands
I put it to all of you, why are maxima of this level necessary ? If benefits were restricted to the average social housing rents for a particular area and Chelsea . Fulham, Knightsbridge etc excluded we might have a relatively fair system.
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I have had friends in aberdeen with this same problem. Legally you are within your rights to with hold rent payment as the registered landlord is not holding up the the rental agreement. There are also many council departments that are abl;e to help with this kind of situation. If the landlord is not a “registered landlord”, then he is breaking the law. To become a registered landlord the accommodation must follow strict guidelines. Such as smoke detectors, CO2 detectors, clear and safe evacuation points etc. If the accommodation is causing you to be unwell (which damp will do to asthmatic’s etc) then also try for compensation! Keep a papertrail of all the letters/e-mails/phone calls to the landlord etc. Good luck and I hope you get what you need.
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