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"good apple" housing


ZeromiserY

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if anyone has had a bad experience with good apple housing and or the homelesness section please get in touch.

just want to know what the situation was and what happened. did you end up with a cooncil hooce or give up?

i ask because (long story short) i was staying with a friend while my girlfiend and i looked for a flat through the council. when the council found out he was letting me stay there they said he was sub-letting and kicked him out of his flat. (more to it than that that but i'm trying to keep it short. the way they treated him was shocking to say the least)

eventually through the homelesness section we were given a sketchy two-bed from the council on a temporary basis for no less than 800 PCM. (including bills and council tax, but still)

the cost is based on your income. my girlfriend has a 4 year old and they took into account all child benefits etc when calculating the rent but took no outgoings into account. because tax credits are recalculated when you move in with someone we were waiting 2 months until they were paid again. at the time this was a big chunck of our income and left us with 9 perishable income after travel to/from work, rent and making sure us and the little one were properly fed. so if i needed shaving cream or razors etc i was fucked. i had to give up smoking altogether while we stayed there so we could afford everything (i know most folks would say this is a good thing but being forced to give up smoking just to eat when you have a full time job is fucking insane) which made me a grumpy bastard and made this hellish time all the worse.

they offered us a place in a high rise in seaton. we turned it down as there was damp all over the fucker (i have eczema and the young 'un has asthma) and seaton isn't a great loction for us with where our families stay as we dont have a car. another few weeks down the line they offered us another flat in the same high-rise 7 floors up from the previous one. that was our lot. we got taken off the homelesness section and dumped back onto good apple. we couldnt afford the temp flat anymore with backed up bank charges from waiting for the tax credits coming through.

so here we are 18 months on. in much better shape financially but still unable to afford private rent and no offer from good apple even though we've had 50 points for over a year.

I'm afraid to tell them where i stay now in case i get someone else evicted.

i know that was a bit long winded but there was a lot more to it than that!

basically, i was thinking of getting in touch with my local councillor and wanted more ammuntion in the form of other people/families who've had problems with the way the council allocate housing etc.

please share your expereinces with good apple be they good or bad. if you want to keep them private then PM me. any PM's will be kept confidential unless you tell me you're happy for me to share your details with the councillor i plan on getting in touch with (neil fletcher)

thanks for reading this far and for anything you can add

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been a tennant for almost 4 years at just under 50 a week, if something is broke they fix it, get my grass cut for free, once returnd home to find all my door frames and window sills freshly glossed and cracked tiles replaced on my roof, If i ever have a problem with my heating, just phone up richard irvine and it all gets charged to the council. no problems what-so-ever,

sorry to hear of your predicament, however your name would have had to be on the rent card for you to live there, your mate isnt allowed to "sub-let" a council owned property, although many people do this regardless cause they don't really check untill shit hits the fan

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been a tennant for almost 4 years at just under 50 a week, if something is broke they fix it, get my grass cut for free, once returnd home to find all my door frames and window sills freshly glossed and cracked tiles replaced on my roof, If i ever have a problem with my heating, just phone up richard irvine and it all gets charged to the council. no problems what-so-ever,

sorry to hear of your predicament, however your name would have had to be on the rent card for you to live there, your mate isnt allowed to "sub-let" a council owned property, although many people do this regardless cause they don't really check untill shit hits the fan

thats why it was so ridiculous. he wasn't actually sub-letting to me. it was a one bed flat. i stayed on his couch 3/4 nights a week and he didnt ask me for any rent.

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i was a good apple tennent in a high rise in torry and had no complaints at all. was lucky, the flat was in great condition with no damp and whenever i needed repairs the council always fixed them quick. Piss cheap as well at 40 quid a week.

Still when I moved back to Aberdeen in 2007, it was much harder to get allocated housing. I was told that it was because of our eastern european friends, a lot were shipped up Aberdeen way during the post joining the EU boom. When I first moved to Aberdeen in 2001 I was offered 3 properties, as a single bloke, in 6 months. In 2007 in a year I was offered none.

I think it's a disgrace that people are treated the way you and your friend were, there should be affordable rented housing for all. I was very lucky when I moved down here as I got housed in 6 months but I had a good case as I was sleeping on my mums floor and she is in sheltered accomodation plus the waiting lists round here aren't so long. I initially wanted to move back my home city, Cambridge, but the waiting lists there are horrendous and would have had to wait probably 5 years for housing there!

I would get your councillor on the case as you have a strong case for decent housing (not damp ridden high rises in seaton!) sooner rather than later. It's the only way to do it, I had to fight and hassle and hound to get accomodation but worth it if you can, like me, bag a nice, big, affordable flat!

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I've been a council tenant for a couple of years. Low rent, repairs and maintenance are usually fine, no problems really.

Getting a flat's a bit of a lottery as there's so little stock. If you're fussy about where you want to stay, you could be waiting a loooong time. Then again, you might not.

Sounds like your mate should speak with someone from Shelter. It's usually quite hard to get evicted unless you don't pay rent or cause serious problems. If he's been screwed over, they'll probably have some good advice.

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