£7,000 free to council tenants in Sheffield

[gpsy 10]

It would be easy to check. If anyone knows when this decision was made a quick check with the land registry would soon reveal anyone taking advantage of the situation.

[Douglas J 10]

The is a legal entitlement to a compensation payment when someone is forced to move by one of the public authorities using compulsory purchase powers. this applies to tenants, home-owners and non-resident owners and is completely unrelated to being on benefits, working for the council or looking shifty.

 

The standard home loss payment is now about £4000 - not going to check the exact sum right now. this is to compensate for the non-monetary loss of your home. in addition, disturbance payments may be made - these are to pay for the actual costs of moving.

 

in practice, when the Council wants to demolish homes, almost all are acquired by negotiation and the Council agrees to pay the equivalent sum to the home loss payment. it's obviously sensible to do so or the tenant has an incentive to sit tight and force the Council to go through the laborious compulsory purchase procedure.

[gpsy 10]

I can understand the need for compensating someone, but to me the £7,500 figure seemed excessive. Especially when you consider that on top of this they'll have to pay the landlord whatever amount too and this is just one house of many.

 

This person is happy though, they have a nice new place to look forward to plus a spending spree. The one thing that got me is that they'll have £7,500 in the bank - although probably not for long. With that in mind, how do they still qualify for housing benefit etc. if they then officially have this amount of money? Is it not means tested?

 

I don't have an issue with compensating the person in question, but the amount in question seems excessive.

[Douglas J 10]

I can understand the need for compensating someone, but to me the £7,500 figure seemed excessive. Especially when you consider that on top of this they'll have to pay the landlord whatever amount too and this is just one house of many.

 

This person is happy though, they have a nice new place to look forward to plus a spending spree. The one thing that got me is that they'll have £7,500 in the bank - although probably not for long. With that in mind, how do they still qualify for housing benefit etc. if they then officially have this amount of money? Is it not means tested?

 

I don't have an issue with compensating the person in question, but the amount in question seems excessive.

 

Yes but, as i said, the home loss payment is about £4000 not £7500. any additional payment for a 'disturbance allowance' is based on actual expenditure so it's not a windfall.

[gpsy 10]

This person has a self furnished property already and they're taking all their stuff with them. Apart from moving their stuff and maybe decorating they don't have a lot of overheads.

 

Lucky them it seems, I guess I wasn't aware that you can fall so lucky in terms of cash hand outs like this.

[airider 10]

it is true that the council offer payments like this. 10 years ago while living with my parents i were living on the newstead estate we got around £3400 to be moved out to another property so they can demolish the estate i were one of the first to be moved and they were really quick about the process and even with the payment

[Mecky 10]

There are a lot of "I"s and "Me" s in the OP

[LeMaquis 10]

Has anyone else heard the rumour that when they first discussed the scheme some Sheffield City Council employees bought some of the houses in order to gain financially from the CPO compensation? Sounds a bit like insider trading to me.

 

Has anyone heard the rumour that 1fish2fish56 will swallow any old crap? Sounds a bit like any excuse for a good whinge to me.

 

Funnily enough they've known about the fact that they'd have to move out when the place was demolished since around the day they actually moved in. The landlord knew all about the impending demolition coming one day it seemed.

 

In the past I've moved into 2 properties that were already condemned for demolition and I lived in them jointly for 6 years. Sometimes - like when you're a student, low-paid or unemployed - you don't have much choice as to what gets offered to you.

 

Lucky them it seems, I guess I wasn't aware that you can fall so lucky in terms of cash hand outs like this.

 

That seems to be what this thread is about. You think some other people are luckier than you are and want to whinge about it. If your neighbours win the lottery god help this forum.

[Doom 10]

This person has a self furnished property already and they're taking all their stuff with them. Apart from moving their stuff and maybe decorating they don't have a lot of overheads.

 

Lucky them it seems, I guess I wasn't aware that you can fall so lucky in terms of cash hand outs like this.

 

I can see where you're coming from gypsy.

 

I don't know anything about this, but if it's as you state, then it certainly leaves a bitter taste.

 

It's one thing the Council paying for people to live for free in properties, but it's something else if these same people are suddenly getting a cash windfall at our expense.

 

I can accept the Council would have to pay the costs of removal and any other associated costs involved with the move (relocating their Sky dishes etc ), but £7,000....Really?

 

If this is effectively funding a nice holiday and a new X-Box, things that many hard working taxpayers can't afford, then the world has truly gone mad.

 

Regards

 

Doom

[natjack 10]

... That seems to be what this thread is about. You think some other people are luckier than you are and want to whinge about it. If your neighbours win the lottery god help this forum.

I don't read it like that, I read it as the SCC are once again being generous with our money without good reason. There's no way a tenant, either of SCC or a private landlord should be paid to move from a rented property. When their lease came to an end, they'd be moving anyway.

 

£7,500 for a tenant to move from one rented property to another? That's outrageous when they're closing libraries, cutting grants to youth clubs and various other costcutting exercises.

[Ms Macbeth 73]

I can see where you're coming from gypsy.

 

I don't know anything about this, but if it's as you state, then it certainly leaves a bitter taste.

 

It's one thing the Council paying for people to live for free in properties, but it's something else if these same people are suddenly getting a cash windfall at our expense.

 

I can accept the Council would have to pay the costs of removal and any other associated costs involved with the move (relocating their Sky dishes etc ), but £7,000....Really?

 

If this is effectively funding a nice holiday and a new X-Box, things that many hard working taxpayers can't afford, then the world has truly gone mad.

 

Regards

 

Doom

 

If you'd made somewhere your home, settled in it and spent time and possibly quite a lot of money in it, how would you feel if a large organisation came along and said 'sorry mate, you'll have to leave, we're knocking down your house'? Its quite a different scenario to moving when we choose.

 

That's why quite a number of people try to oppose demolition, their homes are more important to them than any cash payment! There will be a standard payment to compensate a household for having to leave, then there will be other payments based on actual cost, such as moving expenses, having cooker/fire/telephone reconnected, flooring relaid etc. It might seem like a windfall to some, but for many it won't recompense what they've spent over the years.

 

A report in the Star reports some of the residents don't want demolition: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/hundreds-of-houses-on-sheffield-estate-set-to-face-bulldozers-1-5632565

[cuttsie 1,090]

I've yet to verify this, so if anyone can do please do so, but I heard recently that the council are knocking down some social housing in the Gleadless area and paying the people living there to move house.

 

The person I heard about lives on East Bank Road in Sheffield. They don't work and their housing is paid for along with their benefits. The property they live in is owned by a private landlord, but paid for by the benefits.

 

The houses are due to be knocked down very shortly and this person will be moved to another rented property paid for by the council. No problem so far, there are many in Sheffield in social housing situations, fair enough.

 

My concern is that they are apparently due to receive between £7,000 - £7,500 simply because the house they rent is being knocked down and they are being forced to move. This doesn't appear to be a loan or any form of payment that they'll ever have to pay back, it's simply £7,500 they will receive and can spend as they wish!

 

I've been fortunate enough to never have needed social housing so I don't know if this is the norm, but that seems a bit excessive to me and a tad on the unfair side. As someone who's worked pretty much all their life since leaving school and someone who's always paid tax I feel a little cheated here if this turns out to be true. Times are hard for us all and I'm seeing less in each month despite going to work full time and yet someone who doesn't work is about to be given a big payment for having to move to another house they won't have to pay for? It's not a massive upheaval, they have all their own furnishings to take with them and it's not like this move will affect their job or anything as they don't work.

 

I accept there are moving costs and maybe they'd like to change the wallpaper when they get to the new home, but all that can be done for hundreds, not thousands. Surely £7,000 is over kill? Especially when it comes from public money at a time when many of us can't afford such a luxury bumper payout ourselves?

 

If I was to sell my house and move tomorrow I'd have to find the fees to move, to decorate and whatever else I wanted to do. I don't think I'd be getting that sort of money.

 

If this person owned this house or they were being caused problems with a job or some other situation I could accept some sort of payment. In fact I'd even accept a few hundred to cover moving costs or to keep costs down the council moving their stuff for them. I just don't feel too happy that this is one house of many on this road that's being knocked down and it appears there's a good chance that quite a few of them may be getting this payment.

 

Does anyone know anything about such a situation or anyone going through this right now?

When I moved into my council property six years ago it cost us more than £7000 to get the place as we wanted it.

Our fault I know but the place was a mess ,we also added a drive and garden fencing etc.

We were lucky that we could afford to do this work at the time but if we could not have done the work the place would have been not for us.