Leaving the services housing petition

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/forceshousing/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to change current housing legislation to stop the discrimination against service personnel when they retire from the armed forces.
Submitted by Jeff Laing – Deadline to sign up by: 29 April 2007 – Signatures: 477

 

done and i have posted it on another forum i use

 

Another worthy cause.

SF

 

this happened to me ... left the mob with 8 yrs in qtrs (should be council time)stayed in qtrs due to lack of housing, was evicted by the mob after 3 yrs and local council put me in private rented accomadation.......11yrs council time.....discount on buying property after 2 yrs total 13 yrs during my stay in private rent all council properties taken over by housing assn,when moved (eventually) was told im an assured tenant not a secure tenant only secure tenants i.e those in council properties when taken over are eligible to buy ..........

 

Many thanks to those who have signed, over 600. Please add your signature to the petition and pass info to friends and family.

 

Signed and sealed.... Passed on to a few oppos as well.

 

Good posting.
However I would advise everyone that wherever possible take to take advantage of the RN LSAP scheme and buy a house before leaving.

 

Good post, as yet again it does show some of the disadvantages of being a Service person in today's society.

However, time to play Devil's Advocate. MQs are temporary accommodation for servicemen/women; owned by the MOD (not Council) and you are a paying tenant, providing you are an employee of the MOD. Therefore you do not own the property, but pay a regular rent for the time you are an eligible tenant. Prior to, and immediately upon, becoming a non-eligible tenant, you should have made arrangements to find alternative accommodation. And I know it is a bitter pill to swallow for some, but MQ rent is not expensive, so it is not unreasonable to save money for this eventuality while are living in MQs.

And before anyone criticises my POV, I spent 5 happy years in an MQ before buying my own property, using the LSAP scheme.

 

This comes down to individual priorities. During my time in the service I spent two periods in married quarters. The first while I was looking for a house to buy the second after a draft when the builder was behind schedule for my new house.
I would have had a better lifestyle had I continued living in married quarters, service housing was cheap and I could certainly have afforded a new car and foreign holidays. However in the long term it was worth it to me to have a large mortgage, drive a banger and have cheapo camping holidays.
This however was a personal choice and would not be for everyone. As sgtp says the married quarter is like a farm workers tied cottage, it is up to the individual to make arrangements when changing occupations

 

The trouble is that the LSAP is capped at £8,500. While this is still a help, it doesn't stand as much in the current market. I took it out in '96 and bought a brand new three bed det house for £54,000. The same house 11 years later costs upwards of £210,000, almost 4 times as much.

 

I think this proves that it was worth doing. However in 1996 (11 years ago) I would have expected that you had yo make sacrifices to buy your house

 

I agree with Jungly. I used the LSAP scheme in the early 90s and it helped enormously but the max amount hasn't increased since then nor is it likely to.

To offer enough to be of any real use would break the MOD bank and in this day and age where we're scraping about for the price of a tank of fuel they're not likely to address this as a priority.

On the plus side though it can be used to off-set the cost of solicitors, stamp duty and other legal fees so it still has some use.

SF

 

Is it normally expected that the government will find you a house when you pay off?

 

I don't think that was the idea, but rather to be eligible for social housing you need to be able to prove 3 years connection living in an area (wether in MQ, rented or own home). Unfortunatly any time in the forces does not count towards this, therefore upon leaving the 3 year clock starts ticking, and you can't receive any help for years, at least.

What the petition is about is allowing time in the forces to count towards this 3 years in an area, which would just mean treating ex-servicemen the same as anyone else.

On another note LSAP does need to be increased. It would actually save money as the MoD would not have to pay so much to the MQ people/company (can't remember the name off hand).

 

Annington Homes

 

As stumpy has pointed out, this is just about removing a discrimination within the act that applies only to service folk. This is not about solving the housing problems faced by those on leaving but at least giving them an even playing field in terms of council housing etc,

The support of you, your family and friends is appreciated.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me Stumpy. I was not sure what the problem was, just that people seem very passionate about it. Typical government though, the dropkicks get spoon fed while the ones who have actually contributed get screwed.

 

at the risk of getting major flack i do agree with Slim,

ive worked with many guys who have spent all of thier 22 in MQs with lovely cars and nice holidays whilst in the initial period we were struggling to have a takeaway once a month due to a large mortgage. having to put off a family for a few years to get both wages.

of course the house prices now are ridiculous but certainly do not want a price drop,

it seems that when you leave the RN you will need to give up all your gratuity as a deposit and your pension as partmortage repayments. so typically you are exactly where we were 15 years ago and have just had the good life before us.

that is in no way a sneer or two fingers at anyone so no bombs on my desk please, it is just a fact that you have the choice and decide for one reason or another not to go that route.

 

Government response to petition 'forceshousing':

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page11734.asp

 

shag_shacker, What about those that are Medically Discharged from the forces. They are unable to get a mortgage! This legislation also affects them and their families. Bigger Picture to all things, you know.

All this camapign has been about is equal treatment for service leavers and their families.

A big thank you to all those that signed the petition and for your support on this campaign.

Hitback