Yahoo News The Londoners stuck in 'limbo' as they struggle to downsize from family-sized homes
East Londoners who are living in homes that are too big for their needs are in 'limbo' as they are struggling to downsize which would free up much-needed homes for other families. Janice Elliott and her husband had been thinking about downsizing and moving from their Hackney home into a smaller property for some time as they realised it was becoming too big for them.
As they were getting older, the four flights of stairs in their two-bed home were becoming a hindrance and the couple realised they would benefit from living somewhere which was on one level. Mrs Elliott, who is in her 70s, has osteoarthritis and finds it difficult to walk up and down four flights of stairs every day.
Then when Mrs Elliott's husband died five years ago, she started to look into the idea even more and contacted her housing association, Peabody to ask about the downsizing process. She explained: "The place is too big for me and I'm getting old. It's too hard to clean so I just need to move."
Mrs Elliott lives in a property that used to belong to the Crown Estate but in 2011, Peabody bought the four estates, which are in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, Camden, Westminster and Lewisham for £140.8million. She later found out that she could only exchange or downsize with other former Crown Estate properties, despite Peabody taking over and buying the portfolio.
According to Peabody's website, if a person has a secure or assured tenancy with Peabody, they can swap their home with another Peabody resident, a tenant of another housing association, or a council tenant. However she claims Peabody sent her a letter informing her she was on a type of assured tenancy when it initially took over from the Crown Estate.
"Evidently there's all different types of assured tenancies so it's really unclear, and I don't have any paperwork whatsoever," she said. When the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) contacted Peabody for a response, a spokesperson said those living in former Crown Estate homes are on a type of intermediate market rent and are not classed as social rent homes, so they can't swap with Peabody homes.
Mrs Elliott claims it was only at a meeting with other ex-Crown Estate tenants did she discover that she could swap with just former Crown Estate properties. Not only this, but Mrs Elliott realised she was using the wrong website for house exchanges for three years. She said: "For three years, I wasted all my time looking at [HomeSwapper] very other day answering people, putting people on and then at one of the tenants' meetings I found out."
Mrs Elliott has been using a different house exchange website called Jigsaw for the past year, but claims she hasn't had 'one enquiry'. The situation has made Mrs Elliott feel like her life is in 'limbo', and said it's 'immoral' that she is in such a big house when there are families in desperate need of larger homes.
She said: "I don’t think the system is working and personally I think it’s immoral that I’m in a huge two-bed with a patio and a shared garden. It's perfect for kids but I can’t get out. I see on the news about the housing crisis and overcrowding, I know of one other person in a four-bed on her own, so how many more are there like that, that could be family homes?"
Dream to move to a smaller home for 'better quality of life'
A short walk away from where Mrs Elliott lives in neighbouring Tower Hamlets is Kim Nottage, a mum-of-three who also lives in an ex-Crown Estate property. Two years ago, Ms Nottage asked Peabody about downsizing from her three-bed home into a one-bed because her three kids had all moved out and she had split up with her husband.
Ms Nottage works full time to be able to afford her £1,272 monthly rent, which is without bills or added council tax. She says she wants to move somewhere smaller and cheaper so she can give herself a better quality of life as well as being closer to her family in Essex.
She told the LDRS: "I got in touch with Peabody about downsizing and I was told I can't downsize because I'm an ex-Crown Estate tenant. I was told I'm an ex-Crown Estate tenant and it's an agreement Peabody has with the Crown Estate. I said, 'you're going to have families out there that are desperate for this property'."
Ms Nottage went on to say: "I've now got a rent increase from Peabody, everything is from Peabody; but when I go onto Peabody's website for its downsize policy or the mutual exchange policy, I'm not entitled to any of that because I'm an [ex-Crown Estate] tenant. I can't work it out. Peabody want our rent, and it gets put up more and more, but where are our policies for anything? We've got no policies for anything."
Ms Nottage told the LDRS she doesn't want to go into private renting because there's 'no security' for her and wants to live somewhere long-term and affordable that she can call her own. Like Mrs Elliott, she signed up for Jigsaw but said 'nothing comes up on it - the last one that came up was a two-bed down the road that was more rent'.
"It gets you really depressed and down, I've had a few tears," she said. She added: "I just feel a little disheartened because at 60 years old I should be doing a little bit more to be enjoying myself and not thinking, 'can I go out this weekend? Can I get a takeaway?' I also can't get it through to Peabody that I've got the most amazing neighbours on both sides, so for me to downsize I'm giving up a lot. But I'm giving it up so I can have a [better] quality of life, so I'm not just going to work at 60 years old to pay the bills."
Peabody did not provide an official statement to the LDRS' request for comment.
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