Has anyone taken a sensitive let through the council?

Posted by Routine-Good7518@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 35 comments

Hello,

I f33, am currently with homes4wiltshire.co.uk. I am band 2 , single person, homeless with no fixed abode due to section 21 being given on my rented house I had for 7 years. Due to circumstances I cannot afford to private rent again.

I have been on the register for over a year now. I have been offered a 2nd Floor flat in a small town I know quite well, it all sounded good until she told me it was a sensitive let. She was vague and told me they had some ASB issues and it's calmed down. She said she couldn't tell me exactly what but assured me she only wanted people who work and had already turned down 100 applicants.

She said there were 4 empty flats, one being mine, and she was only accepting workers and people with no mental health history that wasn't being treated and no asb history.

I went today to see it, not as a visit but off my own back. My flat would be the one furthest away which is good. However, the corridors are long, s little unkempt (beer cans on the balcony which worried me corridors- (not a huge deal as flat looked nice inside from pictures) but I noticed one of the doors was completed smashed in, full of dents and the frame really damaged.

I am so nervous that the issue tenants are still there she didn't make it clear that the empty flats are the people who were the issue or if they are still there.

I have C-PTSD from living with addict parents in rough environments as a kid and I truly cannot be back in a situation like that, especially when working. I appreciate it should be grateful and I am, but I also want peace. I will properly view the flat next week to make a decision. I am worried about making a bad choice and not even sure I can reject it.

Has anyone been in this or a similar situation and it worked out okay or can you share your experience? Thanks you!

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Fingertoes1905@reddit

Where do this Asbo tenants get moved to?

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Kind-County9767@reddit

Next to some other saps who have to start the complaint process through 8 years of misery and disturbed peace usually. It's why the council basically just drag their feet and do nothing over it.

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dannylills8@reddit

Exactly this our neighbours were moved on from there previous and it’s like living next door to some tramps. We’ve started complaints procedure but the council are not really helping even though we know they’ve been problem tenants for them before.

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Fingertoes1905@reddit

Feel for you

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dannylills8@reddit

Thanks, when we moved in (bought) we had a lovely elderly pair next door who were the nicest people ever, used to get our kids Xmas presents and cards etc, unfortunately they both passed about 2 years ago, they then moved in a “disabled” I use that term loosely as she isn’t and walks and cycles everywhere despite being classed as disabled with a bad back and she’s a raging alcoholic she drives drunk, her and her partner are always fighting, police are always round, we found out about her previous from the police as they said they were familiar with the 2 of them, one of the coppers actually said they couldn’t believe they put them here where we live, the council are not interested in helping, we have young kids 5 and 9 and they wake them up at all hours with shouting and screaming. The front garden looks like a scrapyard with 3 cars in various states of disrepair and a 30 year old motorhome that’s falling over due to it sinking in the mud.

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wildeaboutoscar@reddit

It's often the judge that will refuse to evict social tenants rather than the social housing provider. It would be much easier from the provider perspective if they could, but given social housing is often the only housing available for them it is a big decision. Also they tend to just come back if they have nowhere else to go.

It's a tough situation all around.

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Fingertoes1905@reddit

So grateful for my little block of flats and neighbours!

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Grey_Bomberman@reddit

Wales

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crackerlackers@reddit

Generally they will have been evicted.

Where they may end up next depends on their circumstances but the authority isn't necessarily bound to rehouse them.

lucme1@reddit

We had nightmare neighbours next door who were eventually evicted due to their behaviour, although we are not social / council tenants we were in regular contact with the social housing company who were renting to the previous neighbours, once evicted it was explained to us that the property would be rented as a sensitive let and how this was described was as a strict criteria that did not allow anyone with a history of poor behaviours and strict vetting to any potential tenants to prevent similar issues reoccurring with them. The new tenants have been here for around a year now and absolutely no issues at all.

21decibels@reddit

Just out of interest, what did your previous neighbours do that led to them eventually being evicted and how long had the issues been going on?

There’s lots of posts from people with nightmare neighbours who never seem to get moved on despite years of complaints so just wondered.

It wad a mix of factors in all honesty; very loud music day and night, arguing all hours, obvious drug use and related behaviours. They both also had their children removed from them previously so regular contact from social services and one had a previous criminal conviction and was known to the police.

I’m not sure entirely how long the eviction took in full from start to finish - when we moved in we were given the contact details of the social housing team to submit noise diaries etc to them, however this process had been started by the other neighbours well before we had moved in and I got the impression it was ongoing for several years prior, and it was still a further two and a half years of us submitting the diaries before they were evicted in the end so an extremely long process taking years in the end

Also just to add they were miraculously quiet on our two viewings of the house, and the landlord didn’t utter a word- we were passed on the contact details by another neighbour after chatting about the amount of noise one particular day and we were made aware of the active case by them, sounds like the complaint was made by multiple neighbours, unpleasant surprise needless to say!

Firkin99@reddit

It usually means that the people causing a disturbance have been moved out, and they are being restrictive of who they next let it too, to avoid further disturbance to the neighbours.

c1ue1ess1@reddit

It's wonderful to hear this response for the OP, I was concerned, this hit home a little as only last month I was declared homeless due to complications losing my job, losing my flat and having to live out on the street and still go to work for months. It was horrible the support I recieved, eventually I was lucky to find a houseshare close by to my work at a very affordable price. It's been over a month now and I couldn't be happier.

I truly hope OP finds solace from these responses and confirmations, I too suffer from C-PTSD, so hearing it's in fact safe and a personal sensitive choice for them is lovely, this is a start of a new chapter for you!!

I hope it all works out wonderfully for you OP & good luck, things are only up from that first night and the door closes behind you <3

I work for a Local Authority housing department.

We do sensitive lets when the previous tenants have been a nightmare. They have gone and they will have promised the neighbours a sensitive let so they don't have to go through anymore.

It means that they think you are a good choice for the area.

JaBe68@reddit

Go in the evening on a weekend - you will soon know if there are problem tenants.

No-Door-3181@reddit

This

Shrimp_Watch101@reddit

4 empty flats in the same block seems unusual, unless it's a massive block.

You can often get an idea of what's gone on in an area (and when) by running a Google news search on the road or immediate locality.

I did that on a flat I was offered that I was nervy about, and found a long string of crime stories from the local rag linked to that very block.

Still, best to clarify where you actually stand with the council if you turn it down. (I ended up somewhere pretty decent after a long wait, but it's all a bit of a lottery.)

AutisticTumourGirl@reddit

It could be due to several bad tenants and the flats were subject to a closure order to give time for mates of the former tenants to stop showing up/people showing up to by drugs/etc.

Low-Suit-3125@reddit

Don't sacrifice your peace. Don't swap a stressful situation for an equally different stressful situation. I hope you'll be ok 💚

whiskeydumplings@reddit

This happened where I used to live, they did it once they’d controlled the anti social behaviour (drug manufacture and distribution across several flats) to stop it from happening again. My advice is to keep yourself to yourself. Be polite but don’t make friends with your neighbours, it allows you to keep your home as your sanctuary.

catstreesandredwine@reddit

I work for a housing association, a sensitive let means that they have criteria someone must meet in order to be considered for the property. These can be many different things like residential area of current home, employment status, etc.

It doesn't necessarily mean anything negative, although in this yes I think you're probably right to wonder if the previous residents were a nuisance and that the sensitive let may be more on behalf of the neighbours. Sometimes a sensitive let can just be down to the housing need that a housing association is trying to address e.g. homes for families of for 16-25s. Might be slightly different for a council, but overall I wouldn't necessarily consider it an automatic red flag. I recommend investigating further before worrying.

NecroVelcro@reddit

Is it legal to ask for medical history?

BobMonroeFanClub@reddit

We provided ours as it helped move us up housing band.

PetersMapProject@reddit

If I were you I'd go and knock on the neighbours doors and have a chat. You'll get to suss them out and they'll usually give you the low down on what's been happening.

PurchaseDry9350@reddit

They could also be the ones causing problems

That's why I said you can suss them out while talking, and neighbours plural, so they can rat each other out.

verybadgay@reddit

It wasn’t called that when I took it but I accepted a house once in an area that was ‘improving.’ Between picking up the keys and moving in, the windows had been smashed and there were children and teenagers inside just kind of hanging out. I took the keys straight back and spent another 18 months on the list. I ended up two streets away from the first place but the difference was night and day. Honestly I understand the desperation to get somewhere stable but I’d run a mile from this.

decisiontoohard@reddit

By the sounds of all the other comments, you'd designate something a "sensitive let" when you've promised the good neighbours that you'll vet the new tenants properly because the last ones were the problem, which sounds like a potentially very different setting (where the community is proactive about maintaining the peace)?

erbstar@reddit

I work in the social housing sector and am responsible for 'problematic' tenants.

Usually, a sensitive let does mean that there's been a lot of previous ASB, drug dealing etc in that block. The block will be well known to dealers and others. Your flat/s will be one where the tenant was evicted, probably for all the above reasons and the landlord is looking for people who will keep quiet and to themselves.

If it was the subject of a Closure Order, it has to be left for at least 6 months by law before anyone else is allowed to move in. This is so that the people who were causing the asb will move on.

My advice would be to take the flat but make the landlord aware of your own vulnerabilities to ensure you're a good fit.

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