Defence Force Families

[Freya]

We had 10 choices of 4 bedroom houses when we moved. First time ever that we had more than 3 choices. Yep we're all settled. I think I drive past your house SF, its one of those little shoebox houses isnt it? No wonder you wont fit with a child, they're tiny! We live up in one of the back streets at Kalynda near where the new part of the estate is being built. I love it out here, Im glad we chose Bohle Plains instead of Bushy Beach (we lived there 3 years ago when we were posted up here, great suburb but so far away from everything!) I love being close to Willows and the kids daycare, swimming lessons, Riverway. Only pain in the butt is having to drive Ds1 to preschool on the RAAF base twice a week. We should def catch up for coffee sometime, Tuesdays are my free day to do grown up things lol

[StrawberryFields]

Thats where we want to be - up the back of KC! You would have to drive past our house, its the one on the right hand side of the second roundabout in as you go along the main drag (the one with the really messy/dying gardens ). We back onto the park so its good that we only have one set of neighbours who luckily are really nice, but everything else is just...bad lol. Its really too small considering we have TWO babies on the way but apparently we're still only entitled to a 3 bedroom house I've lived in apartments bigger than this house! We're hoping to get something in here because we have to move ourselves so if its close it wont be too bad, Bushy Beach is just too far (Townsville too far anyway lol) from Lavarack IMO, and I don't want to have to move over to Fairfield Waters or something because I really like being so close to Willows too - accept on Footy game nights, then it sucks being so close to the Stadium! I forgot there was something on one night and ordered Indian food from Cannon Park - it took me 20min just to get there to pick it up!

I don't work ( ) so I'm pretty much free all the time! DH is on leave atm so I just spend all day looking after his poor crippled self - its amazing though, he wont sit still and do nothing like he's supposed to, yet when he's not crippled its all he does! Men

EDIT: I emailed DCO this morning explaining the situation, so hopefully they can help us out in some way - loan us some big burley men or something ! I noticed also on our approval that it basically says too bad if nothing becomes available...I'm going to be royally peeved off (taking it up with DH's CO/suing them for undue stress peeved off) if they just never load up anything for us, I mean its an exchange, so our house will become available for someone else so its not like they're losing a house or anything...

[AnyDream]

Here's the Homefind trick - if there aren't any properties available at your entitlement, get them to unlock the next layer up. Our last house was such a huge improvement on anything we'd ever had before that I suspect it was actually a higher entitlement house (but we only paid the standard rent on it). That was in the ACT where the housing was allegedly tight - but there are always more houses. The fact that they can "keep housing stock aside" in anticipate of larger movements of people tells you that a lot of houses aren't being listed.

[Melbournemumma]

Hey SF. I think you can only be entitled to more bedrooms if your kids are different sexes and over a certain age and can no longer feasibly share a room.

Also as MD said they can open stuff in the next classification up if there is nothing in your classification. Keep on their backs or they will forget about you.

If there is nothing then ask for approval for rent assistance. This was what we had to do in our 1st 2 postings. This was actually much better for us. We ended up in a huge house and weren't paying any more than if we'd been in a dha place.

I hope something turns up soon.

[StrawberryFields]

I know its so stupid because they don't seem to enforce it half the time! Another family in DH's unit were entitled to a 4 bedroom house, and they have a 5yo girl, and 4 yo boy. If you ask me, at that age they can share a room - and they do, they refuse to sleep in different rooms! We even asked them if they were a special consideration family and they told us they weren't it was just what DHA deemed to be their required need. The Pacman says that children have to be 5 years apart, or different sexes over the age of 7 or something to be entitled to their own rooms, or be in high school (over 12yo). It seems if you are getting re-posted, you can get the next band up, but not if you are moving within the same posting. Its so confusing

Because we requested to move, we aren't entitled to rent allowance and they have refused to open the next category up also for that reason, even though we said we are more than willing to pay the next band up

Its because its this particular property that isn't suitable, not the housing category in general, which is perfectly understandable really. Frustrating, but understandable lol

I just want to get out of this house its driving me insane! I'm sick of getting sick from having the dogs inside all the time, the dogs are even getting sick! I'm sick of having to mop and vacuum every single day, I'm sick of picking up rubbish in my own yard because of stupid teenagers, I'm sick of having to supervise the dogs when they are outside and having to call them in as soon as I see any kind of foot traffic, I'm sick of scratching the car on all the stuff we have to keep in the garage because we have nowhere else to put it, and I'm sick of losing sleep over the stress! I'm especially sick of dillholes in DH's unit driving past our house drunk yelling derogatory things at us at stupid o'clock in the morning and I'm over being terrified of someone running up the back of me when I'm trying to turn into my own damn driveway because they don't realise theres even a driveway there! I just want this nightmare to end, we applied for exchange on the 21st of March...I can't believe its dragged out for so long! :'(

/end woe is me moment.

[Freya]

Hun, the housing classification policy isnt worth the paper its written on.

We were in a tiny 3 bedroom Townhouse not much bigger than your house with THREE small children in Sydney. We moved up here and with a short email about our reasoning for why we should have a 4 bedroom, voila! I think its grossly unfair that a) each DHA seems to do their own thing and b) that you are essentially penalised for gender and age of your children, which is not always something you have control over.

The quals for having a bedroom for each child is if they are over 4 or more years apart or opposite gender. Or if your a Sargent or higher regardless of how many children you have for a 4 bedroom.

We will always have kids sharing because we plan on having 4. The gap between Ds3 and #4 will be 4 years by the time we eventually fall pregnant so even if its a boy we will still be entitled to a 4 bedroom which makes us happy. If we had of had another boy with any of the last two pregnancies we lost we would have still only been entitled to a 3 bedroom house with SIX PEOPLE! (2 adults, 4 kids under 5). How thats fair I do not know.

We've considered applying for special needs recognition so we can get a house where all can have their own rooms but I cant be bothered fighting everyone about it.

[MrsBexie]

you know whats crap about that Freya?? We now pay like $5 less than sgt rank but get WAAAY crapper houses!!!!!!!! How is that fair???

[Freya]

you know whats crap about that Freya?? We now pay like $5 less than sgt rank but get WAAAY crapper houses!!!!!!!! How is that fair???

Really? That isnt bloody fair at all.

[StrawberryFields]

Yup its so incredibly unfair - thats why we're happy to pay that little bit extra for the next band up, theres hardly any difference now!

Sometimes I get SO tempted to call in some support from some seriously influential family friends, but I wonder if its worth doing while we still need DHA and the Army...maybe once DH gets out. Its just ridiculous that this nonsense carries on, all the nonsense that carries on in the military really...if the public only knew the half of it!

I also told a little white lie on the application saying that we don't know the sex of the babies and that we will not be finding out (and that we expect that decision to be respected) in the vain HOPE they might give us a 4 bedroom in case theyre boy/girl...we know they're not but they don't need to know that! Muahahahahaha *Mr Burns style finger tipi*

[teresa]

Yup its so incredibly unfair - thats why we're happy to pay that little bit extra for the next band up, theres hardly any difference now!

Sometimes I get SO tempted to call in some support from some seriously influential family friends, but I wonder if its worth doing while we still need DHA and the Army...maybe once DH gets out. Its just ridiculous that this nonsense carries on, all the nonsense that carries on in the military really...if the public only knew the half of it!

I also told a little white lie on the application saying that we don't know the sex of the babies and that we will not be finding out (and that we expect that decision to be respected) in the vain HOPE they might give us a 4 bedroom in case theyre boy/girl...we know they're not but they don't need to know that! Muahahahahaha *Mr Burns style finger tipi*

i hope it works for u!

[Freya]

The Sgt or higher band rent is $420 a fortnight, I think thats what we pay. How much is Pte/Cpl now?

[StrawberryFields]

$405 I think... In any case, $15 isn't much extra for much needed space in our case. Half our stuff is still in Brisbane because we just didn't have the space to bring it up here.

[MrsBexie]

$410 i think.. We went up $40 they went up $8...
Grrr


Sent from my iPhone so sorry for the spelling and punctuation!!

[ezymay]

When DH got promoted to SGT we had to pay more for the same house!! So it wasn't about the standard of housing. There is no such thing as SGTs getting better housing now (hasn't been for a long time) they are only entitled to RB1 housing too. Unless they opt to go up a band or there is no housing at level available.

[MrsBexie]

ah ok! So they are on the same band but pay an extra $10 or so a fortnight??

[ezymay]

Well before we were paying a lot more than $8 difference for the same housing band. It would have been nice if they dropped the amount we pay rather than increase what PTE-CPLs pay. The $40 increase is a lot for families.

[ezymay]

The problem is the standard of housing is not consistent within the bands. Some houses are terrible compared with others but are still classed the same.

[Freya]

Thats completely true. I know of tons of people in 4 bedders in my suburb, paying the same rent, but my house is atleast a m2 bigger!