View Full Version : Happy With Defence Housing?
pennylane
02-04-2008, 14:01
Hey Ladies,
DF passed his entry fitness test for the RAAF last night so we are definately going now.:yelclap:
Im just checking out the defence housing on DHA but since we dont have a PIN number yet to look at rentals i can only look at the houses they have up for sale to get an idea of what they are like and DF never lived in one before when he was a member because he was single back then and lived on base.
They are all so nice, Im just wondering if they are really as nice as they seem to be??
what is your defence house like?
is it what it was presented to be online when you chose it?
TIA
tootiredtosleep
02-04-2008, 14:12
Our house is really lovely.. it was pretty much as "advertised". 4 bedrooms, ensuite, double garage and undercover outdoor area. It's only 3 years old and with lots of other defence houses.
In the past we have always found something missing though.. like it will say "lawn locker" or "spa bath" on the report and we arrive and find their isn't one. Or 'established gardens' means 1 tree!
I'm not sure how they allocate the houses - it used to be according to rank, but I heard that it now depends on how many kids you have? I may be wrong though. DH has been in for 20 years now, and lived in some real dumps!
So, yes we are happy with the actual house (not DHA though!)
mumofjmc
02-04-2008, 14:34
Our house is FABULOUS! Ex display home so it has great fittings.
Houses are still allocated according to rank and the number of kids you have and their ages/sex. You can be lucky and automatically get offered 4 bedroom homes but generally eveyone gets offered 3 bedrooms unless they have heaps of kids.
Sometimes they do have older houses left on their books but if you really hate you house, you can do what we did and apply for an exchange at own expense.
Good luck
I'm in envy, can we trade ? lol .. j/k love my house even if it's older than 5yrs or 10yrs lol.
A few tips .. the floor plans might not be to your house but another with the same floor plan .. ie ours in Darwin had 4 bedrooms on the plan but the 4th br blacked out lol.
If there are no measurements for bedrooms, fridge etc .. ASK DHA for them. You want to make sure your fridge will fit and that the bedrooms are at least 3x3m built ins are in most housing.
Because there are so many new estates around, that's why some get new or near new housing, but we in 13yrs haven't lived in a new or new near lol.
If you have pets, make sure it's allowed pets. I think with leased housing (DHA leased from private owner) sometimes DHA need to ask the owner otherwise with DHA owned housing, pets are generally welcome and it will say that on HomeFind.
Also depending on the age and gender of your kiddies, will depend if you are entitled to 3 or 4 bedroom. ie my neighbour in Darwin had twin 5yo girls, 3yo boy and 8yo girl. They were only entitled to a 3bdrm.
So .. when you have kids space them out lol ie 4yrs or more for same gender. PACMAN (Pay & Conditions Manual online can tell you more)
Also when we didn't have a PIN, I too went online to check realestate sites lol.
DHA have to keep up with the standard around them. Also if you look online at DHA where the for sale houses are .. you'll see brand new houses waiting to be sold then leased back. Some are really flash. I check them all the time lol I love looking at houses. Some of the kitchens are to die for.
RaryGirl
02-04-2008, 16:59
I think it depends on your posting too ... my hubby and I were discussing re-enlisting the other night and the thing that put him off was the housing .... mainly because his rank/occupation meant he'd most likely be posted to Canberra and everytime he's been there in the past he's been left to his own devises to find a house ... ie. DHA have said "sorry no houses available, find private rental"
On the other hand my sister's hubby was posted to Townsville late last year ... they have 2 children, no three bedroom houses left, so they were allocated a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house that was only 3 years old! So she's stoked! But I think that makes up for some of the crappy houses they lived in while posted in Richmond.
pennylane
02-04-2008, 18:14
thanks for the info guys. weve heard from a few people that the standards have been upgraded and everyone is entitled to a 4 bedroom,dbl garage,air con and pergola house regardless of how many children they have. is this true or just a rumour?. I pretty much cant get any info from DHA til DF leaves for recruit training.
Its a rumour, it would be nice.
Current minimum
standard
• 3 bedrooms
• Storage
• Kitchen
• Dining
• Lounge
• Bathroom
• Toilet
• Laundry
• Car
accommodation
(carport)
New minimum standard
from 1 July 2007
The current minimum standard
plus the following additional
amenities:
• Ensuite
• Single lock up garage
instead of a single carport except
Darwin
• Security
• Covered outdoor area
(from 1 Jul 09)
• Minimum size fenced yard
of 25 square metres in the
Sydney posting location
and 35 square metres for
all other posting localities
(from 1 Jul 09)
The new minimum housing standard will be
implemented over a 10 year transition period. This
transition period will allow Defence and DHA to
renovate and acquire new houses, as required.
Taken from http://www.dha.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/13609/dha-prepares-for-nhcp.pdf
samsgirls
02-04-2008, 18:37
Hello Pennylane,
I live in Cairns, and my house is quite lovely. Nice size yard and the house is four bedrooms and ensuite. Since the new housing classifications it has been great as hubby is only an AB (and he was a TPR in the Army), but before that, we were only offered pitiful housing. But i did used to tell myself, we were lucky cos it was cheap rent. I am sure u will be offered a lovely house, it may not be brand new. Our current house is about 7 years old and we pay $269 a fortnight (can't rember exactly off the top of my head.) It still goes on rank, but it is a lot fairer now.
pennylane
03-04-2008, 07:36
Its a rumour, it would be nice.
Current minimum
standard
• 3 bedrooms
• Storage
• Kitchen
• Dining
• Lounge
• Bathroom
• Toilet
• Laundry
• Car
accommodation
(carport)
New minimum standard
from 1 July 2007
The current minimum standard
plus the following additional
amenities:
• Ensuite
• Single lock up garage
instead of a single carport except
Darwin
• Security
• Covered outdoor area
(from 1 Jul 09)
• Minimum size fenced yard
of 25 square metres in the
Sydney posting location
and 35 square metres for
all other posting localities
(from 1 Jul 09)
The new minimum housing standard will be
implemented over a 10 year transition period. This
transition period will allow Defence and DHA to
renovate and acquire new houses, as required.
Taken from http://www.dha.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/13609/dha-prepares-for-nhcp.pdf
Thanks so much for all that info *cj* that helps me heaps!
we'll be pretty happy with any nice tidy house i think. we've only ever lived in units since weve been together so it will be great for DD to have a backyard etc'.
mumofjmc
03-04-2008, 07:39
It is true that they have upgraded the standards as of July 07 however they still have leases on the old standard of MQ. This means that unless the Landlords upgrade their houses to the new standards, they will not extend their leases beyond the initial period.
Canberra have increased the number of houses available due to the increase of personnel being posted in. It is still very hard to get accommodation however.
On the flip side... we are posting to Richmond in the next couple of months and there is NO HOUSING available at all :hissy:. We have to go straight onto RA which means we have a short notice move to Sydney, TAASA until we trudge through realestate agents to find a house as well as start work! Talk about stressful :banghead:.
Remember when trying to find housing in any location, complete inventory well before your posting is due out, hard copy is fine. Fax it off with your posting order the day the posting is released and then contact DHA immediately and request access to Homefind. They will sometimes have houses available straight away but otherwise, you have to wait until they receive other people's applications for removal so they know what will become available. They can only allocate you a house in a 6 week window of you arriving (ie 4 before, 2 after).
When we were given our posting from perth to townsville DHA gave us temporary access to homefind so we could look at all houses available just couldnt lock one down until paperwork was complete and recieved...
The houses available to us now are great yes there are some ****e ones but as most have said you cant complain at the price of rent...a pte is 274...a fortnight!!!
Again as some have mentioned if you dont like the housing in your entitlement you can choose to pay the next rent band and sometimes if there arent any in yur entitlement they will move you to view the next up but you only pay for your rank so in perth we were in a sgts house but paid pte...although now they are entitled to the same.....
Good luck house hunting, it took us months, check at all hours of the day too they get snapped up quick, i was looking at like 1am etc by morning they were gone..
tootiredtosleep
03-04-2008, 16:31
I wish our rent was $279/fortnight, its alot more than that. Even though our house is lovely, we are still told where to go and live, so I think that the rent should be cheap!!!
Again as some have mentioned if you dont like the housing in your entitlement you can choose to pay the next rent band and sometimes if there arent any in yur entitlement they will move you to view the next up but you only pay for your rank so in perth we were in a sgts house but paid pte...although now they are entitled to the same.....
.
Its only if the have house in the next one up. We were looking in RB 2 there was nothing got put up to RB 3 again nothing. So we got told we could go RA or get a 4 bedroom RB 1. But I love having 4 bedrooms and it cost us $ 60.00 a F/N less then in RB 2.:yelclap:
The only 3 bedroom house's they had in RB 1 were the really really old ones. We said no way are we taking one of them.
They have some really nice house's. Next door are renting a house just like ours and there paying $350 a week, its about to go up again.
Ours is RB1. We locked one house down like 6 mths prior then 2 mths later told we couldn't have it as the tenants aren't moving. Fair enough cos postings change etc etc. So we were given another house to look at which was much older, no spa bath, not 3yo, no remote garage or nice big kitchen but was B2. I asked why the RB1 was fancier than the RB2 and he said 'it's transition stock' .. assuming it was stock to be reclassified or something I don't know but they let us have it at RB1 rent. It's confusing anyways .. but after drivign past the house we initially locked down (the fancy 3yo house), I realised our current house was the better of the two in locality and much friendly street. The houses in the newer area of Port Kennedy look so boxed in and no bushes or trees .. not much front yard where as where we are.. got heaps of room at the front and a friendly street with lovely neat gardens. We have more room here. With kids, cats and dog .. we don't need fancy new.
btw we don't even have a dishwasher cavity here, we have our dishwasher in the laundry. In that fancy 3yo house, it also didn't have one. The owner/builder didn't want one. I was told by DHA that not many houses here have dishwasher cavities. Whether he's telling me porkies I don't know.
Keeping in mind the newer the house, the more obvious marks on the carpet and walls.
Basically its luck of the draw, you win some you lose some!!!
joshysmummy
06-04-2008, 21:40
We have a beautiful 4 bdrm home in a lovely estate (Glenmore park, nsw)
We are so happy with house!!
For the 3 of us, its so spacious.. We have 2 living areas, ensuite, air con, WIR, 2 car garage, Big bdrms!
The only downfall is the backyard is small... but i guess atm its not much of a prob as joshy is too little to go running round!
MilkOnTap
06-04-2008, 21:50
Our house is okay. It's in an estate that is predominately defence members which is fantastic; and in an awesome location. But the house itself isn't brilliant. It's old - its run-down. Needs new carpets, new lino, new paint, new lawn. New everything.
It's also the 'pregnant' house of the estate :laughing: No seriously, we're the 6th family to live in this house and fall pregnant!!! None of my neighbours will visit me incase they conceive!
CJ - Thanks for the update on standards. Just wondering, With 2 kids, how many bedrooms are we entitled too?
Good luck house hunting, it took us months, check at all hours of the day too they get snapped up quick, i was looking at like 1am etc by morning they were gone..
Oh that happened to me! I found one at 7am - called at 830 and it was gone!
I wish our rent was $279/fortnight, its alot more than that. Even though our house is lovely, we are still told where to go and live, so I think that the rent should be cheap!!!
Yeah - I'm not a massive fan of Sydney and wish we could be posted somewhere that we have family; unfortunately its either here or Perth for us though :(
2sweetgirls
06-04-2008, 21:52
We are in Brisbane, we have a pretty basic brick 3 bedroom 1 bathroom, large living area and HUGE back yard. CRAPPY driveway, no aircon but fans in every room.
I am VERY excited to hear that they are upgrading the standards.
I asked DH if we are able to move cos i am over the neighbours hahaha. Are you able to move? I guess we would have to pay for removalist but has anyone done it within the same posting?
2sweetgirls
06-04-2008, 21:54
Hey Pink lady,
With two kiddies of the same sex you are entitled to the 3 bedroom home, but if you have one pink one blue you get to upgrade I am pretty sure.... DH keeps telling me we need a boy:rolleyes:
Pink lady I'm pretty sure you can get a 4 bedroom, But in saying that I think it would come down to what they have at the time. You would't get any thing less then 3 bedrooms.
(I know when we were looking, we got told to get it in wrighting that we have Dss more then 90 days a year.
Then they would put us up to a 4 bedroom. But it turned out good in the end, as all they had out of RB 1, RB 2, RB 3. was 175 Rb 1, 4 bedroom homes. I think now they have lots more 4 bedroom homes, then 3 bedrooms). Good luck.
2sweetgirls
It all comes down to the gender and if they are 4yrs or more apart. If you have 2 kids of the same gender and less than 4yrs age diff then you're entitled to 2 bedroomed. Most places are 3 bedroom so you win there.
If it's more than 4yrs you're entitled to 3 bedroom
Us .. we have 11yo DS, 9yo DD1 and 17mth old DD2 and because my girls have more than 4yrs age diff, we are entitled to 4bedroom. If there was a gap of 4yrs or less, we'd be only entitled to 3bedroom as they would have to share.
MilkOnTap
06-04-2008, 22:22
Pink lady I'm pretty sure you can get a 4 bedroom, But in saying that I think it would come down to what they have at the time. You would't get any thing less then 3 bedrooms.
(I know when we were looking, we got told to get it in wrighting that we have Dss more then 90 days a year.
Then they would put us up to a 4 bedroom. But it turned out good in the end, as all they had out of RB 1, RB 2, RB 3. was 175 Rb 1, 4 bedroom homes. I think now they have lots more 4 bedroom homes, then 3 bedrooms). Good luck.
We dont have any posting coming up (unless you count getting off the ship and coming ashore a posting) so we really have no need to move.
I just want something bigger and nicer!! *insert stamping foot icon) :geek:
I must say i'm just happy to have a house from DHA.
There's no way in this life time I want to go RA again :crying:.
It drive me up the wall last time:hair:.
MilkOnTap
06-04-2008, 22:30
I must say i'm just happy to have a house from DHA.
There's no way in this life time I want to go RA again :crying:.
It drive me up the wall last time:hair:.
Hear hear!
Despite all the faults this house has - its a HOUSE with a backyard in the eastern suburbs of Sydney... I could never give up this location.
We were in a cruddy 2bd shoebox apartment RA and there was mould growing on the ceiling in the foyer. I was on the phone to DHA straight away - told them to get me out (screamed actually) and they gave me access to HomeFind straight away. I found our property 3 days later and called as soon as it was online. I checked at 1030am - nothing. Again at 12 noon - it was online. Called to hold it; went around for a quick inspection and it was ours by COB :thumbsup:
It took us 2 months to fine a house(RA). We had to get Dss into school could't do that till we had a house.
Get a house, then it goes up for sale. It sold after 14 months:banghead:.
Then we have to fine some where elsa for 4 months :hair: .
They send DH away for 5 weeks. Gets back two days later we are moving.
If it was't for one of the guys on the base. I would have gone mad. He did all the runing around when it come to talking to dha, or doing paper work for them.
He sweet talked the new landlord into giving us a house for 4 months. Yeah got to love him. He was a sweety. Hay he even drive me to my wedding.
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