Military privatized housing have you lived in it?

Question

Ok they are getting ready to switch this base over to privatized housing.. I heard that when that happens you have to pay for every maintenance call... your gas, electricity so on. its not you flat out BAH rate like it is now. I was wondering how it worked and if you liked it...

Answer 1

Privatized housing is not a lot different then military housing. If any the changes will be for the better.

Instead of your BAH dollars going to GOD-knows-where...all the money you and every other service-member pays in will go back into making the housing better for you and your family.

You as the resident will NOT have to pay for every service-order you put in. That is what you pay your BAH for. The only service-order that will charge, is for a resident's neglectful or purposeful damage to the property that needs to be repaired.

BAH does still cover Utility usage. This is a common misunderstanding among families moving into privatized housing. Utility usage in new and renovated construction will eventually be metered. They will give every resident the average usage as their "allotted amount" along with a 10% buffer if you go over. Your BAH still covers THIS usage...it's if you are running your AC in the middle of summer with the windows wide open that you will start to see an accrual of charges. And guess what? Privatized housing is the ONLY place you can live that will refund YOU if your usage is below the average! Pretty neat.

Privatized housing is not all bad...so give the ladies in the new housing office a break. They will try to make the transition as easy as possible.

Answer 2

I live in privatized housing and I personally don't like it as much as when it was ran by the base, they don't listen to you at all half the time and yeah, you have to pay for your own gas and electricity, and they charge you the FULL amount that you get for BAH and it goes up as you go up in rank, theyll charge you more everytime you BAH goes up.

Answer 3

i had a better experience with privatized housing in hawaii. The first community i lived was not and i had a horrible experience with the housing office and maintenance. They were very rude and really seemed to not care. My house flooded because a pipe burst in the kitchen. i called the emergency maintenance line and told them that my neighbor and i could not shut off the water and i needed someone there ASAP! (it was starting to flood my neighbors downstairs as well) They showed up 3 hours later! and that was just the beginning. My house flooded a second time after that, and then i had rats etc.. and the housing office wanted me to pay for the damage carpet?! it was horrible, and i was finally able to get into privatized housing. The people in that office were very helpful and understanding of my situation and i never had a problem with them. Maybe my case is extreme, but that was my experience. i would rather live in privatized housing. i didn't pay for utilities, just our full BAH. but i heard in the future privatized housing might make people pay for electricity.

Answer 4

Maintenance calls will not come out of your pocket. Things like that are covered by the BAH that they take back from you.  As for the electricity, you will have to pay for it, but not for a while.  Since your location is just switching over to privatized housing, they will only monitor your usage for a few months to see the average.  After that, you will pay the same amount each month based on that average.  It would e a good idea to conserve energy during the trial run so you won't have a huge bill when they finally do charge you for it.

Answer 5

No you do not pay for maintenance calls.  You pay for cable, internet and telephone.  Some areas have worked out Electricity for that area and averaged it out.  If you go over the average then you pay out of pocket, if you don't and are under, then you get the money back each month.  They do all maintenance, all none fenced landscaping (no longer responsible for front lawn care & gardening if you don't want to), upkeep, etc.. They have more community events such as tickets to sporting events, holiday parties, museums, etc... Have built new housing to replace old ones faster than the government could do before.  Added more playgrounds, pools, parks and so on.  You don't require a credit check, first month's deposit or a pet deposit.  In some areas (including San Diego) housing is run better now, more efficient, nicer and better for the family than before.  

When we lived in SD it would sometimes take 3 days to get something fixed and they would never tell you they were coming. We had to pay to get a toliet seat replaced and a garbage can for outside as well.  Until Lincoln Management took over.  Then they had things all summer for the kids including museums, tickets to Padre & Charger games (included parking & free snack coupon), free pizza nights, holiday parties, it was great.  

Answer 6

We live in privatized housing and it sucks.  We don't have to pay for maintenance but it is pretty much like military housing...they dont' fix anything..they rig it.  In the new housing they are starting to pay for electricity.  You have a certain amount of wattage you can use and if you go over that then you have to pay...if you go under you will get that back and it will carry over to the next month...from what I understand.  We live in old housing at Ft Leonard wood so the electricity does not affect us.  There have been alot of people move out..because you will have an E8 living next door to an E2 and they have the same house yet the E8 is paying more for the exact same house and the E2.  It is not making any sense.  Good Luck