Any info on grants or monthly payments for rewires

familynameddear

We moved into an ex council house in Oct 07, we were told the wiring was old but safe & would need doing at some stage - we didn't have enough on our mortgage for any 'work' as my husband had 5 years previously been declared bankrupt so we could only scrape the amount needed to buy.
At first we thought the 'bakelite' switches groovy!!!
Anyhow a couple of weeks ago out lights upstairs began tripping & then stopped altogether when the light appearing to be the source jammed in the on position so we thought oops - can't put this off. We had a service agreement with British Gas for the electrics & other things (it has served us well with the other things) - they sent out an electrician who informed us they can't work on it, it's beyond safely repairing & is the original rubber sheathed wiring from the house being built (1956!!!) & has labelled it at risk.
We have no 'extra' to enable us to get a rewire & have tried for a loan but ccannot get one even from our mortgage company. On asking around (we have 4 children 3 under 16 - 2 with disabilities & 1 pregnant (!! can it get any worse!) we cannot find any places that give out grants & worse still no companies where you can pay monthly with your bills - we'd willingly change supplier.

Has anyone any info whatsoever that may help as we really are living in a death trap & are terrified as we have our 15 year old daughter being pregnant having social services involvement - they're ok - but we are beside ourselves incase they decide the place is too dangerous for the kids. We desperately need to find a way to be able to pay for these repairs or better still a grant. My husband comes home with about £700 a month so you can see our predicament.

Thanks
ALV

ormus

im just amazed any lender gave a you a mortgage on a house in that condition.
its usually a condition of the loan that certain work is done. esp any safety work.

try your local council for grants. they have a repayable grant system for families in your position.

familynameddear

Hi & thanks.

The survey said it was safe but would need doing at some stage soon - didn't expect it to be dangerous though & they didn't say that either.

The council usually give discretionary grants but their quota for the year is allocated as our local council is being swallowed up by a 'Super Council' in April & they've been told to leave nothing over. The best they could say is it looks unlikely there will be anything much next year if at all available from the 'new' council as we're one of the many who had a lot in the Icelandic bank that caused a lot of problems so they're penny pinching. The best they could say we can try in April but that they don't hold out any hope.

The irritating thing is that we'd be more than willing to pay in installments month by month rather than use a grant system but it seems it's all or nothing.

Thanks
Alv

savemoney

I am not sure if this can help or not but if you have a child with disabilities you may get help with adapting your home from social services

Also there is the family fund http://www.familyfund.org.uk/ for disabled child under 17

There is the home repair assistance grant that councils provide but it takes absolutely ages to get a grant talking in years and there is certain criteria to be meat and means tested etc

ormus

also try the local charities. salvation army and the local rotary club etc...
even if they cannot help you directly, they may know others who can help you.