Council general repair grant - All or nothing!

momo101

Hi All,
I'm looking for some advice from members with regards to a general repairs grant I have made on behalf of my parents to the council. It taken nearly 3 years from the the initial contact to get to a stage where the council grant office have said they are willing to fund the replacement of lead piping, damp and timber treatment for the ground floor and based on an electrical survey carried out that recommended a whole house rewiring, a rewiring also can be funded (mostly).

The issue they have is that they would prefer to only go ahead with the lead pipe replacement and damp / timber treatment, but not the house rewire because this would result in external trunking used throughout the house (the cheapest option can only be funded) which having spent the last 3 years slowly redecorating (after 15 years) the rooms isn't something they desire.
Now, the initial response from the case officer is that the council will only fund all the works or nothing, so they have to do the rewire (they way the council desires) or no funding will be given, something to do with council making sure property is up to minimum standard of quality.

I find this quite unreasonable an unaccommodating even after suggesting that we pay for the another technical survey to see if partial rewiring of the ground floor can be done, and it is not the case the electrical survey has said that the current wiring is not fit for continued use, just that to change from an old fashion fuse box to a consumer unit will require total rewire of the house because the sockets are not earth bonded . Does anyone have any advice that could help the situation?

savemoney

In some respects your parents are lucky where they live. My council only give grants provided that when you come to sell they claim it back as a local land charge

monkeyspanner

It might be worth contacting your local water authority. In our area they used to offer grants to remove lead pipework.

seven-day-weekend

We had a grant in the early 1980s when they were being offered to homeowners to bring their dwellings up to scratch. It was the same, all or nothing and at the time we couldn't afford our share of the 'all' so we had nothing. Later on we were able to afford our share, so had all the work done that they recommended.

I think it's fair enough really. If the Council are giving you money for repairs, they have a responsibility to make sure the house is safe to live in. If the wiring is not safe, it should be replaced, decorating or not.

What would people say if someone died through faulty wiring that the Council had allowed someone to live with just because it would spoil their decorating?

I think your parents are being very short-sighted in not having it done. You can soon stick some more wallpaper on the wall. You don't recover from being burned to death through faulty wiring.

Just mho.