council house repairs

AsknAnswer2

I had better stop paying my rent and council tax right now. I didn't realise that living in a council property absolved me of my responsibility and I could rely on everyone else's contributions!

It's not something for nothing. The council have to upgrade their properties as and when it is needed, the same as a private landlord would. Without doing so, the house would not be fit for let to another party once the current tenant leaves/dies. There is an element charged within the rental which goes toward this. It also increases the value of the property if/when someone wishes to buy it - including selling to a housing association which many councils have done recently.

The council are making repairs to their property. The OP should not be expected to foot the bill for electricity which is being used in the course of repairs, nor would a private tenant be expected to if a landlord decided to upgrade. The fee is the responsibility of the person who organised the repairs, not the tenant who has absolutely no choice in the matter.

I had just had new carpets fitted when the council had to upgrade my heating system. It was so old that it was condemned during the gas safety check. What happened? The contractors totally ruined a large part of the new carpets during their works. I complained about it. I didn't ask for a replacement to be funded because I could place a large rug over the carpet to cover the damage. However had the whole carpet been ruined, you can bet your backside I would have fought for it to be replaced, the same as I would have done had I owned my own house and had my property ruined by a tradesman.

When they are making upgrades to their property which I pay towards, I do not expect my property to be ruined in the process. Nor should the OP be expected to foot the bill for upgrades the council want to make to their property.

blue_monkey_2

Have any of you moaning been into a house after it has been 'renovated' by the council? They rip everything off walls and it needs completely redecorating, holes filling in, carpets need replacing and paper putting back up - this would never happen if someone came to your mortgaged house and fixed or renovated something for you, and if they did you'd be kicking @rse. Council tenants have to just accept how it is left and they are given £150 to put right the damaged that has been caused.

Likewise when you have your own home you get a choice of what units you want and what bathroom you want - if you are in a council house, or even a rented house, you get no say, you get no choice. You accept this choice because you cannot afford your own home. They also do (in the majority of cases) an absolutely shocking job and leave the house in an absolute mess. Most of them do not speak English so you cannot even speak to them to get something sorted. My friend had hers done recently and they let themselves into her house before 8am where her, and her children, we still in the house in their pyjamas, they did not even knock (not sure how they got a key though).

However, until housing becomes more affordable then there will be more people in need of social housing and a lot more tenants these days are working. In our case we are both working and do not claim benefits towards our rent or council tax at all. We can afford renovations to our HA house and have started them, but there is no way we could ever afford to buy somewhere to live - we could not even afford this after the maximum discount. Those days are long gone. Even a one bed flat around here costs more than 3 times our salaries at £110k.

Most councils no longer look after the housing but Housing Associations do.

Before complaining about subsidising people to live in their homes I'd also look at how much of your council tax is being paid to Buy To Let Landlords to feather their nest eggs for their retirement. YOU are the ones paying their mortgage because rents are through the roof and tenants are claiming LHA - around here it is around £900+ a month for renting a 3 bed house, and as the council declared to me, the person who can afford that rent is on an executive wage!!

nuttyp

moaninggit wrote: »

If i was you i would buy the house.When the tenancy comes to an end somebody couldl be hit with a big bill for the removal of the conservatry.

I wont be buying the house, have lost everything once but thats another story. If you want to decorate, make alterations, but as long as they give permission thats all thats needed.

nuttyp

Its true that the majority of contactors for the council do leave things in a mess, you get little or no choice in any door, kitchens or bathrooms are replaced. But in fareness it is cheaper to live in council accomodation. Private rentals are 600+ a month here.

tenmah

You get a very good choice of units, worktops, tiles, flooring and paint colours when our council upgrade the properties to Decent Homes Standards. Gone are the days of magnolia or magnolia - it is all down to tenants choice these days.

Broken_hearted

Confused, why was the Dad not living with his ever so concerned family while the work was done. Apologies if you offered and he refused.

Foggster

blue_monkey wrote: »

Before complaining about subsidising people to live in their homes I'd also look at how much of your council tax is being paid to Buy To Let Landlords to feather their nest eggs for their retirement. YOU are the ones paying their mortgage because rents are through the roof and tenants are claiming LHA - around here it is around £900+ a month for renting a 3 bed house, and as the council declared to me, the person who can afford that rent is on an executive wage!!

The local authority will claim back the cost of benefits from central govt so all tax payers are paying for the BTL landlords and those living in social housing and claiming benefits as well as those in private - so its not really much of an argument.

On the plus side, for a considerable number of years the housing stock is a separate account in the local authorities accounts and has to show itself as self-funding through rents.

korky69

Broken_hearted wrote: »

Confused, why was the Dad not living with his ever so concerned family while the work was done. Apologies if you offered and he refused.

they said he would be able to continue to live in his home, the 1st day of the inside work he was at my house, i popped in to see what was happening and they were knocking ten bells out of everything that didn't move, honestly, you couldn't see for the dust, the entire plaster knocked off the downstairs, floorboards up, they'd cut the power to rewire, tools scattered all over the house, no way on earth could a fit man live in that nevermind my old man!
we decided then he should stay with us, that was mid-feb and he's still with us now.

viktory

nuttyp wrote: »

CASH, i own everything in my house and dont have any finance at all.

Would that be because you declared yourself bankrupt and got all the debt written off?

blue_monkey_2

Certainly not 8 years around here - it is 20. The kitchens you have a choice of beech and er, beech. The tiles, white, the bathroom white, the worktop you get grey. I know other tenants the other side of the county and they have the same colours fitted by the same HA. Ours was done before we got here and we have the cupboards that an 80 year old lady asked for.

I am extremely grateful to have somewhere to live, I am certainly not moaning about that, but I am simply stating that the work you get is not of the same quality as if you had paid someone to come and do it for you, nor is the choice. We got new front and back doors because OT visited and stated they were simply not suitable for us and they got us a disability grant. They fitted the doors and went home and they had fitted it on the wrong way and, because of the other internal doors, could not get out of it as it opened into another doorway - the boss asked if we could 'put up with it for a small complimentary gift'.

I know lots of people who has had the internal work done has had to fully redecorate their house afterwards and no private contractor working elsewhere would do this, they would put it back as it was when they started. My friend cried because they came in and ripped tiles and plaster from the walls while leaving every door open in the house covering everything in dust. She said in the end she just gave up trying to keep on top of it as it was so bad.

Looks like your friends got lucky - but there are few of those as other people here have also said. Our bathroom was disgusting and is around 25 years old and not even due for replacement but we just chose to do it ourselves in the end. We will do the same with the kitchen as well and then we get what we choose. But we are lucky as we do not really go out much and are happy to go without to pay for it. We'll be here for a long time so it's worth it. Our bathroom is tiny (4ft 8" x 8ft) so we got a smaller bath (which we turned around) and a smaller loo and then had room for storage cupboards - the council would not have done that for us and we got what we wanted then. You just have to ask for permission to do the work.