new council tenants, need help to get funding for new carpets, furnishings etc

leelaurantheboys

Hi, Im a 31 yo male, my partner is 26 we have two young boys, 3 in september and 15 months old. We were offered a council property recently, but have zero funds available to furnish the property, it is entirely bare internally, no carpets, furnishings etc. Were unable to apply for a budgeting loan due to my partners previous outstanding debt, we applied for a crisis loan for £600 to carpet the property, we have since been turned down for this.
According to the social fund it isnt classed as a health and safety risk having a house without carpets, when you bare in mind the ages of our children nearly 3 yo and 15 months old, the first thing that comes to my mind is the health and safety of our two sons, crawling around on the bare floorboards to start with, never mind the nails and various screws sticking out through the floodboards. :eek:

Any help and assistance would be appreciated as we were due to move in monday just gone (02/08/2010), thankyou for your help.

leelaurantheboys

karenx

You could try freecycle or gumtree for carpets rugs etc

AnxiousMum

Hmmm, well a good whack on the head of the nails with a hammer will take care of those. If you look on freecycle/freegle, you will get at least carpet pieces to put on the heavy traffic areas where the children will be. You will also likely get furniture for the entire place on there given a bit of time.
Are you working at all? Could you set aside some of your pay cheque for the next couple of months and get roll ends that will fit some of the rooms? Area rugs are not that expensive to buy which will fit the main areas of most rooms as well.
You've already been given subsidised housing which is great - but many times, even people moving into their brand new house that they've worked years to be able to save a down payment for, have to go without certain things until they can afford it, after having done so for many years whilst saving up the downpayment!
I'll bet you that if you joined freegle/freecycle, and put up a very polite post saying that you are looking for such and such to ensure that the place is safe and comfortable for your young children, you will be offered all kinds. Colours may not be your favourite choice - but they will take care of your safety fear.

angelicmary85

Hi Lee,

I've never had to apply for anything like this but a family member applied for a community care grant. Maybe you could try that?

Pont

Sorry - no help with info regarding grants. However, I wouldn't post family/children's names on an open forum.

leelaurantheboys

We are currently sharing with my mother-in-law, I was made redundant in may 2009 and have had serious problems finding work since then, I do not understand how it can be classed as safe for children crawling around on the bare floorboards, if it wasnt for our children then we wouldn't mind making do until we save up the £600 we need, we consider the safest thing we can do is to not move in until we have carpeted the property, at least for the safety of our children

hermum

Borrow a sander, knock in all the nails & then wax the floors, with young kids, best thing, to stop drafts you can make up papier mache to put in the gaps first then sand & varnish, paint or wax. Kids are pretty resilient & at their ages probably aren't on their knees crawling all the time. The flooring will then last you for as long as you need it with an occasional rub down & re finish in heavy wear areas.
Freecycle as mentioned will no doubt throw up some free things, gumtree also has a freebie section.
Ask around friends & family, also is there a local 2nd hand furniture charity for people on low incomes?
As long as you have a cooker, beds & a sofa the rest can come. I assume with 2 children you've been living somewhere or were you both at home with parents until now?
Car boots & charity shops usually have reasonably priced things as well.

hermum

Unless the housing situation where you are is very different to here, then you would have been on the list for years. If you've not been able to save up for carpets in the last 15 months then with rent to pay on an empty property & to your m-i-l I shouldn't think that you'll be able to get £600 together very quickly. Although of course if you aren't actually living in the property you could find yourself evicted, & unable to get another council property as I think that you have to be in need of housing to qualify throughout the country.
If you turn this down you'll be right at the bottom again, is there any medical reason why your children are still crawling?
Have a look on Right move, when houses have sanded floorboards it's deemed as a selling point, an awful lot of them have babies living in them. I fail to see how it's unsafe.
Maybe your wife could find work & you could be a house husband.
£600 sounds like an awful lot of carpet, but then I don't actually have any.

dmg24

How big is the property? You can probably do it for less than £600. You do realise that HB will not be paid indefinitely if you are not living there?

Wee_Willy_Harris

leelaurantheboys wrote: »

We are currently sharing with my mother-in-law, I was made redundant in may 2009 and have had serious problems finding work since then, I do not understand how it can be classed as safe for children crawling around on the bare floorboards, if it wasnt for our children then we wouldn't mind making do until we save up the £600 we need, we consider the safest thing we can do is to not move in until we have carpeted the property, at least for the safety of our children

Perhaps you should consider refusing the property until such time as you can afford carpets. Clearly you have been successful now, so it shouldn't be too long a wait for another offer. I presume you have some sort of priority on the allocation system. As long as it isn't homeless, you should be OK to refuse and carry on as you already do, saving a bit until you can afford what you feel you need.

Tippytoes

When we got our first home, we had very little money. We went to a "surplus store" and bought vinyl flooring. It wasn't expensive, saved our little ones from splinters and was very easy to keep clean.