Vent: Council Workmen wrecking the place!

DeeMarie89

Hi all.
I live in a council house, and currently they are being updated to a certain standard.
Today I am supposed to be having a combi boiler fitted, a new radiator, new flooring in my bathroom, and some tiling in my kitchen.
We were refused new kitchen units as we had kept ours well maintained (they're wonky, the doors fall off, but as we repair them, the council won't modernise them. They're old units and doors though.)
Well, today, a young lad has come to fit the boiler and radiator.
Since 8am, he has removed the old boiler system, broken the legs on one of the kitchen units, pulled one of the worktops away from the wall, and spent half an hour on the phone !!!!!ing about how hard the job is.
I'm getting pretty Pi**ed off now

Proc

I wish somebody would update my house free of charge.

marcowil

Proc wrote: »

I wish somebody would update my house free of charge.

oh here we go! - OP, did you not realise that because you live in council provided accomodation and PAY rent you should be eternally grateful to everyone else in the UK that you have a roof over your head.

I agree with you though on the standard of workmanship that is provided by these contractors - it can be abysmal (not always the case though). You need to make a nuisance of yourself at the Council and complain, complain complain.

You pay rent (no matter how much) to live in your home and the Council are required to maintain it to meet a certain standard (by law)

donnap83

Proc wrote: »

I wish somebody would update my house free of charge.

Meh, poor you...

DeeMarie89

Well now they have left me with an 11 month old, I'm 4 months pregnant, and I've got no hot water, no heating, my house is freezing, and there's a gaping hole in my wall.
And for those !!!!!ing about me getting 'free work', if I had been in a better position I would have privately rented a house with these basics as standard. The fact is, I pay my rent and council tax (unlike a lot of my neighbours) and they got a lovely kitchen, I didn't get a new one, I've got an eyesore from the 70's. Why? Because I keep my house in a decent state of repair

DeeMarie89

Proc wrote: »

I wish somebody would update my house free of charge.

I'll happily come and rip your boiler out and leave a great big hole in your wall

standingupformyself

Proc wrote: »

I wish somebody would update my house free of charge.

Free of charge????
I also live in a council house, and my rent has steadily gone up each and every year, and it will never stop - unlike mortgages which come to an end eventually.

When we have repairs done, we regularly have to put up with attitudes of people such as the OP's boiler guy, they break stuff, they often have zero respect for our homes and the time and effort we have put into them.

I am grateful for my council house, and recently I was very fortunate to get a mutual exchange to an area that I prefer. I had to have my original council come out and do building/gas & electrical checks before I could be signed off to move... The Electrician came out 4 times in total, once to do the check and three times to do small remedial electrical work - each job taking no more than twenty minutes, but suprisingly he kept rebooking himself to come back out on a Friday afternoon as he lived nearby and could get himself an early day - this would not have been acceptable if I was a "paying customer"

spike7451

I'm in an HIHE property,my rent is about £59 a week including rates.It's a 2 bed first floor apartment with back garden.Since I moved in I've had the windows replaced,new kitchen & gas central heating,which was done last Feb (2010)
The kitchens were done about 4 years ago & last week I got the cabinet doors replaced as the laminate coating was coming away from the doors.
When they put the central heating in,which took a gang of them a day to do,they made a mess but tidied up,hoovered ect,after them,The only area they left a mess was the attic..(which I've yet to tackle....)
Yes they make a mess,some of their contractors aren't exactly the best at the job (although I have to say,the majority of the one's Ive dealt with have been dead on) & when the gas was fitted I had no hot water for a week as the boiler was faulty & in the end I got the heating company out to fix it myself as the installers supervisor couldn't be bothered.
Show me where you can rent a appartment like mine for a little over £240 a month & have all the repairs/upgrades ect done for free?...

donnap83

DeeMarie89 wrote: »

I'll happily come and rip your boiler out and leave a great big hole in your wall

Haha!!:rotfl:

babyemily

My Council house rent is nearly £500 pm and it just keeps going up. We were also refused upgrades as we had kept our house in good order. Yet every year when the council plumbers come out to service the boiler - they inevitably flood the kitchen!! Each time someone promises to come out and they even make apps but nobody ever shows. We have just recently replaced the whole ceiling in our kitchen as we just couldnt wait anymore. They have flooded through it every year for 5 years and it was dangerous. When I emailed to explain we had had it fixed ourselves after 5 years of waiting we were advised that should the house be inspected and it is not up to their standards then we will be billed for the removal and fitting of a whole new ceiling!!! It has been done properly btw but I would like to know how their standards can differ so much

donnap83

My mum owns her own house, outright, but is on Disability. As she now uses a wheelchair permanantly, she was told she was eligible for a local council grant to adapt the house to better suit her needs. They were to install central heating as she only had gas heaters in the 2 bedrooms, and the dining room. They would make good the original windows as they were drafty. Intall a concrete ramp in the back garden to give her access to the house. Completely redesign the kitchen/dining room/bathroom, to give her better access. Total cost, around £30,000

The work was a mess from start to finish. The contractor was a usless, lazy twit, and his workers weren't much better. When I went down to check the progress and noticed that something wasn't right, I was told we should be grateful we were even getting the work done. Bit my tongue and left.

The council person overseeing the work said mum would need to be out of the house for 2 weeks. 4 and a half weeks later she finally got back in, and even then it was a building site. When the work was finally finished, and her possessions brought back into the house, things were water damaged, broken, or even missing. Strangely, the missing things werent things of value.

2 years on, and the problems with the work keep cropping up. Really bad electrics, I've had to call a spark out on 3 occasions, and all the problems stem from the original work 2 years ago. most of the wall sockets are hanging off and don't seem to screw in properly. There is no cooker isolation switch thing. The special flooring in the utility and bathroom is peeling up...i could go on, and one. And on...

It really pee's me off that because she hasn't paid for the work, she's expected to just put up with substandard workmanship.

So i totally understand where the OP is coming from.

Rant over.

Until something else goes wrong....