Vent: Council Workmen wrecking the place!

Outpost

To be honest I think people have to accept that a level of hostility towards council tenants complaining about work going on in 'their' houses (I don't use the inverted commas as a slight against people living in council accommodation but rather to highlight the fact that the property does not belong to them). The fact is that the amount of work described in the OP's post - a new boiler, radiators, new flooring and tiling - would cost a private home-owner a significant amount of money running into thousands.

I'm not defending the attitude as such but I can certainly understand it, even if it may be a little misguided.

kev.s

call the council and complain about the way are treating you, at the end of the day it's still your home, regardless if your council tennants or not, either that or tell the workmen to leave!

Outpost

kev.s wrote: »

call the council and complain about the way are treating you, at the end of the day it's still your home, regardless if your council tennants or not, either that or tell the workmen to leave!

Tell the council workers to get out of a house owned by the council? I'm not entirely sure this is the correct approach to ensure continued good-relations, in the same way that I'd question advice to kick tradesmen employed by your landlord out of the house owned by your landlord.

mcjordi

OP its not SBH is it?

DeeMarie89

Not sure what/who SBH is :S sorry
And although it's lovely that they've given us a new boiler etc, it's mostly stuff I didn't need or want.
We already have perfectly adequate flooring in the bathroom, but they ruined the one in the toilet, so rather than replacing the one tile, they have to refloor the toilet and bathroom, apparently.
I also wanted to do my own tiling in the kitchen. It's only 3 rows of tiles for a splashback, but I was told I wasn't allowed to do it myself, the council had to do it, which is pants as I wanted a red and black one, (which I was happy to pay to have done privately) and they only do blue, green or white.
And they wanted to replace four radiators, which I didn't need or want. I agreed to let them fit one, but hel firm on the other three.
And the boiler was perfectly adequate.
I didn't ask for these works, I did not want these works, so please excuse me when I get pi**ed off when they destroy the place doing work I don't want!

Outpost

DeeMarie89 wrote: »

I didn't ask for these works, I did not want these works, so please excuse me when I get pi**ed off when they destroy the place doing work I don't want!

But again, this house doesn't belong to you. Whether you ask for or want these works seems a little irrelevant since the house belongs to the council and the council wish to do these works to the house that they own.

If I was a landlord and wanted to install a new boiler and radiators into a house that I own then frankly I wouldn't care whether my tenant considered the work necessary or not.

spike7451

Outpost wrote: »

But again, this house doesn't belong to you. Whether you ask for or want these works seems a little irrelevant since the house belongs to the council and the council wish to do these works to the house that they own.

If I was a landlord and wanted to install a new boiler and radiators into a house that I own then frankly I wouldn't care whether my tenant considered the work necessary or not.

Well, my council,the NIHE,give you a choice of if you want the work done or not.My neighbors across the landing didn't get the gas heating installed,sticking with the Economy (NOT!) 7....During the harsh winter we just went thru,they realised that it was a bad mistake not to.
Problem for them now is the scheme is finished & they'll now have to pay upwards of £2k to get the gas in.

standingupformyself

spike7451 wrote: »

Well, my council,the NIHE,give you a choice of if you want the work done or not.My neighbors across the landing didn't get the gas heating installed,sticking with the Economy (NOT!) 7....During the harsh winter we just went thru,they realised that it was a bad mistake not to.
Problem for them now is the scheme is finished & they'll now have to pay upwards of £2k to get the gas in.

I wish our council gave us the choice.... we moved into our house and it had no fitted kitchen (not that we necessarily expected one) so we saved hard and bought one ourselves and once fitted it looked lovely - however the council insisted that we had a new one put in a few years later and the one that my hubby installed was considerably better qualty and also fitted correctly. Then a couple years later we were told our central heating needed replacing - our house was freshly decorated at the time and the heating system worked perfectly.

I pleaded with the council to leave the system in place, but they refused. They took away my gas fire and back boiler behind the fire, blocked the chimney breast up with breeze blocks, replaced all the radiators with new (smaller) ones, meaning every single room needed redecorating and every single carpet was ruined as the pipe work came through at different places. The boiler did not work properly for weeks, it turned out that we were loosing water through one of the new pipes and my porch way was getting damper and damper.

The boiler then starting cutting out and needing re-pressurising every time the weather got colder, this went on for about 3 years until they finally decided to replace the boiler ( many other tenants had the same problem and ended up getting a replacement ) The guy that installed the new one told me that the only reason we were all given a new system was because our council changed to a housing association and the association were given five million pounds by the government - which had to be spent in x amount of time, regardless of whether people actually needed replacements or not.

spike7451

standingupformyself wrote: »

I wish our council gave us the choice.... we moved into our house and it had no fitted kitchen (not that we necessarily expected one) so we saved hard and bought one ourselves and once fitted it looked lovely - however the council insisted that we had a new one put in a few years later and the one that my hubby installed was considerably better qualty and also fitted correctly. Then a couple years later we were told our central heating needed replacing - our house was freshly decorated at the time and the heating system worked perfectly.

I pleaded with the council to leave the system in place, but they refused. They took away my gas fire and back boiler behind the fire, blocked the chimney breast up with breeze blocks, replaced all the radiators with new (smaller) ones, meaning every single room needed redecorating and every single carpet was ruined as the pipe work came through at different places. The boiler did not work properly for weeks, it turned out that we were loosing water through one of the new pipes and my porch way was getting damper and damper.

The boiler then starting cutting out and needing re-pressurising every time the weather got colder, this went on for about 3 years until they finally decided to replace the boiler ( many other tenants had the same problem and ended up getting a replacement ) The guy that installed the new one told me that the only reason we were all given a new system was because our council changed to a housing association and the association were given five million pounds by the government - which had to be spent in x amount of time, regardless of whether people actually needed replacements or not.

What a carry on! The NIHE look at it as by people not taking the upgrades,they are saving money.Where I live,opposite my apartment is an 'n' shaped clutch of bungalows,non of the OAP's who live in them wanted the upgrades,which at the time was kitchens,bathrooms & heating, which meant we would have to move out into caravans sited on the green in front of my apartment.
Thankfully this didn't happen & by people turning the work down,the NIHE saved millions!

standingupformyself

I have deleted my comment as I have just read the post above, (which I have reported as abusive) and I am politely leaving this thread