council house improvements

SmileyHappyBeing

Hi,

Had a tenants newsletter through the post a while back ststing when people would be getting there home improvements done i.e kitchens and bathrooms.

It said 2007/2008 for my road, didnt think much off it and just assumed we'd be on the list as we live in the road.
Anyway one off my friends told me yest that it doesnt automaticly mean you'll get it done (kitchen in our case), so have just rang the council and been told that im not on this years list or next years, so looking at 2009... maybe.. I am so annoyed, the house has the original kitchen in from when the house was built (in the 40's), even the original wallpaper (which i know we could change but the rest of the kitchen is such a mess it doesnt really seem worth it) We only have one worktop as when we moved in there was no space for a washing machine etc as an old woman had lived here previously had only had a cooker, so we had to move it all around to make space for fridge/freezer/washing mach etc, the sink comes away from the wall, and the work top we have isnt fitted properly as it wasnt meant to be there (we had to put it there), the man at the council said all i could do is speak to my housing officer and see if she will come out and assess it and maybe put us on the list, so have tried her but no answer so will keep trying.

Am just wondering if there is anyhting else we can do, i have never asked the council for anything, we pay our rent on time etc and it just seems really unfair that that 3 houses down will ge there kitchen done but we wont!

I know you might be thinking we could do the kitchen up oourselves but we cant afford that, and i dont see why we should when we are tenants, also if we make any improvements like changing the cupboard doors then you are classed as having a new kitchen and you wont get anything, so we are stuck.

We have done the rest of the house ourselves but i just found this really unfair, anyway, rant over...:mad: :rotfl:

Any ideas what we could re: the council??

Thanks

bonnie_2

We had a letter stating this last year, they even came out and asked us to choose the fiitings saying it would be done in 6 weeks time, 1 year on and still waiting.
Don't think there is a lot you can do.

SmileyHappyBeing

Thats ridiculous, they take pi$$!

I was just chatting to my friend and i was saying about maybe we will have to do it ourselves and she said why should we, we pay rent, they are our landlords it is down to them.. if it was a private property then itd be down to your l.lord, i dont know.... *sigh*

plumduff-2

Cant you go into your local housing office and complain...

Cant you fill in a complaints form and see what happens.. or, complain to your local councillor, who may get things moving, especially if you have young childrent or are elderly or disabled... (sad but true)

Alternatively if nothing happens, look at the local govt ombudsman website to see if you can complain further to them, but you will have had to complain to the council first..

Lastly - is your council looking at selling off the stock..? Ours did 6 years ago, prior to the vote, the council practically let all the properties run down and said they could not afford to repair anything that wasnt an emergency... good way of getting the tenants to vote for the transfer...

SmileyHappyBeing

Hi plumduff

i think there is something going on about who is going to be in control of the council properties going on but im not really sure as i didnt understand it

We have a daughter aged 4, so guess that will go in our favor.. I will try what you say, anythings worth ago!

Thanks for your reply

immoral_angeluk

When we moved into our housing association house (Oct 05) they said that our house was on next years list (2006) and it was done in March. Wer're currently on a list for new PVC front doors and were originally told they'd be doing them April last year but apparently the budget ran out so they should be done April this year.
The way I see it is I don't mind waiting because we should be grateful they do our lovely new home improvements for free instead of us having to save a fortune and get them done ourselves. Yes ok we may have to wait but I'm not going to be ungrateful when they have so many houses/flats/bungalows to do in their budget!

Graham_Devon

Well I currently got 2 weeks off from work to do my place up. I also have shared ownership, own 25% (soon to be 50%). I'm paying and getting stuck in myself to do it up by myself. No ones going to help me.

How do you pay rent for your council house? Is it any different to paying a landlord?

I pay rent for my place and mortgage for the other, but still have to do everything myself if I want to improve it for my own benefit.

SmileyHappyBeing

Yes i understand all that, but our kitchen is literally falling apart, we have no money to do anyhting about it so it doesnt seem fair that we have to wait 3 years while other houses down the road are getting done now.

We pay rent to the council in the same way you'd pay a landlord, i dont understand your question? I use a card to pay it...

Im not ungratefull at all, when we moved in the house was awful and we did it all ourselves with out complaint, but it very expensive to provide a new kitchen, sink etc and as it is a council property i believe that this should be down to them (as it obv is as they are fitting other peoples kitchens), i just think its unfair that we have a kitchen thats nigh on 40 yrs old, im not trying to get anything for 'free' apart from what i feel we need.

Graham_Devon

I was more trying to figure out what rent meant. Some people 'rent' from the council when infact it's all housing benefit money in the first place. Therefore it's nothing like having a private landlord.

If you rent privately from the council then I would just state it in writing, not much else you can do really.

Are the houses down the road older than yours?

I don't quite believe the 1940's kitchen though. Councils normally have a 10 - 15 year turnaround on these things, I know as my dad's company had the job of doing it all. Amazing what the tenants were able to choose and how much they complained to be honest, but thats another story!!

lewt

break summit and go down there and protest that it's unhealty to keep food there and so on. the louder you'll shout the more you'll get.

JasonLVC

Graham_Devon wrote:

I was more trying to figure out what rent meant. Some people 'rent' from the council when infact it's all housing benefit money in the first place. Therefore it's nothing like having a private landlord.

If you rent privately from the council then I would just state it in writing, not much else you can do really.

Are the houses down the road older than yours?

I don't quite believe the 1940's kitchen though. Councils normally have a 10 - 15 year turnaround on these things, I know as my dad's company had the job of doing it all. Amazing what the tenants were able to choose and how much they complained to be honest, but thats another story!!

Tenants who rent from the council pay their rent directly to the council (the landlord). Those receiving housing benefit basically have the rent paid for them by the Council (it sounds odd but it's different pots of money so are quite seperate, hence the oddity of the council paying itself).

OP - Quote the decent homes standard and invite the local housing office manager to inspect your property. A normal manager will see your state and ensure funding is provided (basically, someelse won't get their kitchen!). I wouldn;t recommend damaging the kitchen - it's that kind of action that gives council tenants a bad name and if they determine it to be deliberate may charge you for it (although unlikley as 99% of the time difficult to prove).

Also, at the end of the day your landlord is your local council, with local councillors in need of votes. Find out who your areas' councillor is, attend his/her surgery and explain the problem and what he's going to do about it. You'll find that is 100% more effective than being rude, offensive and shouting off in public.