Problems with housing officer

SingleSue

allen169 wrote: »

Its the cold temperature that causes my partners circulation to be obstructed. Not the warmth. You shouldn't have to wear gloves in a property when the home should be able to be adequately heated.

Incidentally do you have high heating bills? or do you find the gloves etc enough to get through the cold.

To those who are saying about the autism, may I suggest you check google to find out why parents with children who have autism have some of the highest heating bills....

I have two children with autism and one child with EDS related blood flow problems to his extremeties....I'm also a cold person.

Re the autism, with gentle 'conditioning', changes can be made. It is not easy or stressfree but it is possible. The therapies I have done with my children (and especially my youngest son who is moderate to severe complex autistic), has allowed us to finally be able to go to a supermarket, have a meal out or go to the cinema...been a process which has lasted well over a decade so far and is an ongoing thing.

Not all autistic children need the extra heat either, middle son has his own central heating system in his body and will strip off because he is too hot in normal temps, youngest is fine at normal temps...me and eldest son are blooming freezing at normal temps (and we are not autistic). For me, I always worried about middle son getting cold because he was stripping off all the time and would whack the heating up, until I realised he was stripping off not because of an autistic trait but because he was too hot. Getting too hot would also result in violent and aggressive behaviour in him, so keeping him cool but the rest of us warm enough has been more of a challenge but an important one.

Eldest son wears gloves most of the year as well as a thick jacket in the summer, it would have to be 30+ C before he would feel comfortable!

At the present time, my thermostat is set to 19/20 degrees during the day and middle son is sitting in his boxers, too hot to put anything else on whilst that is the lowest eldest can cope with (he was sat wearing two fleece jackets earlier tonight).

To reduce bills, quilts on sofas, extra layers etc will reduce costs, ok it may not be ideal far better that than struggling to get by with huge heating bills.

allen169

sniggings wrote: »

Not knowing the house, this is all guess work, but this house, fixed still sounds unsuitable, a house shouldn't cost that much to heat, a door off etc shouldn't make a well insulated home cold, but would make a bad insulated home worse.

With a move they would be making savings year on year, the repairs need paying for whether the OP moves or not, why fix a lemon!

The house was built in 1942 semi. Fairly old typical red brick council house.

The house does cost a lot to heat and we have damp coming through the wall from the neighbouring property. The neighbours have refused all council modifications to their property, including new roof, insulation etc. Believe it or not, if their house goes cold, we do feel the effects as the dividing wall is not insulated. The damp also comes through from the neighbouring property.

The problem I have in getting the council to do any of these works to my property is the fact that they quote the fact I used the joint tenancy to return to my property, and therefore accept it in its current condition. Technically by that, I must have accepted the fact that these problems will not be rectified.

gingergee

I suffer with RP. And sle and as of this week pneumonia. I also have a wood burner (seems to be a southern thing, they love them down here?)
Whilst I get the need for warmth at a constant, I don't get why it's so important as my fuel burner only keeps one room warm? The other 6 use oil radiators and I only go through 400-500£ of oil a year and I live on exmoor! It's bleak!!!
Your partner needs help to get raynauds under control with her consultant or ot. There are grants and charities who can help, sure start are a good starting point.
On the fb side, change your privacy settings to the highest. You can also do this thing where you can't be found by searching on google etc but can't quite remember how.
Hope your partner can get help managing her RP. It's not pleasant.

hohum

I suppose the question is do you want to be right, or do you want to be warm?

It sounds like you are out of luck with getting the council to do repairs for you, as other posters have explained you have accepted responsibility for damage through enforcing a joint tenancy

If you want to be warm you are much better off pursuing energy efficiency measures rather than arguing the toss with the council re stove. Also doesn't a stove just heat one room? That still leaves you the rest of the house to heat

An early brick built semi would benefit from basic insulation - loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, a more effective boiler. The good thing about these if you are on a low income you can probably get these done for free/ on green deal if your house does not already have them, and you don't need to be a home owner.

It's not ineffectual to suggest thermal blinds and blankets. If you don't have the money to replace the door, put up a curtain. And yes, a door does make a difference to conserving temperatures. To test this, open your front door. Notice the temperature inside your house drop. The same with interior doors and keeping heat in rooms. Draft excluders, curtains, it all helps and significantly.

allen169

Strangely, when the wood burner was in operation it did heat the house, if your skilled enough to keep a fire in all night after several days the whole house is really warm. We used eco fans to direct the heat, and the heat spread out through the downstairs of the property. The heat also transferred through the chimney breast upstairs warming one of the other rooms.

Pixie5740

Great, the wood burner heats the house for you. Stop drawing attention to it by repeatedly contacting the council about it. Hopefully they'll forget about it. Then concentrate on fixing the damage which legally, not technically, you are liable for. Do you still have a joint tenancy with your ex or did you manage to have her name removed?

ManuelG

allen169 wrote: »

To the person who said buy thermal curtains, that really wasn't very productive, almost as good as the council response I received telling me to use extra blankets...

Having just done some Googling, the above advice may not be productive for you, but might very well be for me. A simple, common sense solution that I hadn't thought of:doh: to help cut *my* bills, so I'm glad of said advice anyway:beer:

Poppie68

ManuelG......glad someone appreciates my simple cost saving idea.....
Long may the op freeze, the ungrateful fool.

anselld

allen169 wrote: »

My question still remains, how do I challenge the council on their decision to refuse, and does anybody here who live in council properties have the use of a wood burning device.

The Council have already indicated the next step in challenging their decision - go to the ombudsman.

AdrianC

hohum wrote: »

I suppose the question is do you want to be right, or do you want to be warm?

The problem is that he wants to be both. And that ain't going to happen in a hurry...