The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

nursemaggie

I already have sent the Housing association a long list of my complaints. It is closely typed 2 A4 sheets. All I got was a good telling off and treated as if I had committed a crime by asking for a house and not a flat. Unfortunately the law backs them up you are not allowed one square inch more than what they think is the minimum you need.

We already know that this flat is the only accomodation with 2 bedrooms to come on the market in 2 years. Because of the bedroom tax hundreds of people apply for every 2 bed property.

The bidding system is ludicrous you go to the bottom of the list every week. Months and months go by and all there is is one bedroom flats and bedsits. I got turned down for everything that was outside of Bolton because I did not live in the area.

Every week I kept getting phone calls about sheltered housing because of my age knowing that DS was not allowed to live there and they were one bed flats anyway. Sheltered housing is run by a different department and they have far too much. I got sick of them ringing me up about it. They could do nothing for DS. He was in the middle of that stupid 2 suspension for not being able to be in two places at one. That's why he is still at home.

He now says there is no point in leaving home now as may end up having to move back in to look after me.

I have told the Housing association I will go to my MP if they do not do anything within 2 weeks. I don't expect them to rehouse me in that time but I do expect them to get someone who speaks their language to speak to them.

I have just opened a payslip from Gloucestershire County Council. I have had a massive rise and it does not say it has any backpay. I now have this to show potential landlords. I expect they will only look at the end figure because my pension is made up of 10 different elements. It looks like gibberish. It is all to do with us being regraded about 25 years ago and also a big rise in Local Authority pension in 1988.

It looks like the Government took the brakes off with this limit of 1% since 2008. People do not think it affects pensions but it does.

The thing that really annoys me about this flat is that they did not tell us they had sublet all these flats to this refugee agency. They get every vacancy that comes up. The housing association do not have any jurisdiction over these tenants so they are just formally (yes we have had it in writing) blamed us for the chaos of the rubbish situation. That is to sort too. Two of the flats are privately own so they are up in arms.

Well let's forget about if for now, not that it is easy as they seem to have stepped it up by more than I thought possible, this last 48 hours.

nursemaggie

I don't think so silva they just moan among themselves and blame each other. Of course we get most of the noise anyway. Most of them are in our part of the building. We are surrounded. Next door the other side come out and swear at them but I expect they daren't complain because they are guilty too. Top floor daren't complain because not only are the guilty too they are permanently drunk and were probably evicted from somewhere else for their antisocial behaviour. I heard on the grapevine they have been responsible for 4 tenants moving out we definitely know of one because she was here when we moved in.

She used to come to us to get away from them.

What can I say about your morning? At least you got three over in quick succession. Superglue the broken draw they are horrendously expensive ask Jackie O.

DS has been sleep deprived from the first day they moved in. The had a party every night for the first three days which did not finish much before he had to get up. He goes to sleep over his dinner like he did when he was a baby. He does not put his face in his dinner like he did then.

monnagran

nursemaggie, I can quite understand that you are sick to death of telling your story over and over again to no avail.

I once had a similar situation with Thames Water. They came to install a meter and having discovered that we had a shared supply (Which we had already told them) so they stopped work on it. From then on we had a leak, the water ran down our drive, across the farmyard next door and into a field. This went on for 2 years. I lost count of the phone calls I made, letters I wrote, men who arrived in vans, sucked their teeth, shook their heads, dug another hole, filled it in again and disappeared. I would then get a letter telling me that it was a natural spring, it was my fault, a new pipe would be needed that would cost me upwards of £20,000, it was on my property so my responsibility, never, never, never was it anything to do with their abortive attempt to install a water meter.

Eventually I wrote one last despairing letter saying that in view of the millions of gallons of water wasted over the last two years, if there was even a suspicion of a hosepipe ban or any other restriction that summer I would be inviting every local and national newspaper and television company to come and observe the water pouring across my, and my neighbour's, property.
Within 10 days the vans arrived, the leak was mended and next door could walk across the farmyard safely again.

I don't know if it would work in your case nm, but sometimes the threat of publicity concentrates minds when every other avenue is closed.

nursemaggie

monna I am well aware my local paper will have a field day if I get my MP involved. They have my age, my cancer, the other 8 conditions I have, I should have attendance allowance in another couple of weeks. They are very good at laying it on thick. My MP is very very good at publicity, he probably got his knighthood for that.

I think they have their hands tied behind their backs because these people are black and refugees. You know when you play the race card you trump everything. I will be pants. I will be accused of racially harassing them. I have already threatened them with my MP. No doubt they know him as well as I do.

silvasava

NM - I really don't know how you and DS have coped with this appalling situation for so long. Just such a shame that our concern and sympathy doesn't amount to a practical result for you.
My freezer was given to me after my old one broke down - full of food! I put a plea out on a local forum and by the afternoon had a replacement from a lady who was having an integrated one. I'll get DH to do a repair and swap for a bottom drawer. I did get a decent replacement drawer once for my garage freezer from the tip - amazing how many weren't even wiped out before they were disposed of - mould and pong!

Charis

My neighbour swears by Canadian strong bread flour, he makes the dough in a tin and bakes it in his oven. I haven't tried any because I am no longer able to tolerate bread (which I love).

mardatha

I'm not mad on bread Charis, mainly because it makes me bloat and sets the heartburn onto orbit. I got the breadmaker so I could try alternative types of bread - but now I'm not sure what they are!
Sorry for posting and running, not focused enough today to catch up, I am sorry xx

greenbee

Mar - try khorasan and teff flours if you want to experiment. I suspect they're very expensive as they're ancient grains and therefore not hugely productive or easy to harvest! Most people I know mix them with conventional flour.

mardatha

I'd pay extra and dilute them with ordinary stuff GB, would be worth it. TY will google

Nargleblast

nursemaggie your situation has gone beyond the point of ridiculousness. Get your MP on the case, and tell him that if the situation has not improved within the next seven days (or whatever timescale you think reasonable) then you will be taking this to the local and the national Press. (They might not be interested but the threat might be enough.) Also, organisations nowadays tend to have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts, and a bad review on their page usually sets a tidal wave in motion, with hundreds, sometimes thousands of other dissatisfied people also joining in. Before you know it, your case will have gone viral and the organisation will be jumping through hoops trying to calm things down and resolve things for you.

You have your evidence, you know what needs to be done, so do it. Before your own health gets worse, or your DS kills himself or someone else through lack of sleep. It matters not whether these people are black, white or sky blue pink, refugees or native Brits, they still have an obligation to treat their property and neighbours with consideration. Enough is enough.