Do councils ever do refurbs on housing association flats?

SneakySpectator

I'm in a council flat that's 70 years old. The windows are nearly 20 years old (checked the stamp date on window strip), the door frames are metal, the boiler is nearly 15 years old. The walls and ceiling are cracking and have just been wallpapered over to cover them up. 

General wear and tear over the years but it's still a perfectly good flat to live in, no mould or leaking roof or anything. Little draft from one of the windows but overall I'm pretty impressed it's still going this strong after 70 years. I'm in a row of flats 3 high, not a tower block if that makes any difference.

However I was wondering if the council ever does general refurbs on their properties? Not just my property, but the entire block as a whole, not specifically to fix broken things, but to just update the structural condition of the home. ie replaster everything, change / upgrade the insultation, install modern boilers / radiators etc to just bring the building up to modern standards. 

I'm guessing they only replace something when it's broken, rather than upgrade something old to something new.

Wishful thinking or does it happen from time to time?

DullGreyGuy

SneakySpectator said:

I'm in a council flat that's 70 years old. The windows are nearly 20 years old (checked the stamp date on window strip), the door frames are metal, the boiler is nearly 15 years old. 

So the windows and boiler are 50 or more years newer than the flat? Sounds like some maintenance has been done in the last 15 years or so ago. 

Councils are cash strapped so tends to be more done by necessity than anything else. Some will do some general renovations whilst they are there given that can be much cheaper than doing it as two seperate jobs. Many council properties have become leasehold, you can google and see the stories of those that have exercised their right to buy and subsequently hit with big bills when the council eventually decide to do repair work on buildings which is "free" for its tenants but payable for leaseholders.

SneakySpectator

DullGreyGuy said:

SneakySpectator said:

I'm in a council flat that's 70 years old. The windows are nearly 20 years old (checked the stamp date on window strip), the door frames are metal, the boiler is nearly 15 years old. 

So the windows and boiler are 50 or more years newer than the flat? Sounds like some maintenance has been done in the last 15 years or so ago. 

Councils are cash strapped so tends to be more done by necessity than anything else. Some will do some general renovations whilst they are there given that can be much cheaper than doing it as two seperate jobs. Many council properties have become leasehold, you can google and see the stories of those that have exercised their right to buy and subsequently hit with big bills when the council eventually decide to do repair work on buildings which is "free" for its tenants but payable for leaseholders.

Of course they've done some maintenance on them because I don't even think double glazing was invented 70 years ago. But I'm saying in the future would they upgrade things further? 

marcia_

 YEs they do. A family member had a new kitchen fitted, double gazing some years ago, a new walk in shower with the bath removed because she struggled with bath due to age. They are however refusing to replace a 20yr old boiler on the basis that it works and they can still gets parts should it need repairing. 

Marcon

marcia_ said:

 YEs they do. A family member had a new kitchen fitted, double gazing some years ago, a new walk in shower with the bath removed because she struggled with bath due to age. They are however refusing to replace a 20yr old boiler on the basis that it works and they can still gets parts should it need repairing. 

Why would the council be responsible for refurbishing a housing association property?

marcia_

Marcon said:

marcia_ said:

 YEs they do. A family member had a new kitchen fitted, double gazing some years ago, a new walk in shower with the bath removed because she struggled with bath due to age. They are however refusing to replace a 20yr old boiler on the basis that it works and they can still gets parts should it need repairing. 

Why would the council be responsible for refurbishing a housing association property?

 Some councils still own their own rental properties. 

The word council/housing association is also used interchangeably to mean the same thing. 

EssexExile

marcia_ said:

Marcon said:

marcia_ said:

 YEs they do. A family member had a new kitchen fitted, double gazing some years ago, a new walk in shower with the bath removed because she struggled with bath due to age. They are however refusing to replace a 20yr old boiler on the basis that it works and they can still gets parts should it need repairing. 

Why would the council be responsible for refurbishing a housing association property?

 Some councils still own their own rental properties. 

The word council/housing association is also used interchangeably to mean the same thing. 

I was confused about that too. Around here we have both council housing and housing associations so one would need to be specific.

jj_home_80

Councils do sometimes carry out major refurb programs, but it depends on funding and priorities. If your block is part of a regeneration scheme or energy efficiency upgrade (like ECO grants), they might update insulation, boilers, or windows. Otherwise, they usually only replace things when they fail. Worth checking with your council to see if any improvement works are planned.

Bigphil1474

OP, the good news is that whilst most councils are skint, most councils that are also landlords usually have a very healthy housing revenue budget - essentially their rental income on domestic properties is more than they spend, but it is ring fenced to the properties they own so can't be spent on fixing potholes for example. The bad news is that they tend to refurb properties when tenants move out. New kitchens etc. fitted in void properties. At the moment most councils will be focussing on high rise blocks, particularly any with cladding that needs sorting, so lower rise properties and houses will be down the list.

You could always ask. Speak to your local housing officer or maybe get the other tenants on board and speak to a local councillor. Tbh, if its generally a good flat, I wouldn't bother. 

casper_gutman

EssexExile said:

marcia_ said:

Marcon said:

marcia_ said:

 YEs they do. A family member had a new kitchen fitted, double gazing some years ago, a new walk in shower with the bath removed because she struggled with bath due to age. They are however refusing to replace a 20yr old boiler on the basis that it works and they can still gets parts should it need repairing. 

Why would the council be responsible for refurbishing a housing association property?

 Some councils still own their own rental properties. 

The word council/housing association is also used interchangeably to mean the same thing. 

I was confused about that too. Around here we have both council housing and housing associations so one would need to be specific.

Likewise. I can't rule out that some people in some areas may use the terms interchangeably to refer to any kind of social housing, but AFAIK this would be incorrect, strictly speaking. 

I would expect a Housing Association to be responsible for repair/refurbishment of Housing Association properties, and councils to be responsible for repair/refurbishment of council properties. They might use the same subcontractors to carry out the actual work, though.

Refurbishment of social housing (both Housing Association and council) does happen, but unfortunately budgets are very stretched these days. As others have indicated, it's most likely to happen when a building gets into such a state that doing work really can't be avoided as the alternative is to rehouse the occupants elsewhere.