Social housing - permission to emulsion

[clpsmum]

My friend has been allocated a home through the council and today painted her sons bedroom. She is now panicking that she should have asked permission. I think she will be fine but tbh have no experience and nothing to base this on. Does anyone know if you need permission to decorate a council property?

No, she doesn’t need to ask permission. It will almost without a doubt state in her tenancy agreement that internal decoration is her responsibility.

She does not Need permission to do basic things like paint/decorate. The council would have 10000s of people contacting them all the time if that was the case .

Although if its a new build sometimes you need to wait fir a while. Something to do with the building settling 🤔

Generally with council and ha leases you can paint, put down carpets, Lino and laminate flooring but can't wallpaper or tile as it can't be easily changed. I wish all renters had permission to just paint, magnolia walls is the worst thing in a way about renting

All councils will be different but I would imagine they will all be the same re painting you won’t need permission for it just that it is your responsibility and cost. Mine has nothing about wallpapering either as I have wallpapered. Family member is in a new build one and wasn’t supposed to paint for 2 years or however long they say to leave it but she has anyway 🙄

Thanks everyone I thought she'd be ok but then started to question myself. It's not a new build she is in so she should be ok. She was so excited she had done it then had a big panic so I said I'd ask advice on here. I'm glad I can report back that she can calm down and enjoy her new home. Thanks everyone

In our HA house we are allowed to decorate as we like inside. Put up cupboards & shelves, we had to lay carpet as it was a new build, it had flooring in the kitchen & bathroom but otherwise it was bare concrete & white walls. And we had to put up curtain poles as well.

Its all different she will need to check her tenancy
My ha didn't allow new tenants to decorate for a while as they gave them painted magnolia / white houses
Now they have gone back to not painting properties and tenants are allowed to paint again
It will say in the tenancy and all are different

@Startingout19 thats not always true
My ha did not allow decoration for a couple of years to new tenants as they don't do lifetime tenancies now
They have gone back to allowing decoration
But we can't do a lot of things that my friend in another HA is allowed
But it will say in your tenancy

I've been trying to work out whether or not I'm allowed to paint the actual floor boards in my council house. I'm asking because it was gonna be a project for my little sister and turn the floor into a galaxy painting to match her pink and purple walls. However I'm not sure whether it's allowed or whether it will lead me to be kicked out. Any advice will help.

You can decorate your council house how you like

No she doesn't have to ask permission. They'll be pleased she's looking after the place

They generally encourage decorating but disallow 'structural' changes which, at my HA, includes building fitted wardrobes & such. Your friend will have a contact and/or a website for tenants to ask questions, if she wants to double-check.

If you put up wallpaper, all the council and housing associations will do in my experience is just leave it up for the next tenants.

I've lived in social housing my entire life and each new house has had wallpaper and paint on the walls along with punch holes, splatters of random unknown substances and graffiti and carpets. Sometimes we've lived with it because it saved money redecorating; other times, like the house with a black and grey checkerboard thing going on on all the walls and ceilings, we covered it up as soon as possible.

In social housing houses you can generally do what you like to your house as it's seen as your home for life, unlike a private rental. In my sheltered life I never realised that this isn't the case for so many other renters, who can't even decorate the space they call home.

I was housed into a new build. We had to wait a year before we could decorate.

I live in a ground floor flat the people above me are making lot of noise when they are walking about the insulation between the two floors is very poor I spoke to the housing association but they will not do any thing about it I ask if they can put down soundproofing they said no

Ideally you need to start your own thread for more responses. But - have you spoken with the upstairs neighbours about this? Simple things like removing their shoes indoors, or putting down rugs in high-traffic areas can make a huge difference to footfall noise. Ultimately however, unless they are being genuinely antisocial - in which case you can request your HA intervene on that basis and carry out noise recordings to establish whether it qualifies as nuisance - being able to hear people walking about upstairs is just part and parcel of living in many flats, particularly older ones, and it’s often not something which can be easily solved: proper soundproofing can be invasive and expensive and can involve lifting floorboards, replacing joists, substantial fill work to the void between their ceiling and your flooring etc and isn’t something an HA is likely to consider reasonable based on ordinary day to day living noise.

The noise is because they do not wear slipper or shoes they on walking around bear foot that's the problem

Then unfortunately the HA aren’t required to take any action here. Your neighbours aren’t being antisocial or deliberately noisy, they’re being considerate by not wearing shoes and are just living in their home, and the HA will consider remedial works economically unjustified for that. Ordinary living noise in flats falls under “just what you have to accept if you live in a built up area.”