Tell me about social housing please?

[justlass]

I've been offered a flat, but can't view it until it's vacated. I'm just wondering what it's likely to be like, whether there'll be appliances in the kitchen, carpet in the rooms, whether I'll need to decorate. Anything in particular I should pay look out for?

I have appliances, but my cooker is an electric one, and I know the property has has central heating, is that likely to mean I'll need a gas cooker as well?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, I just don't know what to expect.

Mine didn't have anything at all but my council has a "furnished package" where you can rent a washing machine, oven etc for a certain amount a week. That's what I do.

This has been addressed above.

That said, how is the council supposed to guarantee the condition of carpets left behind by a previous tenant?

Up here that's invariably because it's the LA themselves who supplies those carpets in the first place, and if you'd seen the state/quality of them you'd understand why it's policy to remove them at the end of a tenancy.

There is nothing to stop any social housing tenant taking their own carpets with them when they move. They are your property after all.

I work for a HA - it's because of fleas from previous tenants pets.
We used to let them leave carpets but then had loads of complaints and had to pay a fortune to get rid of the fleas when the new tenants belongings got infested.

Because some of them are unsanitary and contain fleas and eggs and similar. It’s easier to rip them all out than have to judge at what level each carpet is and whether it can be left.

Sometimes they’ll let old tenants and new tenants come to an agreement about the carpets, and you can buy them off them. I agree it’s very bad to give people cheap housing and then expect them to fork out loads on carpets.

I live in social housing a housing association in s yorks. When I viewed the property it had carpets and flooring down everywhere. The house was only 2 years old so pretty new. HA asked me if I wanted to keep them, I had the living room carpet taken out but kept the rest and paid for a professional carpet clean.

You should be able to ring them and ask if you can view with flooring left in, it saves them a job and money and obviously saves you cash as well. There was something on bbc news recently about this issue in relation to council housing.

It will in all likelihood have no carpets, or any appliances. The reason the provider takes them up is because they don't want complaints about fleas etc and if the appliances were faulty they would be in trouble . If it needs decorating you will probably get a decs voucher, but only if the decs are poor. Some providers paint all the woodwork white and all the walls magnolia between tenants and that means no voucher. If the decs are OK but not to your taste you probably won't get the voucher. Some properties have fixings for gas and electric cookers, some only have electric. Most do have central heating now, but some will have night storage heaters. I worked at a L/A where some areas just didn't have a gas supply and that annoyed tenants but there was nothing the L/A could do about that. When you view ,ask who is showing you round any questions; its what they are there for!

Council housing not sure about ha don’t tend to have gas coolers, I miss mine the electric one I have is crap but after waiting 5 years homeless I was just happy to to have a home, we did have carpets as my house was flipped from being temporary so I was extremely fortunate- I had very little money or furnishings. Hope it all works out, ask for a community grants etc for carpets op

Thanks for all the replies! I'll get in touch to ask if carpets can be left in. I have white goods and most furniture I need. Due to health issues I'd not be able to decorate myself, so will most likely have to pay for that and carpeting. I know it's worth it for the long term security though. 🤞 it's not too bad!

Assume empty.

We got a shell - no flooring or white goods but did get a decorating allowance as it was in bad condition and they fitted a new kitchen before we moved in - not sure if that was something they were doing for all properties or because the previous tenants had spoiled the other.

It's just a case of doing it bit by bit unless you have the funds and opportunity to get it done before moving your things in.

It seems most experiences are that the property was empty with no flooring then. Thanks for all the replies. I'll start looking at grants. It's first floor, so I won't mind so much if it's floor boards, but built in 1989 I doubt they'll be nice floorboards, probably just sheets of chipboard. I'll look for second hand rugs as well.

I contacted the housing association about the flooring, they said they will be removing the current carpet "for repairs".

My DS1 has a council flat
He was housed as a care leaver and new carpets were fitted but nothing else and it had been freshly painted
My friend moved to a sheltered bungalow which had laminate flooring throughout

I thought they'd say that, but could you ask if they put it back down?!
They'd remove for painting skirting boards etc so you may not have to worry about decorating

I’m in social housing. My flat was completely empty with no white goods, no curtain poles etc. Completely empty. Flooring had been removed due to previous tenant having pets. Flooring was my biggest headache and due to a low budget I ended up buying vinyl on a roll with the look of laminate to tide me over. This has actually ended up lasting 7 years. Look at your local Freecycle groups for other items when the time comes. They did give me B&Q vouchers for approx £20 per room for paint etc which helped a bit.

@heartofglass23 what do you mean by “escape it”?

Council tenant here, when I moved in here it was completely bare flooring, no white goods etc but they had painted over the mouldy parts in the bedroom,windowsills, bathroom and toilet 🚽 they also had done up the kitchen with what looked like a new boiler and cupboards.

I had to replaster, box pipes in, move the mains cables up behind coving because there was badly fitted conduit everywhere. Put in a new kitchen, repaint the masonry paint on the render outside and get flooring and have an electrician sort out wiring in the cooker. Then they decided to put in a new central heating system which was great but left massive holes in the walls , naked pipes and hung the radiators ridiculously high up the wall so I had to pay a carpenter to make radiator covers because no normal ones fitted. This was while working 10 hour days and I stayed up till 3am every night for 6 months to work on the house. It’s gorgeous now, but when I arrived it was filthy , had decomp stains on the bedroom floor, flies, a dead raven in the fireplace ( fell down chimney) the garden was massively overgrown , the loft was still full of shit and was no central heating. The walls were all patchy and marked up like something from the saw movies. My mother arrived and told me I was crazy for choosing the house, it’s got a 120ft garden and is in a very nice bit of London so was 100% worth the effort. I’m just telling you what the worst case scenario can be. I would definitely assume you’ll need to repaint and fit carpets though as a minimum. Dead animals and crime scene stuff isn’t compulsory I believe 😅

Oh wow that's pretty extreme! But definitely worth it for a house in London with a big garden!

I'll be happy if I end up with a long term tenancy in the town I want to live in. It'll take me a long time to get to a point where I can afford carpet, but I'll try and pick up some cheap remnants or rugs.

You can get rugs quite cheap and if you have concrete floors you will get away with laying vinyl over that directly which works out very cheap. We had one In The lounge which was a very convincing faux wood floor. Look on the bargain shelves of DIY shops and homeware stores , back when I was hard up I managed to make my place look great with some bargain end of line stuff. Also go on marketplace - lots of people just give away furniture and houseplants when they move rather than pay for removals.

Just because a flat has gas doesn't mean you have to have a gas cooker - it's fairly standard for flats to have an electric cooker point. When I moved into mine, it was unfurnished but there was an old cooker that had belonged to the previous tenant. I got a decoration grant that covered paint and wallpaper with enough left over for curtains and curtain tracks and a few other things. As someone else said, look on freecycle/trashnothing.

It's a first floor flat so I think it'll be wood floors. Anything I get I'll have to lay myself and I haven't a clue! Plus a chronic illness that means I'm in pain all the time.. I was really hoping there'd be flooring 😬

It seems a decoration grant is often available then 🤞 I'll hope for an electric cooker point too. I barely use the cooker anyway since I got an air fryer.
I've looked online for rugs, but they're all pretty disgusting or really small and I don't have transport to collect them either. I'll keep looking though.

A first floor flat in a converted house might be floorboards ( they usually aren’t though because of noise and fire safely so will have been boarded over ) but in a block it will be concrete. Purpose built council properties often have heavy duty tiles in them which scrub up okay and are livable for a while. It’s much harder if you have health issues and very limited funds but if you can’t lift heavy things then look into the adhesive flooring tiles. They can look good and last relatively well and are very easy to fit.
if you have your heart set on carpets then maybe a pay weekly option would be good? You pay the fitter and then £10 a week or something.