Housing association to fit new flat fire door AND new locks.

[JenniferBooth]

We had our flat door modified in 2019 to meet regulations and it has a self closer. An inspection officer came round unannounced on 12 JULY and checked it said thankyou and left. Received a letter last Friday and these doors have to be replaced URGENTLY (July was four months ago) i rang them today and we will also have to have new locks fitted and will be given three new keys. (DH says we can sort a locksmith out later) Has anyone else had this done? Im very concerned about the security aspect of this. They are doing a lot of the estate

Well they have started the work. And left the stairs and the banisters smothered in muck and dust.

They would also be pretty fucking stupid to return and stab a tenant but...........it happened.
https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/sanctuary-housing-worker-stabs-tenant/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHqoH1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUxCz47q8OY4364glKEUFNrxp30y1W7xjxMWNMicIP64HD2_kX55H9dfAw_aem_Gqqt-la6R_orqA1TqXkBgw

Many HAs are replacing fire doors. New regulations. 🤷‍♀️. The tenant/owner doesn’t need to be there -just a responsible adult to let them in. 🙄

It doesn’t need a drama. 🙄

The work started in November.

Did you get broken into, robbed or stabbed?

So you have to be there, the door gets changed and after that you can change the lock barrels for something only you have the key to.

I'm not understanding what the problem is unless its about taking time off to be there and we all have to do that from time to time. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Our front door is being done in Feb. They did a door downstairs earlier. That link is the HA i rent with. I dont think i have no right to be concerned given that they thought it was OK to employ a gas engineer with a conviction involving heroin who then turned violent and stabbed a tenant. If it was the reverse the thread i have on this on here would be full by now instead of not even getting off page 1.

They sent a letter to me yesterday saying they had had no phone contact with me so they were sending another letter. My call log proves otherwise. I left this till the New Year due to having to bury my father (which they agreed to) as i have already explained upthread which took a while as his body had to go to the coroner first.

Grieving does not have a time limit just because you rent!! Ive also had my elderly mother to deal with who had an accident on Boxing Day. Luckily her GP surgery phoned me this morning to arrange more help for her. So now it can be done and has been arranged.

If the tenant had stabbed the contractor you would be humming a different tune.

That's appalling and I am pleased he was caught and jailed.

The overwhelming majority of Housing Association staff are not stuffing drugs up their backsides and stabbing people though. The truth is that community workers are much more at risk from their service users (using in the broadest sense of the term) then they are to them.

@Boomer55 and @Ilovemyshed

Unfortunately at least for my HA I have to be here when they need entry for anything. I'd have no issue leaving a key or asking my mum but it's got to be a tenant unfortunately.
I have no issues when work needs doing, but I have to give 4 weeks notice of days off at work and these appointments are often just them calling round because they're in the area or I get the letter a day or two before - too late to do much about it even if I'm allowed to swap the shift I can't always at short notice, which wouldn't be an issue if they didn't keep doing it over and over again.
I've tried to work with my HA, but honestly sometimes they're really not easy to work with in regards to stuff like this. You get a telling off and told you're being obstructive if you cancel and try and reschedule for your days off, and it could cost you the tenancy.
I'm grateful for my HA tenancy, but I don't need to be worrying that I'm going to lose my home trying to keep my job and vice versa, and trying to manage that when I want to work with them to get the stuff done that needs doing.

To be fair it’s the same for home owners and people that rent privately….If something has to be done you have to be there to facilitate it.

As a home owner I'd be the one making the appointment so able to book it at a time I am already off or with enough notice that I can book that time off work, even if I had to wait for that, and free to try other companies if that couldn't be done. And no one threatening to kick me out because I couldn't make an appointment made without any input from me, or sometimes even knowledge of it. They might do it, but my home isn't at risk if I'm not in.

And even the worse landlords and agents I've had haven't expected me to know by telepathy when they've booked an appointment for something doing and then threatened to kick me out because I wasn't in or couldn't make that appointment, they've contacted me first and I've told them I am off X days or I can book a different day off when I've got 4 weeks notice, or they've been fine with someone else being there, and it's been booked and done.

I'm not insisting that I should have a certain time or date, just that I a) know about it and b) have enough notice to be able to arrange the time off work to be there or c) they allow someone other than the tenant to be there if I can't be.
I'm asking for cooperation so that these things can be done, because I can't just drop my responsibility towards my job at the last minute with no repercussions like anyone else.

Once in 2019 and once in 2025 is hardly "repeatedly".

I am sorry OP, but having read all your posts, I do not see the issue.

And 2022

Be warned. I was ear wigging some guy on a bus who said where he lived they had new fire doors at the front, removing a metal bar but kept the flimsy one in the back!

The one subject on MN where whataboutery is allowed.

Hi @Maverickess

When the social presciber from my DMs surgery phones me again on Monday morning im going to ask her to put in the notes that one of the reasons i cant commit to helping care for my mum and have to lean on adult social care more is because i rent and the way i am treated because of it. Its not just the door Its all the other checks and visits. Especially when they rock up at my door with no notice. Bet they do something like that once SS have booked the care assesment

Stop twisting everything anyone ever says, honestly it is beyond tiresome.

Just carry on as you are You are proving a point ive made on another thread so beautifully Thank you soooooo much

I think people are under the belief that because it's council/ha they 'have' to treat you fairly and that any complaints are the tenant being awkward by default because they wouldn't have policies like this to deliberately make life awkward.
It's just not like that unfortunately, some HAs are great, before mine grew and joined with another it was really good, I wouldn't have thought that I'd be in the situations I have been since they changed before they did because it wasn't my experience.
Even then they started strong, shortly after they changed I needed a gas safety check and a repair around the same time, they arranged both for the same time slot, blimey that's brilliant!
The repair guy turned up, the gas engineer didn't. I rang them to be told apparently I wasn't in, and therefore it had been recorded as a missed appointment (on my behalf, one strike) and that as it was mandatory they could either force entry to turn off my gas until I 'cooperated' or they had grounds for eviction if I didn't.
Pretty gobsmacked tbh seeing as the repair guy - who works for them - was still there and had logged that he was on site, doing the repair, in a house that apparently no one was in? I explained that to be told that as the gas engineer couldn't gain entry, they would consider 'further steps' at this point the repair guy took the phone and told them who he was and that he was there repairing the front door, and therefore would have seen anyone who tried to 'gain entry' and no one had.
Still got a letter detailing my non cooperation and telling me I had one more opportunity to grant access before they took action.
And it's cited every time I have to change an appointment made for me at short notice, or miss one I don't know I've got.

I just want to be treated fairly, only in renting, and especially when you're SH is it acceptable to treat a paying customer that way, people will do all sorts of mental gymnastics to justify it, simply because they believe the bullshit about SH tenants getting everything paid for and feel we should have to pay for that some other way.

I work full time and don't claim any benefits. My rent is paid out of my earnings. If any other service treated someone paying for that service like that there'd be uproar, but because I'm an SH tenant I deserve it according to some, because they can't see past their prejudice.

You do know that this is not limited to SH tenants? I luckily own my own home and have booked many a day off work for tradesmen to come and do some work, such as fix the boiler and they haven't turned up on said date or said time. It also happened to me when I rented.

There is not some big vendetta against SH tenants. 🙄

And did you get threatened with eviction because they didn't turn up?
Because that's the difference.
I'm well aware of the limitations of tradesmen etc, I manage to get things delivered, have appointments at home as anyone else, and yes those people haven't turned up before. Annoying. But it is what it is. You deal with it. I'm not complaining about them not turning up. It's the then taking me to task over it.

This type of thing is different, my home rides on it and I'm not doing anything wrong.

But as usual that's dismissed and the mental gymnastics of 'home owners have the same thing' start - yes they do, but they don't stand up be homeless because of it.

This! It happens all the time. It’s life.

Can you please tell me about the last time you were threatened with eviction the last time a contractor didnt turn up Im happy to wait 😁

Like i said the social housing threads are the one place where MN whataboutery seems to be allowed.

How would you cope if someone knocked that huge hip off your shoulders?