In thinking, if councils rent out their homes for

[Theincrediblesulk1]

80-90% of the market rate, they better get fixing them up! No more shall they be able to dump a family in a damp uncarpeted unfurnished close to ghetto standard homes!

80-90% of the market value of unkempt hell holes are roughly £10 a week so council tenants will be in an even better position than before!

What do you all think?

I think people will just find themselves paying more for less. :(

They get away with murder. By the time I left council about 10years ago the list of things the wouldnt do included:

Deal with infestations of anything other than rats
Fix kitchen doors, drawers
Fix interior doors
undertake any interior decoration
Repair any part of the central heating system [although they would condem boilers]
Fix bathroom fittings

So really what they were saying is 'we do not have to maintain our properties to an acceptable standard'

If you are lucky your rented property might be part of a 'major' works programme once every 20 years.

But then you will have to put up with threads titled 'AIBU to be outraged that the local council estate is having double glazing put in when I have to pay for my own and my OH only earns 150k which is really not a lot to manage on'

News: council tenants do not own their flats/houses. Council tenants do pay rent. Council tenants live in some of the crappiest housing stock in the country.

By the time we left we were both working and had two healthy primary aged kids, OH was still healthy so we did pretty much everything ourselves. It was far less hassle than getting the council to maintain their property.

Our neighbour's windows dropped out [hshock] She lived on the 4th floor. They were so rotten they actually fell out.

Plenty of people privately rent damp, uncarpeted homes because they can't afford better, can't afford to buy, and yet don't qualify for council places.

These posts all say something very negative about the state of housing in Britain. I think anyone paying such high rents should expect more

Aren't private rental properties subject to very stringent legislation, Spooky?

I do expect more. Sadly, my landlord disagrees.

I agree with Spooky. I'd have killed to have a council house when I was privately renting.

My dad, an experienced window fitter (of 20+) years stood arguing with my landlord about just how dangerous our windows were, not to mention illegal, and he still wouldn't admit there was anything wrong with them.

The carpets stank and there was black mould everywhere. Oh and everytime you turned on the merger/water heater thingy it over heated and filled dd1's room with steam. But would he get it fixed? Would he bollocks.

Thank god we now own our home. Boiler breaks one day and is repaired the next by our lovely plumber friend at cost price.

here in Herts my friends boiler became inefficient and they replaced it very quickly - council owned property.

She did have to wait 15 years for a kitchen though as hers was just ugly, not unuseable.

Not really, no.

There are laws to protect tenants. There are crap landlords and a shortage of decent rental properties.

There is the assumption that council tenants get it all done for them and live in luxury.

I dont have any friends who have had work done quickly by the council and we didnt have any done ourselves.

My mate works in housing

I cannot cut and paste urls but Shelter has loads of info about private landlord's responsiblities. They have a lot.

There is a ll round here.He seems to own most of the rented properties. They are fecking awful. He DOES have legal responsibilites but its not easy for vunerable tenants to get them inforced.

Try living in military accommodation, not much better and we pay rent contrary to popular belief! We do however, have a pretty good maintenance contractor in comparason to the LA properties. But they do things on the cheap, bit Bodge it and scarper!

that would be nice. i might actually get a usuable kitchen with draawers that work rather than broken ones.

the HA did send me a one-manmachine for a week to fix loads of jobs, but they are still arguing about whether or not the boiler is fitted properly

i also dont have a fire alarm electrically fitted as the old one broke, and they havent replaced it, so have a battery operated one i fitted myself.

Our landlord told us we were having a new bathroom fitted on the 16th March 2009. We're still waiting.

lool you cant say well landlords break the law so councils will too! loool

They will have to bring the properties up to standard! sorry if people rent from bad land lords, how about causing him grief until he does what he needs to, personally i would withhold rent until the work was done( by the way actually nothing he can do about it without taking you to court, where he will be asked why the property was not maintained!)

havent read all but theres been alot of threads on council houses this week

i think social housing is a good thing maybe they are a tad to cheap BUT i do think they should be cheaper than private renting if they are in good state of repair

where we live they are pretty well maintaned

So higher the rent slightly but yes they have to be in a well maintaned state

Hate it when people carp on about how easy tenants have it just jealous by the sounds,and no im not a tenant was bought up in a council house for first 5yrs of my life,but not a tenant now,good luck to the tenant i say

theywillgrowup, personally i don't think they are cheap, My friend pays £1500 a month for a house, over half of the monthly income!

When did the prices get so gargantuan! that is ridiculous, completely that was with council tax on top!

Council housing prices are what the privet rents should be, and before anyone says about mortgages, you have to show the mortgage company you can handle payments even if its empty!

Also don't buy if you cant afford, that is how we got into this mess in the first place.

A big plus of council housing is the security - you don't have to worry about your landlord wanting to sell.

incredible = bloody hell where does she live

bog standard 3 bed here (south) approx 400mth

agree with the dont buy if you cant aafford,but over the last 20yrs its been a mantra to most,when i took out my morgage i accounted for rate rises,people dont seem to do that anymore and 25yrs rates can change drastically

And i blame buy to let lanlords

Only in south harrow middlesex, its bog standard and next door to the land lord! eeep! but that is average price around here! see what i mean though!

hell thats tough

It is! my other friend pays £200 a week for a flat! lool its tiny too! again not including council tax, and her husband works full time and only ears £300 a week! so they are basically f'ed too. They do get some money toward rent and council tax but still!