to think the 'decent homes standard' is the joke of the decade?

[ladyfirenze]

Has anyone had their council homes 'upgraded' lately? Mine was done over christmas. Me and dc's were strongly advised to de-camp to a property provided by the council. This meant entirely moving house/storing white goods etc. Six weekd later we moved back. During this time we had a new kitchen put in, and new radiators as well as a re-wire.

I knew that I'd have to redecorate the whole place (three bed flat) but was promised help with the cost.

We got £160.

Also, because of the building, we had to use 'trunking' for all of the re-wire.

It looks shite. The trunking is cheap nasty looking crap, badly done. They had to come back over a period of two weeks after I'd returned to do 'snagging' and there are still bits which are sub-standard work.

The kitchen is okay, but wasn't actually done to the agreed plan. They had a huge hoo ha when I asked them to, and due to an exposed meter it couldn't be left. Their customer care is rubbish, and I was accused of being responsible for the kitchen not being correct... wtf??

six weeks on and I'm slowly getting the house sorted. I'm quite cabaple, but there are many who aren't, and will be left in a worse position than before.

Homeowners are fucking lucky they can afford to own and pay for maintenance...

Oh really is it? God, it drives me through the fucking roof! My friend owns her own home. She and her husband have a small portfolio of properties, and she has excellent builders.

actually there are lots of homeowners who cant afford to pay for there homes maintanance...

hence i have a 40 - 50 year old kitchen.

also not lucky... i worked hard and saved hard for my £40k deposit.... and made sure i have no children until i could afford to house them myself

What tethers said

not sure why paying rent is relevant

i pay my mortgage and dont get a free kitchen every 20 years

Because it isn't free nannyl, she pays rent and the rent is supposed to cover repairs etc.

My Mum pays 85.00 a week in rent and then full CT.
She also works full time so I don't see how that can be living there for free .

YOU ARE FUCKING LUCKY IF YOU CAN WORK HARD.

COUNCIL HOUSES GET ALLOCATED TO THE POOREST AND MOST VULNERABLE IN OUR SOCIETY.

THANK FUCK YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEM.

yabu

I someone were living in a private rental and on the annual inspection the kitchen was condemed so the landlord put a new kitchen in, would you then say that the tenant had got a free kitchen?

If

You get a council house by being in the right place at the right time and a big dollop of luck.

Damn right in our case, we got super lucky to be given our flat.

reality , we havent had stair carpet since we moved in 7 yrs ago, but I'm a genius; carpet samples! One per stair @ 10p each
Also, we were really lucky to get out entire kitchen from freecycle, in exchange for removing it ourselves

I pay £500 a month for a small 2 bed council flat on a council estate, plus £75 a month council tax (that's with the single person's discount.) I work 30 hours a week and obviously pay tax but doubt I will be able to buy a house anytime soon. If any of you homeowners would like to swap, I'd be more than happy to!

for FanellaFudge and others that queried, yes I had Laura Ashley wallpaper in my council flat.
At the time, I applied for a council property. My name got to the top of the list for a 1 bed flat and I was allocated one.

I replaced the kitchen from my savings
I carried out work on the bathroom from my savings,
I decorated the flat, guess what, from my savings

I worked full time.
I paid rent
I paid poll tax, then council tax.

I met dh a couple of years later, he moved in for a wee while and we saved a deposit for a house, then bought a house, then sold that and bought a bigger house-the one we live in now, and hopefully will do for a long time yet.

I hope my housing history is clear enough now.

Maybe I live in an area where there's not a shortage of council housing, and you don't, but that's not something I can do anything about

Clearly there wasn't a shortage if you had that much money in savings and they still allocated you a flat.

It's lovely that you were able to rent so cheaply that it enabled you to save a deposit for a house. Our private rent of £950 per month will mean that's impossible for us.

£950 pcm would be cheap where I live. Market rent for a two bed flat is around £1600pcm.

You're lucky, Fanella- what are you moaning about?

Fanella, the savings I had were my LIFE SAVINGS for MY WHOLE LIFE...that means birthday money and Xmas money which I saved when I was little.

And yes it is lovely that I was able to save whilst paying rent.

And yes I had a good (not private) education and career before I had my children and have a good standard of living now due to still working hard and having a dh who does the same

I'm sorry that I'm not feeling the guilt which you seem to keen for me to feel but I've worked for all I have.

DEAL WITH IT

Fanella, money had nothing to do with my having a council flat.

I applied, was put on the waiting list FOR A 1 BED FLAT and my name came to the top of the list, based on whatever it was that the points were allocated for (although I know that a lot of points came from having lived in the area all my life)

A one bedroomed flat would not really benefit a family though