Grrrrrrrrrr bloody housing officer!!!

[holdenmcgroin1979]

Came round today saying i have two weeks to sort my front and back garden out and tidy it up or else! He knows i have been suffering with severe anxiety after having a bad miscariage last year and being pg again has made me a nervous wreck, the neighbours bloody cat has shit on the gravel in my front garden, wouldnt be so bad but he had the cheek to blame my moggies even thought he knows i keep them inside due to said neighbours cat attacking them everytime they are outside. I am expected to clear up fag butts that people have thrown over my hedge as well. My back garden isnt that bad to be honest it's just a few kids toys a bit of weeding and the grass that needs cutting but it's all stuff that involves heavy lifting or being in contact with soil which could have cat poo in it!! So cheesed off right now so this isn't so much an AIBU but a good old rant. Not expecting sympathy just wanted to get it off my chest!

I work as a Senior Housing Officer, I can assure you that if I, or my two Housing Assistants, see a garden that is so bad it needs a visit, it must be pretty bad!

As already said, quit moaning and tidy it up!

Besides, how do you know that your neighbours haven't all phoned the Council/Housing Association to complain about you?

holdenmcgroin1979 shame the troll hunters have been playing, hope you manage to get it sorted,

Op pm me your location and if you're anywhere near I'll come help you if you have nobody else.

OP I believe you

good luck with it all

and if you need a bit of support, mn can be great- just don't post in AIBU. Here be dragons

Sorry you're getting such a hard time OP, but you do know you cant win dont you . These threads always go the same way. Dare to protest that you did not, despite the decent homes initiative (great in theory) have a FREE shiny new bathroom/kitchen installed by the council and had to have one installed at your own expense because the current one is falling apart (ditto repairs that are the council's responsibilty as a landlord but dont get done) you will get replies like:

Stop whinging, you're lucky to have a council property.
You're lying, Councils must keep homes well maintained.
What's the problem, everyone else has to pay for repairs.
Well more fool you for spending money on a property you dont own.

From personal experience I know some housing officers can be over the top. Some years ago myself and some of the neighbours received letters complaining about our gardens. I had absolutely NO IDEA what the problem was with mine as my front garden was normally immaculate. It turned out to be some neatly bagged garden rubble waiting to be removed from the back garden I had just spent £500 on. The same garden that had been taller than me when I moved in, that I thought had a bank at the end which turned out to be household rubbish left there by previous tenants so long ago that grass had grown over it all. I shit you not, they were complaining about the debris left from my improvements. I'd just had it fenced, levelled, re-turfed and a patio laid amongst other things! The complaint against two of my neighbours was that their grass was too long, gobsmacked (and possibly appearing slightly odd) we measured the grass...it was three inches long.

Some of these properties are let in disgusting states, repairs are not done for years if at all, so yes it annoys me too when they come down on people like a ton of bricks over seemingly trivial matters. What about when it pisses down every day for weeks and the grass cant be cut? What then? I wonder if a goat would help?

Haka, totally agree, these other people don't have a clue.

The op has gone now and whether or not she comes back to mn we will have to wait and see i suppose. I feel deeply sorry for her whole situation.

Ohandtheone- I worked for homestart: I once had someone call me at 11pm, knowing I would be at a formal event, asking if I could send a round my DH as their fridge had bust.

Bless the days of 'no you can't turn your phone- I loved that job and 99.9% of my famillies.

The priveledge thing

For me, being NT, having NT kids, having a healthy DH is a priveledge.

How many of the poorer people of the world would say they'd swap incomes for what OP has to deal with?

But then life is about more than income: and icome ceases to be half as important when our health or the NT status of people you love is threatened.

Yes I agree that having a social house is something to be thankful for absolutely: I am thankful every day that my kids were born where there are Sn schools for a roughly parallel example. I'm not sure that needing them is a priviledge though. PITA more like!

YANBU, ignore the fucking tory wankers on this thread with their perfect bloody helpful husbands. If it's that bad they should be offering you help with it since 1. you are pregnant and 2. you are ill. You probably need to write to them to tell them that you aren't capable of managing it and that they need to arrange for it to be done by the service that does gardens for disabled/elderly/ill, as that is what you are, and also say that they should stop harassing you by turning up unannounced (actually can you just not open the door to him if you see who it is?) but that you are happy to meet with them to discuss how they will help you in your difficult circumstances.

It sounds like you like you home to be nice and have made and keep it nice inside and therefore I'm guessing you would like a nice garden outside too. So even if HO is being a bit over keen the only way to get him off your back is to make some improvements.

I think you should set a day aside to tackle the garden (perhaps get your parents or a friend to take the DCs out for the day). To be honest the back garden sounds like it's not a massive job just tidying up and cutting the lawn (which at least won't need doing again before the Spring). I'd do that first and then you'll feel like you're making good progress. You should definitely wear gardening gloves though if there is any chance of there being cat poo.

Then you need to think of how best to tackle the front garden. It sounds like you need to give it a really good clear out and then sweep up and fag ends and cat poo (again with gloves on). I think trying the chilli to get rid of the cats in future is probably your best bet - I've heard of that working before. Then once it's clear you can have a good go at the weeding. Then I think if I were you I'd be looking at what I could do to stop other people making a mess in your front garden. Would it be possible to put a high fence up or something to stop the fag butts being dropped?

Good luck

I hope the op is going to come back and read this thread now that a few more sympathetic people have posted. I do know that she was pretty upset by the response she got, she was only having abit of a rant didn't expect a 'we're better than you' thread to begin....

Free new Kitchens and bathrooms I WISH. Ha ha ha.

I don't even have a shower just a bath with the tiles falling off and the sealent round the bath cracking.

If you do your own jobs on a council house and you mess it up either by yourself or an outside proffessional then you are liable for repairs therafter.

My kitchen is 20 years old and my full rent is more expensive than many private rents!

I know the clocks went back an hour at the weekend but I didn't realise they'd also gone back by a few decades.

Mocking someone's dyslexia? Asking where the baby's father is?

I hope the OP was able to ignore the people who were determined to kick her when she was down and is able to access some help.

i absolutely abhor the small minded predants that do not argue a point but correct spelling. just so you know, for future reference, you look the bigger twat for doing it.

to be adequately housed should be considered a right. That we see this as a privilege is indicative of the age we live in. this is down to a shortage of housing.

My advice tot he OP would be to contact the HA and to ask them what support she can get and what agencies they can refer her to. I would also ask what kind of involvement opportunities there are for residents at the HA. Ask them for a copy of their service standards and ask them about 'localism' ask them to send you the information and if they don't know, ask them to put you through to someone who does. then when you get put through, ask THAT person why the other person didn't have any idea what you were talking about. andd watch them shit themselves

oh and kitchens and bathrooms and other improvements are paid for through rent.

these are not free my friends for nothing in life is 'free' they are paid for through rent. working and non working people alike pay for them through rent.

when a person does get a kitchen it will be becuase the housing provider has considered their old kitchen to be of such a poor standard they are willing to replace it.

if you have ever ever ever ever ever read anything about 'decent homes' you will realise that the level needed to adhere to this is so minimal it is fucking shocking.

I'm surpised by that- those companies ive seen who've achived decent homes have done it well.
HAs do your kitchen/ bathrooms etc to protect their asset, basically, not to be niceto you. Capitalising repairs is desirable, shall we say. Maybe councils don't care as much because they don't borrow against their assets andoften can't sell them off.

Haka, you are spot on that people who haven't had MH issues, don't know how hard life can be.

I had such bad depression, that my house was, frankly, filthy. You couldn't see the floor So my step-sister (who now admits she could have supported me) phoned ss. Now I don't want to turn this into a should she shouldn't she, but had she thought about it, she could have supported me, and told my Dad, who she lived with at the time, how bad things were. As it was, DC moved in with my Mum, and I spent 4 days clearing, cleaning and scrubbing my house, bar one room which we locked. 5 months later, my sw is talking about signing me off in 3 weeks time, as she is happy that I have maintained, and cleared 'junk' room, to an acceptable standard. Now that my MH is stable, I can't imagine how I ever let my house get that bad, but at the time, well I simply couldn't see it!

OP I really hope you get it sorted, and like a PP said, if I was anywhere near you, I'd come and help :)

I don't understand the issue.

She is living in a property owned by the state, under a contract to keep it in a certain condition. She doesn't and the authority tell her to fix up.

She is pregnant, and has anxiety.

How does this differ from someone who is renting privately and doesn't get 3 strikes and you're out...just a letter of eviction?

Actually Hittheroadjack I think you've understood it perfectly.

Hittheroadjack ime private landlords don't generally give too much of a shit about the grass getting too long in your garden. Or you abusing your neighbours, all night parties, etc etc

just as long as those cheques come rollin' in

Ime private landlords have far more covenants regarding the properties they let.

You can't just evict a private tenant, unless they're outside of a term lease, such as being on a rolling monthly contract.

custardo - that's pedants....

Strictly speaking it's pedants'