To think she is so bloody ungrateful!!

[hickorychicken]

And lives in a different world....
Someone I know got offered a gorgeous 3 bedroom house with a massive garden etc and all sje has done is whinge! She was given a £200 decorating grant but all she keeps saying is "Oh well its not like im getting any help, i mean i need help with carpets, i cant live like this im not having it!"


I pointed out that i lived witg one room done for 2 YEARS. Its gotten me irrationally angry! I think im going to get a flaming but meh, some people want everything handed to them on a plate.

Yes, why does stuff need to be removed? I expected lack of carpets. It's still the curtain poles that astound me. I'd been warned about the lack of carpet. I have never toured even a non-furnished private let that had no curtain poles!

To be fair, even 99% is a fraction.

Found out later I was living next door to a drug dealer, the police raids were never fun, especially not the one when my DD was playing in the garden and one of the dealers jumped up on top of their shed to escape, between me and my daughter. She was so frightened by the police and all the shouting.

The rat got in through the council house next door, boarded up and garden full of rubbish.

When we moved into a social housing flat when my dd was just starting to toddle we had no carpets and concrete floor. We did get a small "grant" in the form of vouchers from homebase or somewhere (that didn't do carpet). I didn't moan. I begged/borrowed/pleaded with family and friends and used off cuts that we could scrape together for over two years. For me that was a safety issue for my toddling child but I was just so pleased to have a home I wouldn't have even though of whining about it.

FYI, my father in law works for a ha, and is on the team that gets empty properties up to scratch for rentals. He goes in and puts new kitchens/bathrooms, makes sure everything is in a reasonable condition prior to new tenants moving in so I am shocked to hear so many people who say there ha homes were in disrepair when they moved in!

I have lived in 7 council or HA properties in 3 counties and none of the houses had carpets or curtain poles. I thought this was the norm. One even had a kitchen floor that was so uneven that it broke my washing machine because it made it unsteady when spinning, walls that were bare plaster and floorboards with nails sticking out. Not once did i complain because i was grateful for the roof over my head.

I do

Housing associations remove all flooring/curtain poles etc because if they don't and there is a problem they are liable for replacement/repairs. Barmy I know but that's why!

Council housing is such a gift that you can't get it when you are homeless, disabled and on the run from a violent ex, just because you lived in one of their "lovely" homes once, left it in great condition and they charged you £600 on top of the rent afterwards for the "clean-up".

I don't know why it isn't like army housing. So long as it's very clean (which it has to be as the do the white glove inspection) you leave carpets and window hangings in place for the next family. I cleaned it to my old standards when I left, so all I can think of is £600 for leaving a clean load of carpeting in a house. Which cost over £1000 to get put in.

My last private let at £650 pcm had no curtain poles in any of the rooms. I replaced the toilet seat with an expensive wooden one and when I moved out the agents complained that I left a non white plastic toilet seat and subtracted the replacement cost from my deposit along with £300 for 'cleaning'.

Where did i say that you cant do improvements? What i was saying is that the person OP knows should not be moaning about the HA not putting in carpets when most people know that council and HA properties dont come with carpets.

I was told that devonian. So I put them up myself. Tell me how getting an inexperienced nineteen year old to put up curtain poles is safer than getting professional workmen in to do it? The council may not have been legally responsible in the event that I'd buggered it up, but it's still riskier for tenants.

As I private landlord I spent a quite a few quid decorating prior to letting,so I fail to understand why a social housing should be "grateful" for a £200 grant which incidentally wouldn't be enough to decorate one room.

I also spent £££'s putting in suitable flooring and carpets throughout which obviously doesn't happen for social housing tenants.

In my area social housing tenancies are only temporary for the 1st 12 months - its a bit much to expect people to shell out for flooring if there is no guarantee of a secure tenancy.

TBH if you are on HB you'd be better off finding a decent private LL

When you leave a HA/council property it has to be put back to the way it was when you moved in. So say for example you have horrible gloss painted doors and you replace them with nicer wooden doors you have to put back on the original doors when u leave even though the property looks much better with the newer doors. It is silly but it is just the way it is.

Sorry I wasn't clear, my old house was HA and we moved into private, we do have thin shitty carpets but we pay a much higher rent.
I am kind of seeing your point but its the attitude of "well its not like anyone is helping me..." iyswim.

We had orange walls, purple walls, lime green walls, and the hallway was a nice dark shit brown colour. Never could have painted it myself as the hall was three storey and had a really high stretch at the top. Pregnant, wheelchair and ladders do not mix. I painted all of the bottom parts of the wall, on a stool.

And the penny drops.

Anyone in a council property should be doffing their cap at every opportunity.

Instead of moaning about how shit the system of private renting is in this country, let's just race to the bottom with council house envy.

My DM's ex-friend got a flat, decorating grant and furniture package.

She has now moved back in with her scandalous son within 1 year and sold the furnitre she got for free.

This family have form for getting everything going. They sold a pieces of NHS equipment on ebay (sorry cant remember what it is something portable to do with breathing?) They always putting claims in too.

Its disgusting abuse of resources from the state which means people who need them may struggle and give people in genuine need a bad name by being so dishonest about it all.

Years ago one of my friends requested a new toilet seat from the council, the guy in the office asked what had happened to the previous one, she didnt know, there hadn't been one when she moved in...

When I was allocated a council house after my marriage broke up, on the day I moved in I discovered that the glazier had not been booked, never mind curtain poles, for the first night, I didn't even have windows, just metal 'tins'.

Probably irrevelent, but I can look back and laugh now.

Oh, btw, when you're talkin about concrete flooring, do you mean actual concrete or black mastic? Bloody mastic, give me floorboards any day.