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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed at council waiting times

416 replies

Dancingfairy · 02/08/2017 19:54

My council has a 3 week wait for all repairs. The light in my bathroom has gone, it's not a standar bulb so someone from the council has to come to sort it. I have to wait 3 weeks! So I cannot use my bathroom after a certain time, I usually bath my children before bed but won't be able to for 3 weeks. Aibu to think it should be sorted sooner?

OP posts:
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6
habenero20 · 03/08/2017 13:33

Good. This is someone's house you're living in, and they may need it back at anytime. Maybe they've fallen on hard times and need to move in themselves, maybe they need to sell for the money.

The trouble is that you can turf someone out for reasons other than the above. I have lived in jurisdictions where those are the only reasons you can be asked to leave (besides breaking a lease clause of course. in fact, selling the property wasn't a reason you can ask a tenant to leave, but if the new owners want to occupy it, you can be asked to leave).

here, lease is up, get out. or stay. Neither is secure. The precarious position of tenants here is what makes renting so unthinkable for many. When we moved to London that was one of the main reasons we bought. We didn't want to deal with ridiculous rent rises and being asked to leave on a whim. Renting in other places is actually reasonable choice.

habenero20 · 03/08/2017 13:35

What surprises me is that the rhetoric about getting more secure tenancies throughout the market is more social housing. No, you don't need that. With the stroke of a pen you can make all tenancies more secure.

doobree · 03/08/2017 13:36

Bloody hell, it is so terrible. Flowers to chirpyburby and oswin we know how you feel.

Hope your son enjoys his school lostinasea we can;t have children due to health and housing issues - we can't offer enough housing security and wouldn;t bring a child into that awfulness. But it crushes my soul just a bit more every day as I'm getting closer to actual menopause.

We always wanted to adopt a child in fact, but they'd never allow it without secure housing first. So now we will have no child at all. Great.

lostinaseaofbubbles · 03/08/2017 14:16

I'm sorry that my posts seem to have upset you. Best wishes.

Laulau79 · 03/08/2017 14:38

Some people on here are so ignorant to how affordable/social housing works & im meeting more & more in real life "council tenants don't pay rent" Me - yes they do "ok but it's subsidised" 😂
If I sell a Mars bar in my shop for 65p & the shop down the road sells them for £1 does that mean I'm subsidising my customers ? NO
It means I'm not GREEDY!

doobree · 03/08/2017 14:47

Sorry to target you specifically lost in this sad thread. I should just let your flippant comment go.

Its hard when we'd do anything to get out of this awful situation, as I'm sure many others would, and yet somehow people think we are not that badly off, that we have it easy and have freedom!

I will have to somehow try harder to ignore as I already can't really see the point on carrying on for another 40 odd years of this heartache and uncertainty and its mindblowing to have other people appear to be envious.

zukiecat · 03/08/2017 14:57

I can't believe the replies you're getting Dancing

I'm a council tenant too, and I suspect you have the same kind of bathroom light as me, the big round disc, I don't know the proper name for them

If mine went I'd have to wait for the council to fix mine too, Neither DD or me would have the slightest idea how to do it, and bad vertigo and arthritis would prevent me from changing it even if I knew how

I certainly couldn't afford to pay anyone either, I do work, but only part time because of my many health issues,

I've been waiting over two years for them to fix my sink which is coming away from the wall

I hope you get your light fixed soon Flowers

WhatToDoAboutThis2017 · 03/08/2017 15:11

But those with enough money should be entitled to cut normal people out of the housing market by buying up additional houses and charging stupid amounts. Right?

That's how capitalism works.

lostinaseaofbubbles · 03/08/2017 15:17

Doobree - I was stepping away from this thread but honestly you seem determined to pick a fight and for some reason with me!. I've done everything I can not come across as argumentative and I'm not sure what I've said that was flippant!

I only suggested simple things to the OP regarding solutions which would enable her children to still have baths without a functioning bathroom light. Yes I said I missed having a landlord to phone when there were problems. It's true. Not least because one of my most recent landlords was very good and swift at getting things sorted.

I'm not envious of you. I'm not envious of everyone who rents. I do find the responsibility involved in being a homeowner hard sometimes. I don't expect people who aren't me to sympathise.

I'm sorry that you've made some very hard decisions that you're unhappy with. Things can truly suck sometimes.

I wish you well, but please stop venting and aiming it at me.

WhatToDoAboutThis2017 · 03/08/2017 15:17

habenero20 I think if you own a house you should be able to ask people to leave for whatever reason you want; it is your house.

Considering how long it takes for tenants to be evicted, I'm not sure they need any more "protection".

13Bastards · 03/08/2017 15:25

If it's causing you that much of a drama then just fix it yourself.

I love it when people post on AIBU, get told they are in fact being U and then lash out at the people who are telling them they are BU.

ChasingHighs · 03/08/2017 15:29

Not everyone thinks the OP is being unreasonable.

She is not allowed to fix it herself. But don't let that fact get in the way of your 'helpful' suggestion.

x2boys · 03/08/2017 15:30

As has been pointed out many many times 13 she can't fix it herself she isn5 allowedHmm

ChasingHighs · 03/08/2017 15:32

And good on her for lashing out.More posters should step in when someone is getting a kicking.

Floggingmolly · 03/08/2017 15:32

Do the Council do spot checks to make sure nobody has lost the run of themselves and changed a lightbulb, then?! How in the name of God would they find out??

ChasingHighs · 03/08/2017 15:35

It's not just a bog standard light bulb though is it?

Bungleboggs · 03/08/2017 15:37

By law housing associations need to repeat bathroom lights within 24 hours! To stop people putting lamps in bathrooms

13Bastards · 03/08/2017 15:41

How would they know though? Presumably there are inspections when council Tennant's move out- would they know that the lightbulb was fitted by Op and not one of their own?

Funnyonion17 · 03/08/2017 15:51

Some replies on here are shocking. People in council houses are still paying rent and if this had been a private landlord I bet the op would be getting totally different responses!

Ok the op may be able to cope, but what about others in social housing waiting that long. Disabled people who can't use their wet room in the darker months, the elderly, parents trying to shower or bath a child who's been sick during the night etc. The council at the very least should swap the bulb to a generic one the op can swap herself, then she is less reliant

demirose87 · 03/08/2017 15:55

As someone who was told I might have to wait longer than a week for a flushing toilet, and told it was a routine repair and not essential, I know that councils try and put work off where possible and you need to be persistent if you want things done.

demirose87 · 03/08/2017 16:15

And even if OP was allowed to change it herself, it looks very difficult. It is not a standard light bulb, it is a light fixture shaped like a disc that exposes he wires underneath when removed.

chirpyburbycheapsheep · 03/08/2017 17:23

the poorest and most vulnerable are blamed for societies problems and thought of as entitled. I didn't realise how deep that feeling is until i read this thread.

Very true. It starts with dehumanisation. Media portrayals of people on benefits, all these 'benefitporn' programmes. Once you have dehumanised a whole section of society, have made them somehow 'other' then it is much much easier to remove any empathy for them because, well, it's probably their fault anyway. Bad choices, bad moral character. And then you can do what you want with them, ship them out, get rid of them. I always remember an estate agent telling me that no landlord would touch me as they would think I would simply drink the rent money away because I was 'DSS'. Despite the fact that I didn't drink, had a perfect credit score, a guarantor, had paid my rent on time for all the time I had been renting and could afford all the rent in advance and fees due to being very good with money.

I'm sorry that you've made some very hard decisions that you're unhappy with. Things can truly suck sometimes.

I think the point is many of these decisions were forced on her by a system that disempowers the long term ill and vulnerable rather than enables them to make choices that other people take for granted when they have their health. And that when you are in that position things don't 'truly suck' sometimes as they do for most people in the ordinary scheme of life, but are very difficult day in day out often for a lifetime. I think until you have had your health taken from you it is very hard to imagine this.

ClopySow · 03/08/2017 18:20

That's how capitalism works

And?

ClopySow · 03/08/2017 18:24

Do the Council do spot checks to make sure nobody has lost the run of themselves and changed a lightbulb, then?! How in the name of God would they find out

Is that the best you've got molly?

You can't get in to the fitting in the first place. I tried. Then i gave up and phoned the council who said not to touch it and they'd send someone out.

Are you seriously suggesting we should ignore fire regs in a high rise after recent events.

Fuck off.

Floggingmolly · 03/08/2017 18:27

Several posters have confirmed that it's perfectly possible to access the units yourself. And have indeed done so.
Asking how the hell the Council would know you'd done it (or give a toss that you had) is a reasonable question??