To think Council housing is poor

[TheSunIsFar]

Just that really.
We have a few friends and family who have Council houses and they are small and badly maintained... they have trouble getting things fixed (such as plumbing / boiler etc)

Is it really the norm for Council houses to be tiny and badly maintained properties?

No, not the norm. We get a really good maintenance service, nice sized house and garden.

Surely it varies by area? The council houses by me always look clean and well maintained. A mate who lives in one of them never has any issues with repairs etc. They look a damn sight better than the private rentals available here too.

My council house is lovely. Big rooms, nice garden, just had a new central heating boiler fitted. Repairs done quickly, I have no complaints at all.

I visit a lot of council houses at work and there’s huge variation - many are lovely - well built with good size gardens or new with ground source heat pumps, bike stores etc. However some are terrible - I have families in flats so damp the children’s matches are FULL of mound, soft toys black with mound spores, no bath and faulty shower etc etc. You don’t get flooring so I’ve seen families with concrete floors which have been soaked in the previous owners cat piss and they’ve no way of covering it. Some families are in concrete ‘huts’ that are supposed to be temporary but they are stuck there.

So it depends really! Like private rental there is a full range.

Mattresses not matches!!!

There's a huge variety in quality even within councils.

Some people get lucky..... others less so.

Maybe it's just our area then. I wouldn't want to live in Council housing here!

I used to live in a council flat. This is the floor plan (from when it sold a few years ago, this is my exact flat). It was definitely NOT small!

Maintenance was okay too. Sometimes you'd have to wait a bit or be a big pushy about some stuff but all got done.

Hi have a 3 bed 2 bath council house that was built in 2015.

Council are great. The house also has plenty of room and storage which we did not expect moving in due to it being a new build.

Ive never seen a small council house here but i have seen private lets where you would barely get a single bed in the room.

No, not the norm - some councils better than others, but many are very good. Although it can even vary within council, depending on the stock age and type. Traditional brick-built houses are generally easier and cheaper to maintain, and were designed to last better, than prefab tower blocks and concrete constructions, which are more prone to degrading and more difficult to put right when they do.

Trouble getting repairs done and to a good standard is often because many councils now outsource maintenance to private contractors (who in turn outsource to sub-contractors who in turn do the same and so on) and there are often weak links in the chain of accountability. Also, the cost of maintenance has increased over the years, as have most things, whilst a couple of years ago the government forced councils to reduce all rents by 1% per year for four consecutive years. Less rent = less money available to pay for services.

Tedster77 what you said about the mattresses is so sad

We live in a council semi built in the late twenties. In very good condition with central heating, double glazing and no mould/damp issues. It's not massive (2 double bedrooms, lounge and dining kitchen, plus a sort of rear vestibule and under stairs storage), but big enough for us three with a huge garden (too big!). Maintenance done as soon as you request with minimal waiting time. Low rent and security to stay here as long as we want to. I see it as a lottery win of sorts after private renting for some 13 years.

Its not so much councils as HAs.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2901354-Housing-associations-Are-you-having-problems

It really does depend on the area and the type of house you have

We live in a Council property known affectionately as a steel house because it’s literally made of steel. It’s a bisf house and over the years repairs to it have been hit and miss because the council couldn’t decide whether the bisf stock was worth renovating and would do no more than basic repairs for years. Now they have and we’ve had a new kitchen and bathroom external cladding, and loft insulation, prior to that the houses hadn’t been touched for 30 years.

A friend of mine by comparison lives in a traditional brick semi but the inside is riddled with damp and the Council won’t do bugger all about it, same area.

My house is pretty big though, most Council properties are

Oh our rent is higher than most other tenants too, we pay more than similar houses private renters

A lot of council housing in our area is better than privately rented.

I know some people in social housing in new build flats that are equal i'd say to what I pay £730 pcm for.

My council property decent size, nice garden.
Getting them to maintain anything is pretty much impossible.
The states the let the property's in first place is ridiculous.
I went to view one property that actually had some sort of mushrooms growing half way up the wall, this was in a small tower block 2nd floor...Royal borough of Greenwich I'm in bunch of tosspots.

Mine is a new build HA. It’s tiny. Really really small and no garden but It’s better than being homeless. But really some flats aren’t fit for purposes or housing families.

Repairs are a nightmare.

My 2 bed council house is miniscule. I hate it. Walls are a disgrace, patched up as best we could, but the whole house needs reskimming. The walls in the hall / stairs /landing were painted half way up them. Nowhere even to put a table to eat at. We have our plates on our knees. And I would love an extra toilet, it's very difficult with a crohns disease sufferer in the house! The garden needs a fence and hundreds of pounds spending on it to make it usable / plantable. Repairs few and far between.
We have one wage coming in so are stuck here. Private rents here are stupid.
It's the most depressing little shithole I've ever lived in and knowing we're stuck here is incredibly depressing.

Years ago council stock was split into lower income or no income houses and higher income houses. We lived in a higher income council house as my dad had a good job.

My council house sounds exactly like yours @13Crows moved in with disgusting concrete floors, uneven filthy floorboards, crumbling door frames and skirtings... and the walls are so patchy, dented and stained and disgusting I could cry daily over it!

We only have one wage coming in as I'm a SAHM to a 2 year old and there's just no way we could afford to sort it out to our standard. We could barely afford the flooring which was essential with a 9 month old (at the time) crawling everywhere.

It is better than being homeless however. We had to spend 2 weeks in a homeless B&B, then 6 months in a Temporary Accommodation hut prior to getting this place. I suppose the only redeeming feature is that the rent is very cheap and when we've been short of rent the council don't seem to give two fucks if you get into arrears, so there is that I guess...

I dream of a beautiful "Instagram home" (sigh)

Nope mines huge.
3 bed with dining room. Council takes long to fix things (a months wait on average unless it's an emergency) but It's ok.

Love my council house. Large three bed with brand new kitchen/bathroom, spacious dining room, downstairs toilet, outer house, large garden. Worth the 9 year wait, if we need a repair we book it on the app, and it never takes them very long to come out.

So grateful.

I’ve bought an ex-council house with 4 double bedrooms. So not small at all! The only reason it was in poor condition was because the owners bought the house 30 years ago and did zero maintenance or repairs.

Where I grew up council houses are a good size with generous gardens.