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?

@TheSunIsFar bit of a snobby post imo op.. Let's hope you never have to rely on social housing!

Personally, I'm grateful it's there for those that need it. Some may not be as nice as others, but it's a roof all the same.

Mil lives in a council house built at the end of the 1950s. It's a decent sized brick semi with 2-good sized double bedrooms, 2 reception rooms and a smallish kitchen. It's remarkably like my own house, except mine was built in the 30s and we've knocked the kitchen and dining room into one. It has a 70' garden with a brick built shed, a good sized drove plus another off-street parking space.

The council redo the bathroom, kitchen and replace the windows and external doors every few years, whether they need doing or not. They keep trying to get her to have central heating put in, but she doesn't want it because her late husband had an obsession that gas was dangerous, so there's no gas connected. She uses a couple of electric radiators and it's so well insulated that it's always lovely and warm.

It's a great little house and if they'd bought it, it would be worth £350-400k. DP's dad thought it was morally wrong to buy a council house, so they didn't. My dad was exactly the same, so no inheritance for us!

I have only recently become a Housing Association tenant in a small cottagy dorma bungalow. Yes the bathroom is down stairs but new as is the small kitchen. The heating is a coal fired heating system. But it's in a delightful rural area, in my daughter's school catchment area with the bus leaving at 8.30. The garden is half an acre. It's a very short way to a pub, near to my work and the wildlife i see is amazing. At just over half the cost of a similar rental and it will convert to a life time tenancy after a year. After the crap i have endured in recent years, I'm so happy to be here and amazed it had no interest from potential tennants even after it was listed on Rightmove, apart from myself.

I think a lot depends on the council. We live on the boundary between two. I have a flat that I rent out and there's a scheme where you can pay a fee and register with each one and they inspect your flat, in return, as long as you charge a fair rent (mine is similar to LA rates, they can give people your information when you are looking for new tenants. If you don't keep up the standard then you lose the recommendation and it's a bit of a warning to tenants that if the LL isn't in the scheme there's probably a reason.

One council from what I'm told is excellent. Their repairs service is brilliant. Their houses are well looked after. Their housing officers talk to me about prospective tenants like they are human beings. I've never had enquiries about the flat from someone looking to move out of a secure council tenancy into private.

Whereas the other one there are always people looking to leave their secure tenancies for private. Mostly because of the shocking condition they are living in. Their repairs service is almost non existant except for extreme emergencies.

My (ex) council house is extremely solid and what I’d call a large semi. You need a diamond tip drill to get anything into the wall, picture hanging was fun. The bloke 2 doors down lives in a council maintained property, had his bathroom renewed recently, they come round when he wants any work doing, he seems happy. Maybe it’s just your mate’s particular council?

I think lot depend on the area BUT ALSO ON A YEAR THE THREAD WAS STARTED IN

I've lived in social housing all my adult life, and had 5 different landlords in 3 different cities/boroughs.

Although it shouldn't (because they have a certain level of legal obligation to do repairs promptly and keep the house in a decent condition), it depends on the council/housing association and their contractors.

In-house maintenance teams are generally better than external contractors.

Things like damp depend how well designed/built the house was in the first place though. Britain's housing stock is very poorly insulated on the whole; we have a lot of work to do in that regard.

Our HA seem to be very good at maintaining the properties. We’ve been here 8 years and so far we have had all the radiators and boiler replaced and all the windows too although rather slapdash with both, outside contractors, radiator men pulled up the carpet in my sons room and wrecked it, but aside from that the HA seem good. We didn’t have any choice but to accept this house, pushed as a three bed, but 3rd room is too small for a single as part of the room had a stair bulk head so we had to build a bed to go over it. House is very tiny, kitchen is 3mtrs by 2 mtrs and has the airing cupboard in it. Zero storage, bathroom is even smaller so with 5 of us, is claustrophobic at times. Private houses in the same terrace are marketed as 2 beds. We do appreciate what we have after 13 years of private rentals, beggars and all that, but it’s getting harder and harder to accommodate the kids as they grow. However we have a 130ft garden, which is amazing, although bonkers given the size of the house. Overall, given how well the HA maintains I think we are very lucky compared to some of the council/HA out there, as well as some of the private rentals.

This thread is 3 years old.

I've just noticed that too!

Council house here . We finally got central heating last year . Sadly when they did it they destroyed lost carpets and walls - living room floor has a hole left in it, bedroom carpet was thick with mud and footprints, and said it was up to us to repair - but we didn’t get the choice re heating install ...

One bedroom is totally unusable due to severe penetrating damp - has given me pneumonia and pleurisy when I slept in it for a few years . Bathroom is black with mould as are the back of both cupboards . Loft has been closed off as unsafe to use . Kitchen floor was taken up and found to be soaked in water . Kitchen is also only about 12feet square - so can’t eat in it etc . Very small house

On top of that the wiring system was found to be very old and ‘complex’ leading SSE to try and bill for £700 for one month of electric ...

The garden is OK though ...

Friends is worse - terraced housing, upstairs lofts are all connected with doors . As recent as 2010 I remember her neighbour would routinely access their loft through that door and drum on the ceiling

Kitchen dimension might be slightly off before someone calls me up on that, I’m knackered .

Zombie thread

I grew up in a HA house. It was really nice. Nice quiet neighbourhood, lots of grassy areas around. House must have been solidly built, because it always was in good condition and I don’t remember people coming round to do repairs. My mum was pretty handy though and decorated it beautifully.
The whole area, or most of it at least, is privately owned now.

It’s sad that there is so little social housing these days.

How do people even find these threads?