Council tenants complaining about their 'fixtures'

[Delilah21D00LoT]

I know I'm being unreasonable, but I just want to get this off my chest. Please feel free to ignore or have 'your say' too.

I joined a facebook page/forum: www.facebook.com/groups/diyonabudgetofficial/
about 4 weeks ago so that I could follow and get ideas.

There are stacks of people who've been painting their kitchens - as they cannot afford a new one (this includes me) and a heck of a lot of them are Council Tenants complaining about their "shitty, crappy, cheap shit, typical Council Kitchens" when they've posted a picture of these so called "shite kitchens" they look pretty decent - basic - but decent.

One person was complaining that she didn't like the 'beech kitchen' that the council had put in when she moved in the year before and she'd complained to them that she wanted 'white gloss units', but also complained when the council said 'No, we will not change it just because you don't like it"

Others have been complaining of their "shitty, non-flat or wonky walls, wood chipped walls and so on" what do people want? They've got a Council House or Flat - do they expect it to be done up like some brand new property?

We bought our house some 12 years ago - it still requires work. None of our walls are flat, straight or smooth, there are chips and cracks everywhere.

The kitchen is now over 20 years old and has been repaired repeatedly over the years and I painted all the units at the beginning of the year to brighten it up - and it actually looks pretty good.
I come from Council myself and have several friends who are still in Council properties, but they are the older generation (30's, 40's and 50's) and seem incredibly grateful for their home.

I think I'll just leave the group as I can no longer tolerate the selfish people who seem to expect everything to be handed to them.

I need to shut up, I know.

Sorry if I or this has offended anyone.

~ Delilah ~

[Slowtrain2dawn]

In my area there is huge variation in the quality of “council” housing. It’s owned by housing associations now. They have inherited some seriously substandard homes and tenants have to wait ages for kitchen and bathroom refurbs. Some of the new properties are gorgeous though. Some tenants are just grateful for a secure tenancy and some are entitled. You just can’t generalise. The rents vary a lot too, from old style tenancy for life to new “affordable” and fixed term social tenancies which are not much cheaper than private. You cannot assume that being in council/HA housing is a cushy number.

[IshipTomHardysohard]

I've been in my council house now for 6 months, it's been the happiest and safest 6 months of my life. Coming from a private rent where I had damp everywhere, no heating for over a month in December last year. Rats and bailiffs knocking my door for the last people who lived here.

I thank my lucky stars every day and with the attitude you seen from those people on fb are disgusting. Ungrateful! there are so many people in dire need of a council house. Then you have those who would complain over anything.

The kitchen I have here is a good 15 years old, but it's great, still going strong.

[TattyCat]

and their workers put all the plaster down our toilet

Unfortunately that's not peculiar to council house contractors! I learned this in my previous house and they were good plasterers too, but they wrecked my downstairs toilet (well, one of them did) and my flower bed outside the front. Bloody fuckwits, cost us a fortune but I couldn't be bothered to argue because it needed sorting fast and the chances of them paying to rectify was probably nil. Fuckwits abound, whether you're a private, HA or council tenant. That's just life.

[HelenaDove]

Many HA tenants will have experienced the "joys" of Liberty Gas.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2595702-To-wonder-how-this-company-is-still-in-business

[blackheartsgirl]

Exactly twatty. I’m sick of it to be honest. The house I owned years ago with my ex was a beautiful house, needed updating but it was in good condition, in a lovely area but it was mine. My mortgage was also far cheaper than my Council rent at the time.

My house now. It’s a bodge job, the boiler is also on the blink, not willing to do more than basic repair, the garden is full of rubble with grass over the top, asbestos tiles in the hall which are broken, Council are arguing with Novus (outside contracter) over whether or not they are dangerous, novus put on hazmats to remove the ones in the kitchens yet the council are saying they are not dangerous, they’ve been there since the 1950s. Oh I could go on and on. It’s not been good for my mental health this house

[HelenaDove]

"novus put on hazmats to remove the ones in the kitchens yet the council are saying they are not dangerous,"


Because tenants are seen as sub human so wont be affected

[blackheartsgirl]

Yep certainly seen as scum Helena. Oh who cares if we and our brats die of asbestos poisoning, it’s one family less to house.

Tiles have been broken for years, Council have warned us we are not to cover them with carpet or laminate because they will charge us for further damage. We didn’t bloody damage them in the first place! Meanwhile we have asbestos ridden tiles that are cracked and crumbling airing rather nicely in the hall

[HelenaDove]

Yy blackhearts What some on this thread dont want to understand is that tenants are barred from doing certain repairs and/or touching certain fixtures and fittings under our tenancy agreements.

[IfNot]

recently there was a post on here about the OP not getting carpets or white goods in the council/HA house! Seriously, she thought they would provide a fridge freezer, washing machine etc. hmm
Yeah and they don't provide flooring of any kind either. When I moved into my council house it was a wreck. A shell. Years of accumulated grime, concrete floors, barely a kitchen at all. No shower, mouldy bathroom..I have spent around 2 k over the years getting it merely livable. No vouchers of any kind either because I work.
And grateful? Really? Yes in a lot of ways it's better than private renting in that it's secure, and the fact that I can make changes ( if I have the cash ) but I pay rent. And no, its not subsidised. My estate was built in the 1960s. The houses are long bought and paid for. Social housing was never meant to be a bone thrown to the most vulnerable. When it was designed in the 1920s-1970s it was meant for ordinary working class people. Housing is a right not a priveledge. It's come to a weird place when people are jealous of social housing. Is it a SE thing??
I mean it's OK but most mnetters wouldn't actively want to live on my estate. There are several young men housed here on probation for God knows what, the houses are crumbling, and my son has been teased by peers for "being poor". First chance I get I'm buying a house elsewhere. At least my DIY skills will be honed.

[GetOutOfMYGarden]

I think people have missed the point a bit in this thread. Complaining about mould/asbestos is NBU. Complaining that the colour of the cabinets isn't your favourite and wanting the HA to change them as a result is.

[blackheartsgirl]

The op also stated that complaining about dodgy wood chipped walls was wrong too, like I said in a previous post all my walls are wood chipped or were, it’s in every room bar 2 and it cannot be taken down without damaging bare plaster board. This wood chip must be 20 or 30 years old and is in very poor condition and there’s bugger all I can do about it

[Battleax]

It's come to a weird place when people are jealous of social housing. Is it a SE thing??

It's a coalition of rightwingers and poor private renters. Weird, nevertheless.

[HelenaDove]

There really isnt much difference between social and private renting now.
As anyone who reads Joe Halewoods blog will know.

[MistressDeeCee]

I'm in that group OP. I hope people do click on that link you've put up, so they can see how disingenious you are being.

It's a forum where people are doing up their homes and asking for ideas on how to make certain aspects look better. You're in there so you'll also be aware quite a few people don't have much money.

Some women are just out of horrible relationships and grateful to have a home for them and DCs, and want ideas to make their place look homely. Majority of people are attempting decorating for the 1st time, and are proud when they get it right (why not) so they put up pics.

But you know all this - as you're in the forum and people at times give a little backstory, don't they? Especially if they suffered an illness or trauma, and new home is a fresh start for them.

& you do a post/make comments, failing to mention all that?

You are an envious snob. Hyacinth Bucket has nothing on you. I'm sure you'll find a few sneerers in support of you here though

[lalalalyra]

some HA's deserve all the complaining they get. HA tenants are stuck with the shitty, cheap contractors they use (and keep using year after year regardless of complaints).

There's a lady in my town who has loudly, and rightly, been complaining about the biggest HA in the area.

Her husband was terminally ill and needed a wheelchair ramp. The HA wouldn't allow her to have it done herself, they said they'd do it. It got fucked up so many times it took 8 months for the door to be widened and the ramp to be attached. The work (the door then needed replaced 3 times because of cock ups) was finally signed off and completed 16 months after the original meeting - and 4 months after her husband died. The contractors were rude and unreliable throughout, as well as incompetent.

The contractors also managed to take 5 weeks to fit a wetroom and flooded her hall, bedroom and living room.

She's now being called ungrateful and getting a lot of stick because she's refusing a new kitchen - same contractors so she doesn't want them in her house again - understandable imo.

[sashh]

But if they’re being fussy about decor then they’re ungrateful, I agree.

I moved into a brand new HA property and yes I am grateful.

However one of the new kitchen cupboards opened over the gas hob. I took the door off to make it in to shelves I could actually use but boy did I have a battle with them because I had not got written permission first. I eventually got a manager to agree that a kitchen door over a hob was not in the best interests of health and safety.

[mrsmuddlepies]

There is a thread at the moment about a woman with a 4 bed roomed council house who wants to live abroad for 6 months of the year. So much advice from posters about not giving up the tenancy.
There is limited stock on council funded homes. I feel so sorry that some needy families are not allocated council homes but some council tenants think once they have a council house it is theirs for life no matter where in the world the happen to live.

[MissDuke]

I am shocked at some of the stories on here, absolutely crazy what the councils are getting away with!

[Delilah21D00LoT]

*@MistressDeeCee
Some women are just out of horrible relationships and grateful to have a home for them and DCs, and want ideas to make their place look homely. Majority of people are attempting decorating for the 1st time, and are proud when they get it right (why not) so they put up pics. *

I couldn't agree with you more MistressDeeCee - however the point that I was making (which you must have misunderstood) is that there are many people - (Not just Women, btw) who do not come across as 'grateful' that they have a decent home - (you've gone slightly off topic thinking I should be posting about the backstories too).

Complain to your council that your house is unsafe as the boiler is faulty and the kitchen is falling apart after 20 years and your loo leaks - yes, go for it, complain until they get their asses round and sort it out!

Complaining to the Council that you don't like your cheap Beech kitchen is something else entirely.

Woodchip and walls (and ceilings) that are not flat or smooth is not just just in Council properties and neither is shite decor - whether you privately rent, council rent or pay a mortgage on your home nothing is done instantly - it takes time and money.

You are an envious snob. Hyacinth Bucket has nothing on you. I'm sure you'll find a few sneerers in support of you here though
Seriously?

[toomuchtooold]

I can see both sides - I grew up in a council house and then my parents did right to buy and it was quite funny in the years after I left home hearing about the extremely stressful and unreasonable things they were expected to deal with along with their three (also right to buy) neighbours in the block - they'd all be outraged that the council wouldn't help them arrange a builder to fix the roof, and stuff like that. But while they were definitely a bit ignorant of how the rest of the world works, I don't think that people who live in council houses should have to go about in attitudes of constant gratitude. Everyone should be allowed to have a moan. And it's a different kind of difficulty, living somewhere and there being things that you can never change. Not the worst thing that can happen to a person, but frustrating in its own way.

[toomuchtooold]

Also all this could be avoided by the simple step of adopting the German custom of taking your kitchen with you when you move house. Yes they actually do that. Kitchen units and everything. It's mental.

[Notreallyarsed]

The scorn poured on Council tenants on here is appalling. I think many of the people who are angry have never actually seen or lived in a standard Council house!
I’ve lived in a few Council flats and they’ve all been pretty grim, repairs take forever (even water leaks, mould, heating and hot water, the basics!), the standard of finish isn’t even basic it’s half finished and the new kitchens and bathrooms that have just been put in in our area are awful. Bathrooms not sealed, cupboard doors don’t fit together and aren’t hung properly, doors that don’t fit a doorway properly, the flooring isn’t done to any kind of standard.

I’m all for being grateful for what you have, but for fucks sake what does it tell someone if even the most basic of repairs is done to the crappest standard and weeks after it was needed? It tells them they don’t matter, that they’re not worth doing a half decent job.

Council houses are in short supply as it is, and they’re not the golden ticket people seem to think on here. The attitudes towards Council tenants and people on benefits on MN at times make me despair. It’s really bloody depressing.

[Battleax]

however the point that I was making.......is that there are many people - (Not just Women, btw) who do not come across as 'grateful' that they have a decent home

What kind of performance of gratitude are you hoping for?

Genuflection? Libations? Offering up of sacrificial family members? What exactly is it you want?

If I'm honest, I'm scared of ever needing social rented housing. It all sounds a bit of a nightmare, but perhaps if you explain to everyone what they're supposed to do ON TOP of their contractual obligations, this will all make more sense?

[Notreallyarsed]

however the point that I was making.......is that there are many people - (Not just Women, btw) who do not come across as 'grateful' that they have a decent home

This is ridiculous! It’s as if being taxpayers means you’re owed something by people using public resources (benefits or social housing) and that you’re expecting forelock tugging and cap doffing. It’s really very unpleasant.

[Tumbleweed101]

I had a lovely kitchen put in by the council a couple years back. Had a choice of tops and cupboards and flooring. Far nicer than anything I could have afforded to replace the old one and I’m very grateful and happy with it.