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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU in thinking if you have a Council house and the Council are modernising it you shouldn't really moan about it?!

455 replies

Mydietstartstomorrow · 09/07/2019 14:00

So I'm in B&M in the queue listening to a customer moan on and on about how the Council have only given her 3 weeks notice that she is getting a new kitchen and bathroom fitted and this is totally unacceptable and how it's going to disrupt her life! Checkout lady then moans that she contacted her Housing Association to find out she's not entitled to a new bathroom for some time yet. AIBU to think some people feel so entitled? What about the people (me) who own their own home and cant currently ever imagine having the money to have a new kitchen and bathroom fitted?! Oh, and the loft was being insulated also!

OP posts:
GrandTheftWalrus · 12/07/2019 02:47

The council told me I was getting new windows and a new kitchen. But by the time they put them in I was 8 months pregnant for the kitchen and the windows got put in 2 days before my due date in the middle of november. And because of the set up of the windows it was basically the whole wall of the front of the house and we are 9 floors up

zsazsajuju · 12/07/2019 07:02

@HelenaDove it’s not true that the government no longer subsidises housing associations (even if it was, the fact they gave them grants to build their housing in the first place is still a subsidy). Eg in 2017, the government spent £9.1 billion in grants to build housing in the social housing sector.

zsazsajuju · 12/07/2019 07:09

@HelenaDove when I say not in need- I mean due to life time tenancies there are many people who live in social housing who could afford to otherwise house themselves while there is a huge waiting list of people who desperately need housing (some may smoke weed like the people you look down on in your estate). Also we are giving a huge slug of taxpayer cash in the form of a discount for right to buy to people, many of whom could afford to buy a house in the private sector. It does seem to me we should allocate resources better when we have so many in need

zsazsajuju · 12/07/2019 07:10

But I totally agree councils and housing associations are inefficient and difficult to deal with.

x2boys · 12/07/2019 07:35

What about where there is no significant differeance,s in rent between private houses and social houses ZsaZsa where's the subsidy then?

Bridget1983 · 12/07/2019 07:54

Shouldn’t be a race to the bottom - all people in our (very broken) society should have the right to decent standards of living and the right to continue to aspire to more if they wish.
This whole thread is just an example of how skint/frustrated so many people are. Wealthy happy societies don’t have this much anger and lack of compassion towards their fellow humans.
The 1% are pissing themselves at the lot of us 😕

gamerchick · 12/07/2019 13:30

What about where there is no significant differeance,s in rent between private houses and social houses ZsaZsa where's the subsidy then

I'm pretty sure his poster always likes to bang on about SH being subsidised. It's like a sport to them I think Wink

CitadelsofScience · 12/07/2019 13:54

I read recently that people in my area are getting housed in the bronze band because people in greater need can't afford the HA affordable rents on the new builds. They're going to the middle income people and they're getting secure tenancies too, like lifetime secure.

Osirus · 12/07/2019 14:45

There’s no way I would swap my own home for a council house, even if I didn’t have to pay for the work done.

You can’t put a price on freedom of choice, and no, not all council tenants have a choice - for lots of people it’s that or the streets.

Frequency · 12/07/2019 14:50

I have a HA property. I paid for all flooring myself and all the plastering, decorating etc. I also pay full, market rent. If the HA decided they wanted to rip up my flooring and knock holes in my plastering to fit a kitchen I didn't want and had no choice in and didn't pay to restore the flooring and plastering, damn right would I whinge about it. Also, it's not free. It's paid for through my rent.

NoWittyNamesAvailable · 12/07/2019 14:56

Ya u. Yes its nice to get a new kitchen but the amount of notice given isn't much. I am a council tenant, we have just received a letter saying our house has been chosen to have a new roof. Great, I'm sure that will be of a huge benefit to us BUT there is no information on when, just that it will take approx 4 weeks. That means I will have 4 weeks of my children (all 3 under 5) not able to play in the garden and 4 weeks of people traipsing through my house as we are a terrace with no access to the back other than through. I won't be able to go anywhere, and as I live on a main road I usually keep my front door locked to stop the children escaping. It will be 4 weeks of hell, oh and there isn't actually anything wrong with my current roof.

HelenaDove · 12/07/2019 15:08

"(some may smoke weed like the people you look down on in your estate) "

You are the last person to give a shit about tenants on here and yet you are happy to boast of your "hug a drug dealer" policy.

I dont look down on tenants and my posting history bears this out.

How desperate and twisted must you be to denigrate social housing that you should twist things to this extent is very telling And makes me even more certain that something very sinister is going on.

My flat still absolutely reeks of it but if i can smell it so can those in the police forensics van who were here earlier.

He threatened DH earlier this year Do you know ANYTHING about todays weed. Its not the stuff that was smoked in 1989 you know

There was a raid on the estate just before last Christmas and the police pushed notices through doors asking for help. I didnt ring them.

Good job as its obvs looking down on those smoking and dealing this shit to do anything about it.

Good to know i made the right decision . Hmm Hmm

And of course you are NO NIMBY and wouldnt mind it near you and yours.

HelenaDove · 12/07/2019 15:12

There was a thread from an MNer earlier this year who had a visit from Social Services because a teacher at her kids school smelled weed on the kids clothes

It was their neighbour who was smoking it

But i guess this MNer should put up and shut up and not look down on their neighbour Hmm

DuckWillow · 12/07/2019 15:21

My HA seems pretty good as they also regenerate areas as well as provide social support and help.

I gather they replace kitchens every 20 years or so and bathrooms every 30 years.

I have the smallest kitchen and guess that whoever designed it didn't cook or run a home. Space for a washing machine and an undercounter fridge or freezer (not both) and no space for a dishwasher (oh my goodness how I would love a dishwasher).

When the time comes for the kitchen to be refurbed I will be losing cupboard space to allow for a dishwasher AND a washing machine because it's one of the few things I will have any choice about.

DuckWillow · 12/07/2019 15:23

No idea why washing machine has been highlighted in my last post!

DuckWillow · 12/07/2019 15:25

Oh and OP am sure it's been pointed out... the lady wasn't moaning about anything except the short notice she'd been given.
I've had a new kitchen when I owned my own house.... the disruption is a nightmare. Being able to plan for it helps.

zsazsajuju · 12/07/2019 15:52

@x2boys the government subsidizes social housing to the tune of billions a year, so it is absolutely not correct to say it is not subsidized (as Helenadove claimed) because it is. I agree rents in some cases are not any lower than the private sector but there are still benefits to social housing in England (systems different in other uk countries) such as more security of tenure and right to buy.

Social housing is subsidized though. That’s a fact. They may not be spending their subsidy very well in some (if not many cases) but that doesn’t change the fact they are subsidized. I think it’s right that it is subsidized but I am concerned that the subsidy is not well spent when it is going on things like a huge discount for right to buy which not only removes a much needed house from the system at below market rate but is also a huge windfall at taxpayers expense to an individual who could often afford to buy on the open market.

I grew up in social housing and still have many family living in social housing - there should not be a stigma in living there. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t question the allocation of resources and the best way to provide housing for people. And also as many pp have pointed out, councils and housing associations often do a shocking job of managing their housing stock and finances to the detriment of their tenants, the taxpayer and society as a whole (who cannot get housing because eg housing associations manage to spend about double per house building than the private sector).

gamerchick · 12/07/2019 15:59

We could play a game and guess how many times zed can squeeze subsidized in one post in the American spelling though. That could be fun....

zsazsajuju · 12/07/2019 15:59

@HelenaDove you sound increasingly unhinged. Many people “smoke weed” in many different areas. In itself it’s not really some sort of antisocial behaviour.

You have no idea about me or where I live. I think you probably had a bit of a sheltered upbringing hence your hysteria about repairs and neighbors “smoking weed”. Perhaps you should take some deep breaths.

zsazsajuju · 12/07/2019 16:01

@gamerchick - am I zed? Zeds dead baby. My spellcheck likes American spelling - who am I to argue.

gamerchick · 12/07/2019 16:04

who am I to argue

Well that's what you do best isn't it? Grin

TheQueef · 12/07/2019 16:05

You're not kidding Gamer
I mean I've read plenty of people talking shite about subsidies (council housing still makes a profit in plenty of places Zsa you nugget, look at your councils breakdowns Hmm) but the zeds seem to make it worse, somehow.

HelenaDove · 12/07/2019 16:06

I dont care what people do in their own homes.

But i have a right not to have that smell in my home. It gets so bad that it affects my eyes.

DH has COPD so it affects him too.

If its no big deal why did that MNer get a visit from SS.

Im not unhinged. We have a right not to have that smell in our home
Smell isnt even a strong enough word to describe it

If its no big deal why did the knob downstairs go mad with the air freshner when the forensics van was parked outside.

And this prick threatened my DH

Yet you are still defending it Something is going on.

HelenaDove · 12/07/2019 16:08

Could it be that tenants like him downstairs are being charged a temp accomodation rent rate which is a lot more?

Could this be whats behind the playing down of it and the minimization?!

Rachelover40 · 12/07/2019 16:34

How does the smell get in to someone else's house? Does it travel out of the window into next door's or downstairs's window? It surely can't permeate the walls.

I wouldn't be able to smell anything from my neighbours' houses, or they from mine. We can smell when someone has a barbecue in the garden but that's all.

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