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

[Mydietstartstomorrow]

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!

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/14/lack-of-homes-suitable-for-older-people-fuels-housing-crisis-report?CMP=share_btn_tw

@HelenaDove it’s one rule for my gran and another for you as she was battling a serious drug and criminal gang that made the whole community’s life hell. You are moaning about your neighbour smoking weed and having a scented candle in their own home. It’s an entirely different situation.

I suspect you are just not the type of person who grew up in social housing (as I did) and now find it hard to be tolerant and open minded. Again, I suggest you try to live and let live.

so why did the police raid the estate last Christmas then Are they wrong as well?

I spoke to the guy who has been fitting the new changes to the front doors to our flats today They have been changed due to fire safety . Well our door got its changes back in March Two other flats in the building are refusing to have it done including the weed smoker In fact he is refusing to even open the door to the contractor. He is refusing fire safety compliance But hey i will go tell the contractor that he should "live and let live" eh.

That is the DOORS

Today he is fitting the new covers on the meter boxes. Also for fire safety compliance This he has managed to do on all the flats because the boxes are OUTSIDE the flat doors.

But there is a slight problem There are not enough keys to go with all the new boxes. We have one. As we have a pay as you go meter which we need access to.

he needs access to other flats to fit the changes to the doors

One flat downstairs lack of access is not the fault of the tenant as she works shifts. But they also completely changed and modified their door when they moved in. The tenant opposite has told me she does not want to have it done and that they can evict her if they like She doesnt care. Her words.

And the druggie downstairs is also refusing to co operate And wont even answer his door But the contractor knows hes there because he heard him and i can hear him flush his loo. This contractor is a decent one and hes been friendly and professional. Im sure your comments on this thread will amuse someone though @zsazsajuju

Ive been living in social housing since 1994 @zsazsajuju But you keep making a fool of yourself because i find it amusing.

Spoiled, rich property owners looking down on council plebs.....

See. Not very nice when people make ridiculous snap judgements, eh? As many have said, the lady has the right to feel inconvenienced and you don't know they details of her life.

And im one of the first to stand up for tenants on here as my posting history shows.

the weed is very very strong.

But i should not have been able to smell the scented candle no.

Two words ..................fire compartmentilization

Surprised that didnt occur to you what with your extensive knowledge of social housing and all Remember the candle was last December so my windows wernt open

Helena - honestly you need to get out more and stop obsessing about nothing.

You have got the hump because i caught you out upthread You applied different rules to your gran than you did to me. And when i called you on it it suddenly became heroin gangs. Drip feed

And your comment here is laughable.

I suspect you are just not the type of person who grew up in social housing (as I did) and now find it hard to be tolerant and open minded

LAUGHABLE

Anyone would think you were new around here.

You sound quite mentally abusive tbh

Helena - you get more and more bonkers. You must have really searched through my history to find that stuff about my gran fighting drug dealers (which I never mentioned on this thread so can’t really be a drip feed). And as I said it’s utterly offensive to compare someone like my gran who was a community activist to your behaviour as a judgy nosy neighbour making ridiculous claims about your neighbour smoking and using a scented candle in their own home. It’s not me who is abusive.

Go back to pasting irrelevant passages from random other threads.

Go back and check that thread I was on there too. So i didnt need to search as such. I have a VERY good memory.

I tend to be on a lot of housing threads which is obviously news to you!

I dont give a fuck about scented candles I do worry about someone burning it while high in case it gets left overnight or gets knocked over.

"you get more and more bonkers"

i rest my case.

@Nursejackie1

Landlords have a right to maintain their property. Tenants who refuse to allow it should be threatened with eviction, and evicted if necessary.

There should be more council housing, not less. And if rents are fair, good.

I am against the bedroom tax. However, tenants in 3-4 bed houses after everyone leaves home are right to be expected to move.

I also agree that some social landlords are inefficient or poor landlords.

I started out in social housing, and thank god for it. I wasn't entitled or inconsiderate to my neighbours, though.

I have had a neighbour who had weed parties in his garden till all hours, but that was years after I'd bought a private house, and in a middle class neighbourhood.

John Boughton (author of Municipal Dreams The Rise and Fall of Council Housing) on the welfarisation of council housing.

www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/the-rise-and-fall-of-council-housing-56139

"the 1980s, residualisation may have been a partly unintended consequence of housing policies pursued with varying ideological intent"

Since 2010, and more so since the return of single-party Conservative government in 2015, we’ve seen something further: welfarisation – ‘a conception of social housing as a very small, highly residualised sector catering only for the very poorest, and those with additional social “vulnerabilities”, on a short-term “ambulance” basis

@ReanimatedSGB

Helena what you say about residualisation of social housing is spot on. I have worked in social housing, all aspects, for 35 years now and it has changed beyond all recognition. I feel desperately sorry for some of the older tenants amongst some of the newer ones who have "complex needs", let us say. Its not the housing providers fault though and there are no housing officers who relish their new role which is more akin to police or social worker than landlord 😩

@sluj Its from a book by John Boughton called Municipal Dreams The Rise and Fall of Council Housing.

Im NOT saying you did this because it does not sound to me like you would but partly due to this residulisation some of those who work in the housing sector are just taking the policing of tenants and paternalism and applying it as a blanket policy to all tenants including to the older tenants who then become confused upset and angry about why they are suddenly being treated like they have done something wrong.

@sluj it sounds to me that it has made your job more stressful.

It does sound like she's complaining about the inconvenience more than anything else. To be honest, with summer coming up and the kids in the house all day, I don't blame her!

I didn't complain at first even though I was close to giving birth.

The first builders work was so shoddy that it was unsafe electrically, didn't meet health and safety standards and they were pulled off the job.

The second team were great except by the time they had fixed all the problems with the previous team and were completing the work I went into labour. On that day I had no running water and no functioning toilet facilities. They had to stay and make it somewhat suitable for habitation whilst I was taken to hospital. They then had to come back and finish the dusty, noisy job whilst I was in the house with two small children and a newborn (post C-section so couldn't get out much).

A different team replaced the front door with a new fire door which didn't work and locked us in. No route of escape in the event of a fire. Building site manager came and managed to get it open from outside. Came inside, closed it and then it wouldn't open, so they were locked in too. Managed to get a locksmith to let us out two hours later to get us out, but had a broken door for several days which we couldn't lock until they got a new one.

All in all it was months of disruption, dust, noise, stress complaining about poor workmanship and a screaming newborn who couldn't sleep during the day at home due to the exterior/interior building works drilling noise.

Not so easy.

Oh and I forgot the new ventilation system they installed meant that next doors cigarette smoke came into our kitchen, bathroom and toilet. They told us there was nothing they could do about that.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/royal-mail-and-amazon-can-deliver-for-social-housing/

Royal Mail and Amazon ‘can deliver’ for social housing

New report references both as examples for meeting customer expectation

"Social housing providers need to learn from organisations like Amazon and Royal Mail if they are to meet the expectations of their customers, according to a new report.

A poll of almost 6,000 social housing customers shows that more than four out of five people (82%) expect the same level of service as they do from other companies. And they expect it, because they’re paying for it.

That’s the main finding from a new report, Great expectations, commissioned by social housing provider Acis, which owns and manages more than 7,000 properties across the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Acis joined forces with seven other housing associations in what is considered to be one of the largest studies of its kind in the UK.

The report features many examples of customers wanting a service more like those delivered by organisations outside of the social housing world.

Greg Bacon, Acis Chief Executive, said: “We commissioned this research to better understand the expectations of our customers and see how we might be able to adapt to meet those expectations.

“Ultimately, we want our customers to be happy with the service they get from us.

“The message has been received loud and clear. Customers simply want to receive a good service. They want things to be done quickly and they want to be treated with respect.

“And while it’s important that providers continue to pursue digital methods of communication, many customers still want that face-to-face human interaction.

“Great service should happen irrespective of the way it’s delivered.

The report reveals the top ten qualities of great service in social housing:

Repairs
Speed
Maintenance
Listening
Communicating
Problem-solving
Keeping promises
Timeliness
Customer service
Respectfulness

On the back of the findings, Acis is making a series of recommendations for itself and other providers, as well as government, to implement – including to learn from and benchmark against organisations outside of the social housing sector.

Bacon said: “Housing associations need to recognise they do not operate in a bubble – in a social-housing-only world.

“They need to remember that from their customers’ perspective they are just one of hundreds of organisations their customers encounter daily.

“There is a perception that it was accepted in the past that people in social housing should accept the level of service they get because they often get their accommodation paid for.

“This needs to change.”

The other housing associations participating in the research were Gentoo, Midland Heart, Orbit, Regenda, Riverside, WDH and Yorkshire Housing"

@12FreeRangeEggs