To clarify exactly what a council house looks like

[Lifegoeson5]

So many posts about council housing and 'benefit scroungers' getting 'free' housing.
I pay £150 a week for this...

WorraLiberty

Well I have given some advice on that post as well as everyone else on this thread, so hopefully that will help the OP.

I do much of the maintenance on my flat and it is a constant battle. It is reassuring to hear that it is not just us battling with humidity and it's effects all the time. I think in our case though (with no windows in the bathrooms and limp extractor fans) the way the property was built does make the problem more likely. We just do our best like everyone else. Our flats have had other issues since they have been built, and many people in new builds complain a lot about the workmanship and design. I was just saying that standards in some buildings aren't great, which causes a lot of problems.

Mortgages are usually lower than rent in most places. We pay £400 a month for a house that would cost double if we rented.

Anyway, that aside. Buy the mould and mildew spray from Poundland, it’s absolutely fantastic. Any house will get mould if it’s cold and not ventilated. I’ve never lived in a council house but lived in a few private rentals before I was in a position to buy and they were all shit for various reasons. The issue is not wanting to spend money on a house that isn’t yours, I get that.

@User0987613

Does anyone think this might be a troll thread? The drip feeding, the lack of context and a few photos that don't even look that bad. (It shows a new window to begin with. People pay thousands per month in London living with single pane glazing and metal frames from the 20s). It seems like someone deliberately trying to goad people to bash council house renters.

Yeah, on reflection I think it's a possibility, a very good way of getting lots of 'be grateful for your free house' comments isn't it?
Of course it may just be that OP has been beaten over the head with the attitude towards council/social housing and doesn't want to come back for another round.
I do think that in HA/Council you get less and pay less (a fact I often point out when people start banging on about free and subsidised houses at the expense of the tax payer) and in reflection of that, I didn't expect my HA property to be in the same state as the private rentals I've had, and I didn't expect an end of tenancy deep clean to have been done or anything like that, I took it as the other side of paying less really and yes cleaning up someone else's filth and neglect pissed me off, it would anyone, but I expected less if I'm honest because I'm paying less.

Council aren't painters and decorators. I'm sure there are some improvements you can make yourself. In regards to the boiler keep contacting them to sort it out

There may be mould but yes it also does need a scrub! Comeon, those wondows photos you showed are caked in dirt and dust, you can see it! So unless you left it for two weeks without wiping any surfaces so it would look worse for the pictures, then clean it!

We live in an old house which gets a bit damp in the bathroom and yep, I have to wipe it down - we don't have an extractor fan.

I am not disagreeing with the fact that you may be in sub standard housing and I dont think anyone should have to put up with that. Absolutely.

But please don't post photos like the first one in your second post as justification because honestly, that is bloody filthy.

Apparently we should blast the heating and open windows to combat the mould....

You don’t need to ‘blast it’. But yeah that’s how most people keep it at bay... what special solution were you expecting?

Does drip feeding cause condensation?

Our first home 15 yearss ago was a council house. The council did all repairs but decorating was our job. The council gave us £100 to decorate which was refunded back to us when we bought our home 8 years later.
We did get mouldy ceilings in the bedrooms but once we started ventilating it properly and bought a dehumidifier that was sorted.
Boiler repairs and things like leaky windows were the council's responsibility.
Aldi and lidl,even Argos have decent dehumidifiers

^When did having a roof over your head become something that people are supposed to feel grateful for? It’s a basic fucking human right, not something that should be down to being lucky. I despair of the race-to-the-bottom attitude on here sometimes.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs stated over 70 years ago that food, water, warmth and shelter were the basic minimums that humans need to function as a society. Why are some people still seen by others to be unworthy of having these needs met?^

But OP does have a roof over her head. Plus modern double glazing, and, judging by the radiators, modern central heating. If the pictures that she has posted She is just homed in on a couple of what looks like a few minor issues. Either caused by previous tenants of the house being empty for a while. If the pictures are the worst she can come up with, she is not doing too badly. The only real problem would seem to be the boiler, which might be faulty or might just be that particular stlyle of possibly older style of boiler.

I was partivcularly surprised by the window handle which looks like a modern plastic window handle (I cleaned one last week and it took second to get grease and dirt off it). as that is something someone would just fix themselves.

Does drip feeding cause condensation?

Apparently we should blast the heating and open windows to combat the mould....

And? That’s what a lot of us who live in older properties or not well insulated ones have to do. What exactly are you begrudging🙄? Having to pay £150 for your property (which is a lot cheaper than if it was privately rented) or that you weren’t given a top spec brand new one?

My student rentals have had worse mould. But, you act like an adult and improve your own situation. You air the house out. Dry the condensation. Paint over scruffs. Give the house a proper deep clean. I remember being on my hands and knees cleaning the floor with piles of towels and floor cleaner when we moved in because a mop wasnt lifting the dirt and it was so bad. The towels were black.

I don't see the point of these threads. If it's something the landlord/council won't fix then either do it yourself or you're more than welcome to move elsewhere and pay more...

To be fair, your house 'defects' can be sorted by deep cleaning and a lick of paint.
Just because you're renting doesn't mean that you get to never spend any money or effort on keeping it looking nice.
Landlords deal with the big issues.

I'm a domestic cleaner and believe you me, some mortgaged houses are way worse than that!

@Whattodoabout yes but council house rents are no where near the cost of private rents. That’s why there’s such huge waiting lists

I don’t think it clarifies that really - you’ve just shown us your house. There are many others.

My house is a lot worse, 7 government listed hazards identified by EH. It’s private rent and I pay £600 a month. It’s not only social housing that is like that. I lived in a council flat when I was younger and it was a palace compared to the private rents I’ve been in

OP, what is your suggested fix to the issues you've shown on this thread?

Not a whole lot of sympathy. Moist air condenses on cold surfaces and leads to mould. It doesn't matter whether you're a council tenant, a private tenant, a freeholder or HM the fucking Queen! It's to do with physics and biology, not form of occupancy

@Lifegoeson5
If you come back to this thread, try this stuff; it worked wonders on the mould in my place.

What are we meant to be looking at? The place looks a bit shabby but nothing major. Looks like normal wear and tear that can be fixed with a bit of cleaning and a lick of paint.
5k to redecorate?? That seems excessive, how big is this place?
The boiler is a problem, is it broken or just old? I had an ancient electric boiler in a private rental a few years ago and the water took forever to heat then would all be gone very quickly, there was a finite amount of it, not like with the expensive gas boiler/central heating I have now.
The mould looks like it's from condensation at the window, lots of houses get that, just need to clean it and yes, keep the heating on and air the place.
You need to air the house every morning for 10 minutes at least, even in winter, to let all the stale air, bacteria and moisture out. I'm surprised at how many people I known that don't do that.

Boiler sounds pretty standard for anywhere. I don’t know anyone who has unlimited hot water or how that would work.

Most councils fit combi boilers these days, so you don't have a hot water tank. Combi boilers provide hot water on demand. This may not be an option in areas that don't have mains gas though.

Some councils are better at maintaining/upgrading properties than others. MIL lives in a council house in Croydon, and in 6 years she's had a new kitchen and new windows, even though the old double glazed were absolutely fine.

The council where I live is nowhere near as good, but even they have combi boilers in all the properties where there is a gas supply.

That is what YOUR council house looks like.

Not what EVERY council house looks like.

When my sister moved into her HA property it was utterly filthy.
Broken latch on two downstairs windows
A dog had been kept in the downstairs loo and left to pee and poo in there and the whole house stank of it.
Broken drawers in the kitchen.
Mould in the cupboards.
Broken tv hanging from its mount on the wall, which also had a hole in it.
Carpet on the stairs was disgusting.
Bathroom was painted Cadbury's purple by someone with very poor vision it would seem. Paint all over the bath, sink, toilet etc
No shower, just a bath.
Bedroom had a stained mattress and broken wardrobe in it.
Smallest bedroom was painted lime green (ceiling included🤢)
Back garden was full of weeds and dog mess.

But she looked at it like this her and her daughters home for life. They had been living in temporary accommodation in a very rough area and she was extremely grateful for the house.
She (with the elbow grease of family and friends), cleaned the place from top to bottom with bleach and disinfectant, recarpeted the stairs, new Lino on floors downstairs, repainted the bathroom and bedrooms and had the HA fix the windows. She's spent a good bit of her own money installing blinds etc to make it her home.

Aldi do a dehumidifier for 40 quid.

And you think it will work as well as a £250 one?

I've looked it up - 400ml of water at day in optimum conditions (30°C and 80% relative humidity. Who heats their house to 30°C?). Mine can remove considerably more moisture than that at a more normal 18-20°C.