To wonder how people actually afford to move into council properties

[Niknick]

So, me and my dh have been offered a house with our local council after years of being on the waiting list. We have two son’s youngest of whom is autistic and we have been offered 3 bed meaning we’d all have our own bedroom at last. I haven’t had an official viewing of the house yet ie with the hosing officer but workmen are currently doing some repairs and they allowed me and my dh in the other day to have a quick look round whilst they were sat in the garden on a break.

Anyway i went equipped with my tape measure to measure up for carpeta, blinds and just to get a general idea of how things will fit. I’ve since gone to a cheap carpet place and been quoted £1500. Blinds will cost around £450-£500. Then there are things like decoration, removal costs, buying a new oven as our current one our landlord owns etc. The property isn’t in great condition and having viewed another of the council’s houses years back me and my dh are under no illusion that the council will do anymore than the bare minimum.

So far it needs plaster work doing as the workmen have done a rubbish job. It needs scrubbing beyond recognition, the garden is like a jungle so that will be more cost as we’ll need to pay someone to do it as me and my dh are busy with work and the kids. Plus parts of the fences are smashed and need replacing as it’s not safe with my son. I know it’s the tenants responsibility to do a lot of these jobs but usually, people moving into these properties aren’t well off so AIBU to wonder how do people manage to do all this? We have virtually zero savings due to paying high private rent, so long term moving to this house would be financially a good idea, but short term I’m panicking about where the hell we find the kind of money we are going to need to make this house at least comfortable for us all to live in. Moving to my current house paying a months rent up front plus deposit and referencing check fees is cheaper than what we’ll have to spend to move to the new house so I’m quietly panicking.

You could be entitled to a Disabled Facilities Grant to pay for the fencing as you have a child entitled to DLA. Hopefully your council can advise you further, you may need an occupational therapy report first.

Over the years, I've helped probably well in excess of 100 clients move into council/HA property!

Freegle and Freecycle are your friends. Friday Ad & Gumtree are great for cheap 2nd hand stuff (one client got enough laminate flooring to do the whole ground floor of her house for £15). Independent carpet shops are often much cheaper than Carpet Right etc and often have offcuts. For the kids' rooms, those rubbery squares that interlock will keep the cold out until you can get carpets.

Plastering can wait, I moved into my house in 1993 and have only managed to get one room replastered, filler and a good rub down have had to do elsewhere. Get a second hand oven for now. Charity shops are great for curtains, which will suffice until you can afford blinds. They're also better at keeping heat in in the winter.

When I moved in here and found there were big gaps in next door's hedge, I got some of that orange netting stuff they use on building sites to keep the dogs in, it's cheap as chips. Clearing the garden of undergrowth can be done a bit at a time, although a friend of mine threw a garden-clearing party and got about 10 mates round, plenty of beer and we did the lot in a day.

Bear in mind that your rent will now be a lot less, so you can use the money you're saving to buy stuff for the house.

Some stores still do interest-free credit, which will be cheaper than using a credit card. Make sure everyone you know knows that you are moving into somewhere that needs flooring, window coverings etc and you will be amazed how many of them will know someone who's ripping out perfectly good carpets etc. If you have a furniture recycling place near you, they often have carpet and other bits and pieces.

And, to be fair, you do sound a bit entitled. I bought my first house in 1982, and couldn't afford a new cooker until 1993. I had second hand ones. And it was 25 years after I left home before I could afford a new bed!

Just do one room at a time, as and when you can afford it.

When I used to work for a housing association, what I always advised new tenants was: go through the house with a bucket of soapy water and scrub everything; then go through with a bucket of white paint and paint over any walls that need it. Work up to the rest.

You can absolutely paint over uneven plaster, and I'd say this is the way to go.

Carpets honestly aren't essential. You can live perfectly happily without carpets if you can't afford to do them right away. One thing that can work really well, if you have an uncarpeted room where the floor surface isn't great, is to get a big cheap roll of vinyl flooring (The Range do these, for example, for like £20-30) and literally use it like a massive rug. It looks perfectly decent and is easy to clean, and it's no hassle to put down/take up.

I do things bit by bit. So one room carpeted at a time. Blinds one room at a time, and just from Argos, b&m’s etc x

Not sure a grant would pay for something that is the councils liability and the broken fence is.

Link to family fund for other items though,
www.familyfund.org.uk/faqs/what-can-we-apply-for

@Ughmaybenot

🤦🏼‍♀️Oops that'll teach me to read comments properly! Sorry

You live wit it! I think your expectations are unrealistic! We are all skint after we move to doer uppers !

To be honest from what I’ve seen more or less everything in the house is essential and needs doing before we move in

We bought our house and moved into a project! We've lived in a building site since January with a 3 year old (lockdown delayed it all massively). It will be fine, we have rickity old floorboards and bare concrete in some rooms and it's fine with a little one. Rugs and carpet off cuts can help massively for the time being but little by little is the key. We don't have blinds or curtains in any downstairs rooms....it isn't stuff you need straight away I promise!

A good DIY patch job might do the trick on the walls too. Post a picture if you can and we can give you advice (or post in DIY/Property section).

We just got our carpet on 0% so definitely have a look around OP.

if you are on benefits there may be grants available from the council or similar. Look on freecycle/ charity shops for curtains or carpet off cuts. As others have said it's no different to anyone moving into first house. We have been in our home 20 years and still need awful old carpets replacing and plastering done.

I’m not moving my kids into a half done house

Then great news is coming your way- you don’t have to! Stay where you are and let the house go to someone who will probably bite the council’s proverbial hand off.

Though going to Carpet Right and getting it on 0% finance probably does make sense. Given you’ll be paying less in rent, you’ll have extra to cover the repayments.

If your eldest is a teenager, will you have to move once he moves out in a few years? If so, you probably don’t want anything hugely expensive anyway.

I’ve recently bought a new house. We’re lucky to have two good incomes and were saving for a very long time but between needing a 20% deposit, legal fees, stamp duty, surveyor and engineering fees, moving fees etc., we’ll be broke once we move in to the new place. There’s also likely to be a period of time where we’re paying two mortgages (new and existing). We’ll just have to make do until we have some money together to get through our wishlist.

That’s life.

Years ago as a single parent with no money I had a council house. I got an oven from Freecycle, it was an ugly dark green colour but at least it was free. This replaced the Halogen countertop oven I had in my tiny flat, halogen ovens only cost about £30 so that is another option for you if you can't find one on freecycle or Facebook groups.

Curtains and blinds are significantly cheaper from IKEA than specialist shops. You can also get curtains from charity shops or Freecycle. You don't need blinds, you could just get cheap voile panels?

I got £500 from the council for decoration when I moved, I spent it on the cheapest carpet and second hand laminate I could get with no underlay under the carpet. Other neighbours lived with no carpet for a while until they saved. You could get rugs from Freecycle.

If the new plaster work is really so bad it needs redoing before you can move in, bring it up with the council/housing association.

Write off the garden for this year, it's autumn now anyway. Save to fix the fence and get it sorted next year.

In short, freecycle/local free Facebook groups, eBay, Facebook marketplace. If you are on a very low income you need to be realistic and not expect to buy everything brand new. There are many hardship fund grants you can apply for
to pay for white goods and carpets etc but they generally vary from council to council. You could try contacting Citizens Advice.

@LakieLady I had this very conversation with my best friend last week how we had all second hand stuff and thought we were on the up because we bought a new corner sofa (remember them circa 1981 - 1982) on credit.

Sorry I just had a moment there

Not to sound mean but you do the same as anyone who buys a house that needs work doing, you do it over time. We had to save a 50k deposit to buy our first home and have spent in the region of 15k doing it up (so far!!) since we bought it 4 years ago. We need to replace the boiler and a new kitchen which are next on the list. I had to fork out £1500 for carpets and spent over £1000 on wooden floors as the previous occupants had let their dogs run wild. Lockdown we tackled the garden, over 3 years after we moved in, we’ve spent over £1000 on returfing, fencing and making it nice (and safe) for our children. You don’t need to pay someone, we didn’t we just waited until we had the time and money to do it ourselves, along with the massive list of other jobs our house needed.

You can’t possibly be expecting to be handed the keys to a beautiful house if you are getting subsidised rent and a home that is yours long term without having to do something to it, surely? You do the jobs over time like everyone else. Sort the essentials first and then work on making it “nice” when you have the time and money.

When my Sister took her council house, it was really grubby and not really fit for living in. So she complained to the housing officer who gave the first weeks rent free as clean up time. Also they said at first that she'd have to fix all of the low broken fences, but when she pushed on this due to having small children and safety, they admitted it was their responsibility and put a six foot fence up. So you may find that there is some wiggle room.

NoGin - to be fair most people wont be able to afford £15k over 4 years...

I think the post about the families you know with kids with autism is really telling.

You see what someone else has and feel aggrieved that you’re not getting that too. In reality you have no idea what those families’ personal circumstances are - you are just surmising, with a massive dose of jealousy.

Many, many posters have provided you with practical advice, free. Others have given explanations of how having unrealistic beliefs and expectations are both unhelpful and unkind to others.

Upthread you said I’d just do anything for my dc to make life more comfortable for them

The single best thing you can do to make your children’s lives more comfortable is to model less judgemental and jealous behaviour, demonstrate resilience and a ‘can do’ attitude, appreciate what you have, including opportunities, and to remember that comparison is the thief of joy.

According to this thread, everyone is living in house with crumbling walls, concrete floors with random off cuts of rugs thrown down, towels taped to windows as curtains...irl I know people from all backgrounds and income levels and no one lives like this.

I get it, it’s a stressful time for everyone and trying to juggle a move on top of a pandemic is worse.

Concrete floors are fashionable. Still living with ours 10 years in! I pretend it’s an aesthetic decision. It’s not cold, not really.

Windowlene swirled in the Windows gives some privacy and is cheap.

Go for walks round the better Neighbourhoods and pick up things people have left on the street. Look in skips.

I channel my really posh friends in that I pretend it’s unreasonable to want it new and want it now when I can get by with second hand and tatty. It’s easier if you’ve got daddy’s second hand Victorian table but possible with second hand Ikea.

Look, I know this sounds very Pollyanna and look on the bright side but you did want to know what people do, and this worked for me. Not all the time but it’s better than getting depressed.
Also, friends. Ask people to sort the garden with you and you’ll cook a Lasagne, fish fingers and chips, for after.
I agree that if the plastering is rubbish chat, very calmly, to your housing Officer about it.

According to this thread, everyone is living in house with crumbling walls, concrete floors with random off cuts of rugs thrown down, towels taped to windows as curtains...irl I know people from all backgrounds and income levels and no one lives like this.

Plenty of people are posting from experience with moving with little money. No one has said they have been living with their house in disrepair, but that they couldn't do everything they wanted straight away, and had to find ways to carry out improvements for less. Everyone I know who has moved into a council property has done most of the points raised throughout the thread. Do you think everyone who moves in pays straight away to get carpet laid, the house redecorated, top notch curtains and a landscape gardener in? If so then you probably don't have such a breadth of friends from different income levels and backgrounds as you think you do.

To be honest from what I’ve seen more or less everything in the house is essential and needs doing before we move in.

Life isn't like that, you have to make do and get stuff done when you can afford it. That's the same whether you buy or rent, if you don't like it then turn it down and find a different house. I've lived in my house for years but there are still things that need doing but I've never been able to afford it, that's life.

You don't sound like you are appreciating what you have been offered.

Don't do it all at once and don't get everything new. Scrub the entire house then put down cheap rugs in bedrooms and living rooms on top of bare floorboards for now. If you need to keep existing carpet, hiring a RugDoctor from somewhere like B&Q is really cheap and they work brilliantly.
Freecycle is a brilliant source of loads of basics, such as curtains, white goods, rugs, bedlinen, even half finished pots of paint from recent paint jobs. Get a few of those and you can decorate the house for a fraction of what you've had quoted. It's eco, too.

You won't need blinds in every room from the beginning. I have blinds in my rented flat, but they are so dirty I haven't had the courage to tackle them yet. For downstairs I just have them open all the time.
You can small cheap ovens or a combi microwave. Where I live, some flats don't come with all kitchen equipment so I have my own cheap oven and fridge. My last microwave was bought second hand and my current one I got for free from someone who didn't need it.
The only real problem I can see is the plastering work.

Awww I think you’re getting a little bit of a hard time because of how you’ve worded things in your earlier comments...

I understand that you’re feeling overwhelmed and also maybe it’s a case of being so very excited at finally having a home and then realising that it’s not necessarily going to be your ideal home straightaway (back to reality with a thud!).

Don’t freak out about it, and definitely don’t try to have everything done before you move in! It’s way too expensive, first of all, and as you’ve said you can’t actually afford it. But more importantly, it’s generally a good idea with a house you’re going to fully refurnish to live in it for a good few months before you make final decisions on finishings and decor. This gives you time to get to know the house and what will or won’t work for you.

It seems like the carpets are a big priority for you, so I’d focus on that before you move in.

Fence is also a priority for your son’s sake - get on to the council for that.

Plastering can wait. In the meantime it’ll be shabby chic.

Curtains/rods are quite reasonably priced at IKEA. Blinds can wait.

Moving in and doing up a house bit by bit is not in any way out of the norm - plenty of people who own their property do this!

@Catiopea How am I coming across as jealous. I’ve already said that my cousin and friend needed the help after them both having gone through a really tough time. I’ve also said I could have gone down the social worker route myself as my ds has a lot of needs and me and my dh have struggled a lot ourselves over the years with him, but we didn’t want to involve them if we could help it.

My ds has medical issues and if I had wanted I could have pushed those issues and would have probably moved up the list and got us a house years ago.

You must have pushed the autism otherwise you would only have been given a 2 bedroom. I don't disagree, but at the very least, be honest.