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.

When I got my house the bathroom was wet - as in the walls were soft. The sink had been leaking for years probably. The radiator was completely rusted, there was no shower. The Council eventually fixed the leak but I have put in a new bathroom and tiled. When move they will probably rip it out. I probably spent 1.5 k on it over the years.

Get quotes from different places for carpets.

If you buy a roll it’s usually good value. We carpeted, stairs, large landing, 4 bedrooms, lounge and dining room for about £1700 with underlay and fitting. One of the girls rooms was a different carpet. The carpet was probably lower mid range, we bought it as a cheap fix expecting to replace in a few years, (light carpets and small people) to be fair it’s been down 2 years and still looks lovely - the carpet cleaner is our friend lol.

It started off as, ‘could we get quotes for the two girls rooms and if the price is good we’d do the baby’s room’, they pointed out with the waste they could do the stairs, asked what the budget was and us guessing from what we paid in the last house, (all different carpets, varying quality, quite expensive from another carpet place) if it included stairs, we said about 1200, he said he could do the whole house for that! Well we were so happy as we’d lived with nasty carpets since we moved in thinking we couldn’t afford to replace. The company let us pay over a couple of months and they did the upstairs one month and downstairs the next.

We ended up going for a slightly better quality than he suggested and to be fair to the company they were absolutely spot on. They had a diagram of the roll showed us how all our rooms and stairs fit into the roll.

Shop around, ask about a roll and have a look at B&Q and H&M type places for readymade blinds.

The problem with a roll is you have the same colour throughout the house but we love it.

Ebay have some cheap vinyl, carpets, underlay and offcuts.

What are the floorboards like? Would take a bit of work but if they’re nice you could sand, varnish/paint and throw some rugs down. On Grand Designs polished concrete floors seems to be a thing...

If you’re paying 2 lots of rent for the first month could you and your OH book a couple of weeks off work to prep it whilst your still in the other house? Might have to do it but by bit but hopefully you’ll get your deposit back and the extra each month from the cheaper rent you could put into carpets etc.

There is a page on Facebook, DIY on a budget and there are some amazing projects on there.

Congratulations on your new home, it might take a bit of time and work but you will make it lovely.

You can get blinds off Facebook marketplace. If they’re too wide (roller blinds) you can just saw them down to fit.

I don’t think blinds are a necessity tbh. Curtains are easily obtainable second hand.

Carpet on the other hand is expensive!

*B&M

When I moved in to my council property 8 years ago, there were no carpets or wallpaper. I did get some vouchers for B&Q for things like paint.

Even now, my house isn’t the way I want it to be. It’s getting there and it’s much better than it was. But it’s expensive and working around children isn’t always easy!

You do what we all do the first time we move into somewhere unfurnished.

If you can't afford carpets, you buy cheap rugs (Ikea). If the plaster is shit, you cover it with a chair or a picture. If you can't afford new furniture, you buy secondhand or get it free from Freecycle. You make your own blinds or curtains (it isn't hard) or you buy/get secondhand ones. The garden you clear yourself as and when you get time. Try freecycle too for second-hand fences.

Everyone goes through this.

I suspect many posters haven't ever seen just how spartan and grotty an empty council property can be, and the OP's original question of how people who by definition have very little money are supposed to magically make that into a home is not an unreasonable one, to be fair. The remedies are ultimately much the same as for owner-occupiers (prioritise, get cheap stuff to start with, like with it for a bit) but it's a very particular kind of chaos that's not quite the same as choosing to buy a place that needs work.

YY to this, those buying are choosing to do it that way as they could have used funds to do up but choose to spend the money fully on the property. I know people who kept a few thousand back to decorate/furnish as soon as moving.

It is more usual for CH tenants to be NMW with little/no savings and suddenly with as little as a weeks notice to move.

@Niknick

Newspaper in the windows and bare concrete floors? Erm no. I will most definitely starting looking around for cheaper alternatives but I’m not moving my kids into a new house, which will be unsettling enough for my youngest dc, coming up for winter when it’s freezing, to bare concrete floors and no window coverings. I have a credit card, which to be fair I’ve just finished paying and don’t want to go back into debt but I’d use that first before moving my kids into a house with no floor coverings.

Ikea blinds. Start at £3.50 for 90cm wide, £5 for 1m wide. So around £50 for rooms that actually need them.

Ikea rugs. Start at £10 for 120 x 180cm. So around £50-60.

Slippers. Start at £3 in the supermarket.

An oven can be bought for £120 brand new. Try IKEA or AO. Fridges are the same. Microwaves from £25 in the supermarket.

Once the first month is up, you'll be saving money compared to still paying private rental costs and be able to afford things you want.

I've been here since September 2012. The blinds went up first. DD got some lino put down (cost me £40 for 3.5m x 2.7m from one of the offcut rolls stacked up outside the cheap carpet shop) in her room. I bought a rug for the living room and the oven was installed, as I had to dispose of the almost brand new one I had in the old place, as it was freestanding and this has a fitted kitchen.

Everything else had to wait until I could do it. I've still not got carpet or flooring in my bedroom, as other things have always taken priority. The rug is fine. I did the stairs and landing myself for £85 using an offcut from a carpet shop for the landing and three runners from IKEA to go up and round the stairs. All I needed was a hammer, box of carpet tacks and a new Stanley blade. Did the bathroom floor for £20 using four boxes of sticky tiles from B&Q, the Stanley blade and a hairdryer to make the tiles easier to trim. The lino in the kitchen was about £60 from Carpetright.

I don't feel degraded or insulted that I didn't get a place with free, brand new carpet and flooring, decorations to my taste and everything I could possibly desire done for me in advance for free.

Mainly because I'm not a fucking princess.

OP, I totally get why moving into a council house in a state of disrepair would feel very different from buying a house in poor condition and making this your "project". Also, why working full time and dealing with a child with SN would leave you less energy and patience for decorating projects. And a very understandable sense that the council should not be letting you a house in such an appalling state of upkeep.

I think your 18yo might well prove part of the salvation here. As you say, he is a good kid and a grafter so that's two great positives right there And from his pov, learning practical skills is actually an advantage, even if he does go to uni.

My nephew laid a laminate floor when he was in his late teens and did it beautifully, so I imagine he could equally well have laid a carpet. He learnt how to do it from YouTube.

My own ds sanded down his floor-boards and varnished them and painted his bedroom walls & skirting boards when he was around 15: did a surprisingly good job of it. Obviously that required floorboards in reasonable condition, but it was a very cheap option in the rooms where there were floorboards.

Dh never learnt to do anything as a teen, but has just managed to fill the cracks between the skirting boards and the floorboards in the dining room/office: we look forward to a warmer (and cheaper!) winter! Again, YouTube came up trumps! Total cost just over £7.

What I'm trying to say is, I get that this is shit for you, as an adult, but from the pov of a teenager there might be positive angles. Young people don't get that many opportunities for a real, adult sense of achievement these days. This might be it!

Also wondering if it might not be time to get some support from Social Services. We found them helpful and non-judgmental when dealing with our disabled daughter. While the school often had totally unrealistic expectations on us, SS had seen enough to tell the differences between bad parents and parents who were doing their best under difficult circumstances. And though they were not able to do that much themselves in our particular situation, they were able to liaise with other services and point us in the right direction. But this is obviously a very individual thing: just a thought.

You'll probably find the council sort the fence.
Honestly the only thing that needs to be done when you move in is window coverings.
Part of the fun of moving is deciding how you'll decorate and make it your home.

We moved a lot as children, often no flooring down and not repainted for months (or even years the last time.

Go to carpet offcut places. I've just been to ome and found carpet plenty big enough that I can get my living room, upstairs landing, stairs and hallway matching.

Dandelionz

because if you get bugs and bite and then sue the council (which people will have done) - the council then make everyone take out the carpets as they can't afford to get sued again. Unless you sign a declaimer to say you'll not sue if the carpets hold bugs.

www.factory-direct-flooring.co.uk/vinyl-flooring/wood-effect?sqm_price=6.0-10.0

Something like this would be good and then rugs on top,

OP how much a square meter was the carpet you got quoted for?

Emergency Fencing: get pallets for free, and use the wood to nail in place over the gaps. Or cable tie on.

Honestly people today expect everything pristine and ready made! Back in the late 1970s I didn't even have a bed for a month in my first house till pay day. Fridge and cooker secondhand. No sofa, just garden deckchairs, and a wooden tea chest for a table.

Haven’t yet RTFT so apologies if this has already been mentioned - but assuming your DS receives DLA you should be eligible to apply to the Family Fund. I’m sure they pay for washing machines so I imagine they’d fund an oven. Might even pay for carpets/curtains if they’re for your son’s room? No harm in asking.

Just don’t take the house then 🤷‍♀️

Go direct to factory shops for the carpet and buy end of roll. I spent less than 1500 carpeting my house with 100% wool carpets that would have been very expensive if they weren’t end of the roll and direct from the factory shop.

Also, you don’t need to spend £450 on blinds as many people have said.

Garden fences can be expensive but I’m not sure they are your responsibility to fix as a tenant (unless you broke them). If they are then I would recommend paying a friend/neighbour/handyman cash in hand to do it as that will reduce the cost. I have a 25m long garden (ex-council house) and put a new fence in for £300 (including paying someone to do it) by using wire mesh fencing and fence posts. It genuinely looks really nice with some flowers growing up it. If you were able to do the Labour yourself you could do it for less than £120 (even with a big garden) as the posts are cheap and so is the wire.

Also agree look at the remnant carpets at the back of the shop. Bargains to be had, you can have a different carpet in each room. The bedrooms you'll then only need a small remnant. Nice flooring makes a massive difference to somewhere feeling homely

Do that and the garden and just cheap paint over the crappy plaster for now

I think you are focussing on the wrong things. I had a "comfortable" middle class upbringing. Private education/ hobbies galore etc.

I never lived in a "done" house (still don't despite I suspect earning multiples of your family income). I have a bathroom that needs replaced and when I first moved in here I had a grobag stick on travel black out blind for months. That blind is now being used by a colleague from work in their "new" home (she has had it for 6 months as she can't afford a made to measure blind yet).

it is a rare person who can buy a flat/ house and afford to do everything they want to at once.

Please, have a think about what is important (secure tenancy, cooker) vs what is not (smooth walls, curtains in all the rooms).

I was born in a council house in 1961. We didn't get carpets until 1983.

Haven’t rtft, but the council should do essential repairs. Local charities and other organisations may be able to help with other necessities - citizens advice bureau or social services can give you contact details. Local libraries anc some supermarkets often have useful info on noticeboards.
Good luck! Most of us here have had to make do and mend.

This is the perils of posting in AIBU, if people think you are then they will tell you. Don’t take the house then, no one is making you. These things take time and you need to be more realistic. The first house l moved into then it was a £5 sofa from eBay and a mattress on the floor job. It took time to save up for a decent sofa. Rome wasn’t built in a day. You are coming across as entitled, that’s why people are challenging you. Councils are pushed for cash and don’t have the money to make every house a show home

Part of the fun of moving is deciding how you'll decorate and make it your home.

Very few people though buy a home that has no floor coverings, no light shades, no window coverings even if they are stuff the previous owner left. When you get a council house you literally get a completely empty house, which looks incredibly stark and feels cold and unwelcoming.

Yes all of those things (floor coverings, window coverings, light fittings etc) can be relatively cheap in and of themselves but doing it all at once with little notice, two kids and another house to move can be a lot.

Even if the council do provide financial help for moving, it’s minimal. I know I’d at least want floors and windows covered for warmth and privacy, the OP isn’t unreasonable in wanting that for her family. She’s not asking anyone else to pay for it.

I’m always interested in folk who are happy for other people to live in circumstances they themselves wouldn’t.

Some councils do loans to buy essentials

You could fit lino in all rooms except stairs yourself. Then just carpet the stairs

Is the thread about social inequality or doing up a home on a budget?

If it's the latter then go to Ikea or Argos for blinds. Look on ebay for rugs & carpet. Shop around, buy 2nd hand & do as much as possible by yourself. Accept that it will take time.

We have a good household income but these are all things we have had to do. Our pink bathroom from the 70s is coming back into fashion I think!

The preserve of moving in to a home which is newly decorated by others with everything new is for millionaires.

Oh & I grew up in a council house, my mother taught me all the DIY I know & very useful to know.

If you are on benefits you can claim a budget loan of around £800, you can also get a family fund grant towards things like a washer or to furnish your child's bedroom if they get DLA.