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.

Council houses are unfurnished, most private lets are partially furnished. A council tenant has security of tenure and subsidised rent, these things fall to them.

The council pays for essential repairs to the structure but not internal decorations.

Lots of charity shops sell curtains - we've had several pairs of really nice quality ones over the years. DH did our living room floor with laminate boards from Ikea because we couldn't afforf carpet - we thought we'd carpet when we could afford to but the boards still look fine 14 years later so we haven't bothered. For smaller bedrooms we got a couple of roll ends from a local carpet shop and fitted them ourselves - think they cost about £90 per room.

Fence = council’s job. Ask them if they’ll clear/cho the garden too. If not, you decide if that’s a priority for time or money.

Your son’s room - obviously a priority for you. In which case other DC’s bedrooms need sorting too.

Oven = priority.

Everything else (including perfect plaster in any of the DC’s rooms) = not priority, just your preference.

You’ll get your deposit back from your LL on current house, so that will help. And whilst 2 lots of rent is not ideal in the short term, it will be so much cheaper in the long term.

You do sound a bit entitled. You might not mean to, but you do. Waiting patiently on the list doesn’t mean you’re not also acting a bit entitled right now. You’re lucky to get a house big enough fir you all on a permanent tenancy. Stop thinking short term.

We moved into a house with bare concrete floors in late October, as OH was going to be tiling or fitting wood flooring throughout. And no window coverings at all, a mud garden, furniture in flat packs. Then he had a car accident the week before. We had bare floors and lining paper covering the windows for 8 months whilst he recovered. Get over yourself. You do stuff as and when you can and make do in the meantime.

You sound a bit ungreatful.
We moved from private to council rent just as you are. Yes. We had to pay 2 rents for a month, we had to finance the carpets and decorate ourselves using the vouchers from the council. We had a 1 year old (who was hospitalised just before we moved in) but we did it. The kitchen doesn't have a floor still and it's a year later. But the floor that's there is OK for now. Same with the bathrooms, they've only just been done due to lockdown.
You need to just prioritise what needs doing and what you want doing. You could paint uneven walls quite easily for example.
A lot of people would kill to be in your position right now. You would be stupid to decline it for the reasons you've given. However, at least if you do decline it maybe someone more greatful would be offered it

I actually agree with the OP, you do not find private lets which have no carpets, and getting kids to live in an environment with concrete floors isn't very nice at all. Often the people moving into council have less money or may not be able to get finance- I have a friend like this and whilst she has sucked it up and not moaned and used throws and so on, having no carpets and curtains whatsoever (as opposed to when you move and often they include the old ones even if they are a bit crappy) is really not great and drives up heating costs.

It's ok saying 'well it just takes years to decorate' but actually for the child living in a really unhabitable looking house that's not great for making friends/having people over, there's a difference between having no blinds downstairs but nice enough furniture and having a carpet and the entire thing looking like it's trashed. Same for garden, yes, over time the Op can tame the jungle, but having broken fences etc sends out a message to your neighbours.

It's not great that council houses are now passed on in worse condition than private lets, this did not use to be the case, and it's ok saying use Freecycle, but the stuff that comes up on there varies, like you might not see a cooker for six months, and if you are like my friend who is hard up, she doesn't have a car and people do not want to deliver stuff.

This thread is such a contrast with the 'my house is a bit messy' thread where everyone is slating the OP for having a slightly piled up messy house, and there have been numerous threads on how traumatizing it is for children to live in a dirty/chaotic house, but weirdly on here it's fine to have everyone living indefinitely in a dirty chaotic looking house (and that's how it will look with dirty walls, no carpet, no curtains and all the money having to go on a new/second-hand cooker and washing machine).

It is shit, OP. But as you can see, people feel you should be grateful even for a shit-hole even though as a council tenant you are actually paying a reasonable (non-inflated) rent!

A bit of empathy for someone facing a large amount of costly renovations just to make it the same standard as pretty much every single person commenting on this thread (do you have carpets/floor coverings? do you have curtains at least in some rooms?) wouldn't go amiss. It's not the same as when you buy a house yourself and it's in bad condition, I've done that, but you are working towards your own property and every time you do something, it's increasing its value which is a nice psychological feeling you don't get when you are living in rental of any type.

My son is autistic, too, OP.

Bare concrete floors caused him no harm (and actively was good for him since he had a stable home and parents with no financial difficulties).

Get on Facebook marketplace etc, you will quite often find carpets and rugs etc. Even if they don't fit exactly they'll do for a start.

Going through this thread you've highlighted the main issues for you personally, which are carpets and the fence. So that's useful, speak to housing about the fence as they should make that safe. Go to a local carpet place that will do 0% interest and get the carpets done.

Book day off early doors to get cleaned.

Then decorate your son's room and the living room first.

The rest can then follow bit by bit.

How am I using my son’s autism as an excuse? If this was the case I’d have used my son’s condition to lay it on thick with the council, got a social worker etc which would have most definitely helped and would have got us a house years ago. But no, I refused to use my son’s condition to jump up the ladder, as he’s not a pawn in a game and we were lucky enough to have a roof over our heads and were doing ok. So you are wrong there.

Be careful with cheap carpet places . It's a waste of money they do not last. Hunt around for better quality and the same price (you will be surprised, but you need to put the effort in).
Blinds - Dunelm are very competitive.
Ebay for beds, sofas, anything - be choosy and it's amazing what you can pick up if you put the time in to really search. Even if you have to hire a van for a day, cost-wise it's still a no-brainer. But you have to take the time to do your homework.

Speak to the council about the fences - before you move in. They may put something in to make it secure but they probably won’t be 6ft ones but it will give you time to have them replaced.

As for everything else. Give it a good clean and paint it white which gives a base for later on. Until you move in you won’t really know for sure what needs doing. Rugs in non essential rooms, like the living room and your bedroom. Concentrate on the children’s bedrooms. Stairs aren’t essential initially either.

With kitchen appliances look into renting them, we did this and it meant we could afford everything at once.

Furniture - free cycle is good and then you have time to replace.

It took us years to get the house done up with work, low income and small children. Just one of those things. I was so glad to get our house though that I didn’t care about the rest - we’d been in a temporary accommodation flat for two years with no outdoor space and small children. When we got offered our house with a large garden I was so pleased I didn’t care about the rest!

Newspaper in the windows and bare concrete floors?

No, not newspaper. I used my old beach sarongs as a temporary solutions.

Concrete floors - I got old offcuts in different mismatching colours from local carpet store. They laughed (kindly) that Inwanted stuff they couldn’t even sell

I moved into a council house 16 years ago and have never re plastered it. The walls have always been crap. I have never been able to justify the cost. Instead I’ve used cheap textured wallpaper or heavily pattered wallpaper. All of the doors and skirting boards were old and damaged but again I’ve just sanded and painted them. I’ve done my best, I will never be able to afford to get anyone in to do the work so just make do. It doesn’t make me a terrible person!!!

Also took me months to carpet the whole house. My kids didn’t suffer because we had bare floorboards for a while.

OP get on to council about the fence as soon as. Carpets - measure the rooms, buy a remnant online or local carpet shop then source a local fitter only. Way way cheaper. Theres an online designer carpet outlet that does very high quality stuff for a fraction of the price. This is what Im doing now. I found a fitter from local FB group.
Blinds - online too v cheap. Even made to measure, they come with the brackets to fit yourself. Easy.

....better quality carpets means that they are not nylon rubbish - they must contain wool as well, which is more durable and will last 3+ times as long.

Also- people moving into council houses are often on minimum wage jobs, if employed at all (my friend worked a min wage job but not that many hours) so their ability to drive themselves to Dunelm/pick up Freecycle items and get things on credit is much less than, say, when I started renovating my house. My friend was limited to what she could get on the bus, and even the bus fare ate into her limited income. No Freecycle washing machines! How could she get a couch if it wasn't delivered? (I offered to move anything I could in a small car but don't have a roof rack).

Being reasonably well off and living for six months in a bit of a shit situation due to delays/problems, or because it takes time to renovate, isn't really the same at all.

As everyone has said, you do it bit by bit. My friend moved into a council house last year and had a grant from the council for carpets so it may be worth finding out if you are able to get anything like that?

We have been in our (mortgaged) house 2.5 years. First thing we did was decorate our DDs bedroom so it looked just like her old one. We didn't replaster, although would have liked to. The garden was insecure and dangerous (previous owners burnt their belongings in it) had a broken fence so this was another priority, however it was Spring when we moved in. We're heading into Autumn, you can save the garden work for next year.

My DCs have been living in a half finished house and its not doing them any damage.

Very few people have the cash to do a home up immediately, whether buying or renting. Ask family and friends if they have spare curtains or appliances etc. Look on facebook pass it on pages or freecycle, people often pass on even unused items to help others. Paint your wonky walls. Remnants from local carpets shops can be a bargain, failing that ikea do large and cheap rugs until you get sorted. Can any family and friends help, eg painting, with gardening etc. Wilkos and B&M are gear for discounted home items. B&M and pound shops sell lino floor tiles as a short term measure which are easy to fit. Ask friends and family if they have any old rugs or remnants, I have some in my garage I would pass on to help someone for example. Stop finding barriers and look for ways to make it work, you've been lucky enough to secure a bigger and cheaper property so make the best of it.

Speak to the council, they may be able to offer carpet tiles or decorating packs if on a low income or may know of a place even if they can’t explicitly recommend as they will be asked this sort of stuff a lot. Otherwise try Facebook or local carpet shops who generally will work out cheaper than the bigger places and may let you pay in instalments if you have a lot to cover and are struggling.

Saying you will be paying full rent/council tax doesn’t swing it either. So do most people in private renting who’ll be paying double maybe even triple what you will. So do people who own their homes which will most likely be paying more too. Please don’t take this property and let someone more grateful have it!

I must be a terrible mother then because I moved my three kids in here and we had no carpet in the bedroom. We had a carpet square in the kitchen because the floor had all been dug up for a damp proof course and was laid rough before our friend could lay a scree and tile it ( mates rates).
When we moved in we had in the kitchen an ancient Rayburn, our table and four chairs, the carpet square and a stand tap in the corner that the plumber made me so we could have water. I cooked on the Rayburn which also heated that room. I got the mattress out of storage( I could get the beds another story) and we slept on the mattress laid together on bare floor boards and a makeshift curtain. We lived like that from Oct - Dec and DH insisted we have carpet in the sitting room for Christmas so I had to compromise on a lighter carpet ( big mistake) and we put a tree up. It was at least six months before we had carpet in the kids rooms never mind ours. They thought it was a big adventure.
I look back with rose tinted glasses. The hardest was washing clothes in a bucket. Then I found a laundry. My kids were 8,6 and 18mths.

Why are you ignoring all the suggestions of getting large cheap rugs whilst you save for carpets?

Whenever I move I just do things very gradually - no way can I afford to do the whole house up.
My current house which I bought last year post divorce has no carpets so i just got some very cheap make do rugs off ebay for the main living area and they are fine.
As long as the house is watertight just do the other jobs as and when.
I wouldn't miss this opportunity.
We are conditioned to think everything must be perfect now but it doesn't have to be.
I'm currently living in a bit of a building site and it will be summer next year before I can put carpets in.

You do it slowly, a bit at a time. I have been in mine 27 years and there is still stuff I need to do to get it how I want. I just can’t afford it

Do a list of what really matters, you can paint over bad plastering to disguise it, only you will be aware of it, and saying it down often helps

You have holiday you can take I assume so take that a bit at time. Plan some easier stuff at the weekends

Decorate each room as you can. Check charity shops for curtains,

If the fence is the priority then focus on that and just clear the garden, we are coming up to winter so just do the bare essentials and refocus on the garden next spring

There’s a shop in our area. Can’t remember what it’s called now, but they do second hand ovens. Look on the recycling Facebook pages.

Ikea have cheap curtains, blinds and rugs.

Uneven plaster can be painted over and fixed at a later date.

At the moment it probably seems insurmountable but It won't be :)