IABU - anger over new neighbours

[OnTheGoAlways]

I know I'm being unreasonable, I know I sound awful, and even my right leaning Mother told me off.

We live in a private rented semi-detached 3 bedroom house which costs 70% of my shitty wage. I am in situation after leaving a violent relationship over 300 miles away. I was homeless, but It never occurred to me to join a social housing register, we needed somewhere to live so I worked hard and found somewhere.

I am burnt out, grumpy, envious, bitter...basically all round ugly. I went back to uni and got a PG degree, I have a shitty car which needs multiple repairs. It's booked in for a service on Saturday which I can't afford so will cancel tomorrow. My children run around in clothes with holes or too small..I work full time, house is freezing..I've stopped showering, haven't done since Sunday (and that was at public pool) because of costs.

I didn't realise next door was a council house, there had been an elderly man living there who recently died.

Council have painted, cleaned, re-carpeted...now a new family are here. They drive a huge brand new car. And I am so angry I could cry. I know this is displaced...I just needed to vent.

Sending a big hug and hand hold to you op, i understand why you feel how you do. Please don't beat yourself up about it, they are your feelings and they are valid. It sounds like you've had an awful time and you're clearly still struggling....i hope things improve for you in time

Your anger is so misguided OP.
Blame the millionaire and billionaire "business owners" (or fraudsters), who avoid tax and give lucrative contracts to their buddies, not another poor family scrapping along on the bottom.

Councils do do this. People can get a whole house kitted out, from cutlery, duvets, carpets to white goods.

I guess it's meant to be for those with nothing but a lot of it ends up on Gumtree and Facebook.

I think it very much depends on the area you live as to what the council does to a HA house... although we are in a nice area the local council are clearly cash strapped and don't decorate HA houses let alone lay carpets. When I moved from a new house with my disabled daughter ( she was 4 at the time) they were not even going to instal central heating! ( old couple previously rented). We are in a private rd with only 6 HA houses. When I was bringing up my 2 DC for 12 years as a lone parent I could not work because of the high level of care my DD needed, I went to bed early to save on electric, had baths to get warm and sad to say went hungry too. Not once did I look out at my private neighbours with cars, nice holidays and nicely furnished houses and feel the need to 'vent' exactly why do so many private home owners/renters need to bash about council/HA tenants and question what we can afford? Life can be really tough for private/HA alike and even though I started back working FT as soon as I was able. My rent is over £600 a month and after 25 years as soon as I die the house will still go back to the HA 🤷‍♀️ The HA would not let me buy my house because it has had major adaptions for my Dd wheelchair ( when I enquired a few years back). Really OP YABU to be judging your neighbours just because they are HA and you are having a tough time too.

Its a disgrace.

The government encourages us all to work but there is absolutely no incentive to do so when wages are not enough to live on and by being jobless I would have my rent and council tax paid, saving hundreds a month.

The problem is that if wages were proportionate to cost of living then the cost of living would go up again as all of the big businesses will put their prices up as they dont want to see their profits drop so we are in a never ending cycle. It will end in a massive recession either way because no one will have any money to spend.

This is what years of voting Tory has done for us, it did it before and it is doing it again. We get the Boom then Bust from them, recovery under the socialists and then when everyone has a few quid in their pockets they all start voting for the conservative cunts again!

@HailAdrian

Councils don't do that.

Yes they do. Absolutely. My neighbours have just moved out of their property for a bigger council house. Their house was very well kept but the council still spent weeks decorating, new kitchen, carpet. And the new council tenants have now moved in. Same with a flat nearby. The void team go in and spend weeks doing it up. There’s a budget for it which includes removal of old kitchen, bathroom, floor covering.

I totally understand you op. I’ve felt the same over the years. And the fact people will tell you it doesn’t happen shows how little people know of the system.

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy

Hang on, you'd never said hello to your neighbour, let alone knowing that he had DIED?

Why on earth are you not asking for all the help you are entitled to instead of being so bitter that other people get it?

I've read all the OP's posts very carefully. There's absolutely nothing to suggest she'd 'never said hello' to the neighbour, nor that she didn't know he'd died. Sorry; DIED. From what did you cobble together that pretty piece of fiction?

If you mean this bit:-

'I didn't realise next door was a council house, there had been an elderly man living there who recently died'

then OP is saying she didn't realize next door was a council house. Not that she didn't realize the elderly tenant had died.

She knows enough, too, to know that he had dementia.

Honestly, the invention on MN is crackers.

I know it’s probably been said a million times but councils do not put carpets into their housing stock or social housing orgs. I am in social housing myself. No carpets. Councils also do not give you white goods. They do not do this. My mum works for a council and they don’t pay for carpets. I’ve been on MN for years and years too and on social housing threads and never seen anyone say they got a carpet either. It is highly unusual

Yanbu. It's all wrong.

Oh and the ‘painting’ they do is 1 coat of white matt paint on every single surface regardless of the colour underneath and also, in my house, over the top of all the masking tape they used. All don The radiators, the floors, half the windows, splashed all over the tiles. It was a mess. I also pay £1000 a month in rent, it’s not cheap

@HailAdrian

Councils don't do that.

Some do I had one decorated I had another one which was carpeted my friend moved to Telford and they painted it magnolia for them and carpeted it they had to pay a little extra weekly to cover the carpets so it does happen

@Menora

I know it’s probably been said a million times but councils do not put carpets into their housing stock or social housing orgs. I am in social housing myself. No carpets. Councils also do not give you white goods. They do not do this. My mum works for a council and they don’t pay for carpets. I’ve been on MN for years and years too and on social housing threads and never seen anyone say they got a carpet either. It is highly unusual

The problem is people see this happening in Social Housing, and conclude it's 'the Council' doing it when it's not.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, it's not at all uncommon in Scotland for people to move into a new LA or HA tenancy and immediately receive new flooring, new white goods, and have the place freshly decorated. There are various ways that this occurs, attaining a CCG the most common, but people who don't understand the circumstances assume they've just been handed it gratis by 'the Council'.

@vodkaredbullgirl

Here you are again ffs

@Unocard 100% agree with you

Then the tenants paid for the carpets in instalments? I can’t imagine it was high quality. I had to pay for carpets as I had nothing. I will change this to say that the vast majority of tenants do not get any flooring apart from non slip bathroom and kitchen. Yes it gets refreshed and if it’s been trashed or is old they will fit new fittings.

I totally understand OP.

I private rent too. The rent is astonishing and I feel similar when I hear of friends getting their new council apartment round the corner or friends who have lied to get one whilst I'm paying extortionate market rent.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX you're talking absolute rubbish.

Councils definitely paint the houses between tennants as the company my husband works for has the contract do them for our local council. They literally go in and white wash them from top to bottom. It’s painted but not what most of us would consider decorated.

The carpets they must have organised as the council have to remove them between tennants so wouldn’t be providing them. My DSS got council housing and they had all their carpets fitted before moving in but paid for by his DM not the council. DH also decorated it top to bottom for them, his van was outside all the time so neighbours may have assumed this was the council who had organised the work not my DSS & partner who was moving in (especially as it’s the same company that does all the local council housing work).

All that said, I get why you feel like you do. We’re a couple and life feels exhausting right now, we both work full time but never seem to get on top of things, I’ve just secured a pay rise but now that will be taken up by the increased living costs (we had been hoping my next rise would cover a monthly care payment but now we’re back to square one). It just feels never ending, we have no time to sort the house out as we’re both exhausted form work and running the kids around.

[quote whyohehy]@XDownwiththissortofthingX you're talking absolute rubbish. [/quote]
Well that's a convincing and robust counter-argument there.

Seriously. You know nothing at all about these people or their circumstances, so you can ram your 'I'm subsidising the undeserving poor' schtick up your hoop.

@userxzfyjoot

I totally understand OP.

I private rent too. The rent is astonishing and I feel similar when I hear of friends getting their new council apartment round the corner or friends who have lied to get one whilst I'm paying extortionate market rent.

Housing association is not council housing and its 80% of the market value of local rent. Housing association houses were not necessarily intended for homeless people. They are for people who qualify for affordable housing. I moved into social housing after renting privately for 10 years. I had to prove all my income to them to get verified to take the house. I was renting, I am still renting just not from a dodgy private LL. for that I am grateful as he was awful. The previous tenants to me were evicted at the end of their tenancy period for non payment of rent and it was a new build, they trashed it. It must have cost the HA thousands in unpaid rent and repairs.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX you just don't like what I have said. Calm down.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX I work very very hard and pay taxes but you don't know if I am poor so you're assuming things here.

@FawnFrenchieMum

Councils definitely paint the houses between tennants as the company my husband works for has the contract do them for our local council. They literally go in and white wash them from top to bottom. It’s painted but not what most of us would consider decorated.

The carpets they must have organised as the council have to remove them between tennants so wouldn’t be providing them. My DSS got council housing and they had all their carpets fitted before moving in but paid for by his DM not the council. DH also decorated it top to bottom for them, his van was outside all the time so neighbours may have assumed this was the council who had organised the work not my DSS & partner who was moving in (especially as it’s the same company that does all the local council housing work).

All that said, I get why you feel like you do. We’re a couple and life feels exhausting right now, we both work full time but never seem to get on top of things, I’ve just secured a pay rise but now that will be taken up by the increased living costs (we had been hoping my next rise would cover a monthly care payment but now we’re back to square one). It just feels never ending, we have no time to sort the house out as we’re both exhausted form work and running the kids around.

Yeah I do get that it’s totally shit

It is correct they just slap white paint on everything it is not at all nicely decorated. I could still see all the paint underneath so it was pointless

[quote whyohehy]@XDownwiththissortofthingX I work very very hard and pay taxes but you don't know if I am poor so you're assuming things here.[/quote]
You have reading comprehension issues.

I never implied you were poor. My ire stems from your repugnant assertion that you are subsidising underserving people simply because you pay tax. For all you know, the people you are moaning about work even harder than you and pay more tax than you, and by your logic, are therefore subsidising every single public service you use, making you the 'undeserving' one by your own reckoning.

To clear up the "Do the council provide...."

Some DO often at a cost to the new tenant, most dont however it is up to individual councils. Mine doesnt provide anything apart from the basics and will rip out all old carpets before a new tenant moves in, you are left with bare boards. A couple of councils over they will do the "stick a coat of paint up" job which is often worse than what they were covering and another my friend lives in will indeed help with floor coverings but recover the cost through increased rent.

So it depends! No one can say that it does or doesnt happen everywhere, just whether it does under the council area they live in. Also the OP is in Scotland which has different systems to England so......