Will I ever win against Housing association complaint?

[H12345]

We are unbelievably lucky to have a HA property that we look after and so it’s a beautiful home.

Our HA removed about 60 tiles from our kitchen in August and said they would rebook a job to replace them but we didn’t hear anything. Started chasing after a few weeks and was told a couple of times October / November time that the reason it’s taken so long is they need to get matching tiles or come up with another solution so we were happy to wait till January where we raised a complaint as still not booked.

our complaint sat with the HA for a month with no update even though we chased weekly and no one letting us know what the process is to escalate the complaint further.

we finally got a response February where complaint was raised to stage 2 and £20 compensation offer for inconvenience.

now the complaint is at stage 2 the work was booked in within a week but they will only put up cheap, none matching tiles and basically been told it’s tough if we were told we would get anything else. We postponed the work as wanted to speak to someone first and all the workers still turned up it was literally like we were being massively pushed into making a rushed, uninformed decision.

we have every conversation since August in writing. AIBU to want to HA to honour what they’ve promised and we waited months for?

I find this whole situation so stressful and can’t believe how poorly HA treat their residents so is it really worth the fight?

Grenfell doesn’t meant housing associations need to rush to tile a house to a tenant’s particular taste

@Everanewbie we are taking shoddy workmanship, that's what aided the grenfell fire to be so deadly.

We should stand up to bad workmanship and listen to residents more.

Some people have clearly not learnt a thing from Grenfell.

At what stage should we listen to results residents? Grenfell residents complained about gaps in the windows, oh well, that's not going to hurt you if a bit of cold is getting in, be grateful for what you've got. In fact those badly fitted windows, with combustible materials help spread the fire.

I'm sure when residents complained they were ignored and described as spoilt as well.

Its not about shoddy workmanship, its about different colour tiles. Aesthetics, fashion, interior design, co-ordination.

Whoever is paying is saying.

You can't waive the bloody shirt everytime a tenant fancies a different colour.

I agree with buy them yourself. Its a decorating matter not like a broken boiler. What a fuss about nothing.

HAs are social housing. I work for one, we have a mix of social rent, affordable rent and market rent properties but we are still regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing in England ergo, social housing.

Secondly, HAs provide repair and maintenance and not a decorating service. They only have to tile the area they removed as part of the repair and it doesn't have to match. If they CAN match them, they will. If you want matching I suggest you buy your own tiles and do it yourself.

Mismatching interior tiles is not a safety issue. It’s really offensive you would compare the op wanting nicer matching tiles to Grenfell.

this is just aesthetics. She wants it to look nice. There is no safety risk from her tiles not matching for gods sake. And to use such a tragedy as grenfell as leverage to get nice tiles is appalling/

I live in a HA property. I'd buy enough tiles to do the whole area, and just let them fit them.🙂

My point @Littleloveydovey is that the residents were unheard, long before the fire happened!

They won’t fit tiles the tenant has bought because in the event of needing to replace they’ll only replace with basic white

It looked like around 8 tiles were loose but when they started pulling them off lots came with them!
Could you not have dealt with it yourselves at this point? A few loose tiles

If you get your own tiling job done you can have exactly as you please

But your “point” is comparing apples with fishing waders.

Residents of Grenfell should have been listened to when they complained about safety issues like windows.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the OP’s issue. She’s talking about a cosmetic issue, not a safety one. Her home won’t burn down because her tiles don’t match. If she was renting privately and had mismatched tiles, they wouldn’t cause the house to burn down. If she owned her home and had different tiles, again they wouldn’t be the cause of a fire.

She can complain about tiles, she can complain about safety issues. The same solution shouldn’t be applied to both.

Absolutely Grenfell residents were failed miserably, but comparing what happened to them, and why, to a woman upset because her tiles aren’t the size she wants is just nasty, as is the fact that you’re still dragging Grenfell into this when plenty of us told you it’s in bad taste.

@Dogcafedreamer @SouthCountryGirl You may be interested in this thread that i started yesterday.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4741212-to-think-housing-associations-are-going-to-have-to-start-doing-checks-outside-office-hours?page=1

Honest I'd do it yourself. B and Q etc sell tiles quite cheaply, and you can get some really nice ones.

Have a look at some you tube videos on how to do, it's quite easy once you've got the hang of it, just ensure you buy the plastic tile spacers, a bag full is about £3.

Only expense can be a tile cutter, or use a hand tool. Or see if any friends have one you can loan.

Then you can boast that you did it yourself.

The mentions of Grenfell are frankly ridiculous.

This is not a safety issue and does not prevent the OP from enjoying her home in any way.

And I say that as someone who had one of the biggest housing associations in the UK has a freeholder for over 10 years and who got caught up in the cladding mess.

The housing association were often a pain to deal with when it came to repairs and I would support anyone who is struggling to get essential repairs done but frankly the fact that you expect them to match the tiles in your kitchen to your specific requirements is ludicrous and so are the comments that are bleating about how this is about social tenants being treated unfairly.

It is about the HA putting the money where it should go: to deal with issues like mould, leaks and so on that actually affects the health and safety of the residents, not colour-matching tiles...

Id just do it myself Its less hassle

Thanks everyone for putting things into perspective and suggesting some new ideas.

I totally understand some think it’s not a great deal and I’ve had a good chat with HA today. I think the main issue was we were told from the start we would be getting matching tiles and then told again twice when chasing it up they are waiting for the matching tiles when in fact they didn’t even have a clue what tiles we had! If we were told from the start it would be mismatched we may of asked them to leave original tiles or discussed other options at that time to make a better situation.

I’ve found our tiles £20 for 60 tiles so they’re not expensive but if we buy our own they won’t fit or replace.

Thanks again all 😁

You are not unreasonable to expect that once a company makes a commitment that they stick to it.

Well done you for looking into, honestly it's not thst hard to do them.

As the HA offered compensation, maybe asked for this to be increased so you can replace them all to matching? Must be cheaper for them, compared to paying contractors to cone out

Not necessarily

Social housing in Scotland is housing owned and managed by public authorities (mainly councils) and housing associations (registered social landlords or RSLs).

Thanks we usually do most things ourselves so find this all frustrating when they do so little in the first place.

It was just nice that someone finally told us the truth after 6 months!

They offered us compensation but told them we don’t want money we just want a fair outcome. The compensation would easily cover the tiles and then it’s just fitting which they are doing anyway so seems an easy compromise.....fingers crossed.

I'm really saddened that Grenfell is being raised here, it's actually shocking. Frankly, this is a relative non issue and if ridiculous asthetics are being compared with a death trap, it really weakens the valid arguments for a good standard of social housing.

Get your own tiles sorted. It's not a HA requirement to comply with your exacting taste.

Had you put the tiles in ? This is exactly why they don't like people making many changes. It causes a tight headache

Hahaha

I don’t think there is a human right to matching tiles unfortunately. I’d accept what was offered or sort it yourself.