To ask to be temporarily rehoused whilst new kitchen installed?

[SENwoes]

I will preface this by saying I KNOW I’m very lucky to have a HA house, and I KNOW I’m very lucky to be getting a brand new kitchen for free.

So as above, I have work commencing on 22nd January to rip out the old kitchen and replace it. I don’t have a choice in this, according to the documents, I am unable to say no it’s fine, I’ll keep the old one. I’ve been told the works will take 2 weeks, as it also involves taking up the tiled floor and replacing it with lino.

It’s just dawning on me what a nightmare this will be. I have to completely empty the kitchen obviously, but there’s not really anywhere to put the stuff, it’s a very small house (just living room leading to kitchen/diner downstairs). The big appliances will go outside in the back yard apparently, but everything else will have to be boxed up and kept somewhere. I’ll have no cooking or washing up facilities, and no way of washing or drying clothes.

That’s all pretty standard I know, but my main concern is that I have a disability (CFS) and also both DC are diagnosed with ASD and currently in the house all the time as neither in education. We will essentially be trapped in our bedrooms for 2 weeks as we won’t be able to move in the front room as realistically that’s the only place everything from the kitchen can go. I need to rest…a lot, and the works will be noisy, which will also affect both DC as they struggle badly with loud noises and not being in a calm environment. They’ll also struggle with a team of workmen being in their space for 2 weeks, They both have completely different food aversions and neither of their limited range of foods is conducive to being able to batch cook and set the microwave up somewhere. Realistically it will mean a lot of eating out, but that’s not really affordable for 2 weeks.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and WIBU to ask the HA if there’s anything that could be done to move us while the works are going on? The only family member I could stay with is my DM but she’s a long way away and having works done on her own house which means she doesn’t have a functioning bathroom, so that’s not ideal really.

Did you RTFT?

Some HAs work out how long a bathroom/kitchen has been in there. No provisions given for condition.

Judging by a post on another thread (yes I looked. So shoot me) they have a huge chip on their shoulder about HA tenants.

Is there a possibility that that could be a waste of money that may well be needed elsewhere?

What if they need a bathroom more than a kitchen?

If it were me i wouldnt be budging. I wouldnt want to leave contractors alone with my property because of the attitudes shown by SOME of them to SH tenants as described by a PP

@Noglitterallowed

My kitchen refit started in August 2022, scheduled to take 10 working days. I had a schedule of works which had details of what was happening every day.

The work was "completed" (who am I kidding, it was never completed and no one ever came back to do a snagging list) just after Easter 2023.

Our kitchen journey visited the lands of "all gone disastrously wrong", "ASBESTOS!!", "needed to be completely ripped out and re started from the foundations up", "the dryer is fucked", "a week in minus 5 degree temperatures with no heating/hot water and electrics resulting in a hotel stay reimbursed by the HA", "bathroom refit by way of an apology", "5 incorrect baths being ordered", "a week in an AirB&B (which had a kitchen and washing machine, incidentally)" and "many, many tears".

During this time, we went through 4 different tenant liaison officers as they kept mysteriously leaving or being re-assigned. No one cared about my home or family but luckily I can crack out an email to rival some kind of humanitarian mission and advocated for myself when no one else could/would.

The absolute worst experience. I will never ever agree to having work carried out without proof of a very well thought out plan beforehand (which is unfortunate as the HA now want to put solar panels on my roof - absolutely not on my watch!).

@JeremyJordanseyebrows DH has just reminded me that in those nine months late downstairs neighbours kitchen was never finished.

We had a roof renewal in the summer of 2020 THIRTEEN weeks to do the roof on a block of FOUR flats.

No where did I say to leave them?
what I said was unfortunately it’s one of those that it’s you do really just have to work around it. I wouldn’t leave my property either.

YABU. Read the room.

Just wanted to offer sympathy to OP, it sounds difficult and too many people appear to be posting without actually reading what you wrote (how many people have suggested batch cooking when you explained why that won't work!)

DS is autistic, he would not cope with a new kitchen being put in - he was very distressed at us having a radiator changed - he has sensory issues around noise and is restricted in what he'll eat.

@Frasers

I know how much a kitchen costs, having ripped out and fitted two new kitchen’s ourselves, and it can be done on the cheap. The council use the cheapest materials and usually their own labourers. I was in a council property years ago when a new kitchen was fitted and it was the worst work I have ever seen.

Why would you post this to a woman who is clearly struggling and deeply concerned?

OP might like to go to a different room, where there are people able to show to compassion for someone with a disability and 2 children with ASD, and who can show some kindness and offer support.

Maybe because people were using this thread to minimize the underhand ways some HAs behave OP has already experienced this FFS because of HA wanting to leave her white goods outside and yet not be liable.

Somehow i think if this thread was about an anxious OP about to become a sub postmaster the replies wouldnt all be full of sunshine and rainbows all about how Horizon is working now and everything is OK

Have you asked if your work can be delayed until the caravan is accessible?

Tell the HA not to be so ridiculous and of course you’re not going to leave your white goods outside in the elements. The blokes will work around them

To make you feel better OP, I had my kitchen works started today. I left for work at 8.30 as they were arriving and they called me at 10.30 to say the rip out was complete and they were finished for the day.
House has been left immaculate, they took everything with them and brushed up afterwards.
Tomorrow is electrics, the day after the plastering.
They're very efficient as they have multiple houses to do a day and my kitchen isn't small!
Try not to worry, I understand the problems you will have with food etc, I'm lucky my kids are over the moon with the iceland microwave selection I filled the freezer with and are eating off paper plates. But the workers are job and done each day, they will want to get done and get out asap. I expect the electrics will take longer and the kitchen fit on Thursday,but the likes of screeding the floor one day, laying it the next etc will be an hour or two tops, its not all day long. Not half as bad as I imagined so far but I am only on day one, so far so good though. One week and 3 days left!

Fwiw...when we had our kitchen done, the noise was really not that bad.

Don't agree to your white goods being kept outside op. That is an unreasonable request

@GlitteryFarts Pleased to hear yours is going well.

I do have to laugh though at the posters claiming that homeowners never have issues with work contractors. There aren't programs called Cowboy Builders and Builders from Hell for nowt. Recently my Aunt and (now late) Uncle had extensive work in the property (the open coal fire was replaced with gas central heating). It appears that one of them had had a good rifle through some stored paperwork, presumably looking for things of value. Not what you need to discover in the days after your husband has died.

Magnet have a significant number of contracts, not every HA tenant is getting a kitchen that fell off the back of a wagon. The laminated ones are the ones that end up looking so awful.

@Frasers

You are right, I apologise. I reacted to the posts regarding how grateful tenants should be and that "it's just a week or two".

Do eff off, dear. I grew up in a council flat, free school dinners and was a under the care of social services due to parental neglect and abuse, largely because I would go all summer holidays without food, unless provided by neighbours (and, in deed, some kind teachers). I’m proud that I was able to survive it, make a successful life, a safe home for my kids, and can afford a house with a ‘dining room’ for them.

Take your inverted snobbery and shove it.

I do have to laugh though at the posters claiming that homeowners never have issues with work contractors.

No-one had said that @Topofthemountain . But home owners at least get to do their research, check reviews, make a choice that they're responsible for.

And do you honestly think that HA tenants will get anything other than laminate?

The point made was that OP doesn't have a dining room. So she can't stash anything there.

@saraclara no it wasn’t - she could simply have stated ‘OP doesn’t have a dining room’, but it’s still irrelevant as my point is that for a few days/a week, you can set up a toaster/microwave in ANY other room and muddle through, so there is no need to panic.

it was just another post bashing people perceived to be middle class, of which there are many on this thread.