HA kitchen

[2023issucky]

I am lucky enough to have a HA house due to 2 disabled children. We both work full time and pay full rent. Yes I know I'm lucky enough to have this house.
We put in a free standing kitchen second hand, when we moved in because what was in was one cupboard, no sideboard or drawers. That was 10 years ago.
We were told we had to have a new kitchen and bathroom this year.
We were told it would take 3 weeks. It's a disaster. They never turn up, even when we have had to take time off to be here. They have left electric sockets damaged and exposed, flooded the kitchen twice, and still not fixed and they have torn everything out and done nothing else for weeks.
The two children we have are really struggling with the whole thing, and tbh I'm at my wits end on what to do.
I have contacted the HA but nothing has been done.
Is there anything else I can do? If the kitchen was here I would pay for someone to fit it, but we have nothing.
Please help

If the HA aren't doing anything about it, I'd contact your local MP.

Complain to your MP. I empathise OP, council contractors and employees are the absolute dregs.

We had a new kitchen put in our HA house last year & I feel your stress & frustration as it was an exhausting experience. Before it was put in the kitchen company rep contacted me due to my health & that of my 3 disabled children & were really helpful so could you ask the company who your ‘person’ is and then kind of bombard them with info & questions? Hopefully they will get sixk of you (don’t mean this rudely!) and want to finish the project more quickly. You should also be in contact with the site manager who you can marginally hassle too. If not, contact every person you can find at your HA & ONE of them should either listen or point you in the right direction- but due to your children’s disabilities you should have had support before & during anyway! Mine took almost 4 weeks in the end but actually only about 5 of those days were worked. I really hope things start improving for you - in the end, my mantra was ‘it will be worth it’ and it is- we had an awful kitchen for 13 years so the new one is wonderful. Good luck x

I'd go to citizens advice about the rent. Send an email to both managers outlining the situation you are in and the impact on your kids and say you'd like to make an official complaint and will be writing to your MP and copy in the chief exec of the housing association. Then write to your MP and copy in the chief exec. Then write to your local paper and copy all the housing association people in. Go nuclear.

I have the detials of the project manager and the manager.
They lie to me constantly, telling me someone's coming when they aren't. They say they are sorry when they clearly aren't.
They clearly have too many jobs and not enough staff. Th men that turn up are pleasant enough.
Can I refuse to pay my rent till sorted?

They have not turned up for 2 days due to my complaint. Says they need time to look at it and change the team doing it. 😭😭

Don’t stop paying your rent. That will give them grounds to evict you.

The link below is from the govt website and might have some useful links.

I feel your pain. My housing Co-op put in a new kitchen last year. Already there are issues with it and I’d rather forget the actual renovation. Very stressful, especially the part when they put a tap in upside down and leaked water everywhere one night , before the kitchen was even halfway completed.

id advise you to keep as much detailed notes as you can manage. Dates of calls and who with , dates when workers were supposed to turn up. This may prove very useful to you.

I hope it’s sorted very soon.
https://www.gov.uk/housing-association-homes/complaints

This might help give you ammunition.

I think the local council has a duty to make sure all housing is safe . Might be worth ringing them if you get no joy.

Speak to your local counsellor, (MP is pretty much useless) and they can raise with your HA.

I work for an HA and we have had lots of issues with our trade staff, we have massive shortages as there just isn't people wanting the jobs and we're competing with other employers it's a nightmare at the moment! We offer a high salary for HA employees and even that doesn't help.

Other than that document EVERYTHING!

Re the rent, yes, you can stop paying but you have to be able to demonstrate you have set aside the money in a separate bank acct so it's not touched and once the work is completed that you will pay up in full. You need to put it all in writing formally giving them time to investigate.

Got the hump that you have complained will be closer to the truth. We had this shit here. They did the kitchens but we refused to have ours done because we knew what it would be like. Got proved right when our downstairs neighbours kitchen took NINE MONTHS. the workmen would come in do a bit for two hours then go. They would turn up unannounced and expect him to drop any plans or appointments. Then not turn up when they were supposed to. They kept on trying to come back at completely random intervals to do snaggy bits and in the end he had to tell them not to come back any more. This is when i started to suspect SH tenants were/are being used to keep people in work!

They have left electric sockets damaged and exposed, flooded the kitchen twice

And when your HA do mandatory electric checks they will have the bare faced cheek to tell you that it is for your safety.

oh and they broke the door on his washing machine.

We were told we had to have a new kitchen and bathroom this year

From the OP above. if it is staff shortages that are the problem (and its no excuse for sloppy I dont give a shit cos i dont have to live here workmanship) then why force this on tenants when you can see this coming.

@2023issucky How are things now? Any further forward

Well a massive change! The housing association man came with the company and a new project manager.
They have replaced my boiler, all the plumbing, pulled up the floor, delivered all the stuff to do the plastering tomorrow. Hoping to be finished by end of next week.
However, they have said they can't do the bathroom too now.

Oh thats better news. Shouldnt have come to this though. What was the reason they suddenly cant do the bathroom considering they tried to bully you into having all this done in the first place.

I have no idea, mainly that they want to get kitchen completed asap and guess it would delay it all. Today they have come and levelled the floor and plastered the walls. Tomorrow the carpenter is come although I'm not sure how that works if the plaster isn't dry 😬
They also haven't fitted the new floor yet 🤷‍♀️