To build a false wall in a Housing Association rental property?

[WheelbarrowKid]

We rent from a housing association. Have a 2 bed house. There are 4 of us. DS 8 has a disability which causes him to be unable to share a room. DD 1 is still sharing with us which is fine for now but would like to move her to her own space soon as she wakes us all night wanting to share the bed etc.

We are assessed as being overcrowded and in need of a 3 bedroom but we are Band C so don't stand much of a chance getting a larger property. Have been bidding for over a year.

We've tried to swap but it's next to impossible as most people don't want to downsize for a smaller property that has a high rent.

One of the bedrooms is very large and has 2 windows so could be divided down the middle to make 2 ok sized box rooms.

I know it is not allowed as would need permission to be made into a 3 bed etc but what are people supposed to do when swapping / being given a new property is next to impossible and private renting is out of the question do to the prices being unaffordable.

The wall would be a stud wall and we'd make it so it could be removed if we had to etc.

As previous poster have suggested; contact your local MP and try again with the OT writing evidence. This normally helps you move up a band or two in most areas (unless you are in London?).
If you did put up a stud wall, you would not be evicted - you would just have to take it down at your own expense if the HA found out and objected. Good luck!

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I wouldn't rule out finding someone who wants to do a mutual exchange, OP.

I know 3 people who have recently exchanged from a 3-bed to a 2-bed, because their oldest child had left home and they were being hit with the bedroom tax.

@LakieLady I know it's possible but we've viewed so many properties and had so many view ours only to ghost us, complain about minor things like pictures on the wall. One person who wanted to downsize, lived very close to us and said ours would be perfect, we loved theirs, actually thought it was going to go somewhere only to bump into them having redecorating stuff delivered as they had decided to rent the room but not tell us they wouldn't be swapping any more. It's draining!

This is exactly the layout of our room. However, the window diagonally opposite the door is a proper fire escape onto a small flat roof, so I suppose that makes a difference. I agree with pp suggesting an OT assessment. We do have a gap at the end of the kallax unit and I understand why you can't do that. I am so sorry. The housing situation is so hard. My dd's school friend had to share a tiny room with her brother until he went to university. She is two years younger. Council flat.

People do this all the time….my sister IL has put up a stud wall in lounge diner to make a 4 th bedroom…..council workers have been out many times in the last 9 years for repairs etc….no one cares…..my DD put electrics out to her shed …..fed off the mains….again no ne cared ….her partner did a walk in wardrobe in the main bedroom…..it’s really no big deal…..when she left and they did the survey check they just said ‘yeh yeh’

You need to be careful. My lease explicitly says I can't add built-in storage. I've made a faux wardrobe by putting large Ikea units at right-angles; they only need brackets top & bottom so I am not 'building on'. The HA has also given me a warning about using the loft, which is a bummer but it's their fire insurance!

I love those sliding panels, @MikeRafone. I'm having to sternly tell myself it's pointless rearranging things just so I can use some 😂

I bet you can do something with some trusty Kallax, @WheelbarrowKid. They're insanely sturdy. I've used Oxberg doors on my fake wardrobe, as they use flat hinges so it's just measuring & screwing on. You can fill in any ceiling gaps with boxes, fabric, or make some panels if you're handy.

We did this without asking - we hadn't realised we needed to as it was only a stud wall. The HA did a lot of significant building work (wiring, heating, new kitchen etc) a few years ago. Obviously the stud wall got noticed. They just asked us to apply for permission in retrospect and because they were wiring they moved the centre light and added another so each section had it's own ceiling light and put sockets into the wall so each side had the same amount, so they actually improved it for us!

I think most HA will allow these kinds of changes with permission.

It is fire regs that matter.

I've just roughed your idea out on a piece of paper, OP. How are you going to create a door into the new room without a) building a door in the partition so that you enter the 'new' room through the old one or b) knocking a door-sized hole through the new room wall to the landing? Is that wall structural?

In theory it's not a stupid idea. It might cost a couple of grand to build, put in a door frame and door, line out and paint. It might cost similar in a few years' to turn back. Up to you whether you're prepared to risk it.

I’m a Housing Officer for a large HA. I would just do it- make it removable so that if you move you make it good. I have never in 18 years of Housing heard or seen of anyone being evicted for something like this. The worst would be a notice telling you to take it down. It sounds like the best option for your family, in terms of getting a move, it may not be that long I’m seeing quite a few Band C’s nominated for houses lately.

My mum did this in my shared room on our local authority house when I was younger. Only one window so I ended up with a teeny tiny room with a tiny section of window. I loved the privacy and she just took it down again when I moved out. If it's easily removable I don't see why you couldn't do it.

@FlexibleFi It would have to be a door in the new partition wall, maybe like those bifold doors you can get and you'd have to walk through the other room to access the main door to get to the landing. No option to build a separate door.

@TheTempest That's good to know. I've been bidding on everything each week. Always using my 3 bids. Problem is most places either require a local connection which I don't have as I am not fortunate to have any family and I am a full time carer for DS so don't have work as a local connection. Or they stipulate "preference for Band B homeless".

If we did do the partition we would make it so it could be taken down simply. We just need something solid and sturdy but also able to block as much sound as possible as DS stims vocally, doesn't sleep well at all, fidgets and gets out of bed a million times a night.

Stud walls are not cheap to put up and really messy to take down. Far messier than I expected and I was shocked at the cost of a new one ( different rooms, I wasn’t just swapping walls)
Ikea do slimline wardrobes. You can’t hang much in the top part but there are pull out metal baskets in the bottom part that hold holds. If you put one for ds to use, then one for dd facing the other way you could add a billy book case fixed in some way to stop it toppling at the end. That would make a pretty good divider. Would cost less than the wall and you’d have the furniture when you eventually move.

Couldn't you and the little one go in the room you are thinking of dividing and ds go into the other?
Ds will then have a room with a proper door and privacy and DD's section of room can be divided more easily with storage furniture and decorated so it is her part of the room, ideally you'd like to move but waiting lists are horrendous. I joined the register as I could downsize but they are telling me it takes 4-6 months just to get on there currently!

I did mine for less than £100. I used those planed 2x4 lengths that they sell as a loss leader at B&Q for £4 each for the studs, and used OSB instead of plasterboard, as cheaper and less messy. (Although plasterboard is more soundproof- your DS sounds like my DS2, OP. It's tricky, isn't it?! Mine have to split a window, so there has to be a gap, meaning it's never going to be properly soundproof, and DS1 has resorted to ear plugs, poor thing:().

Is that really going to be a satisfactory outcome?

Could you take that double window room for you and your daughter and you have the Kallax unit and a curtain to close it off. Then your son is safe a door away from your daughter.

She’s not ready to move yet so you can take the time to figure it out, but ultimately at least you know your son can have his own space and you don’t have to deal with building an actual door.

(Have read all of OPs posts but not the rest so sorry if it’s been suggested before.)

Something like these could work? www.everblocksystems.co.uk/pages/applications-room-dividers

@GhostFaen I will look into this option again. Initially we thought it wouldn't work as once divided there would only be space for our king bed and nothing else and currently we have a triple wardrobe and 2 chests of drawers in our room with the bed but as you said, we still have time so will look again at the other options.

Not ideal to have DD sharing with us for the foreseeable future but I suppose at least that way there would be less noise than sharing with DS.

@FlexibleFi No, obviously the satisfactory outcome would be moving to a 3 bed property but in the midst of a housing crisis we've got to try and make do with what we've got. A divided room that you've got to walk through would be better than no divide given our circumstances.

I actually helped my friend build a partition wall to divide a room into two in her housing association property. She didn't bother asking for permission (because they most likely would have refused it). We did it in such a way that it is easily removable without leaving any real damage - just some screw holes to fill in the walls and ceilings. Worst that could happen is they ask you to remove it, and that's unlikely until if/when you move out.

Ikea Sidorna room dividers might do the trick. Reinforce either side by using furniture if worried it’s not solid enough?

I've used free standing panels to divide a bedroom - the type found in exhibition stands.They're over 6ft tall can be slotted together and sit on a sturdy metal frame at the base. Can pick them up cheap on eBay sometimes.They're fabric covered and great for pinning pictures on ,can put door hangers over the top for space saving clothes storage .
For the door ,can use a folding screen ,curtain etc or just leave it.
Tried Kallax,but found them too dangerous as my pesky kids took out the baskets and used them like a ladder!!