Can't move into housing association house until January

[reallifeboogie]

Wasn't sure how to word the title.

My cousin escaped domestic abuse and stayed at a women's refuge for a while but her mental health was struggling around other people in similar situations so she moved in with a friend, along with 2 preschoolers and 2 dogs. Housing association put her in the top band/priority.
After 15 months!! she's been offered a property and went to see it last week after having to wait 3 weeks from being offered it due to the keys being misplaced!

Lovely 2 bedroom house with small garden. She knew she would be accepting it so both her and her friend loaded up their cars with cousins belongings, expecting to get the keys same day. This is how it normally is, you get the keys the day you view.

Unfortunately upon entering the house, it was discovered there was a leak in the bathroom and water was dripping through to the kitchen below. So the housing officer said they'd get it sorted. Cousin said OK thats fine, ill move my stuff in and I'll be careful in the bathroom.

Nope. Housing officer said sorry you won't be able move in until its been sorted. It'll need somebody to inspect the damage and do any repairs.

Yesterday she got a phone call from housing to say the inspection would take place on December 3rd and then it'll be another 2-3 weeks for the job to be completed. So due to Christmas it'll be January!

Cousins friend lives in a 3 bed house with her own 3 children and 2 dogs so 2 adults, 5 children and 4 dogs in a 3 bed house and it's been that way for 12 months at least

Surely being top priority means repairs should be top priority too??

By the time anyone gets in touch with a local Councillor and they get in touch with the HA and all of the necessary back and forth it will be January anyway.....
Yes it's disappointing, but surely 3 months will go quickly.

YABU. Given the current housing crisis She is lucky to be getting what she is getting so quickly. I know families who live in one room in a hostel with shared bathroom/kitchen facilities. I also know one adult brother and sister who share a room in an HMO with no electricity on the first floor (where their room is). There don't dare complain about the landlord as they are scared of becoming homeless.

It seems unlikely that it would be delayed three weeks due to misplaced keys. They'd be more likely to change the locks than lose out on three weeks' rent.

It may be that they need the leak to fully dry out in order to check for work needing doing.

2 adults
5 young children
4 dogs
3 bed house

My heart goes out to the neighbours!

She's lucky to get a house so quickly and she's lucky enough that the repairs will be done when she's moving in. She's also lucky to have a rental property lined up that will accept her dogs.

She's also lucky to have a friend, hat gives her a roof over her head.

As for the 3 months wait.... she could probably move into a hostel / B&B if it's to much for the friend. Obviously the dogs would have to go elsewhere or she has to give them up....

Thing is I am not sure what you’re expecting the Council to do? I very much doubt that the inspection/ repair people are twiddling their thumbs waiting until December/ Jan. I’d assume that they have a long list of people who’ve also got issues with their homes who need work doing.

And if they allowed her to leave her stuff or, worse, move in and all the stuff got ruined or she/ her kids got an infection from mould/ damp that would make things worse.

At the moment she has somewhere to live, she’s safe, her family is safe and warm- that probably means that she’s lower down the list than say an elderly person with no water, or a family who’d have to leave and literally be homeless. Or they could operate a literal taxi rank system and her issue has only been discovered, plus the house is empty.

I agree it sounds hard but if she’s been there that long surely another 2 months isn’t going to kill anyone? Or is there any chance of some house sitting in December so that she can give the friend a break?

I waited from October until the last week of January to get the keys to my new build via the council. To me it was worth waiting for but they offered to withdraw my offer and let me bid elsewhere if I didn’t want to wait.

I’m glad I waited.

Housing associations are private companies

MNetters are always so bitter about those in affordable housing. Doesn't seem to occur to them that they wouldn't be eligible if they didn't have good reason. I think they should consider themselves the "lucky ones".

Your area must just normally be lucky because I’ve never heard of anyone moving in the same day the best has been a week after once all the final paperwork was done. Some I’ve known to be left waiting months before even getting the in person viewing then months more for repairs.

Knew it would be a communal satellite dish. Some on here dont know what the fuck they are talking about and would be the first to whine if they wernt getting a service they were paying for

@VeronicaWouldntStandForThat
Provide for herself? she fled DV, not everyone has ££ and 6 figure salaries, are you so out of touch that you aren't aware that some people are struggling?
The poor woman is clearly desperate to move forward and likely feels awful living with her kind friend/cousin.
Just stop with your ignorant callous comments.

While it’s disappointing- I’d say the timescale is pretty standard.
also not sure why you think an empty property would take priority over those who are living with a leak etc.

I’m HA tenant, my friend is council tenant. One thing I have come to realise is that HA are much much slower at repairs regardless what priority you might be.

My neighbour after years of having damp & mould managed to get HA out to eventually fix the issue. She had to temporarily move out whilst the work was done, she was told she’d be gone 3 months max, she was gone for nearly a year! I actually at one point didn’t think she was coming back. She moved out & the work didn’t start on her property until weeks & weeks later.

I'm used to slow repairs living here but I expect the answers would be quite different if it was a private landlord.

She isn't lucky to have been through the abuse and lost everything. No way. But she's very lucky to have been offered a place pretty quickly.

There are people who have been on waiting lists for years sadly because there is such a shortage of housing.

She's also so fortunate that she has an amazing friend. She just needs to be a little patient now until the place is made safe enough to live in. Not long to go until then.

Because she's got a house lined up and she's not on the list for ten years and she has a friend rather than being left to council provided emergency provision which would be horrendous.

Except she's not paying for anything yet is she?

Edit :Ignore, thought it was about the OP

The poster was referring to me and my post, not OP.

I just realised, my mistake.

Timeline doesn’t seem that bad…we’re getting work done in the end of November which we booked in about a month ago. It takes time. And it makes so much more sense to repair it empty.
I certainly would expect to move in the immediately after viewing.

I worked for a very large HA - Housing associations have huge lists of repairs, struggle to get trades staff and they are dealing with poor quality new builds, disrepair where tenants have left previous properties in an horrendous state, vandalism, retrofit, break downs.... I understand the wait is difficult, but sadly she will not be the only one in a very similar situation experiencing delays, but she has the allocation in her hand, so now just a time issue. Issues with managed moves, domestic violence are unfortunately very common in housing association allocations / properties and the issue grows day on day. She is top priority, but that is practically never just a group of one, but a number in exactly the same, if not considerably worse, situation. Social housing is a reducing number of properties, so it is good that she has been allocated a property, but with regulation and the issue of complaints on properties not fit for allocation / damp and mould, no housing association wants to risk putting someone into a property that could harm their physical health either.

I might try and foster the dogs until the knew place is ready, if the friend can't deal any longer.

That many dogs and children in a small space is like a powder keg ready to go at any moment, she needs to put the dogs somewhere else ASAP unfortunately.

It's great your friend has a new home to look forward to, the time wait for the works is completely reasonable, it took about that long to arrange and sort a similar issue in our own home that we were paying the works to be done ourselves, there's a serious lack of availability with trades, it not a priority issue.

Just try and focus on the positives at the moment and use the 3 months to organise and make the move efficient.

Why would the housing association be responsible for repairing your satellite dish?