Help end medical misogyny. Sign our petition.

Help end medical misogyny.
Sign our petition.

Sign the petition

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to refuse temporary accommodation for external work to our home?

156 replies

allowaccess · Today 08:52

Recently we were informed of exterior work to be done to our home (LA property). Nothing inside the house at all. No access needed to complete any of the external work other than access to the garden which is via a side gate not through the property.

We were instructed that for the duration of the work (no specific timeframe just ‘might be a few weeks’ ) that we would be placed in alternative accommodation that was miles away from where we are now and would cause significant issues for us with school as we have two children one with severe SEN. We also didn’t want to leave the house as it would be overwhelming for him to be away from familiarity for no real reason as it’s external work??

So we refused and set out in writing why. We were told no we have to vacate on a certain day. The only reason given when we pushed was ‘it will be noisy’. I said I’m fine to put up with some noise especially as it will only be between 8 am and-6pm. Again they said we need to vacate on the day and provide keys so they have access ??? They dont need access to inside.

The day has come and gone and we have stayed. My housing officer called on day 2 and said we need to allow access to the house while the work is ongoing. I said no as theres no need the work is external. They have said we need to allow access if needed to the team working. I told them again no the said they may need access to facilities! I said in that case they need to get portaloos if that’s the issue.

I then had an email giving another date to vacate for the work and a different address for temporary accommodation? Again I’ve said no. Can they actually force this or is it unreasonable as it’s not interior work ???

It hasn’t even been that noisy at all??

OP posts:
JulietteHasAGun · Today 14:42

OP pays her rent. If you were a private tenant you wouldn’t be paying for roof repairs, etc. you’d expect the landlord to pay.

as a homeowner when I had my house reroofed I didn’t vacate.

chirrupybird · Today 14:59

BrownTroutBluesAgain · Today 14:20

Her rent pays for maintenance like all tenants

LA houses not market rate rent.

Zanatdy · Today 15:02

If its to use your toilet, this is unreasonable. As you say, they can use portaloos.

Elleherd · Today 15:27

chirrupybird · Today 14:59

LA houses not market rate rent.

It's irrelevant that SH landlords make lower profit margins than commercial landlords.
The tenants rent still covers the maintenance (over time, often many times over) as well as the business expenses of being major employers and landlords.

BrownTroutBluesAgain · Today 15:27

chirrupybird · Today 14:59

LA houses not market rate rent.

Yes
mand her rent pays for maintenance

Mangochutney33 · Today 15:45

Dixie81 · Today 13:36

Don’t do it. I made that mistake and came home to find the place destroyed. Some sort of tar tracked through all my carpets, oily handprints everywhere, cigarette burns to my sofa and windowsills (with the butts still lying there), multiple breakages, along with missing jewellery, DVD’s and personal documents. The damages cost me thousands and the whole place had to be stripped and redecorated. They even stole all the food out of my freezer!

My neighbours had it even worse. They found beer tins everywhere, the workmen had clearly been using their bed and there was graffiti of male genitalia spray painted on their walls. It was horrific.

Insurance won’t cover the damage if you allow them in. I tried to sue but got nowhere because I couldn’t prove my house wasn’t a dump beforehand. These days I take full walk-through videos and photos before letting any social housing contractor in.

This is why!

Apart from the rest of it (I'm with you OP), there's no way I'd be handing over my keys to others. They could lose them. Or worse, they could get a spare set cut or multiple spare sets. Having had a good nosey around my home they or their mates could return some other time to rob the place.

HA properties don't always have easily changeable locks, it's not just a case of picking up a new £10 Yale lock from the hardware store and doing it yourself.

All you people saying OP should just suck it up wouldn't be saying that if she was in a private rental or a home owner, it's just discrimination. Nobody in their right mind hands over their keys and allows someone they don't know access to their home and all their possessions, especially for unspecified reasons.

It's not about toilets (although I'm sure they'd be using them given the chance and I wouldn't be happy about that either), that's just bullshit the housing officer has come up with on the spot, under the assumption that all HA tenants are thick as shit and will believe toilet access was a reason to move out. That attitude alone would piss me off.

I've had roof repairs including scaffolding and nobody came inside for that. The roofing contractors were appalling though and did steal various items whilst inside bodging skylight windows (couldn't prove anything) even though I was there at the time (but not constantly standing at their shoulder watching - my mistake).

They did almost no work unless the LL was checking on them. Showed up at 10am, pissed about doing as little work as possible until 12, came back from lunch at 2.30pm-ish, did a bit more work and were gone by 4pm, every day. Then of course the job "overran" and there were days they'd gone off to start the new job elsewhere before coming back to piss about here some more.

No way would I have wanted these people given free access to my home and possessions along with my keys. They were an untrustworthy shower of shite.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page