Some background first - my hubbs died last August, and now my children and i have to move home. We were living in an adapted bungalow as my hubbs was disabled, and now the council need this bungalow back. Which is fair enough, before we moved here i did sign a waiver saying that should anything happen to hubbs then i would be willing to be rehoused.
So, on December 19th, the housing officer calls round here and tells me that a house has become available for me, and that they need me to move in within a fortnight - my tenancy is due to start on the 5th Jan. Despite the fact that it was Christmas week, and despite the fact that it was our first christmas without hubbs i took it on the chin and got cracking.
I was given a £50 decorating voucher as neither of the childrens rooms have been stripped ect, and the wallpaper was hanging off, so enlisted the help of some friends and we started to strip the walls. Behind the wallpaper, the walls are in a terrible state - holes big enough that i can fit my hand in, and holes with random pieces of wire sticking out of them ect. An inspector came out and had a look and said that yes, they need work carrying out on them and that the plasterers were about 4 months behind. I explained that i was due to be in the house quite soon, and he told me... oh well.. just stick some old newspaper in the walls and some polyfilla over it
I then spoke to my housing officer who asked me to take both children in the same bedroom as me for a few months until the work has been done - i told her that that wasn't happening. My son has health problems which sometimes mean he has very disturbed nights and whilst i can manage that, he tends to disturb the baby if they are in the same room, hence me having a 3 bed house in the first place.
SO back to the house - there is no electric or gas there currently - the previous tenant left debts on both meters, and am waiting for the utilities to send me out cards so that i can get them back on. Then the council need to come and do an inspection of both gas and elec, before i can move in.
Which brings me back to the state of the house. The council have boarded up the fresh air vent that comes in from outside - now i'm not a whizz at things like this, but i do believe that that might be dangerous and could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning, especially as there is a gas fire in the front room which has a boiler behind it? There's also a three inch hole in the ceiling where they have resited the lights and not bothered to fill, hence being able to see directly into the electrics.
Then there's the bathroom - they haven't connected the bath properly, so when i happened to turn the tap on, water flooded all over the floor.
And yet they still expect me to be moved in by monday - or they will start charging me double rent.
AIBU in the fact that i want a home that i can actually move into - at the very least i won't move in until the heatings been on a while - i'm not taking my baby into a freezing home when i have the keys to a lovely warm bungalow.
What do you think - AIBU?