Council house / housing association decor

[Schooldinners1]

How are council houses/housing associations properties decorated before letting these days?

I know they generally all have similar styles across their kitchens and bathrooms.

Someone in my family has been offered one but she hasn’t viewed yet as they are clearing it out and cleaning it apparently.

They aren’t. The LA / HA will just strip out any old carpets etc and you have to do it yourself . Some housing associations may do a white / magnolia all over paint but that’s about it

You generally just inherit the decor of the previous tenant unless the property was left in a truly terrible state, in which case the HA/council usually 'make good' the surfaces and paint the whole place magnolia. Tell your relative that if it's in poor decorative state when they view they should ask for 'decorating vouchers'.

Sometimes a HA is part furnished, the council it's normally unfurnished and flooring is stripped down aswel, they do sometimes keep the wall paintings the same colour as what the previous tenant left it

In our properties it’s just what the previous tenant had minus carpet and window coverings. We used to do decorating vouchers but haven’t for years.

How are council houses/housing associations properties decorated before letting these days?

😂😂

We moved into our property a month back. Strangest thing, all the flooring was left. The majority of the house was left decorated as it was with the previous tenant. The only thing they did was paint two of the bedrooms white.

Oh and we were given a decorating voucher too for B&Q.

Did you request that at all?

I know they’re all different aren’t they. Apparently most are willing to leave these bits of you request it.

Yes and no. We asked for the vinyl flooring to stay in the lounge and the CLO said he would put the request through but when we spoke about the carpets he said there is no way they would allow them to stay because they won’t take responsibility for it because of fleas and all that, which I fully get. And the painting of the walls we have no idea on that one. When we walked through he said we must request a decorating voucher because they’re not going to do anything in regards to the decorating and that’s completely on us. So I don’t know who didn’t get the memo or what in the world went on when it came to instructions. We had been pushing so hard to get into the house (it had been sitting empty since December) and put up such a stink about not being able to get in, so I don’t know if that was a factor. They’ve also just gone from outsourcing their void maintenance teams to do it in house, so I don’t know if this was maybe the left hand not having a clue what the right was doing. Either way we were super surprised and happy, saved us a ton of money both ways.

Just a thing of the decorating vouchers. Our CLO who was with us when we viewed told us to ask for one, but when we did the leasing officers wasn’t sure what we were talking about, so we persisted. We then got a call from someone else with the HA who asked how we knew about them and what we were planning on doing with them. We got an email a few hours after the phone conversation with the B&Q voucher code. Leads me to think that maybe they had a problem with the issuing of the vouchers.

Either way 🤷‍♀️, we got half a painted house, flooring and a decorating voucher (which in the end didn’t even cover all the paint) but it definitely helped a ton!

I do believe that we were the exception to the rule, but it doesn’t hurt to ask for flooring to stay. I know some people with Bromford have said that they were able to keep carpets, they just had to sign that they were taking full responsibility for it.

Congrats! I thought they only did viewings once they cleared the whole place out. It’s over a month now and no word for us since the house was offered! Just been told they’ll be in touch once it’s ready to see!

Yeah, that’s normally how it goes. We were offered on the third of Feb, hand our interview on the 6th and gave in everything and told that we had been accepted and they would contact us when ready to view. She also told us the house was with maintenance and asked how long our notice was where we currently were and we said two months and should we give notice and she said cool. Well well two months came and went and we were absolutely panicking. Ended up moving in with my mom. But we got some good advice on this forum actually and we started pestering the HA as to what was going on. Got in touch with managers and other leasing agents and caused a stink. The leasing agent then came back to us (honestly she was so nice and was really out in an awkward position by us and maintenance) and said we can view and once we come back to her and tell her whether we want it, she can then put pressure on the maintenance team to finish up.

When we viewed the house was a state. The bones were good, but the house was upside down and the previous tenant had left so much trash and all that. And of course this all happened over Easter and May bank weekend which really messed up everything.

When we did the viewing the CLO told us that from viewing they have 10 working days to turn around the house. Well… guess what came and went.

Once again we were on the phones and email to figure out what was going on. I really felt that the work that was needed we could do in a day and as this house had been empty since December they could have organised the electrician (we don’t have gas) to come quicker too.

It was only after threatening them until we were blue in the face that we got the phone call at two in the afternoon on Wednesday the 2nd of May that we could get the keys the next morning at ten.

All in all it took two months from being offered to view (even when we shouldn’t have been able to view) and a further month before we had the keys. Three months in total.

One thing I learnt is to stick on them.

Oh and I wanted to add. We got blanked so often. We’d ask for updates and only be told that they would contact us when they have a viewing date. Over and over. Push for better answers

Really thanks! It might be a similar case here where they’re taking their sweet time.

It might be in terrible condition and need lots of work doing on it though…

I’ll suggest another drive by and see if anything changes.

I think I read somewhere that housing are really behind refurbishment of lots of properties that have all built up a backlog since covid! Not sure how true that is but I have heard people say similar to you, if you have an issue you literally have to keep calling them about it non stop! Didn’t know it was the case before you have even moved in though 😄

Yeah you’re going to be chasing for a while 🤣

We popped by the property so many times and even got out and looked through the windows. It really helped because when we spoke to the leasing agent we knew what worked had been done so she couldn’t just fob us off with a blank answer or as we started calling it the copy and paste answer.

I think it very much depends on the state of what was left by previous tenants. If it’s awful then they will paint it and leave the new tenants with a blank canvas. It’s standard for carpets to be ripped up by previous tenant although when I left mine I was allowed to leave them in as they were new, we had no pets etc and I was asked to provide photos of their condition. It seemed madness to rip up carpets that had been laid less than 2 years with decent underlay etc, and expect a new tenant who might need to furnish a whole house to find money for new ones. I also left made to measure blinds up at the windows, I noticed last time I went past that they were still there so the HA must have thought they were ok too. It’s pot luck I think depending on previous tenant.

Oh we need to be more persistent for sure then! But don’t want to stop them doing good works if they have to 😂

She has to move before September so still some time.

I’m just hoping they put an okay kitchen in and it’s not one of those fake wood horrors from the olden days you see usually - no offence to anyone 😬

So how long from offer until you moved in then?

Unlikely to be anything. If you're lucky you will have wallpaper on the walls. No carpets or curtains probably... Possibly not even curtain rails or poles.

My friend was given a bungalow 5 years ago, and she had to carpet it throughout, put wallpaper up (walls were painted but looked shit,) and she had to put up curtain poles, and curtains in the lounge, (and 2 bedrooms and hall,) and blinds in the kitchen and window.

She moved from a private let flat that was furnished and carpeted and had curtains and blinds, and when she moved; putting in the carpets, curtains, and blinds, and vinyl flooring, (and decorating and wallpapering the place etc,) cost her a fortune.

Around £5K in total for the removal costs and all the decoration and curtains and blinds and carpets. The council rent was cheaper, but it took her about 4 years to recuperate the money. Was a lifetime tenancy, so will pay off eventually, but she is only just seeing the financial benefits after having to fork out so much money. Got £100 decorating voucher! Just got a few cans of paint out of it! £100 goes nowhere!

It's great to get social housing, but it costs LOADS to furnish and carpet it and buy curtains and blinds and laminate flooring etc. The council provide fuck-all. Indeed, if the previous tenant leave stuff, they remove it, which is stupid! And annoying!

As for how long after the offer does someone move in? Depends on how much work they have to do. Could be 2 weeks to a month, could be 3-4 months.

Hi. We moved into a property last year. The kitchen and wet room flooring had been done. Whether by council or previous tenant, No idea. The walls already had wallpaper magnolia up already which is very nice. Same wallpaper in every room. We had to repaint one wall as it got marked by removals company. The floors were bare and had bits of dried paint everywhere. We had to pay to get flooring put down by a pro company or live with bare disgusting flooring. If you have garden and its on a foot path, like backs onto one. Then council responsibility to replace repair garden fencing. If private back garden then down to resident to pay.. Going on what read here I now think the decor was done by previous tenant. Lucky for us then, as already cost over a grand just for flooring alone. And its only 1 bed place too. As you have all the other bits too. New blinds curtains etc...Ceiling is good decor too here...make sure you have savings before you plan to move. Our previous flat years ago when moved in there was in terrible state. Walls had dried dark stains over them. Floors were bad. So going on this now guessing previous tenants lived, that way. This was back in 2003... Took a month to do it all up. Even the boiler was leaking and cupboards in kitchen were missing. Council hadnt even checked property and gave us keys n said. Its over there. They didnt even come with us to view place. Heres the keys its over there some where was their answer. With this place moved to last year 2023. A guy met us here and showed us around...