Staffordshire Housing

[laineyiow]

My daughter has been allocated a ground floor flat (Stafford & Rural Housing).

We are just in the process of trying to get the flat habitable for her to move into.

The flat is a ground floor one, which has been adapted for a disabled person (she isn't disabled). There is only a wet room which is in a terrible state plus a kitchen which is also quite disgusting.

As I don't live in Stafford and don't know what the 'norm' is for Council property I wondered if this was in fact normal for Stafford Council property.

Are properties regularly rented out by the Council that has black mould on the walls and spores growing on the bathroom ceilings?

We have stripped the walls of wallpaper in the lounge and the plaster is that bad that it has come away with the paper leaving 11 gaping holes in the wall.

My daughter is expected to move into this flat but I don't think it is in fact fit for human habitation as it is in such a deplorable state.

I have been in touch with the Council about this but they don't seem all that interested really and when we enquired about when she was going to have the kitchen and bathroom refurbished they told us ELEVEN YEARS - yes, YEARS!!! How can that be - the flats need modernising NOW just to make them habitable.

Your comments/advice on this dilemma would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading this.

Laineyiow

 

[Doctor]

Stafford Borough Council has got rid of it's council housing and it is now all run by the 'social landlord' Stafford and Rurual Housing (SRH). This is propbably why the council arn't too interested. Your first point of contact and complaint should be with SRH. They should have a duty to provide decent accomodation - as any landlord does. However I think the council does still have a duty to ensure that social housing is in a fit state - have a look at the council's Housing Strategy (http://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/live/Documents/Policy%20and%20Plans/Housing-Strategy.pdf) pdf.

 

[tek-monkey]

There's a place on Greyfriars now, so if you get frustrated on the phone you can go in and talk to them instead. Take photos of the problem areas, go down and show them. I find people are a lot more helpful face to face than on the phone, as they know its harder to get rid of you.

 

[cookie_monster]

where is the house? i would recommend contacting your daughters local councillor.

whilst the property may not be owned by the council, any extra pressure you can get to help your daughters cause has got to be helpful.

im also certain there was a fairly big rant against one of the local social landlords in the newsletter last week- they may be interested.

best of luck with this, having been dealing with some serious issues with my own house over the last 14 months, i suspect you may need it.


x

 

[laineyiow]

Thank you all for your comments. I am going this weekend to have a look at what has been done during this past week - I understand that someone has been today to have a look and do some plastering!!

I will update when I return next week.

Many, many thanks to you all for your advice and for the links.

 

[Doctor]

You can find your daughter's local councillors at http://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/live/welcome.asp?id=33&scheme_name=LGNL&scheme_category_id=100004

 

[laineyiow]

Thank you all for your help. My daughter is now in her flat still lots to do.

Stafford and Rural have now decided that she won't get a new kitchen but that the flooring can be replaced AFTER an inspection (whenever that will be!).

Her wetroom is still disgusting but according to Stafford & Rural housing it isn't unhygienic to have water 'puddling' and not draining away properly and that it doesn't matter that the flooring is discoloured - according to S&RH that bleaching and cleaning is all that it needs!

I just wonder if the people who make these 'rules' live in these conditions themselves - I doube it very much! But yet they feel it totally acceptable that their tenants can live in these conditions.

What I find amusing is that as far as I am aware S&RH say somehwere in their blurb something about striving for better homes?, well if this is their idea of a 'better home' than I dread to think what a 'bad home' is!!!!

 

[AndyST17]

Right another moan about Stafford and rural homes, not for me even thought they cause me to moan at them most weeks, but for a friend.

Way back in February my friend had a new bathroom put in, they told him about 10 working days to complete but after 27 working days and a phone call to David Kidney it was finished. As an apologie he got an Argos voucher, but the workmen left a huge crack in a wall and over the months i have noticed it has got bigger. He has called SRH many times and they send a chap out thinking it just needs a bit of plaster, in May they decided to send an inspector out after 3 weeks he turned up and said that it will need a structual engineer to have a look at it and that he would organise it all. Now that was at the end of May, were now in October and still no joy, my friend has spent many hours on the phone to them to try and get it sorted but getting nowhere, he has been in touch with the local press and David Kidney, and they have had no joy with them, any suggestions on what he can do next apart from wait and moan at them daily.

 

[db]

any suggestions on what he can do next apart from wait and moan at them daily.

you could send them a little present

 

[Wookie]

<snip>any suggestions on what he can do next apart from wait and moan at them daily.

I'm not a lawyer, but I remember a broadcasting legal eagle (Gary "Justice With" Jacobs, fact fans) always gave the following advice in such disputes: Write to them, by recorded delivery, and tell them that if the work is not done within 28 days from the date of receipt of this letter, you will be having it done privately and sending them the bill. Then, if it isn't done within 28 days, have it done and them sent the bill. Bonus points if the bloke doing it is a mate of yours, charges absolute top whack and shares with you the profits.

Alternatively, contact the CAB, behind Eastgate Street. They *are* lawyers.

 

[Slainte]

Having worked at for afore mentioned housing association in my previous job, I would advise the first steps to take to to follow complaints procedure they have in place, and to make sure on any phone calls you make yoou ensure a point of contact name with times of calls as in theory all calls are recored. I'm more than happy to advise a lil further if you want to PM me.

 

[shoes]

My g/f worked, up until recently, for Midland Heart and they are just as bad. She had a constant battle to get her clients' (she works with / represents vunerable young people) homes sorted out. To be fair what you 'need' and what you 'want' are two different things but they regard simple things such as drainage and running water to not be a necessity, which is similar to what your daughter is battling with SRH about now.

I wouldn't follow Wookie's plan though as a friend of mine did this and paid for the work to be done and then sent the bill to SRH. They argued that if he had the money to have this amount of work (just shy of £2000) done he doesn't need social housing. After a battle they refunded most of the money but he lost the flat, and i quote "to someone more needy". The fact he took out a loan to have the work done (and thus costing a lot more than the invoice for the work) wasn't even considered.

On the other hand, as Wookie said, the CAB can be a wealth of useful and accurate information, so I'd go and see them if you can. Usually means a reasonable wait though (but then again, it IS free).

B*stards.

I think, as with most things, the people in charge here are promoted to their own level of incompetance.

 

[Wookie]

I wouldn't follow Wookie's plan though as a friend of mine did this and paid for the work to be done and then sent the bill to SRH.

In my defence, that wasn't what I was suggesting; I suggested that AndyST17's friend have the work done and have the workmen chase the social housing people for the money. As I said, though, I'm not a lawyer; run the idea past someone legally qualified and see if they recommend it as a valid course of action. Which leads to:

On the other hand, as Wookie said, the CAB can be a wealth of useful and accurate information, so I'd go and see them if you can. Usually means a reasonable wait though (but then again, it IS free).

The few times I've had to use the CAB, they let you take a ticket and then push off for a bit to do something else; as long as you're back with a valid ticket before they shut, they'll see you. Get down there as early as possible though. They're a very useful service, and they *are* legally qualified.

 

[shoes]

Ah yes so you did, sorry. I mis-read what you had put, although I still don't recommend it, I can see what you mean.

I haven't been to the CAB since about 2004, but this ticketing idea sounds great. It is a good service and as such you can expect it to get busy.

 

[Wookie]

In a properly organised world, the CAB would get a decent amount of funding so they could employ more people and get bigger premises, to serve the community better.
But what good is A Well Informed Populace to Our Lords And Masters? :S

 

[shoes]

Absolutely! One aim would be to have transparency and honesty from the government, councils, financial world etc. and row out the CAB alltogether.

Another idea from fairy land unfortunately

 

[Slainte]

I still work in th world of social housing and its all a crock to be honest, all housing associations are the same, same excuses etc for different companys/councils