Peerie Tr00ker Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Hi Just wondering if anyone knows of anyone who could fix a hole in a roof Due to get a council house and in the livingroom there is about a metre long hole where the paper or whatever was on it has been ripped off and you can see the flooring for the room above. Do you know how big a job this is and what sort of price it would be to fix this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbiniho Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 not to big of a job really sheet of plasterboard and a few hours labour and it should be done, just cut out the old bit to a joist and patch in the new piece/tape and fill/sand and paint and the job is done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostrider Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Maybe I'm mis-reading the question, but if there's a hole in the ceiling of a council house that you're about to move in to, surely its the council's problem to fix it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peerie Tr00ker Posted November 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 hi ghostrider you would think. but after waiting 2 and a half months for work to be done (and nothing was done on last inspection) with me, my boyfriend and 4 month old living in a bedsit we're starting to loose our patience and want to try and get a in the house and have it nice for our wee ones first xmas. also looking for quotes to get floors replaced as all 3 downstairs rooms have been peed on by the previous owners cats, window ledges have chuncks out of them from cats claws and one of the rooms has been grafited and theres about 2 inches of dust in every room, even covering dead flies and bees etc!!! nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlady Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Crazy .. Phone your local councilor .. he/she should be able to kick ass in the right direction. Good luck x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peerie Tr00ker Posted November 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 hey tlady called him twice and he has been on the phone twice now and he was told the cats pee, clean up, painting and a couple of other bits of work would be done and would be ready for inspection in a week. that was 3 weeks ago. called him again and they've basically said another week. the council said we could set up meetings but i think that is just a waste of more time and in the time we have a meeting the professionals could be in and get on with the work rather than talking about it!!! if they'd just done the work months ago they'd have had nearly 3 months rent out of us now. instead its sitting empty making no money and we've wasted so much time calling them and discussing things then the council phone someone else and discuss it more ...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlady Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 You're in the house Well that's different ... I think you should find in your missive that if repairs not carried out in a reasonable length of time your "rights" state that you can employ your own workmen and charge the council .. Even the threat of that might give them a kick in the right direction. *sorry just re read your last statement You're not in yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostrider Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 ^^ Keep badgering your Councillor(s), assumedly you have more than one with the current arrangements, get them all on the case, it's what they're drawing their salary for. Round here at least the council is very good at sending in cleaners and workmen quite quickly after a tenant moves out and before they offer it to anyone else. Unless the place has been turned in to a bomb site, its usually all over and done with and the place in okay order in no more than 3 or 4 weeks absolute max since the previous tenant moved out, and if a place sits unoccupied for many months they have been known to send someone in to give it a quick freshen up before offering it. Seems strange they can consistently do well in one location, but be so useless elsewhere. I guess the service is only as good as the individual Housing Officer allocated to the properties though. If you feel you have to go ahead and do it yourself though, using one of the smaller building firms or a self-employed builder/handyman might well be your best bet, they're more likely to be able to do small jobs like the ceiling and sills without too much of a wait, and might well be cheaper than a big firm. The floors may or may not be easy to do, depends on what's fitted at the moment and how much work is involved with removing and replacing it. Well within the abilities of the same people though, but it might take one or two guys a few days to do all three rooms, depending. Someone local to the area would make sense too, less time/money lost in travelling time, and they're more likely to do a decent job, as they won't want bad publicity on their own doorstep. I don't have any personal experience of him, but there's a builder/handyman based in Bixter, "Gibby 24/7" that folk have posted here previously they were happy with. There are similar guys in other areas too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peerie Tr00ker Posted November 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 thanks for that tlady. thats good to know when we were doing our 2nd inspection i even offered to do some of the work myself (before we move in) and they said no the thing i'm worried about is i've heard folk say if they do work to the house and then move out the council make them put it back to the way it was when they moved in. well there's a lot of things that we'd need to change and i'd be worried if we move out we'd be told the same. its things like the window surroundings the previous owner has gone mad with the paint brush and there's splashe's of paint over every window frame and ledge. as the surroundings are varnised wood it would be a hasstle to fix so the only thing i can think of would be to just paint them all white so it looks better but i wouldn't want to do that then have to put it back to normal if we move but i wouldn't want to have multi coloured windown surroundings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlady Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 It's mostly structural reinstatement's ie blocking off doors etc that they get picky about.. I wouldn't think paint instead of varnish would be a problem, but check your missive, (when you get it ) it should explain everything.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinner72 Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 ^^ On the contrary - In a previous house, i replaced all the painted skirtings etc with nice varnished wood, and found i had to strip them all out and replace with white painted ones. Only to find the council house we moved in to had, you guessed it, varnished skirtings etc newly installed by the council.. Sorry, not much help i know, but if the OP has been formally offered and accepted the house, you would have thought the right to employ a private builder and charge-back would apply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peerie Tr00ker Posted November 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 hi spinner72 just wondering how much it cost to replace skirtings? because the cats have peed in the house its in the corners right next to the skirting so im wanting to get those done because they'll probably have cant pee in them. getting carpets laid through the whole house so not wanting to spend all that money then the carpets to be ruined by the smell of cats pee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinner72 Posted November 4, 2008 Report Share Posted November 4, 2008 Skirting's are a fairly basic DIY job, so if you're ok with doing them yourself then a quick call to Hays and/or the LBC with the room sizes will soon get you a costing. It's been a while since i bought anything like that so maybe someone else can give a more up to date price per metre, i really couldnt offer much more than an out of date guess I'm afraid! One bit of advice i can give - don't hold back on pestering housing/councillor regarding this. They are used to it, it's what they are there for, and the situation you describe is clearly unnaceptable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppet Posted November 4, 2008 Report Share Posted November 4, 2008 One bit of advice i can give - don't hold back on pestering housing/councillor regarding this. They are used to it, it's what they are there for, and the situation you describe is clearly unnaceptable. Completely agee with that. And i'd also at the very least argue that you shouldnt be paying rent till they make the house habitable, as it certainly doesn't sound like it is yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlady Posted November 8, 2008 Report Share Posted November 8, 2008 Have you got any sense from the council yet? Another possibility to stir them up may be to contact the Shetland Tenants Forum http://www.shetland.gov.uk/housing/documents/STFNewsletterMay2006.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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