Housing association Puns

Hej : )

There are multiple that are subscription based. Should I join 1 or multiple?

What are your thoughts about it in general?

Appreciate the advice! Tak! : )

Edit 1: I am looking for something relatively soon, so i am not looking for the cheapest housing options. Are there any that balance that out?

To provide more background, I have lived in my flat for 8 years and I have decorated it to a very standard. I have always paid rent myself and always mainly pay for any repairs myself. For the last year or so, my bedroom and kitchen window and backgarden door have been rotting away and causing various leaks inside the property. I reported this to the housing association several times as it is stated that external windows and doors are their responsibility. I have felt unsafe with the backgarden door rotting away at the hinges and have had to suffer with many leaks.

They finally arranged for a contractor to measure the windows and door to replace. The contractor told me the works would take a day. Great! I was genuinely excited about this. On the day of the works, the contractor ripped out my bedroom window and then told me he actually realised that the measurements of the new window is incorrect and proceeded to blame the manufacturer. I panicked as there was a hole in my bedroom wall. He said he can put the new window in but it won't be the right way round. This window is quite big and made up of several parts. To make them all fit, he fitted some upside down and the wrong way until it did fit. It looked awful. He then said would a replacement actually be needed as it's just a design issue. I was shocked and said yes this is not the design of the window. That night, I realised its more of a design issue, as huge draughts were coming through the window where it wasn't sealed properly.

The contractor tried to dismiss the situation and tell me that he has a million things to do and that's why the mistake was made. He made such a messy job and ruined the plaster around the edges, scratched the glass and didn't seal the outside windows properly. When I told him this almost in tears at the end of the day, he told me it's the housing association problem and to contact them.

My question is, as I didn't legally create a contract with this cowboy builder, what rights do I have? I feel like the housing association is not bothered and I have little rights despite the fact that I live here and pay rent and decorate the flat to a high standard. Any advice would massively help.

Not sure if this is the right place to post??

So I've been doing lawn care and landscaping for a few years now and I started my own business last year. I have a newer zero turn riding lawn mower, two push mowers, two weed whips, one backpack blower, one handheld blower, various hedge trimmers and pruners, and various hand tools. (I also run a farm).

Now with the real possibility of having this contract, I'm pretty intimidated. At previous employers we had a team of 6 that would take roughly 5-7hrs to get an association like this done, but they had the stand on lawn mowers. Right now it's only me and occasionally my partner who are able to provide services.

I'm wanting y'alls opinion if this is way too much for a small company like me, if it's worth it to scale up a bit and buy one or two stand on mowers, if I would need to hire on another one or two employees, or if I'd be able to manage the entire association with my self and the current equipment that I own.

And I also have no idea how to price a contract like this or all the details that go into this large of a contract. I regularly charge $80/hr for work which is roughly $40 for city lots which is a full service for them. Thank you so much!

A friend of mine lives in a block of flats in London. Managed by a housing association. A few months ago she was attacked by her neighbour, who has been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence, awaiting trial.

She reported to the housing association and had to chase for 5+ months to get a response

She was told 1- it would be too much work to do anything 2- because attacker is a council tenant they probably won't evict regardless of trial outcome. But a A private tenant would probably be evicted .

She wants to challenge. I think home insurance would cover legal fees. Any idea of how to go about finding a solicitor? Or could recommend one? Thanks!

Edit: I would like to know whether her HA is giving her the run around.

She is in England

Just hoping someone has any ideas about our next steps. In September of this year we accepted a settlement from our housing association for damages caused by repairs and maintenance not being carried out. We received a sum of money and as part of the agreement it was also agreed that all the outstanding work would be completed by November 8th of this year. As of writing this post no work has been carried out at all and only one workman has attended and he claimed he was only there to take pictures and assess if any work needed to be carried out. This is clearly a breach of what we agreed but I have no idea what to do now, please does anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Hi,

I part-own my home through a shared ownership scheme.

The boiler is now 15 years old and definitely needs replacing. The problem is that the flue (think steam pipe) is currently just underneath the roof and according to any plumber I have spoken to about it this is no longer allowed. So the the plumber will need to extend the flue out quite a bit to be beyond the overhang.

Already a costly job, I was hoping to save on the cost of scaffolding (I'm on the 3rd floor) by enquiring if the HA had any scheduled maintenance involving scaffolding.

The HA haven't replied about any scaffolding but have said that they want £100 (+vat) to approve this being fixed. Which I'm not to pleased about.

Can they charge me for this?

I'm in England.

P.S. - I think it's great that what you folks do here on r/legaladviceUK.

Somewhat irritating, the power of homeowner associations. I bought an apartment with a garage box with 2 standard plugs of power running in there; one powers the garage door opener and a light. I don't use the other.

Result!! Update below!

The yearly VVE/homeowners meeting tonight carries a small codicil tucked in the back of 40 pages of double-sided financial documents:

> Explanation of the board agenda item 10: Disconnection of communal power consumption. > > To prevent the charging of electric cars and other heavy power consumption, a quotation was requested at the last ALV (2020) at the request of the members, specifically about the cost of disconnecting the general power consumption from 16 to 6 amps. The costs are EUR 500. > > The Board asks the members' approval for this amount.

First off, I've never charged in my garage - there are 11kW poles in front of my apartment, and it's 1/4 the price of gas. When I bought the place, I knew there's a limit to the power available to the garages because of insufficient wiring (EDIT: I don't want to charge - that's not what I'm arguing for). Also, my garage box door is only electrically operated - I have a small opener there, as there's no spring system in place (I bought it this way, 12 years ago), so if there's not enough power to open my door that will be an issue.

They took the first steps in the pandemic when we couldn't gather, which is kind of sneaky. Also, this will impact the value of our apartments, basically advertising that theres a problem with power in the building area. This has been an issue for a while -- they need to fix the issue and not push it off onto others. Do they think this will just go away over time?

Our home association is run like a little fiefdom, and they do what they want. The garages have insulated ceiling tiles (1m x .5m x 10cm thick) that fall down - but it's our space, our responsibility. Same with the garage doors - mine broke recently, was told it was my domain and my responsibility. Electrical power is not a luxury; it's a utility.

They also say it's not fair that I can (hypothetically) charge a car when the other non-garage spaces can't. My apartment cost more because it came with a garage. Some apartments came with a terrace - mine doesn't. Should I have a right to say that people can't use their terraces because I don't have one and "it's not fair"? This is such a stupid argument and I can't

Do you smoke indoors or out?

Do you worry your landlord would accuse you of smoking within the property(if they even know you smoke)?

I've been to several properties of friends etc who smoke(most of them are in rented/council accommodation) and some of them you can tell they smoke indoors as the walls are all brown and it stinks like an ashtray, yet others you can't even tell - the ones where I couldn't tell, is this because they smoke something in particular or are they just clean freaks? Haha!

Only reason I ask is because it does genuinely intrigue me. It seems those who's places I've been to that do smoke but you can't tell are maybe trying to hide it from their landlord, as I've seen them smoke indoors with my own eyes. The ones where you can tell they smoke are usually, like, older men where cleanliness etc aren't exactly high on their piorities(this was dads of friends BTW, I - as a 30something woman - don't personally have older men as friends!)

Dear all,

In England.

Was hoping for your expertise. I spoke with a surveyor who came to see the block of flats I live in. Apparently he said that our building is beginning to slightly lean forward. I'm not sure how long this issue has been going on for.

I was just wanting to ask, as our housing association is very infamously slow at responding, do they have to inform us about issues like this/what they are going to do it fix it?

I haven't contacted them but they haven't contacted us either in respect to this. I'm worried and Grenfell keeps coming to mind. Appreciate any comments or advice

My property is in a very bad way. I had pest problems, an intermittent leak, the flooring in the kitchen has been chewed away in places by rodents, there are panels missing from when they tried to rectify the problem. The flooring in the bathroom is sub par and doesn't feel solid, the panel in the bath has been removed (not put back) to find the leak and there were actually chicken bones behind it (probably rats) and I can still here rodents in attic.

In moved in 2006 and was due to have my kitchen and bathroom refurbishment in 2010. However although my neighbours had the refurbishments I didn't. The landlord did try and reach out but I was unavailable I have very bad social anxiety issues the toll on my life has been extreme. But I now realise that I want more than just a roof over my head and actually somewhere to live. My housing association is now saying I'm not due for a refurb until 2030 even though I haven't had one period.

Do I have a right to pursue this further I mean I pay the same rent as the person with the refurbed kitchen and bathroom after all.

Advice gratefully received.

Hi everyone my disabled friend has a front door That has been broken for two years, they came round two years ago and fitted a lock for the meantime but she has a hole in her door because of an attempted break in. This is in a block of flats.

Housing association has said that they will fix the door and so far sent round four different people to measure up in the two years but nothing has actually been done to fix the door.

It is at the point now that we are worried about another break in so could we pay for our own door and build the housing association?

Mine is due to be up in November. Do we need to move out to allow someone else to move in? I've noticed that our online statements have ended and do not show any charges after 4th October when it's always been weekly. I've not contacted them yet about this and they've not told us to leave.

We've had ongoing disputes with them regarding service charges so slightly worried they will want us out.

Ok I drive my van home after work it’s a 3.5 t van when loaded when I take it home it’s 2.6. A neighbour has come out tonight and warned me I’m not allowed to park this on the street due to it being a commercial van. It’s in a bay not blocking any light or any cars and not really seen. Will this be ok to park here I’m not breaking any highway laws

England : I owned a flat under the shared ownership scheme and in March 2021 sold my 60% and moved into a house with my partner. All accounts where settled, and the housing association who owned the other 40% sent a statement of arrears (from rent, service charge etc) upon completion and that was paid and contracts where all exchanged.

Yesterday I had a call from my conveyancer stating they sent an incorrect statement of arrears and want a further £220 .

My questions are, can they do this despite all accounts being settled and the contracts exchanged ? Nearly 7 months later ? Even if they sent the wrong amount and I do owe them the £220, this is their mistake they should have noticed and can't expect me to pay it 7 months later surely ? Ultimately I'd just pay it I would not risk going to court and this is not my field of expertise but they were very difficult during the sale so I would rather not just bend over for them and pay it with a smile.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Anyone else in Tampa and attending this conference? If so, would ❤️ to connect!!

https://twitter.com/yonks/status/1453393906402578433

Ok so.

Pre 1989, local authorities and housing associations could grant secured tenancies. Post 1989 only local authorities could grant secured tenancies and housing associations couldn't, instead being able to grant assured tenancies.

I have in front of me a housing association secured tenancy granted in 2002. It notes there was a previous tenancy (presumably also a secured tenancy possibly granted prior to 1989) with the same housing association at a different property which ends immediately prior to this tenancy. It is also a fair rent tenancy.

What is the legal basis for the housing association to be able to grant a secure tenancy in 2002? Presumably it's on the basis that this was an internal transfer and the rights follow, but I need a legislation reference, not some wushu washy answer. I need to be able to categorically point to why they have this right.

Any hints appreciated. Thank you!

As simple as I can put it, I want to see all evidence of the service charges including invoices and receipts. I believe they're incorrectly charging for services that never happen such as Window cleaning. I also believe we're being charged for repairs made when another tenant had smashed up his own flat and damaged the door entry system which I want to dispute.

Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 Section 22(2): >The tenant, or the secretary with the consent of the tenant, may within six months of obtaining the summary require the landlord in writing to afford him reasonable facilities—

>(a)for inspecting the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting the summary, and

>(b)for taking copies or extracts from them.

https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/my-landlord-has-failed-to-provide-a-summary-of-the-service-charge-account-or-allow-access-to-inspect-supporting-documents-in-accordance-with-sections-21-and-22-of-the-landlord-and-tenant-act-1985-wha/:

> The law requires that upon request, the landlord must supply a summary of the accounts and allow for inspection of documents within certain time limits. > > Where a landlord fails without reasonable excuse to comply with either a request for a summary or to inspect supporting documents they commit a summary offence on conviction and are liable for a fine of up to 2,500 (level 4 on the standard scale). > > The local housing authority, usually through the Tenancy Relations Officer, has the power to bring proceedings at the magistrates’ court, or they can be brought by the leaseholder privately. Any prosecution must be presented to a magistrate within 6 months of the date of the offence. > > Please note that local housing authorities are exempt from prosecution.

My husband and I used to rent out a flat in London. We sold the flat and completed on 30th June.

We are still getting letters and text alerts from the housing association (who are the freeholders) despite us repeatedly telling them that we no longer have anything to do with the property. We’ve also contacted the estate agents and the solicitors who handled the sale.

My concerns are:

• important information is not getting to the actual homeowner because it is being sent to us instead

• issues around GDPR (both our privacy, but also that of the current homeowner as we are getting alerts about his service charge account)

• potential unknown legal/financial consequences

Other than complaining and following through the ombudsman process, is there anything else we can do?