Council Property

[carron81]

Hi

Me and my boyfriend have been offered a 3 bedroom council house where we stay.

We went to view it and we will be taking it but the previous owner has let her many cats pee in every room. The floors are soaked in it and the place stinks.

She's painted everyroom with really bright colours or really dark colours that will take a good few coats to cover up before we could even paint it. She's not even bothered to take any pride in her painting, she's painted over every plug socket and light switch and the cellings have splashes of bright turquoise in one room and dark brown in the other. With folks names written across in Red paint

The place is grotty and has dust hanging from the cellings and is just clarty

I was planning on having to have a clean up eg hoover and dust when we moved in and was going to paint the roofs white and the walls neutral colours to freshen the place up. but when i seen the state of the place it would take me weeks to do and as i've just had a baby the place wouldn't be suitable for us to live in until it the work was done.

The council did say they had a list of work to be carried out and the stinking floors will be sorted. but I dont' think they will paint it.

Can we try and get them to paint it as I do think that it will get rid off the smell and what state should the house be like when we move in?

[bednobs]

paintig wont get cats pee out of carpet!

[carron81]

i know but the smell of cats pee is all over the house and the carpets have been removed. they've scrapped the walls and window ledges and the place is just a stinking mess.

its like when you paint a house a smokers been in it freshens it up and takes the smell away so i'm hoping by painting the place it will do the same.

they've peed in the edges of every room so it'll be in the skirting boards and the lower parts of the walls

[cazzz1975]

elbow grease Im afraid, when my mom moved into her house 18 years ago it was dark brown from smoke, lots of sugar soap, bleach and decorating and the place looked and smelt better.

the council wont do your decorating for you sadly, why not get some family or friends together and clean/paint the place once you have moved in?

[bednobs]

or decline it and wait till they either offer you anther, or rent privately?

[cazzz1975]

I think you are lucky to get offered a 3 bed property if there is only two of you!! I know a family of 5 in a 2 bed flat!

[bednobs]

for some reason i'm presuming this is scotland?
also, they might have 7 other kids i suppose!

[cazzz1975]

sorry didnt see the baby reference!!!

get some help to decorate, it will be done in no time!

[cazzz1975]

oops didnt see the baby reference, its not impossible to decorate the house whilst you live there, I have done it more than once !!

[daffy654]

I think the work done by the council depends on where in the country you live. I know when I lived in Leicester the council used to redecorate every property when someone moved out and before the next tenants viewed the property. One tip for getting rid of the smell of cat pee is to spray all affected areas with a watered down solution of BIOLOGICAL washing powder.It must be biological,non bio won't work.

[carron81]

hi

yeah, there's me my boyfriend and a baby and he also has two other children that will be staying

we really need to move now as we are living in a bedsit so we cant really hold off for another place as it could be years. me and the baby will be moving to the house and my boyfriend will be moving to a caravan so he can keep his job, long story. we live on islands up north so i'll be on one island and him on another

it doesn't bother me having to do cleaning and a spot of painting i done up our last flat in a couple of months but the amount of coats that place needs is crazy. if it was just the case of a couple of coats it wouldn't bother me as i could get it done quick but it'll take 3/4 coats just to cover the mess and sanding to get the red grafiti off the walls in one of the rooms.

also, its not a place we're planning on staying forever so i would'nt want to waste money on plug sockets and new light switches just to move in a few years. but i don't really want to live with turquoise switches in on room, yellow and brown in another. holes in the walls

there is a limit to our budget and we really need to get the place half decent for moving in so we can have his other 2 kids to stay

where we stay there isn't really any places we can rent privately. as its a small island theres not many houses to choose from

just spoke to my boyfriends sister and she said that theres folk she knows that got a lot more done to their house by the council and their houses were in a lot better condition than ours

[bednobs]

i'm sorry, i dont understand how you can have both been offered the house if he isnt going to live their - do you ean you are already lying to the council about who is going to be living there?

[New Judge]

Welcome to the same world that people who buy a house and those who rent from the private sector have been inhabiting for many years.

[carron81]

hi

he will be living there but when he works he has to live on the island for the weeks he works. as you cant have 2 council houses he's living in a caravan the weeks he works and for the week he's off he'll be coming home. he has to do this as there is no jobs on the island we're living on. he's been told there will be a job coming up in the next 8months so has to live in the caravan till then so he can keep his job.

i wouldn't exactly call living in a 20 year old caravan having 2 houses. i don't think anyone would want to live in a caravan over the winter months in shetland

we did have a flat but we had to sell it to move up here so he could take the job

theres no lying

[topman9thnov]

sounds like a purrfect property.

[carron81]

Hey folks

Just to update you, Its been 3 months since we viewed the property.

We've been packed up and ready to move for about a month now

Been for a 2nd inspection a couple of weeks ago and nothing had been done. The council have agreed to do the work and theres been council workers in at the weekend ripping up floor, paining, fixing holes in the cellings.

Went for our 2nd inspection and these folk who've been going up at the weekend must be going for a skive because nothing has been done

Theres folk in the same position as us who are due to move across the road. They're going to see the local councillor about their house. But they were saying to us they aren't in as much a rush as us as its just the 2 of them

Watch this space.....