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Council stripping newly vacated properties.

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Two friends recently lived close to neighbour who had recently died.  After family had cleared the properties,  the council moved in and stripped EVERYTHING including a 3 month old carpet, cooker lovely light fittings, even a garden hut why?  Where do they take them why aren't they left for new tenants?  I f they don't like them they should be able to dispose of the.  I have a friend who has spent thousands on her flat ie a fitted kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, boiler  even windows! The flat wasn't earmarked for refurburb at that time and it was in a disgusting state,  she was in a position she had to take it.  When anything happens to her (she is 85) it would be a palace for another tenant, who possibly wouldn't be able to afford to put back WHAT this draft council take out, often high quality goods.   Any SF give me a clue?

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It possibly comes down to liability. 

 

I have known them allow carpets but that was a long time ago and the carpets had to be nigh on new!

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When I had the misfortune of living in a council property, I was told that anything I put there such as carpets, white goods etc would be removed if I left it.

 

Basically they would return it to the same state as when I moved in. Though to be honest I'd like to think I left it clean, nicely decorated and not with a rodent problem unlike the previous tenant.

 

It's been some time now, but ten years ago if the property was especially grim they would give you a few hundred quid so you could decorate and carpet it in case you don't like cracked black tile floors covered in glue residue and pet hair, and yellow nicotine stained ceilings and broken dado rails.

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Surely the sensible thing is to give the new tenant the option of taking on the fixtures and fittings of the previous tenant.

I couldn't believe it when we had to empty a sheltered property that we had completely renovated, almost everything was only 6 months old. We would have been happy to let the new tenant choose what they wanted to keep .

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They do it because all council properties have to be of the same or similar standard. 

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2 hours ago, Dardandec said:

They do it because all council properties have to be of the same or similar standard. 

Its also the reason why people in council properties have to get permission to do improvements, they are obliged to put the property back to the same state as before if they then leave.

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As the council are liable for repairs to fixtures and fittings they have to be sure “improvements “ meet H & S standards and meet council spec for repair/replacement. You’d be surprised how many ‘improvements ‘ are unsafe or not viable for repair eg  specialist baths on insufficient joists, light fittings incompatible with electrical safety and black lacquer finish kitchen units which would cost a fortune to replace individual parts. They could even be liable to replace carpets and laminate floors if these were damaged by leaks or accessing pipe work 

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Surely the council aren't so daft that they wouldn't know good stuff from tat!  so when they take quality goods where does it end up...........in council workers homes?

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11 minutes ago, scousemouse said:

so when they take quality goods where does it end up...........in council workers homes?

No, in a skip somewhere.

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On 16/05/2019 at 15:46, apelike said:

Its also the reason why people in council properties have to get permission to do improvements, they are obliged to put the property back to the same state as before if they then leave.

It's the same with private rentals over here. We once got a bill after we moved for putting in several light fittings and painting to our own taste.Apparently we never had permission so they had to re paint to the standard neutral colour and replace our light  fixtures with the standard ones. They charged us for all labour costs. I refused to pay for the painting as it was procedural to freshly paint an apartment when a tenant leaves .Plus our colour scheme was all pastel colours and easy to go over.

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