Anyone know anything about this ?

In council houses , does any building / electrical work have to be carried out by the council  ?  Considering they own the house , can the tenant have work carried out without involving them.?    You can't go altering council houses can you ? 

Had a call this morning from someone who ordered a new cooker , when delivered there was nowhere to connect it so it went back .   Asking me for a quote to wire a cooker supply , they said it was a council house , I said I thought the council had to do all the necessary work on their properties.    Woman said they didn't want to know . 

Knowing the area of the job I quoted £400 off top of head and I was so busy I didn't know when I could do it ,  basically I didn't want to know TBH ...phone hung up , as I guessed. !!

Should have added £1000   for a couple of heavies to guard the van while our backs were turned . 

iirc they (tennent) should be getting permission to do alterations. there is nothing to stop you doing work in a council house, job gets done nd paid the same as if it was a private house

Depends on the council IME, some will and some won't, and some will if you ask. Tenants problem though if they shouldn't have done it, but still not worth the hassle usually if no-one is too sure.

Evans Electric said:

Should have added £1000   for a couple of heavies to guard the van while our backs were turned . 

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At £400 to install a cooker circuit it sounds like there's more than one robber about. 

We do a lot of work on council properties, technically the tenant needs written permission from the council just like private rentals but often the work Is needed urgently and we cant wait for the council to pull their finger out.

Other things like adaptions go through private sector housing.

There are grey areas where tenants have refused upgrades in the past and suddenly find themselves forgetting to turn the gas off so I have to put in an

cooker circuit With a lockable isolator.

Or somehow they have survived the last 50 years without a washing machine but are now unable to make it to the laundrette and Ill put in a new circuit with RCD protection and upgrade the earthing etc. either way you are improving their housing stock and usually its the tenant/

NHS are paying for it.

Just get on with it and let the tennant deal with the council, they will probably never find out until the tenant moves out or shuffles off this mortal coil.

rapparee said:

At £400 to install a cooker circuit it sounds like there's more than one robber about. 

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Quoting £400  was to ensure I didn't get the job  Rapparound .  Upgrading consumer units can be difficult due to the cut -out & metering being encased in sheet steel , fixed with once only screwheads .

Put it like this ...sink estate ...no black people due to high NF following ....  burnt out cars .. unburnt out cars but no wheels ... kids who have opted out of the school system ...any female over 16 without a child is a rarity ...high unemployment  etc etc .

Evans Electric said:

Quoting £400  was to ensure I didn't get the job  Rapparound .  Upgrading consumer units can be difficult due to the cut -out & metering being encased in sheet steel , fixed with once only screwheads .

Put it like this ...sink estate ...no black people due to high NF following ....  burnt out cars .. unburnt out cars but no wheels ... kids who have opted out of the school system ...any female over 16 without a child is a rarity ...high unemployment  etc etc .

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 Fair enough

Thats the one  Rapparound ...and not played enough on our sanitised poppy -woppy '80's based based radio these days  I 'm afraid.  

If you do work on council houses how do you know the inhabitants will pay?? Thing is, if they do not, there would not be much point in trying to county court them. You might get an attachment of earnings, but you would get about 50 pence a week i would imagine..

john..

Again ,  Apprentice,  thats another reason I quoted £400  and was .." extremely busy"  .  

Our housing will let you do alterations, I've never bothered getting permission, although for major stuff you should, and they come out occasionally and do inspections, they came out to do a check as they were planning to fit new kitchens and bathrooms, I'd changed both of mine 3 times without asking, they just looked and said they wished everybody took as much care with the property's as I did.

Generally councils or housing associations have a rule that any work must be done to a professional standard and any paperwork must be provided, also if you move you have to leave in whatever you fit unless you replace it with what was there originally.

The only problem comes if something breaks, they are not obliged to repair/replace it if they didn't provide it. A few years ago we were doing up our lounge and decided to replace the old gas fire with an electric one, a few months later they decided to replace all the gas fires with really nice electric ones as part of a cost saving thing. We were told we couldn't have one as we already had an electric fire!

Mind you I don't mind doing my own work, I've been here for 18 years, my wife's been here even longer, we'll probably live here 'till we pop off so it doesn't bother me spending money on the house. They are doing new kitchens again and we'll tell them we don't want one, our kitchen is quite large and they only fit a few cupboards, when I did it I fitted loads and it's a proper kitchen.