Are you a Social Housing 'customer'? — Scope | Disability forum
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Are you a Social Housing 'customer'?

GettinOlde
GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
edited June 2019 in Coffee lounge
I am, and over the last 21 years, I have had more bad experiences with my landlord than good.
I would like to hear of your experiences, and how you managed to resolve the bad ones - if at all.
Thank you for your participation.
Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    edited June 2019
    The original social housing stock in my town was owned by the council until they sold it off to a 'not for profit' housing association. It wasn't too bad for the first few years, but then they changed their name to something totally inappropriate and started flexing their commercial muscle.

    More to follow.
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    An appropriate antonym for the name of my social landlord, which is a Latin word, could be 'disregard'. If you think you know what the name is please don't post it. o:)
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • April2018mom
    April2018mom Posts: 2,882 Disability Gamechanger
    Hello

    In my area, there is the Rosebery Housing Scheme. Contact your local council to get the ball rolling. Since this is a long winded process I’d recommend contacting them tomorrow morning. I was lucky in that I was able to find a new apartment independently the normal way. We searched for three months non stop. I viewed numerous flats and apartments within a 15 mile radius of my apartment. Met with a estate agent company. I even interviewed the former apartment owners to get information and opinions. Oh and get a survey done too. 
  • Theinternet
    Theinternet Community member Posts: 5 Listener
    edited June 2019
    It's always interesting to hear of these problems with housing associations, it's almost like there's a lack of democratic accountability and perhaps these problems persist because of that along with the lack of ownership. It's all very top down put it that way.

    Given this, it makes me wonder how much of a difference it would make if instead of housing associations we had something similar to the cohousing develpments in Denmark, where people have a real meaningful stake in their homes. 

    Incidentally there are some housing associations in the UK loosely modeled on some of the features of cohousing and arguably sheltered housing has some of these features. 

    Hamwic Housing, who call themselves a 'housing co-operative', is one example I can think of. 

    https://youtu.be/A5JmoSvmJyc

    http://www.hamwichousingcoop.co.uk/
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    'hamwich' - sounds like it should be in What’s for dinner tonight?!  >:)
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    edited June 2019
    Post deleted as I was having difficulty maintaining formatting when trying to edit and lost much of the content.

    I'll try again later. :#

    Is it just me or do others find double line spacing when they only intend single line spacing?
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • Theinternet
    Theinternet Community member Posts: 5 Listener
    'hamwich' - sounds like it should be in What’s for dinner tonight?!  >:)
    Hamwic is the old Anglosaxon name for Southampton.
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    Back in the early '80s, I lived near the old 'Dell'.and worked at Carey and Lambert, now a Vauxhall dealership, on Banister Road off  The Avenue til made redundant. :/
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    If you had to interact with a landlord's website, be they private, council or housing association, in order to qualify for a prize draw and you were visually impaired, would you find this kind of thing discriminatory?

    This is a screen-clip taken from my social landlord's customer only website; large font body text but I find the embedded images of the documents unreadable.


    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • wheeliegran
    wheeliegran Community member Posts: 20 Connected
    I live in Housing Association property in Halton Cheshire and while it's changed hands several times it's never been a truly bad experience with landlords. Our latest called onward housing is especially tuned in to disabled needs.
    in my area there are a lot of disabled children and adults, we are lucky enough to have a shopping complex with free parking and a choice of three supermarkets, most types of stores are here or not far away. Plus all of it is accessible by electric scooter or electric wheelchair. Depending on what estate a tenant lives they may not need to travel by bus or car unless they need lots of shopping or the weather is bad. 
    I count myself as very lucky living here as I know living in a city is much more difficult.


  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    edited June 2019
    Much of Bath is built on hills - very few level areas to use chairs and scooters - especially bad when trying to get back uphill :/
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • wheeliegran
    wheeliegran Community member Posts: 20 Connected
    Oh no, that must be awful if your chair or scooter doesn't cope well! ...There are here but my scooter copes well as it's a bigger one, my chair also copes quite well it's a Salsa Quikie or something similar....it does quite well as we go on dog walks it needs to lol. 
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    Well, I eventually managed to get myself banned from my [anti]social landlord's exclusive forum for been too outspoken when complaining about the fact that they 'bribe' tenants to participate in certain online tasks that exclude anyone who has impaired vision.
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • April2018mom
    April2018mom Posts: 2,882 Disability Gamechanger
    Well, I eventually managed to get myself banned from my [anti]social landlord's exclusive forum for been too outspoken when complaining about the fact that they 'bribe' tenants to participate in certain online tasks that exclude anyone who has impaired vision.
    You are welcome here instead
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    You are welcome here instead
    Thank you, but I can't participate in my landlord's bribes of the chance of being entered into their free prize draw - I have been excluded from the chance of getting my hands on up to £250 worth of vouchers. ????




    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    How to chop your veggies using a social housing communal door ...


    The door closes even more fiercely in the evening when the electromagnetic door entry system is activated. ? 

    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • Adrian_Scope
    Adrian_Scope Posts: 10,821 Scope online community team
    Wow. Are there any children in the block @GettinOlde?
    Community Manager
    Scope
  • GettinOlde
    GettinOlde Community member Posts: 495 Pioneering
    edited July 2019
    Plenty - I'm surprised there hasn't been a serious accident yet.
    Resident joker - not to be taken too seriously ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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