The 2010 Decent Homes Standard
I should imagine most Council and Housing Association tenants have heard of this government initiative to bring all homes up to standard by the year 2010.
In your own property this might include one or all of the following: double glazing, new kitchens, bathrooms, electrical rewires and heating systems.
[ad#Google 200×200 right]Some landlords choose to do the work in a property “all in one go” and some choose to do “one thing at a time”. Personally, having gone through the “one thing at a time” option, I’m not entirely sure whether I could have coped with them doing the re-wire, the double glazing and the central heating all in one go. But hey, you may as well get all the mess in one hit I suppose.
What I’m more interested in is how far has your landlord got in completing all the work?
My council, Birmingham City Council, I’m pleased to say is 96% finished. That’s nearly 69,000 properties brought up to standard. They will complete them all by March 2010.
So do you know where yours stands?
Are you a landlord that has completed already or a landlord that is struggling to complete?
As always we welcome your comments on this article.
Author: CCHE Deb
I’m with Sandwell Council, I have a 2 bed house thats all single glazed. Am I entitled to have this property double glazed under this scheme? My gas bill has been horrendous since I moved in July 2012 to heat the property, the past 6 months has been so much more than it was in my last property even taking into account the size difference of the property. Thanks
I their I am living with my parents and the house is from gateway housing
association we been living in the house for 21 years and the bathrooms and
kitchen are falling apart but still we dont get a new kitchen but other tenants
in my area and my next door get new bathrooms & kitchen so i want to know
why my landlord is refusing us to give new bathroom & kitchen because this falls
under the decent home standards please can you tell me can I take legal action
against my landlord .
Thank You
Salina, have you actually asked (pref in writing) a housing officer why you are not getting a new kitchen. Most kitchens are replaced after 25 years and it is up to the landlord to decide if they need replacing. It is highly unlikely you could take action because replacing kitchens and bathrooms was NOT part of the original and now defunct Decent Homes Standard per se. It simply stated that kitchens and bathrooms should be of a decent standard etc and wasn’t part of the original DHS stating homes must be secure, warm and windproof.
M Anderson – Sandwell are still bringing their homes up to standard. The documents of interest are here : http://www.sandwell.gov.uk/site/scripts/google_results.php?q=decent+homes+standard
Me and my family recently moved a council flat to a house. I dont understand how the council can give properties to tenants looking like the way they do. At least Housing Associations properties have to upto a certain standard before they give the keys to the tenants but Council properties are just a mess. We have spent alot of money to get the house into just to reasonable living standards but the kitchen is in such a state and so stuck in the 70’s. We only accepted the property as it had a walk in shower as there are 3 people in the household with disabilities in the household including my son who is Autistic and i am paralysed. I dont understand how we also have the private sector who chase up dodgy landlords for home improvements when the council properties are not upto standard themselves.
We live in an Accord housing association property, been here 18yrs and its hard enough to get normal repairs done,they havnt even started on any of the Accord properties that we know of. It bad they charge us enough rent yet we have to live with mould around the windows and freezing conditions as no gsh. Not happy about it and desperate to move.
I am a tenant of great places housing association, not so great I’m afraid I moved into the 3 bed house in 2007 since then we have had new double glazed windows & doors a new kitchen & outdoor rendering to the properties. That’s where it ends I’m afraid the bathrooms are 20 years old (the house was built 20 years ago) the downstairs internal doors are hollow rotten chipped wood again 20 years old so just general wear & tear all the handles are broken & apparently I must pay for the updating of the internal doors ?? I have checked this out as I live here with my young family we currently only have one internal door upstairs as the bottoms of the doors were so warped they cut my children’s toes 🙁 so we removed them as our ha have refused to repair or replace them. No plans as yet for new bathrooms I have a chip in my bath & I am currently awaiting them to come & ‘repaint’ it, I feel its a very sad affair when the tenants whom pay so much rent & spend x amount of pounds on improving their properties they neglect our requirements I am saddened by the whole thing.
Hi Kirsty, Some things about housing are very saddening I agree. However …. our requirements aren’t necessarily our landlords requirements! As for your doors – you should not have removed them. If they were dangerous then you should have kept at your HA until they did something. Now you have removed them – you will have to replace them at your own expense. Internal doors are not part of the Decent Homes Standard anyway. You are lucky you had new kitchens! My kitchen units are 33 years old (Yes 33!). Landlords are not obliged to update the kitchens or bathrooms until they seem fit. Windows, heating and secure doors yes – many tenants all over the country are still without these.
I rather think things will get worse with all the cuts that the government made to councils and landlords.
I am with a housing association who unfortunately will only do the bare minimum whatever the repair. This also includes maintenance of the communal walkways etc (which is detailed in our tenancy agreements & we all include around £8 maintanance fee a week in our rent). They’re now sending newsletters which include advice on the repairs you should do yourself and alot of the time we’re made to feel that we have caused the damage ourself as their new policy states we have to fund those repairs ourselves (as if we would sabotage our own homes!). Myself and all the other tenants I have spoken to all have the same thing in common- we have very old kitchens and bathrooms that have seen numerous tenants (my own has had at least 2 other seperate tenants before us, the lady before us died of cancer and was infirm for a while so unable to upkeep the property) the kitchens and bathrooms are now over 27 years old and in bad states, mould, rust etc. Is there any help we are entitled to? Thanks