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[Stemo]

....

Think yourself lucky, the tiler used to work in a Body Shop. 

Ah! A Golf Harlequin        http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/03/volkswagen-golf-harlequin-vws-strangest-idea/

Looks like Polo to me 

No. A polo is a small, round sweetie.

[tunnie]

finding it interesting all posts on 'level of service' and 'standard' of service.

Forgetting the colour for a minute, is it a bad job? Is it dangerous, are the tiles about to fall off? Does it look like they were put up by Clarkson after a few beers with just a hammer saying 'how hard can it be'?

Simple answer is no. The actual fitting of them is fine. (at least shown in the photos)

The colour does not match, but as the council is a landlord for probably 100,000s+, I suspect they bulk buy products to save a couple of quid. So I suspect they did the best they could, with the tiles they had. The house I (well FatherT paid for) while at Uni had all kinds of tiles, some painted with paint coming off, this was a private landlord. 

If you want the kitchen to look the way you want to, then do it yourself. As I personally don't see the difference between this and someone saying I don't like them all brown, change them to blue. Especially on a council funded house were it's zero cost to you.

You suspect they bulk buy and you suspect they did the best they could. That's a lot of suspecting. Our landlord gets a man out and, if he doesn't have it on his van he goes to B&Q or the local plumbers merchant or wherever they have an account.

Looking at pictures, job looks fine on cut ect, so best they could there.

Bulk? Well yup, knew a few people from college days who have council houses. Builders just get what ever the council gives them, as they get it at bulk/discount.

That said, would not surprise me if others paid tillers to go to B&Q and pay full retail prices, might explain why they are broke 

[Stemo]

Our housing association employs hundreds of tradesmen but they drive company vans and stick to company rules. Quite often a man in a suit comes before the job is done to discuss it with you or (mostly) afterwards to inspect the job. Tenants sit in on board meetings and have their say on the running of the association and bring up any concerns from tenants local to them. They would not attempt to do a job like that, knowing full well that they wouldn't get away with it.
As for student accommodation, landlords know they'll wreck it anyway.

[brendan1983]

If you're not happy why not just rent somewhere else privately or buy somewhere??

[Stemo]

If you're not happy why not just rent somewhere else privately or buy somewhere??

What a stupid statement 
"You've done a piss poor job on my tiling so I'm off to buy a house" 

[Andy B]

....

Think yourself lucky, the tiler used to work in a Body Shop. 


 ....

Ah! A Golf Harlequin        http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/03/volkswagen-golf-harlequin-vws-strangest-idea/

Looks like Polo to me 

Polo ... Golf .... nearly the same. And the article mentions both 

[Andy B]

It'd be nice to move to Looe ... sea, sand, nice views etc. I'd have to sell my house, buy another & then get another job that pays enough to buy a house in Looe! 

[aaronjb]

It'd be nice to move to Looe ... sea, sand, nice views etc. I'd have to sell my house, buy another & then get another job that pays enough to buy a house in Looe! 

Something like this for you, Andy? http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41300071.html

[Stemo]

It'd be nice to move to Looe ... sea, sand, nice views etc. I'd have to sell my house, buy another & then get another job that pays enough to buy a house in Looe! 

Well..you can't! Beans in Bury for you mate 

[Stemo]

Poor Kate. She only asked about her tiles and now look what she's done.

Always been a troublemaker, that one.

[powerslinky]

The workmanship looks fine to me, good spacing on the tiles, neat cut work around the plugs. No poor workmanship there in my opinion 

Colour? Well yes that does not match, but as others have said it's a council property. You rent it from the council? It's their house 

Sorry but I believe if you pay rent then why should you get a sub standard service, if a job is to be done then do it properly, the council create work to use up government funds so why not use them to keep up the condition of the properties they own.

I was amused by this at first, but Mr Skrunts is right.  You pay your rent and for that expect a certain level of service in return, like any other business transaction. 

It wouldn't have been a much bigger job to have knocked all the tiles off and redo the lot. It's a bodge and shows a level of disregard from the council/housing association towards their customers!

Too right Tigger . .  total disregard      I work in social housing repair & maintenance  & the days of having pride in the job you do have long gone . The reason being that you can only do what the "management" ,in this case , the local authority will let you do . Times for jobs has been cut to the bone, rates for the jobs have been cut to the bone ,we are made to use inferior & sometimes even the incorrect materials .There is a phrase that is used in local authority & housing association letting departments & that is  "a lettable standard".
In my area that standard is diabolicaly low . I myself always try to do the best of what is possible with what you have to work with & time allowed . Sometimes I am completely embarrassed by what the authority serveyors have requested we do ,some  are totally clueless.

With Kate's tiling , I would not blame the guy who did the work , he's made a fair job of what he has been permitted /told to use & in the time he was allocated  IMO. The problem lies with the people who instruct them to do it like that .

Agreed that if you  had taken on a tradesman yourself & were expected to pay for it ,you would not be satisfied with a complete mismatch of tile colour . But tiles are always difficult to match once they have been up for more than a year or two . Even plain white tiles have "shade"  issues when trying to match up with existing .

Hope this sheds a bit of light on the unfortunate tradespeople that work in this field, most of the time it's really not their fault 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

String the culprit up by his balls, Kate......

I've seen worse and I've seen better.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

There seems to be a level of misunderstanding from some folk here. Those of us who don't live in high rent areas i.e. London or the Home Counties, pay a similar rent for a social landlord as is paid by the private sector. There is hardly any subsidy. If someone is on benefits, then the taxpayer subsidises them whether they are in private or social housing.
In 2000 the government put in place a rent escalator so as to bring both rents into line. Our rent has increased by over 5% each year since (in fact nearly 7% this year).
We also pay our council tax, just like anyone else, and my wife probably pays more in income tax and nat ins than a lot of people earn.
As for repairs, the social landlord(ours is one of the largest in the country) have to abide by a charter, the same one that covers right to buy and so on. It is a choice some people make. Pay rent for a place you will never own and get all the repairs/maintenance done, or buy and do your own repairs.

Kate is entitled to expect a reasonable level of repair/maintenance and, should she choose to, can kick up a fuss about such things.


Now then, park your high horses and try to realise that not everyone is as fortunate as you think you are.

In 1984 we moved into a flat in Solihull. The flat was owned by a private landlord......Norwich Union if memory serves.

It cost £69 a month to rent this one bed flat in 1984. The rent had risen to £119 a month by the time we left in 1990.

I hear it's about £550 a month now. 

Norwich Union were responsible for any repairs, but most of the time they couldn't be arsed and we had to constantly chase them up........Lazy bastards.

[tunnie]

There seems to be a level of misunderstanding from some folk here. Those of us who don't live in high rent areas i.e. London or the Home Counties, pay a similar rent for a social landlord as is paid by the private sector. There is hardly any subsidy. If someone is on benefits, then the taxpayer subsidises them whether they are in private or social housing.
In 2000 the government put in place a rent escalator so as to bring both rents into line. Our rent has increased by over 5% each year since (in fact nearly 7% this year).
We also pay our council tax, just like anyone else, and my wife probably pays more in income tax and nat ins than a lot of people earn.
As for repairs, the social landlord(ours is one of the largest in the country) have to abide by a charter, the same one that covers right to buy and so on. It is a choice some people make. Pay rent for a place you will never own and get all the repairs/maintenance done, or buy and do your own repairs.

Kate is entitled to expect a reasonable level of repair/maintenance and, should she choose to, can kick up a fuss about such things.


Now then, park your high horses and try to realise that not everyone is as fortunate as you think you are.

In 1984 we moved into a flat in Solihull. The flat was owned by a private landlord......Norwich Union if memory serves.

It cost £69 a month to rent this one bed flat in 1984. The rent had risen to £119 a month by the time we left in 1990.

I hear it's about £550 a month now. 

Norwich Union were responsible for any repairs, but most of the time they couldn't be arsed and we had to constantly chase them up........Lazy bastards.

That is the price per week around most of London 

[Stemo]

There seems to be a level of misunderstanding from some folk here. Those of us who don't live in high rent areas i.e. London or the Home Counties, pay a similar rent for a social landlord as is paid by the private sector. There is hardly any subsidy. If someone is on benefits, then the taxpayer subsidises them whether they are in private or social housing.
In 2000 the government put in place a rent escalator so as to bring both rents into line. Our rent has increased by over 5% each year since (in fact nearly 7% this year).
We also pay our council tax, just like anyone else, and my wife probably pays more in income tax and nat ins than a lot of people earn.
As for repairs, the social landlord(ours is one of the largest in the country) have to abide by a charter, the same one that covers right to buy and so on. It is a choice some people make. Pay rent for a place you will never own and get all the repairs/maintenance done, or buy and do your own repairs.

Kate is entitled to expect a reasonable level of repair/maintenance and, should she choose to, can kick up a fuss about such things.


Now then, park your high horses and try to realise that not everyone is as fortunate as you think you are.

In 1984 we moved into a flat in Solihull. The flat was owned by a private landlord......Norwich Union if memory serves.

It cost £69 a month to rent this one bed flat in 1984. The rent had risen to £119 a month by the time we left in 1990.

I hear it's about £550 a month now. 

Norwich Union were responsible for any repairs, but most of the time they couldn't be arsed and we had to constantly chase them up........Lazy bastards.

Yes..but, come on....who wouldn't want to live in Solihull? Worth twice that rent I should think.