What a waste of money

I agree, seems crazy and wasteful. The sensible thing would be for the LA to contact the future occupants, and ask if they would like the fixtures and fitting!

It is wasteful but councils always want a property back to basic state. I guess it’s so they can assess its state and make it standard and safe with other similar properties to have a level playing field for tenants. Also from a health and safety point of view if there were an accident with the gas fire or the blinds the council would be deemed responsible.

It is crazy but I think it’s more about hygiene than anything else, the council cannot guarantee the property is safe with carpets down. There a lot of unwanted contamination that a carpet might contain, those leaving the house can take then into the new property if the want, although they might not fit.

Mad, daft world innit! So wasteful and bad for the environment. Could the LA not get a gas safety certificate?

I agree it seems wasteful. Our council has a popular shop which sells furniture cheaply, probably due to this ruling.

I learn something every day and this is totally daft but I can see the reasoning behind it. The council should not have to pay for a safety gas certificate or clean the carpets but I am sure the next occupants would love these "extras".

My mother lives in sheltered housing and when someone moves out the management remove all improvements to the property including kitchens and new bathrooms. When she moved into her current property we asked them to leave a kitchen cupboard which had been put up on the wall but it was removed and we had to buy a replacement.

Re the fire ok the son got it put in but the council service it every year as part of the checks on the boiler.

It does seem such a waste. I’m guessing it’s all down to health and safety gone mad. If a house was sold the transaction would be between vendor and buyer and the buyer would accept anything left as “sold as seen” The council want to have the property stripped back to basics so they can’t be held responsible for any “mishaps” once the next tenant moves in.

I’m picturing one of those “did you have an accident that wasn’t your fault” adverts. Call us today and we’ll sue your local council for you!

I don’t understand it at all although I can see the thinking behind it. If you buy a house the fixtures and fittings go with the house as it does in private rented accommodation. In the current crisis it is wasteful and does no good for the environment.

Surely carpets can be cleaned, gas and electric supply checked etc. and the general condition of the property checked.

I am aware that councils do this but it is so wasteful and unhelpful for new tenants. Years ago, when buying a house, most people took carpets, curtains etc. with them and nowadays usually leave these things. Councils should move with the times, as well as being environmentally friendly, and allow modernisation to be kept.

There are more instances of moths in carpets now, due to central heating and milder winters, so I think it is a good idea to remove them to make sure.
Light fittings are a very personal taste, neutral perhaps preferable for new tenants.
Gas fires safety issue, better safe than sorry with gas.

Fortunately our LA doesn't act that way. Our flat still had venetian blinds, curtains and some carpets in place when we moved in. The blinds in particular were a godsend until we could afford to buy the type of blinds we really wanted. Then we put them on Freegle so that someone else could benefit from them.

Our flat is Housing Assoc. and when anyone moves out either the tenant has to strip everything out and reinstate anything such as doors or the HA charges for the work. As most of the tenants are elderly or disabled the flats often come empty due to death so the HA charges their estate. They then go in and paint everywhere magnolia!
Recently some new tenants had been homeless so would have appreciated flooring etc left but the HA removed them anyway.

A friend of mine ran into this problem when her MIL died. She had been living in a LA 'old person's bungalow', and it fell to my friend and her husband to clear it out. They were given a very limited time to do it, and had to dispose of all sorts of fixtures and fittings. It was the Christmas period, and a lot of places were closed, plus there was a considerable distance between the MIL's house and my friend's.

There was absolutely no negotiation allowed - it reminded me of when people in the Forces have to move out of married quarters - which, given the circumstances, seemed inconsiderate.

I understand that council houses are thin on the ground, and there was probably a queue of prospective tenants, but all the same, a bit of compassion would have gone a long way.

I heard of a lady who had put real wood flooring throughout her council flat, thinking she would be there for ever, but after just over a year was offered a wonderful job abroad. She had to remove all the expensive flooring when she left.

Yes Doodledog my daughter had that problem when her Gran (my exMIL) died. It was during the first lockdown. She lived quite a distance away with no car, no - one was taking donations and the LA gave her 2 weeks to clear the bungalow. We couldnt help as we are 300 miles away! She ended up having to pay the LA to remove most of it which went to landfill when it could have been used for someone.

DD lives in an ex-council house. When the family next door moved out, the council did this strip and destroy visit. The family that then moved in, a single mother and children, had no money for carpets or curtains.

DD then had to live with the racket that ensued when two toddlers, mother and visiting friends and family thundered round the house, or that is what it sounded like withloud voices echoing in empty spaces, devoid of the sound baffling curtains and carpets provide.

What is more the cigarette smoke and smells from her new neighbours filtered into her house as well and although she complained to the council they refused to do anything about it. In the end, DD worked out the smoke was seaping in at bedroom level where the floor joists went through the party wall and she took up the floorboards alongside the party wall in her house and filled all the cavity with aerosol expanding foam before putting the floorboards back.

On the flip side, if the flat is fully cleared, the council don’t have to pay for grotty furnishings to be removed before the next tenant can move in.
For every decent carpet left behind, there might be ten not so decent. And who would be paying to clear it?

I don’t think they can remove fixed items such as the gas fire and fireplace unless they replace them. Carpets and blinds are different though.

Contact the local newspaper and show up the Housing Assoc. This is disgusting.

When I left my council flat many years ago I got the council to agree for me to leave the carpets as there were fairly new and in very good condition.
But when my mum died the warden at the supported accommodation where she lived wanted us to remove everything including Ikea built in wardrobes. This was in a studio flat with lounge divided into lounge and a small part as the bedroom. The wardrobes were perfect. I told my sister that they was no way I was going to rip these wardrobes out and if we had to pay for the council to remove, so be it.
When the man next door had moved in, he had nothing to his name as regards furniture. Most people move from aa much bigger home to these studio flats and a lot of what they have won't fit.
We didn't move the wardrobes and we didn't hear anything from the council.
I agree that it is a waste but what happens when the new tenant moves in but doesn't want whatever has been left by the previous tenants - who is responsible for the removal of those items?

I think it’s more to do with equality. The new tenants would, essentially, get a partly furnished home. I’m not 100% sure on this but I once came across a similar scenario years ago when carpets, blinds and an expensive power shower were removed. The reason given was all tenants pay the same amount of rent and the properties should, therefore, be the same.

I worked for a HA in a sheltered housing scheme and many items left behind would find their way into the homes of council workers and families!!!! I would always try to findout if the next family moving in wanted carpets and curtainpoles etc, majority said yes and even arranged for carpets to be steam cleaned before moving in it is such a waste and totally unnecessary in most cases to have to 'dump' good useful items.