'Trashed and abandoned' homes adding to council house waiting list

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Council homes trashed and abandoned by selfish tenants in West Lothian are adding to under-pressure housing lists and the length of time homes are lying empty.Building Services staff have seen growing numbers of homes returned in the worst condition- category C- requiring major refurbishment before they can be re-let.And the damage is also adding to the council’s growing repair bill across the county.Graeme Ross from Building Services told a meeting recently that the state of the properties handed back to the council was a major factor in the number of empty properties across all wards.There have been issues in the recent past with trade shortages and the supply of materials.

There are also issues with contractorsMr Ross said: “The main problem is the condition that we are getting the properties in and it is taking a lot longer to get them repaired.”Across the council this month there are two category homes A for let, 86 category B, requiring some refurbishment and 158 category C, requiring major works.Mr Ross said: “That gives you a picture of the amount of category C homes.

Historically this is much much higher than it has ever been. The condition of properties and the workload has more than doubled in 18 months.”He added that the timetable for category C homes refurbished for re-let was 30 days.“But if you have a hundred of them instead of ten, it’s obviously going to take a lot longer to do.

Its really down to the condition that we get the properties in.”Mr Ross said that the problems experienced in West Lothian were also being felt by other councils.There are procedures which the worst tenants ignore.