To this end Social Services can assist residents with disabilities or health problems that make accessing or living in their home difficult. This help ranges from small alterations such as stair rails to major adaptions like ground floor extension work.
Normally, an application for funding must be submitted. After this an assessment will be made on financial and medical factors. The process can sometimes take up to a year as it is designed to meet longer term needs.
Adapting homes
To this end Social Services can assist residents with disabilities or health problems that make accessing or living in their home difficult. This help ranges from small alterations such as stair rails to major adaptions like ground floor extension work.
Normally, an application for funding must be submitted. After this an assessment will be made on financial and medical factors. The process can sometimes take up to a year as it is designed to meet longer term needs.
Home improvements - alterations to a council property
Your tenancy agreement gives you the legal right to make improvements like this, as long as you get our written agreement first. We welcome people making their own improvements, and only say no if there is a good reason - for example if the work would affect your neighbours or be unsafe.
How to get our agreement
Either write to us explaining clearly what you would like to do.
We may arrange for a technical officer to visit you to check the work would be safe, assess the effect on the property and other people, and advise you about getting planning and building permission.
What else do you need?
You may need to get planning permission and building regulation approval, depending on what you want to do. You will certainly need to get permission and approval to put up a new building (like a garage) or to extend your home.
Don't start work until you have got all the permission and approval you need.
What happens next?
We will write to you to tell you whether we agree to the work. Please do not start anything until we have agreed in writing to your plans.
If we agree, and you have got any other permissions you need, you can go ahead and do the work.
If we do not agree, you must not do the work. You could end up having to put it all back again, and we could take legal action against you for breaking your tenancy agreement.
When the work is finished
Please tell us as soon as the work is finished. We will then visit to check everything is OK. If it isn't we will ask you to put the work right or restore the property to how it was before.
Who repairs and maintains your improvements?
You will have to take on this responsibility yourself, so you would pay for any future breakdown or servicing.
What happens to the improvement if you leave?
If you leave your home, you may be able to take your improvement with you - new cupboards for example. But you must 'make good' after you have removed the improvement by filling holes and repainting for instance. If you do not do this we will charge you for putting it right.
If you leave the improvements when you go you may be eligible for compensation under the 'Right to Compensation for Improvements' scheme, but this only applies to certain improvements.