Storage for mobility scooters in social housing...

Bacaloca

I don't know if this has been discussed before and apologies if it has. My partner and I both have mobility issues and now rely on mobility scooters for transport. We live in West Yorkshire in a small cup-de-sac of six bungalows, in the cut-de-sac are six garages. The garages were originally built to go with the bungalows, however, over the years they have been rented out to anybody on a first come first served basis. When we moved into our bungalow 2 years ago we put our name on the waiting list for one of the garages.( I will at this point say none of the garages are rented by any of the bungalow residents. ) There is room to park 4 cars at the back of the bungalows, 4 of them have cars. My partner had to stop driving because of medical reasons so we asked if we could stay on the waiting list for a garage to house the 2 mobility scooters. We were then informed that not only were mobility scooters not classed as vehicles but that they had no record of us being on the waiting list. T he housing association said we could apply for a scooter shed but it would have to be built to set recommendations, be a certain distance from the bungalow and made of metal. Then of course because we have communal gardens it would be denied. I just wondered if anybody else had as many problems with storage. We decided in the end to buy a motorbike tent which is classed as portable and that was how we got around the problem.

Thanks for letting me waffle 💜

66Mustang

Did they definitely say you had to put a vehicle in the garage??

I find this odd. I've got a bit of experience renting garages, including council garages, and at no point was it ever specified that I had to own a car or even use the garage for storing a vehicle…Most older garages are completely useless for a typical modern-sized car anyway!!

I'm not trying to doubt you but I think this was strange of them to do that

Bacaloca

They will not rent you a garage unless you have a log book for a vehicle, I took the log book in for the car we had but when I went in to ask about keeping the scooters in a garage they had suddenly lost the paperwork. Our council is very short of garages to rent out and only 2 of the 6 garages have cars in them the rest are used for storage that is what is so annoying about it.

Jimm_Alumni

Have you thought about going to your local authority? I wonder if you've ever had a needs assessment done on your home? I imagine this would include adaptations to help you get out the house, which you need your mobility scooter for. I am not 100% on it admittedly, but it sounds like a possible avenue. They may also be able to make other recommendations to your house that they can help pay for.

See our advice page here https://www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support/home-adaptations-occupational-therapist-assessments

Sorry if this is something you've already tried, but it's the first thing that comes to mind for me

Bacaloca

We have the usual adaptions inside the bungalow, wet room, grab rails, bannister rails, hoist etc… it's the outside we have problems with.

Yorkshireman22

Hi Bacaloca,

This has been a long standing issue with me and my local council. I had to contact my MP and local councillors to get storage sorted after the housing department wouldn’t make any concessions where my mobility scooter was concerned. I eventually got a garage sourced to the rear of my flat after 4 months of not being able to move in. And because I signed my tenancy agreement in November and didn’t get to move in until March I missed the worst months of weather. When it got to autumn last year (2024) I found out just how awful rheumatoid arthritis can be on your joints when your only method of charging is through your living room window.

So at the start of this year I contacted the housing department again to try and arrange something to help with charging. No help again so back to the councillor I went who got an electrician to come out and assess if I could get power to the garage and if not what else could be done. No real solutions were possible so he, my AHO and my councillor all suggested being moved on medical grounds. Housing said no and that the flat I am in was suitably assessed for my needs. My only option was the transfer list (of which I would serve less time in prison for murder). So back to my MP who told the council to allow me to fill in a medical priority form to which I got the answer back on Friday 21st November nearly a whole year after I tried sorting something out in the first place. They have granted medical priority thankfully but now comes the long wait to find a suitable property. I just pray I’m not still here come Christmas 2026!

So the only advice I can give you is to keep being persistent and if they won’t listen, won’t help or both, go over their heads. Life is hard enough for a disabled person without having their only independence taken away from them!