Wet room

paulessex

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. I’m a council tenant in a 3 bed house, on a lifetime tenancy agreement. 10 years ago I became disabled myself.  

Last year we had  OT round for my mother needs stair lift wet room etc. 

(My mother is 85 has chronic asthma and COPD) she has lived with me for almost 30 years.) council taking ages. (This was long before the pandemic) we decided to pay for the stairlift So mum could at least sleep in her own bed. as The council was coming up with excuse after excuse for delays. (Lost paper work from OT etc) 
we have just finished paying for the stairlift, ( just over £2,000) 
today the council phoned and said, they no longer install wet rooms in 3 bed houses? But I could move to a smaller property? I basically said no, we’ve just finished paying for stairlift and I have spent a lot of money repairing and upgrading things to make life easier for myself and my mother. 

Since when have councils stopped installing wet rooms in 3 bed properties?  

I have asked disability rights for advice but it could take a while before they get back to me. 

Oh I have lived in this house all my life, I took over the tenancy in 1991 when my father died. So please understand why I do not want to move. 

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Si_Obhan

It could be a number of reasons.

You haven’t said how many people live in the house and how many bedrooms you would be entitled to under benefit rules, for example. If you’re underoccupying the house they could may well refuse because it is a family house and usually a house for a family would have a bathroom instead of a wet room. If you ever move out they would have to reinstall a bathroom at considerable cost.

You could argue that a family with a disabled family member could move in, but a counter argument to that would be that the rest of the family would still need a bathroom and a wet room would usually be an extra room on the ground floor, solely used by the disabled person. Without a through floor lift, having an upstairs wet room is pointless for many wheelchair users, even with a stairlift. An NHS powered chair user cannot usually go up any steps or propel themselves around upstairs, else wheelchair services wouldn’t give them a powerchair at all. For this reason it’s not unreasonable for them not to install them upstairs.

My nan and grandad had a 3 bed house to themselves and the council refused to upgrade the kitchen, bathroom and everything else and only made offers to them to downsize. By the time my nan passed away after living on her own for many years, the house was in such a state of disrepair because it was just too big for her to manage. 

There’s also been a case in my local paper last week where a family has been refused an extension on their council house, including a wet room, because the family is over occupying the house. The council said using a grant to adapt the property would not significantly improve their standard of living so it’s a waste of money until they move somewhere bigger.

So it seems like councils are making sure people are in the right size property for their needs before considering any adaptations, which makes a lot of sense and is fair for everyone.