Harlow Council highlights problem of re-letting properties due to poor conditions when tenants leave
News / Thu 19th Jun 2025 at 07:32am
HARLOW Council is being hampered in re-letting their own properties due to the state that some properties are left In when tenants leave.
The figures were revealed at last week’s cabinet meeting as part of a general report back on performance on whole range of duties and functions undertaken by the council.
The target is 28 days but they are averaging 31 days.
The most recent month (April) had a 37 day average turnaround figure.
We asked Harlow Council if there was any sanction against tenants who leave their properties in poor conditions?
A spokesperson pointed us in the direction of detail in tenancy agreements and from their website.
From the tenancy agreement: “We will charge you the reasonable costs of removing any of your belongings that you leave behind, or for work that is necessary if you fail to leave the property clean and in a good state of repair.”
From their website: “If you do not leave your home in a satisfactory condition we will carry out the work to bring it up to the required standard. We will charge you the cost of doing this work.”
The discussion on the subject is below.
Nicholas Taylor
2025-06-19 08:08:02
Nothing new here. Some residents have always left their home in a poor condition. The problem is that the teams dealing with vacant properties are not being resouced enough to deal with the amount of work needed. This is what happens when you leave staff vacancies vacant for months on end or HTS have to trim their staff to make ends meet or make a profit. To remind readers, from 2017 to 2020 the turnround time was less than 20 days.If you need more evidence of how the council works, take a look at Broadwalk, on a good day you might find 6 men working on site. Why not 26 and get the work finished sooner?
gary roberts
2025-06-19 11:32:53
I suspect many residents' could report council homes being left empty for months without any evidence that the council have even viewed the properties. Sadly this is not a new development in local councils'. When I was the chair of the Harlow Common residents association, residents regularly raised these concerns with local councillors' present only to be told "we will look into it" but it appearing on the minutes many months later. That was over 30 years ago, why has it not improved? Mind you it should also be noted that tenants' do leave their property in good order and those homes are still not re-let for months in my experience.
Adrienne
2025-06-19 11:55:16
Yes and I waited 24 years to have a hot shower.When we moved into our council property there were live wires hanging out of the walls broken fire doors and we were told we had to accept it as it was.Plaster falling off walls craters the size of large oranges. I still live in this hotel and have to pay rent. The workmen are great.But bit miffed that if I make to much of a stink I will be evicted.
abbie
2025-06-19 11:59:14
To get a Council House these days, you can't be normal - you need to have some sort of problem. Also, these places are given out at discount rents, rather than at normal market rents. So they shouldn't be treated like normal open market tenancies. Make them fixed for 2 years and at the end of the 2 years you can see if the need still exists and make sure there is a full inspection every 6 months and make sure that the tenant has kept the place in tip top condition.
Nicholas Taylor
2025-06-19 13:19:59
abbie, just to set the record straight. You do not have to have a problem to become a council tenant. The rents charged reflects what the council needs to charge to cover its costs, not like in the private sector where landlords want to make huge profits. New council tenants are offered what is known as an "Introductory Tenancy" so if there are any issues (rent arrears, anti-social behavior and not looking after the home) the council can evict the tenant, the court HAS to give an eviction warrant. Such tenancies last for one year and can be extended to 18 months. I believe Harlow Council do carry out regular inspection checks of their tenants.
Jennifer F Steadman
2025-06-19 13:39:57
So what of the properties left in an habitable condition? There is a 3 bedroom house in Harlow that was left in pristine condition, the council went in ripped up the decking and left. The property has remained empty for 8months now!
David White
2025-06-19 14:25:28
Abbie Me, my wife and 3 children got a council house 6 months ago. We work full time and we do not have anything wrong with us. We were on the list for years and have always lived and worked in Harlow, this is why we got the house. You're assumptions are incorrect.
BRYAN ROWLEY
2025-06-19 16:43:46
When I moved in my flat I found josh stick in a jack dangles bottle in bath room.kitchen wright mess
Seamus
2025-06-19 17:32:53
The implication is that most are left in a dire condition causing a delay in re-letting but this is simply not the case. The problem seems to be in the management in both HTS and the Housing department being unable to manage. The sooner someone is in then that's one less on the list and an income coming into Harlow council's coffers.
Ted
2025-06-19 18:43:46
I think it's down to tenants who could not care less what damage they do , because they don't own the house, and don't appreciate what they have been given. Scumbags don't deserve anything
AJ
2025-06-19 20:38:32
We downsized our house and before we moved I had to paint rooms a neutral colour, rip up a perfectly good wooden flooring, drain the pond and fill it in.We caught COVID and had to delay moving out...I put myself in hospital because I had a serious diabetic hypo...
Adrienne
2025-06-19 22:10:52
At least we do have a good repairs company. But they are granted permission to do works which they do well.I would prefer the works to be replaced by new equipment rather than trying to maintain old equipment.That is my only gripe.
Peter
2025-06-19 22:24:44
An old neighbour passed away, in a small flat in my area, a living room One bedroom a bathroom and a kitchen A lovely garden . It was all in good condition, for 8 weeks I saw sometimes 4 vans outside her flat. Harlow council , why are you absolutely waisting money and time .this flat there was no need to spend thousands doing it up.2 weeks someone could have been in living comfortably.
Suzy
2025-06-20 03:16:18
When we moved out of one property my husband filled any holes in the wall from pictures and repainted all the walls in neutral colours. It was a maisonette so no garden needed doing. It took 6 months before they placed another tenant in. The property we moved into had had the council in to update some things as the tenant before us had lived there for 40 years and had never let the council do any updates. The housing officer was so disgusted at the state the workmen had left the property in that they awarded us £500. To redecorate before we could move in.
Paula
2025-06-20 19:21:18
Simple, stop supplying council housing.Use the taxes on providing resources for all of the population, not just a select few. All it does is foster a culture of dependancy on the state with no responsibility to take ownership of their own lives. Why should the tax payer have to fund this for the no hopers , drug addicts and poor achievers . Along with benefits for not bothering to work because they are so called chronically sick, they are taking the rest of us for a laugh.
Adrienne
2025-06-21 00:29:08
More over if the monies accrued from selling the council houses was actually put back in Harlows' pot to build new ones then I feel the situation today would have been not so dire and our youngsters would actually be able to afford to rent them. That is the sad fact. Also Paula even though I respect your opinion,I would like to inform the public that most of Harlow was built as a council community their are still alot of original people living here. Perhaps if the wonderful community housing hadn't been sold off may have been a different situation altogether. There has been alot of greed in the past which has damaged the spirit of our town life. House prices are another tomb for our town.That is my biggest worry. But Harlow is still a good place to live and I wish only that people were treated with more respect.
Collette
2025-06-21 08:27:55
I'm due to. Move end monyh my current t place has newly fitted kitchen done by my ex partner, built in cooker and newly fitted carpets I've been told to take out built in appliances and take carpets up, as bet council will rip kitchen. Out and put standard kitchen bk in when thees thing wrong
Nicholas Taylor
2025-06-21 11:06:59
Paula, as a former housing manager with Harlow Council I can say from personal experience that most council tenants look after their home, indeed when the council regularly repaired and painted the outside of the homes they owned it was often the case that the worse looking homes on an estate were privately owned. Since the early 1990's, the monies paid by council tax payers and those paying rent have to be kept apart, so tax payers are not and cannot pay towards those that rent a council home. The reason that people apply for a council home, as has been the case for well over 100 years is because they cannot afford to rent or buy in the private sector, people on lower incomes, doing jobs which are vital to our economy. As someone has said, this town was built by workers who went on to rent a council home. Since then the housing policies of both main polical parties have caused the housing crisis this country now faces.
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