Living in tied #housing

In the CofE if you're paid as a Rev then you will often get your accommodation provided. This can be in the form of a house that the Diocese or Parish own.  Sometimes it is by them making a contribution to the cost of renting somewhere.  

If you've been a home owner before then this is a bit like going back to your younger days at that 1st job or college renting your accommodation. 

With rented accommodation what can be nice is not having to fix, or pay to be fixed, the various things that always seem to need fixing in a house (dripping taps, faulty switches, seen better days shower grouting spring to mind as some of the cheaper things).  

But not having to fix stuff becomes a disadvantage when the landlord takes a long time to fix things as well.  And if the decorating isn't to your taste then you may not be able to convince the Diocese or Parish to redecorate just because you don't like the colour scheme, (returning the decorations to more neutral colours may help your argument as thats the general guidance given on what colour to paint stuff).

The curates house my wife got as part of her tied accommodation is perfectly pleasant.  It is owned by the parish and they are very good at fixing things promptly.  I'm told that the diocese are a lot slower in getting round to fix things on properties they own.  Apparently the trick to getting things fixed quicker by them is as follows.

As in advance as possible from when you are due to move in go round the property with a rep from the diocese property dept. and if you can somebody like an archdeacon.  If you're lucky the property rep will make a list of what needs fixing and then it will get fixed - eventually.

My top tip would be to try and contact the previous curate to find out if there are any particular niggles with the accommodation that they noticed over their 3 or so years as a curate.  

Its also worth finding out whether out whether they did much maintenance on the house.  As a curate's husband you can run into the assumption that all men are good at fixing things. 

In my case I'm not  - so it was useful to make the point that I wasn't a fixer when we first viewed the property with a church warden.   Clarity on expectations helps both sides I think.