Southwark Housing Repairs - Legal advice needed

[wonderwoman]

Hi we've had ongoing problems with Southwark repairs. Due to historical flooding we've had them to deal with complaints to get them to redo our flooring. Its taken 4months but today we've had to move everything in our flat for them to turn up dump flooring saying they'll book another time to return. Completely unacceptable. We have small kids me and my partner has had to rearrange and manage this with work and childcare. Cant even get through on phones due to their systems being down. We go away next week and they promised this would be done. Desperate and stressed. Ive contacted James Barber as he's aware of our problems left message.

Anyone know a good lawyer or Southwark news are you interested? Would ombudsman be any good? Ive been trying to fend of having to go through more stress of pursung a case but am at wits end!

[Azira]

Speak to Citizens Advice Bureau in the first instance, but with a bit of googling you'll see there are tonnes of free legal advice centres around London.

[ratty]

As a council employee (not Southwark) I think I should point out just how much the Govt has cut funding to councils. It has been brutal and continues to be so. It's easy to slate the council and often justified, but the pressures are phenomenal. Call centres being set up because they are cheaper than having professional staff answering the phone etc. My council are still running Windows XP ffs because the cost of upgrade is too much! Oh, and we are making people redundant hand over fist! This goes in hand with procuring cheaper contracts and you get what you pay for.......

Anyway....

You mentioned ombudsman and this is definitely a good route, but you will have to exhaust Southwarks complaints procedure first or they will simply bat it back. If you have not put in official complaint I would suggest doing so straight away to start the ball rolling.

Best of luck!

[spider69]

wonderwoman Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hi we've had ongoing problems with Southwark

> repairs. Due to historical flooding we've had them

> to deal with complaints to get them to redo our

> flooring. Its taken 4months but today we've had to

> move everything in our flat for them to turn up

> dump flooring saying they'll book another time to

> return. Completely unacceptable. We have small

> kids me and my partner has had to rearrange and

> manage this with work and childcare. Cant even get

> through on phones due to their systems being down.

> We go away next week and they promised this would

> be done. Desperate and stressed. Ive contacted

> James Barber as he's aware of our problems left

> message.

> Anyone know a good lawyer or Southwark news are

> you interested? Would ombudsman be any good? Ive

> been trying to fend of having to go through more

> stress of pursung a case but am at wits end!

Are you a tenant or Leaseholder?

[wonderwoman]

Hi yes understand about cuts, IT systems etc. But this is just about poor communication and lack of responsibility or initiative. I've been dealing with them for years and can pinpoint failures recommendations for improvements which can save them time and waste. I mean we have had workmen come and go because they've not been communicated to properly. I too work in a council and specific dealings with housing and other services, so I can compare their service delivery compared to others as well. This case has been exhausted by complaint dept who are equally frustrated by contractors. I'm a tenant and even if i was a leaseholder southwark would have same responsibilities with building faults as they have to manage maintenence which i contribute to as part of my rent to them.

[spider69]

Why not put in a disrepair legal claim. If it can be shown Southwark was in the wrong you have a claim. Peter John should be included in all correspondence.

Disrepair tends to concentrate the senses as it could be expensive.

[James Barber]

Hi

Sounds awful - and council housing budgets are ring fenced and separate to council general funds so absolutely no excuse for this.

I'm on hiday until Sunday evening. Please contact my ward colleague Cllr Rosie Shimell ASAP [email protected]

[PeckhamRose]

Leaseholder CAB. Assuming you are a leaseholder of a Southwark Council Property.

[Andrew1011]

I'd strongly advise you to contact Helen Hayes MP via [email protected] now, or call 020 7219 6971 on Monday.

The parliamentary recess has begun so Helen won't have any more of her weekly constituency surgeries until September, or I would have strongly advised you to go to one now (as I did last week in respect of a daft local road closure proposal). However, Helen or her constituency staff will be around over the summer and will deal directly with the council for you on issues of this kind, and hopefully save you a lot of time, effort and resources yourself.

[hellodear_Dulwich]

Hello

If you are a council tenant you have the right to approach Southwark Arbitration. On the alternative, you could apply to the court for an injunction to make them complete the repairs it is responsible for, plus compensation for breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment.

The ombudsman is a good option, but you have to be an eligible complainant and have to have passed through the complaints process first and even then you have to have an MP refer you if the Council does not agree for it to go to an ombudsman.

If you are a leaseholder, then its breach of contract through the courts.

Irrespective of the Council's sob story that its funds have been cut, my view is that the issue is its employing people who are not effective in their roles! That is not yours or your families problem. Whilst budgets are low, they still have a contractual obligation. Would the council accept you not paying rent or service charge because its been a difficult time! It would not!

Just at the council expect you to comply - it must comply with the tenancy or the lease. Its simple as that.

As has been said, the fund is ring fenced so no excuses.

Responding to the comment above re: disrepair, you could do this, but you must follow the pre-action protocol and will need a surveyor's report to evidence what the council need to do.

Kind regards

[IlonaM]

The housing team at Cambridge House Law Centre (See: http://www.ch1889.org/)is very good. They have worked wonders for some of my clients. Also look at the Shelter website which gives lots of info and also offers helpline advice (telephone and email).

[uncleglen]

Southwark have also received monies from the EU for the Warm, Dry, Safe scheme. I am cynical about all of this however because of local democracy. It means that although the council receives the monies for schemes and it is ring-fenced it does not guarantee that the monies are spent on the front line....it could be used to extend admin at the town hall in those departments and central government can be accused of cut-backs...or given the extent of the leftie rantings on social media, people will assume it is government cut-backs. I hate the way that lefty, so-called 'socialist' councils use front line services as political footballs.

[wonderwoman]

Many thanks for all your suggestions. Some of which I've looked into already. As some of you say there is no excuse for poor inefficient workers. When the IT system was down yesterday I got through accidentally to someone in finance who could not understand how communication could not get through, he simply said he walked over to pass on my concerns and advised to call him back if no one called within the hour. This is about a can do rather than can't do attitude. Our current situation is that Southwark had responded quite early that the Contractors admitted fault but since then its been a slog to get them to arrange works to be done in a timely fashion, due to workmen availability, materials being ordered. Still I've had to remind them about basic things which they've neglected to do and disputes about how the repair should be done. The onus is on them to put right to reflect at least how it was before, not do a slap dash job and go off. But instead of contracting someone to do job properly they rely on barely skilled workmen which actually is ineffective would seem to me more costly with repetitive call outs. To date we have had nothing in writing even though complaints are involved stating what has been agreed in terms of compensation or resolution. Only a cheque for a couple of missed appointments. Where I work we have to give written response within two weeks sometimes sooner when legal are involved.

[landsberger]

One of my acquaintances in Southwark - who, incidentally, lost hundreds of staff on Friday - told me that their phone system (other than internal) and IT system was down the whole day.

The problem you have is that the people who have dealt with your case are probably long gone - and the people they handed it over to. Councillor Barber won't miss a chance to make a partisan point here - I wonder if the Libs and Tories were still running the borough you would be quite so critical - but the reality is here is a tenant/resident who has been messed around. AFAIK, the IT system is back up and running - ring on Monday, ask to speak to someone - if they are mysteriously unavailable, ask to speak to their boss. And so on. If they put you off, tell them you will ring every 30 minutes until you speak to someone.

[Andrew1011]

That's a very labour intensive and potentially stressful way of doing it though (I had to call the council on Friday too about a faiure on its part and encountered the same problem), even on a normal day when all the IT is working. I still recommend contacting Helen Hayes MP and letting her deal with it on your behalf.

[spider69]

landsberger Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> One of my acquaintances in Southwark - who,

> incidentally, lost hundreds of staff on Friday -

> told me that their phone system (other than

> internal) and IT system was down the whole day.

>

> The problem you have is that the people who have

> dealt with your case are probably long gone - and

> the people they handed it over to. Councillor

> Barber won't miss a chance to make a partisan

> point here - I wonder if the Libs and Tories were

> still running the borough you would be quite so

> critical - but the reality is here is a

> tenant/resident who has been messed around. AFAIK,

> the IT system is back up and running - ring on

> Monday, ask to speak to someone - if they are

> mysteriously unavailable, ask to speak to their

> boss. And so on. If they put you off, tell them

> you will ring every 30 minutes until you speak to

> someone.

out of interest from what section/area/department are they from

Southwark is yet again in another reorganisation and combining of departments.

This is where the expertise of older workers gets thrown away for cheaper inexperienced replacements.

[stevie23b]

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