General Chat

In the long-running debacle that is the place I'm staying ('living' isn't the word), I received the following paragraph in an email.

In the meantime, I note that you are currently experiencing issues with suspected damp in your kitchen and as such I have arranged for the council’s Property Surveyor to come and review the damp in your kitchen and to ensure that appropriate action is taken following the visit. To get things underway quickly, I have provisionally scheduled an appointment for the afternoon of the xx January 2023. But please do contact Mr xxxx on 01962 xxxxx or email [email protected] if the suggested date is not suitable to make alternative arrangements that suit you.

My question is, if the date and time is fine for me, should I respond, or just assume they'll be along at the given time?

Might be a good idea to email Mr Xxxx to confirm the time and date with him rather rely on the Council message.

I would read that as if you do not need to contact, if the time and date suit you.

However........

With your previous bad experience with the various departments, I would be inclined to send off an e mail confirming that you will at home on the afternoon of (xxx date) when the Property Surveyor is due to call.
At least that way they can't turn round and say
'Well we never heard from you'.

I agree, whilst the wording seems to indicate otherwise knowing what councils can ve like it can't hurt to send a Hey that's great I'll have the kettle on waiting for you email :-)

Yes I agree with Mr M then you have proof that you answered them, also to the council man. Good luck.

Well, I assumed the date had been made, if I was happy with it, it would go ahead.

Needless to say, no-one turned up.

I shall now contact Mr X. I'm not sure I'd invite him for a cup of tea, but I will show him the mouldy food, just to confirm the 'suspected' damp!

Not too good a start to year three is it! :-| :-| :-|

Oh goodness Maggie.... and so the saga trails on :-|

What a council !

Maggie, I would demand an explanation as to why noone turned up. If you had taken time off work, then surely they would have to compensate you? In anycase, you stayed at home on the day in question when you could have been elsewhere.

Its an absolute disgrace and why has it taken 3 years??!!!

Did environmental health dept get involved? Has it affected your health?

Is it worth getting some free advice from a solicitor, you can get 30 minutes free on what you are entitled to maybe?

Florence, I've reported it to the Housing Ombudsman, and send them regular updates.

I retired in July 2022, but was working on and off before then (temping) from home.

I now have COPD, and my doctor has taken notes on the asbestos etc.

It’s ‘only’ been going on for 2 years – this is the start of the 3rd year. I’ve made complaints, and have received placatory (condescending) emails in response.

The Council offered me £365 'goodwill' payment in November 2022. I basically told them where they could put it.
This was 1 days pay for the Council 'hierarchy' who offered it to me, I also pointed out, that I deferred the start day of one job, as the ceiling was due to be boarded and plastered (the artex started falling off when I was painting it for the second time in a year).
This deferment cost me a days pay - £112.
The workman turned up - looked at the ceiling light (that I'd put up), said he needed an electrician, and walked away. He returned 17 days later, with an electrician, to do the job.

The letter was also ‘suspect’, in that it was in response to one of the three complaints I’d made, with the reference number etc, for the September complaint, but covered all 3 complaints. When I asked which complaint it covered (the one in April, September, or November), I was told the November complaint - so why did it have the September reference number? No-one replied, and the person who wrote it had left.

I’ve drafted a response, to the recent missive (sent from the second in command of Housing) but will sit on it, and maybe show my sister tomorrow – though she’s more of the ‘let it go’ attitude.

I’m now at the (and I’ve put it in the response) point where Winchester City Council and their contractors are getting paid for treating me with contempt. I’m paying for the privilege, both financially, and with my health.

It's not good enough is it.....I've said it before put on your best granny act and get the media involved. Everyone loves a sob story.

Knowing how incompetent they have been I think I would have contacted Mr ?? To confirm the message was correct. However it was obviously no surprise that nobody appeared. I thought housing came under housing associations these days not the council though. Just watching the news locally I have seen Bristol (I think) housing association being just as incompetent.

Lots of Councils are failing their tenants.
I doesn't help that the Government has cut funding to Councils.

It's very difficult for someone to sue for Asbestos exposure, until they develop mesothelioma, and even more difficult if it wasn't caused by work, which is why I involved the Housing Ombudsman.

Unless things have changed, when I was an Environmental Health Officer working for various local governments in the UK who also had housing stock, we were not allowed to respond to complaints of disrepair etc to Council houses, as "that's the Housing Dept's job"!

So it's for the Housing Department to ignore! :-D

Their patronisation knows no bounds.
'Suspected' damp? What is that grey mould-like growth on the wall and above the window, then?
Why has my flour gone solid, and the stuffing has green hairy - dare I say - mould like growths on it?
What on earth could have caused that?
Oh, I forgot, I'm just a simple tenant, how on earth would I know about such things? I expect it will be my fault for having the audacity to cook in the kitchen.

The surveyor actually said the damp in the bedroom was caused by my breathing!
No-one had noticed the dribbling radiator. It had been leaking for so long, no puddle formed. So much for 'checking' property before new people moved in.
None of their gas contractors checked for leakages, not even after being called out at least once a week for 3 months, and 7 times in a fortnight, for 'low pressure'.

With the tiles, I even pointed out that my neighbours were removed before she moved in, when they had an Asbestos consultant - over 12 years ago, and that asbestos doesn't improve with age.

This morning David Lammy has been doing a phone in on LBC on just this sort of thing. I only caught snatches but one woman got legal advice and an independent survey through, I Think, Tenant Help Services.
Might be worth a look.

They've (finally) done the work, names - last asbestos tiles were removed in December - but the Council and first contractors took their time, and should have done it before I moved in.
The mould is a new manifestation!

Having said that, I also know the artex will start falling down when I re-decorate,and the floor under the kitchen is damp - well, every other floor was 'blown' and damp. I don't see why the kitchen is any different, and it would explain the mould.

A relief to know the asbestos has gone.

Even the little bit of the programme I heard was quite frightening with landlords of all sorts seeming to just paint over the mould. One woman said it was obviously a construction issue and not her breathing out.

Problem is, concrete only lasts so long. Mine's just the floor, but many concrete houses and flats were built just after WWII.
'Modern' concrete tends to start deteriorating after 50 years, so now's the time for it to totally break down.

Strangely, the 3 houses that have become empty since I've moved in are having/have had an awful lot of work done on them - but I had asked the Surveyor if the Council would be happy for me to inform all the inhabitants of the road about the possible asbestos tiles in their homes.

A good example of why you can’t get a mortgage on those ( private sector) concrete houses.

Maybe, if they are fully refurbishing ( ha ha) those other bungalows they could move you into one of those ( some hope :-\)

Too late to move me now - they shouldn't have moved me in here in the first place!!

At least now, I can have my grandchildren around without thinking I may be giving them a deadly disease in 20 years time.

My sister came around today and we moved the daybed, dolls houses etc back into the small bedroom.
Seems weird seeing a nearly 'normal' living room.