Consumer rights Law?

Trebor1963

Hi,
I am searching for a little advice on consumer law,

Basically I am paying for services which I am not receiving.

To explain a little more my house was purchased three years ago with no problems and dutifully I have been paying my council charge as the rest of the people on my relatively new estate have been, the problem came to light recently when a main sewer blocked and sewerage was flooding out of a drain and into the rainwater gulley which then runs into a water course and into a nature area etc. On contacting all the usual agencies council, water board etc they all replied that the road had not been adopted! This was now ten years after the estate had been built similarly street lights are out and the council tries to refer you to the developer who when contacted state the estate has already been adopted.
I have tried to petition the council under the 'councilor call for action scheme' with some 100 signatures to get some clarity and have been getting one lame excuse after another for months, they do not take this issue seriously lately we have had attacks where the street lights are out. The residents of the estate are just about ready to go to the papers with the whole story but are hesitant as this would possibly only get the backs up of the people we are trying to deal with.
Does the consumer rights law have any effect on the council as they are charging for services which they are also claiming they have no reasonability for? Same goes for the water supplier, as the council are the first point of contact do they not have a undertaking to ensure the work required is done even if not by themselves. I believe the only way to make the council take notice is to withhold the council charge but I would like to be more informed on the basis on which I could do this. Alternatively are there any solicitors who could take this case up or offer advise, the residents number quite a few so a collection for fees may be possible however a long drawn out court case against the local council would be costly but something easily done through local or small claims would be great.
Any advice gratefully received.

Mankysteve

How do you know its not the developers telling porkies and the estate hasn't been adopted, ask the developer for their proof that it has.

Trebor1963

We have letters from the developer to the local MP who has asked that question for us, we have had some nice maps sent to us from the developer which show which roads are adopted and which are not however getting the coucil to agree is the hard part no one is prepared to go on record. There are issues from preventing the adoption from going through which the developer has to sort out with the local and county councils after which the full adoption we are assured will take place. However there is no urgency to get this done the last comment from the council was everything was on hold till an employee had undergone some major surgery and was back at work after some four to six months. The estate was built ten years ago and I belive if no one is pushing it could be aother ten years before anything is completed, meanwhile the estate is suffering as there is no upkeep being done.

RadoJo

Unfortunately, because your council tax pays for many services not specifically related to your street, I think you might run the risk of compounding the problem if you refuse to pay your coucil tax which would in turn weaken your position with regard to the current issues. The only benefit I can see would be that the local press may take an interest if you use the threat of witholding council tax to generate enough bad publicity to shame the council into reviewing the priority assigned to this problem.

When dealing with the council and finding myself trapped in red tape, I went to my local MP - have you tried contacting them yourself? Once our MP was involved, the council were surprisingly willing to send someone out to my house to resolve an ongoing issue, so it's definitely worth a try. It sounds like you are close to exhausting your other options with the council, so I would give them one more chance to resolve it before escalating it to your MP. You might find that the CAB could help - have you asked their advice?

Trebor1963

Hi,

The MP is sort of involved already as she has requested details of adoption from the developers in the first palce although another letter to her may be about due to see if she can shake things up a bit.
I havent tried the CAB as yet as I was hoping for some general info on consumer rights from here, I realise that the charge covers a multitude of things some of which we are receiving such as bin colletion etc however I was hoping to be able to split the bill and hold some of it, in the days of rates the bill was split into sub catagories anyway maybe this information is available still?

I had hoped that as the council was taking money for services that they had no intention of delivering and no intention of passing the problems to the developer to sort out they themselves they would be liable under the consumer rights act?
many thanks for the help though