Housing association responsibilities

jodieraye

I live with my 1 year old daughter in a housing association house that we got about 8 months ago.

Since moving in, I have had constant problems with damp. Rising damp in the living room and damp in the kitchen due to a hole in the extension.
I have had the repair people out many times and they don't really do much. To fix a rotten hole in my kitchen roof they just filled it with silicone. My baby's room then became damp with water running from the walls and I had to move her into my room.

More recently, however, the toilet overflow has frozen and broken due to the cold weather, which has sent cold (blue) water down my living room wall into my plug sockets and blown my electric on 3 occasions. On friday, a pipe burst and flooded my kitchen and living room. The office was closed and the emergency number didnt pick up. I had to ring an emergency plumber to come and stop the water. He said the job was botched in the first place. Saying the stop valve was the wrong size and it had been taped shut to keep it water tight. Only because the water had frozen and burst the valve off did I find out!

My question is is it the housing associations responsibilty to pay that call out charge and for the electricity I have used leaving heaters on to dry my carpets? Surely thats not my fault?

Through all my damp problems etc I have lot of trouble getting anyone to call me back. Does anyone have any advice??

Jowo_2

Do you have any insurance? Some household insurance can include free legal advice as part of their cover.

Have a look at the Shelter website which has a section on responsibilities by social housing landlords. Contact them for advice on how to go about asking for compensation for your expenses. You could bring this to your attention of yoru local councillor or MP if this isn't resolved to your satisfaction.

The local authority can undertake health and safety inspections through their environmental health or housing department to identify hazards and compel landlords to fix issues. However, I'm not sure if this just applies to private landlords rather than social landlords - Shelter will advise you.

Shelter also advise that tenants keep excellent written records, therefore you should keep a log of every call and follow up all reports in writing, keeping a copy.

squinty

There are realy two seperate issues here.

The first issue is about the longer term maintenance which you feel is being bodged. For this, write to the HA to let them know of the problems - if this is not resolved to your satisfaction them make a formal complaint. Look on their website for details. The final step may involve referring your case to the ombudsman, but you will have to progress through thier internal proces first.

The second issue is about a recent problem which you say is 'due to the cold weather'. The association have been out and fixed the problem - they appear to have fixed the structure of the building. If you have suffered any loss you will not be covered by the association and your should claim against your own insurance company for any damage.

It is also unlikley that you will be able to claim the cost of calling out a plumber. There are situations under the 'right to repair' where you can claim money back but this is a long process, an involves giving them suficient notice on at least two occassions before calling in your own contractor. In this case you have, for understandable reasons, not even spoken to the association to give them the opportunuty to fix the problem themselves.

You can try to get a contribution in the form of a goodwill payment from the assocation, but don't hold out too much hope.

Sorry, this is not the answer you were hoping for.

Fire_Fox

You must start detailing your complaints in writing by recorded delivery. Do you have an invoice from the plumber detailing the repair to a previous botched job?