advice please re council - do i have a case??

sitcom123

My daughter is a single parent with 2 children living in a council house. She has no house insurance (yes stupid i know) over the past year her hall and living room floor has been moving/sinking for want of a better word. she reported it to the council who sent out an inspector who told her that the joyces under the floor were rotted and needed to be replaced, they came round 4 weeks ago and ripped up the wooden flooring and replaced the rotted wood. they told her because it was so bad the flooring she had down would now no longer be any good as the floor was now a "different shape" and told her to claim for new flooring via the council 3rd party insurance scheme. she has done this and the insurance company have said there is no claim as the damage has not arisen through the negligence of the council workers

Has she got a case to fight this or is she flogging a dead horse?? she has no spare money to buy new flooring for the foreseeable future

The_Blue_Hatter

At best im sure the council will drag their heels on this for months possibly years. Sounds like a little part time job is needed to buy a new floor.

rachie_2011

sitcom123 wrote: »

...over the past year her hall and living room floor has been moving/sinking...

Was this reported when your daughter first noticed the flooring moving/sinking? Or has it only been reported to them recently and they've acted upon it?

Plumberman

I have done work for councils and it seems that the ones who shout loudest get things done.
Contacting your local counsillor works wonders too.
Can't think why renewing joists/raising a floor would change the shape of a room though..

sitcom123

it was reported when she first noticed it and it was inspected late last year with an end date of end of January for the work to be completed. Work was done 2 weeks ago after many phone calls

rachie_2011

In that case then, I would argue that it is damage caused by the negligence of the workers! If it was reported when first noticed a year ago, then the chances are that the flooring would of been suitable to be reused again if they had acted sooner! I would go back and speak to the housing inspector who came out to view it.

Widelats

your saying you have no floor there in the living room and hallway? Or no floor covering?

1jim

if this is a council property....surely they provide flooring/floor covering for all of their properties? Im sure they wouldnt expect you to walk on bare floorboards. There may not be a choice, it may not be what you would want/choose to have, but at least its something?

Errata

Most councils and HA's are very happy for their tenants to walk on bare floorboards, only kitchens and bathrooms have floor covering supplied.

boo1

Errata wrote: »

Most councils and HA's are very happy for their tenants to walk on bare floorboards, only kitchens and bathrooms have floor covering supplied.

That's right. I worked for a HA and we supplied non slip flooring in bathroom, toilet and kitchen. If tenants were lucky there were old lino tiles on the floor. Some people who rented off us were amazed that we didn't supply white goods!!!

iamcornholio

The councils insurers are correct

For a claim to be valid, your daughter must prove that the council were negligent in the work done, or not done. In this case, the defective floor is merely wear and tear and not something which can be claimed for

The only possibility for a valid claim, is if say, the fault was reported and the council took no action within their published repair timescales and during such time the floor got progressively worse and so damaged the flooring purely in the period of time between when the floor should have been inspected (after reporting the fault) and the time when it was, and the subsequent repair was done

Another possible avenue, would be to find out why the joists got rotten in the first place and if this was a known problem. Get copies of the property repair history and check if there is a possibly that the council would have, or even should have been "on notice" that the joists were rotten.

If anyone from the council has visited a property, even on an unrelated matter, and there is a likelihood that they should have been aware of a problem with the joists, then the council would be liable. So if say, a workman walked up the hall and the bouncy floor was obvious, or if there was a leaking gutter outside, or raised ground levels, then the council would be deemed to be "on notice" of a potential defect in terms of the rotten joists