Need advice on pursuing a claim against my housing office???

trinidadone

I use to live in a council flat in a block of flats. My neighbour above my flat flodded my home on each day for eight days. it was so bad the housing department rehoused me to a bed and breakfast accomodation for a week, while my flat dried. the events happoned over september 2006.

since complaining, i was told my neighbour had a faulty washing machine which was the prime cause of the flooding. During each evening of the flooding, i contacted the council who visited my home on eight different occassions, but could not establish the cause of flooding at the time.

As the water entered in every room, all my carpets were spoilt, as well as some electrical equipment. I wrote to the council and told them, if they had found the leak from the washing machine earlier, this would of limited the damage and stress the eight day flooding caused me. i have estimated the total cost of of damage is £800.00, i have ask for this as compnsation, the council sat on the letter for four months before informing me, they have forwarded my request to their insurance section. This section was informed of the problems on 2nd february 07. i have since moved from this property, can anyone advise on the following:

1) should i still pursue this?

2) if yes, what should i do now, i wrote to the insurance section in April 07 to update me on their progression, but not heard anything, was going to consider the counciols complaint system, or even the local government ombusman??

any suggestions would be greatly received.

Zingara

You would have to go through the Council's complaints system before going to an ombudsman. If you don't they will just refer you back to them as you have to exhaust the complaints procedure first.

Ring the council tomorrow and find out about the complaints procedure and put things in motion if you wish to pursue it. They may put the blame on the tenant and refer you to their insurance company, if they are insured, as the problem is from the tenant's washing machine rather than any of the pipework that the council is responsible for.

Good luck with it,

Karen

trinidadone

thanks karen. A friend of mine told me i can refer the matter to the ombusman if i feel the council is using "unreasonable" time to investigate, is this not true?

Zingara

Give the Ombudsman a ring and see what they suggest. I'm getting mixed up with months at the moment and hadn't worked out that they had had 10 weeks to respond!

If you want to be nice to the council, ring the council tomorrow to see if you can find anything out and let them know you will be referring it to the Ombudsman. Insurance claims can be longwinded but they should really be keeping you informed on what is happening.

I've had a look on the Ombudsman website and you can refer a complaint to them if the council doesn't respond within a reasonable time - it depends on what the definition of reasonable is. 10 weeks is probably plenty of time.

Personally, I would see if I could get anywhere over the phone with the council - see if there is a complaints department who you may have more joy with than the insurance section. At least when you take it to the Ombudsman you will have proof that you have done everything you can to resolve the problem.

Karen

jonesMUFCforever

Did you have any Contents insurance?

If you did I would have claimed off that first but I think it is too late now.

trinidadone

thanks karen, i will be on the phone on monday morning, although i have already written to the insurance section once.

No i dont, did not have building insurance, or i would of claimed

trinidadone

i telephoned the insurance section this morning, finally spoke to the person who was dealing with my "claim" after some paper russling, he tells me he is still waiting for further information that he requested from the housing office in february. not happy with this response, I telephoned the local government ombudsman, who told me average times to respond to complaints are 12 weeks (my original complaint was sent to the council on the 28th september 2006). The ombudsman said they will send me some info on how to complain, especially ats been almost seven months, and really this is not that complex.

I was reading through the reclaim bank charges, and decided to wite to the insurance section, asking them to settle this claim within the next fourteen days or i will forward this claim to the Ombudsman, hopefully this will do the trick in speading things up.

Zingara

Glad you've made some sort of progress with this. Hopefully the threat of the Ombudsman will speed up a response time.

Karen

trinidadone

Thanks karen, the council should of received the letter now, so its a case of sit back and see, but i have a sneak feeling i will be sumitting the claim to the ombudsman

trinidadone

a week has gone by at the moment, and no response from the council.

trinidadone

still not heard freom my local council, will send details off the local government ombudsman.