Council not sticking to a contract

gotmaintvtr

Not sure if this is the right section so apologies

At the beginning of the December we paid havering council nearly 1500 for a dropped kerb and signed a contract to say it would be done within 6-8 weeks.

Now I know it's only just gone but they still haven't been in contact about carrying out the work.
We called them a few weeks ago and was told they have a few more weeks to carrying out the work. And we're quite stroppy about it.

Would we be entitled to a partial refund as they haven't stuck to their own contract?
We had about 3 days of snow/ice over a weekend so it's not like that can be used as an excuse

Any help will be appreciated

Thanks

Jamie

wealdroam

gotmaintvtr wrote: »

Would we be entitled to a partial refund as they haven't stuck to their own contract?

What does your contract say about the planned timescale?
Is it perhaps just an estimate?

gotmaintvtr wrote: »

We had about 3 days of snow/ice over a weekend so it's not like that can be used as an excuse

The weather could pehaps be an excuse why they had to do 'more important' things than your dropped kerb.
My understanding of my local council is that they divert staff from other duties to emergency road clearing where necessary.
Of course, they should've let you know they weren't coming.

bris

It's not a good idea to drop a kerb when there is severe frost to kill the concrete that's used to lay the kerb stones.

WestonDave

The main problem you have is that Havering are one of the councils that require the work to be done by themselves and by the looks of that price are ripping you off royally for the privilege - the going rate round here where approved private contractors can do the job gets down as low as £100 per kerb lowered. Given that most drives are 3 and 2 splayed, you are paying around £300 per kerb!

Probably worth another polite phonecall simply asking if they have any update on timescales. The trick is to balance being sufficiently squeaky to get the oil without being so annoying they put you to the bottom of the list just to get their own back!

gotmaintvtr

Yeah havering are charging a small fortune but we have no choice I'm also going slightly wider than I need to stop neighbours parking too tight to our opening.

We have just asked them to chase it up and cc us in on the email so hopefully it gets sorted.

But Dow what we are paying I expect it to be bait more efficient than this