damaged property due to workmen

tina68

hope somebody can help me with a wee problem i have..i rent my home from a HA and back in january it was re-wired, new GCH fitted and new windows put in, it is a 2 bed property and fairly large..i was compensated £300 for re-decoration..the workmen damaged my carpets by spilling wet plaster on them(even though they said they had put sheets down). anyway to cut a long story short they did more than £300 of damage..if it was my own home i would have put aside money for repairs but this just seems totally unfair that they can just take over your home when they please and expect you to put it back with so little money or help..should i make an appointment to see a solicitor in the hope of getting them to put right the wrong????

ben500

Check your contents insurance policy if you have one, there should be a number for a legal helpline on the inside cover, you should be able to claim against your contents insurer and they will recover the costs from the HA's insurer, either way you should be put back into the position you were prior to the event. If you have no contents cover then CAB is your best source for up to date advice but this can be questionable at times.

iwanttosave_2

We live in a council house and have just had similar done to us but we also had a new kitchen and bathroom and new roof. It took 3 months and caused a lot of damage and upset.

All we got is £50 worth of vouchers to use in wilkos.

We were told that if we wanted they would remove the carpets and store them and refit after the work, if we didn't take them up on this offer, its our own fault for not taking them up on the offer.

ben500

iwanttosave wrote: »

We live in a council house and have just had similar done to us but we also had a new kitchen and bathroom and new roof. It took 3 months and caused a lot of damage and upset.

All we got is £50 worth of vouchers to use in wilkos.

We were told that if we wanted they would remove the carpets and store them and refit after the work, if we didn't take them up on this offer, its our own fault for not taking them up on the offer.

If you were given the opportunity of storage and declined I would expect you to have signed a disclaimer by way of waivering any rights to compensation in the event they get damaged or destroyed, there doesn't seem to be any indication of this in the op but it may be a factor.

iwanttosave_2

ben500 wrote: »

If you were given the opportunity of storage and declined I would expect you to have signed a disclaimer by way of waivering any rights to compensation in the event they get damaged or destroyed, there doesn't seem to be any indication of this in the op but it may be a factor.

Nothing was signed it was just a given that if we didn't take it up they would take no responciblity.

Ours were complete cowboys, they ripped up the upstairs carpets rendering them unusable so now we are having to find the money to recarpet the kids rooms at least.

i actually did a thread about the state of the house, let me find it.

Found it http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=381764

I was left like that for 3 months all in all, started in January, and they finished a few weeks ago. Well kinda finished, still got bits and bats that still need doing.

ben500

iwanttosave wrote: »

Nothing was signed it was just a given that if we didn't take it up they would take no responciblity.

Ours were complete cowboys, they ripped up the upstairs carpets rendering them unusable so now we are having to find the money to recarpet the kids rooms at least.

i actually did a thread about the state of the house, let me find it.

In that case I would suggest you also contact your insurers let them sort it out and your carpets, they can recover from the tradesman under his public liability policy. Without such a disclaimer neither your nor they are in a position to demonstrate any agreement reached, in the absence of one any adjudicator would only consider whether or not due care was taken, if not they would find in your favour.

iwanttosave_2

ben500 wrote: »

In that case I would suggest you also contact your insurers let them sort it out and your carpets, they can recover from the tradesman under his public liability policy. Without such a disclaimer neither your nor they are in a position to demonstrate any agreement reached, in the absence of one any adjudicator would only consider whether or not due care was taken, if not they would find in your favour.

Unfortunatly we don't have insurance at the moment since OH lost his job to ilness and it was one of the things we had to get rid of to get by.

Thankfully they are not big rooms and wont cost much for a temp cheap and chearful one, so once the babys room is plastered we can get a carpet

topmum

You must report this to your housing Association - if they do not know about the problem with the contractor, how can they be expected to put it right?
Both the HA and the contractor are fully insured for situations like this. Contact your HA first and only then if you do not receive a satisfactory response should you approach the CAB or a solicitor.
Hope you manage to sort the matter out.

tina68

topmum wrote: »

You must report this to your housing Association - if they do not know about the problem with the contractor, how can they be expected to put it right?
Both the HA and the contractor are fully insured for situations like this. Contact your HA first and only then if you do not receive a satisfactory response should you approach the CAB or a solicitor.
Hope you manage to sort the matter out.

They are both aware of this and done nothing about it,in fact the contractor was very rude and said" i don't care if we have to pay you £10.000 in compensation it's not coming out of my pocket... i have 50 or more photo's showing the state it was in when i 1st rented it from them and when i had decorated it and now i have ones showing the damage..i mean they even drilled a whole through to my living room from the kitchen...hows that for competant workmen...,

topmum

Ok the next stage would be to go through the Housing Association's complaints procedure. They will have a complaints person with whom you can register this with. Check out their web site as the procedure should all be detailed on there.