Council doesn't repair my water damage

Lewian

I'm a Southwark council leaseholder. At some point in April a contractor from the council came and drilled some holes from the outside into my wall for filling in some insulation material.

Early June I discovered that there must be a water leak and that my front kitchen wall is humid. Chances are that this comes from the contractors drilling into the rain pipe, although this can only be found out for sure if the wall opened.

Since then I try to get the council to do something about it. Already in June I was told by the council that they will fix it. Since then, I had four times somebody from the council here, who looked at the damage (that becomes worse everytime it rains; now it becomes mouldy) and promised me to fix things. The last time was four weeks ago. I contacted the council once more two weeks ago and was told that they will remind the contractor and I should hear from them in 5-7 working days, which once more has not materialised.

What on earth can I do to make them do the work?
Does it help at all to go to a lawyer? Can I claim the money from the lawyer back from the council?

Could I just hire somebody else to do the repair and then send the bill to the council, or claim the money back from the council? (I worry that they won't pay...)

Actually I have home insurance (arranged through the council), so I wonder whether I actually just could hire somebody and get the money back, and whether it even plays a role whether the council caused the problem (which I believe, see above) or not.

Any advice (and be it just "what I'd do is..." is appreciated.

London50

Hi

I first would check what rule {if any} your council has regarding repairs{mine has a list of repairs, how long before they will visit ect but also give me the chance after informing them that if I am not happy or they take too long I can get my own people to do the repair and charge them}
I know that as a final straw {I think you have passed that} I would be in the council office first thing tomorrow morning and refuse to leave until I got someone who arranged that my repair would be done THAT DAY without fail.
I feel for you as we went through something far worse with our council many year back and after having {by chance} a cold call at our door a no win no fee company that took on our case and it cost the council over 4000 pounds.

Good luck :0)

Lewian

Thanks a lot!
So the council finally also had to pay for the lawyers?

London50

Hi

Yes, it took a bit of time for us to get the cash but we just left it in the hands of those people and in the end got a letter through stating this is what we had been "rewarded", the cheque then came about two weeks later. Although IMO it did not cover for all the stress that we suffered during the time at least we did get some recompense for some of the things we went through.
I do hope you get your problem sorted soon :0)

al69

Get your building insurers on the case, let them deal with it.

Lewian

Good idea, thanks!

cyclonebri1

Something very weird and and not understood in this topic

zaax

yes he is a leaseholder and he should arrange repair and bill the freeholder for the damage their contractors did.