Poor workmanship by council on dropped kerb

Happytosave

We have been given permission to get a dropped kerb of 4.8m and the council are charging us £2k to do this. My neighbour just had their shorter one done for £1.1k. The contractor from the council pretty much took up the roadside granite stone and the pavement slabs, threw some tarmac on it and that was it. It did the job but it feels like the most heinous of rip offs. The guys who did my driveway are shocked at what the council are charging.

Is there anyway I could negotiate a better job? There are lots of roads in our council's area where they have beautiful dropped kerbs with neat blocked paving.

stator

You can get your own private contractor to do the job. Then they work for you, so you can monitor the quality of the work. If the council do it, you've got no chance.

Furts

Within the council employees somebody will have the role of Highways Inspector. Someone may also have a role covering excavation and reinstatement of trenches. If you are unhappy and believe your work is sub standard then register a complaint. Arrange a meeting with one of these people at your home, or whoever your council says carries the can. Look at what has been done, then see where this leads to.

Your payment should have covered checking for existing services, lowering them if required, protecting them - such as with sand, splaying the entrance at 45 degrees and so on. Your council will have a guidance sheet somewhere on all this. Demand a copy (it may be on line somewhere) and see what should have been done.

Ultimately remember a fundamental here. You wanted the work done. You paid for the work to be done. You should have established what was going to be done. After all, you are the customer, and it is said the customer is always right

Davesnave

I think you'll find that what stator says is right, so long as your contractor is on the council's list of preferred companies.

Ironically, I don't believe they'll let any Tom, !!!!* or Harry do it!

* Richard.

Rolandtheroadie

Looked into it a while back, the council had a couple of approved contractors, but anyone could do it as long as it was done to spec.
Got a quote of £2400 from an approved contractor, the company that done our block paving quoted £1100.
That was around 9.5 meters.

Ant555

A friend has this done recently and the workmanship was shoddy - uneven cheap looking tarmac that looked like it would sink when driven over, rainwater pooling on the new tarmac, using bits of off-cut wooden bits to edge the grass verge which would surely have rotted and also they didn't make it as wide as it was supposed to be despite there being council surveyor spray marks on the pavement.

He complained as it was a lot of money and he was paying top rates for a service and expected a proper job to be done. A different crew eventually came and did the job properly but it took 2 months before they arrived. End result = really smooth surface, slim concrete strips edging the grass verge and it looks like it will last.

So, if you end up having to use the council contractor, I would complain if the job isn't up to scratch.

EachPenny

stator wrote: »

You can get your own private contractor to do the job. Then they work for you, so you can monitor the quality of the work. If the council do it, you've got no chance.

As Davesnave says, you can only use your own contractor if the Council agrees to this and the contractor is one approved by the council.

Davesnave wrote: »

I think you'll find that what stator says is right, so long as your contractor is on the council's list of preferred companies.

Ironically, I don't believe they'll let any Tom, !!!!* or Harry do it!

There are lots of compliance issues to deal with these days, and also insurance requirements. Tom, Richard and Harry* probably don't know or care about any of this (*Contractors can be female too)

Rolandtheroadie wrote: »

Looked into it a while back, the council had a couple of approved contractors, but anyone could do it as long as it was done to spec.

That might have applied with your council when you got the work done, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

Only authorised people are allowed to carry out excavation in the highway, and in some cases the work now requires a licence to be issued. Health and Safety, Traffic Management, and insurance obligations all have to be complied with.

The insurance one is particularly important for the homeowner. The footway of many roads and streets is home to a variety of electrical and communications plant, often with very shallow cover. If your contractor makes a hole in a fibre-optic cable you can expect a very big bill (the contractor will vanish in a puff of smoke (hopefully not literally) and the hole is right outside your house as evidence). Even damage to conventional telecoms cabling or electricity cables can generate a bill which makes a few thousands of 'saving' look like change.

If the Council provide an unreasonably high quote, or carry out shoddy work, then complain to your Councillor(s). The council usually uses the same contractor for their own work and the councillor should be interested in overcharging and/or poor workmanship. And if the contractor makes a poor job of building the crossover then the council will pick up the repair bill (or compensation claim) in the near future.

Happytosave

Thank you for the replies. I don't know if I made it clear but we have not had our dropped kerb done yet. It is only the council's one contractor who will do it. He did my neighbours' one and was a rude, grumpy man who said he will be doing mine once I get my hard standing done.
We have now got that done and are awaiting a date for the dropped kerb.

My question is, in anticipation of this, can I say something to the council that I do not expect that level of poor workmanship to take place outside my place for £2k?

stator

Council won't be interested in what you want. You fill out the form, pay the fee, the work gets done. If you're not happy then you complain.
They aren't going to agree to anything up front.

Davesnave

EachPenny wrote: »

(*Contractors can be female too)

I know. Last time the council did remedial work outside our house, having tarmacked-over their own drain, they let her work the traffic lights.

Furts

EachPenny wrote: »

. And if the contractor makes a poor job of building the crossover then the council will pick up the repair bill (or compensation claim) in the near future.

Plus the council repair costs, and the compensation costs will be met indirectly by the local population. Why should residents risk future increases in Council Tax because contractors and residents have not performed? That is why standards exist, that is why Approved Contractors exist and that is why the work should have an inspection regime. The system exists to protect all of our interests.

So if the work is unsatisfactory OP has a duty as a concerned, proactive, member of the community to do something about it.