Service given without consent

murphydog999

Some advice gratefully received on this please.

We have cesspit sewerage, so the cleansing company come along every year to empty. They send a letter to say it is due and we set a date (usually mid-March), and all is well.

However, I came back to my house on monday to find them here and nearing completion, without any warning or advance notification. I'm not happy about this. My house is just about to go on the market and I wanted to delay their arrival, as I would expect any new buyer would ask/expect it to be done before they moved in.

I've spoken to the depot supervisor who just kept saying 'we have a 6 week window and we can collect any time in that 6 weeks.' In 7 years that has not been the case, I have always been notified by letter and it has been arranged. To me this is not acceptable.They have accessed my property without consent and without me being here, a month earlier than usual, and with no apology. Are there grounds for complaint here?

[Deleted User]

Have you checked your contract to determine whether you have a complaint or not?

murphydog999

We've never had a contract we just took the service over from the people who previously owned the house.

Aylesbury_Duck

That will make it difficult. The contract (which the company will surely have a copy of) may permit them to do as they have. You've been paying them annually without knowing their terms then?

murphydog999

1, would there even be a 'contract'?
2, if so, if they were abiding by those terms for the last seven years, they have changed this year.

davidmcn

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

The contract (which the company will surely have a copy of) may permit them to do as they have.

That contract (if it exists) would be with the previous owners though. There's no principle that the OP would be bound by it.

Comms69

There's no reason a new owner will want it doing before completion.

Comms69

davidmcn wrote: »

That contract (if it exists) would be with the previous owners though. There's no principle that the OP would be bound by it.

I suspect by virtue of payment they would have agreed a contract exists.


The terms may be loose, but in reality this is a non-issue the OP is worried about

murphydog999

So they have the right to enter my property at any time, without my consent or presence?

davidmcn

murphydog999 wrote: »

So they have the right to enter my property at any time, without my consent or presence?

No, they don't. You have the right to ask them to leave. But I presume they already have. What is it you're seeking? You can't force them to apologise.

murphydog999

I'd like them to acknowledge that they have been here without consent (is that trespassing?), they have deviated from there usual notification procedures and are a month earlier than usual, and if I do need to have it emptied again in a few months that they at least will discount the cost.