Council Hell - Claim Advice

hayz347

Hello there,

I am currently in the letter before action stages with my local council (Birmingham City Council-BCC ) and need some advice.

A summary of this is as follows: between 14th December - 5th February BCC did not arrange collection of my waste. I logged this with them via phone, emails and tweets including the CEO and local councillors. This led to a large scale rat infestation which in resulted in over £1,000 damage to my car caused by rats, Their own pest controller has also stated that the bins had holes which provided easy access for the rats. To add to this between 5th February - to date I have not had a refuse collection.

https://imgur.com/rEucOPr

I have issued the below to them but need to refer to sections of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which they have breached. The main one is clearly s45 however I am not sure if there is any others? and hoping someone can help as what they are doing is not fair.

A extract of my LBA is below:

The summary of my claim is as follows:
• Under Section 45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 it states ’to arrange for the collection of
household waste’. No collections were arranged by Birmingham City Council for a minimum of 7
weeks between the dates of 14th December 2019 – 5th February 2019 despite numerous calls, tweets and
emails for resolution. This was only resolved when a local councilor raised the issue in full council on
Tuesday 5th February 2019.
• The lack of refuse collection for this extended period led to a large-scale rat infestation which resulted
in damage to my vehicle
• My issue was not handled correctly.
• The refuse containers are in a poor state of dis-repair, which has added to the rat infestation.
• In support of my above claim my refuse has not been collected since 5th February 2019 (currently 34
days) showing once again Birmingham City Council are not arranging the collection of my refuse.
• I am a small business owner, this has taken up extremely valuable time and energy which should not be
spent on Birmingham City Council
From you I am claiming for the repair, cleaning and inspection of my 68 plate Range Rover Velar (MA68 xxx).
If mechanical damage is found on inspection, I will also be claiming for this in addition to the below costs.
I have calculated the sum (as it currently stands without reports of any further mechanical damage) as follows:
• Land Rover: £800.50
• Mint Condition: £250.00
Total: £1,050.50

DoaM

hayz347 wrote: »

From you I am claiming for the repair, cleaning and inspection of my 68 plate Range Rover Velar (MA68 xxx).
If mechanical damage is found on inspection, I will also be claiming for this in addition to the below costs.
I have calculated the sum (as it currently stands without reports of any further mechanical damage) as follows:
• Land Rover: £800.50
• Mint Condition: £250.00
Total: £1,050.50

Obvious error straight away. And your bullet point claim amounts are meaningless ... you're claiming £850 for a Land Rover? And what is a Mint Condition?

JJ_Egan

Is this due to the bin mens strike ??

agrinnall

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Is this due to the bin mens strike ??

Not directly, but it'll be a knock on effect. My own bins have been collected more or less on the revised schedule as advised by BCC, but anecdotally some areas of the city have had delays of much more than the advertised 2 weeks between collections (although I hadn't seen anything as bad as the OP reports).

hayz347

Its out of context as BCC have the whole case and quotations.

Im claiming £850 for Land Rover to inspect and repair the damage caused by the rats. Mint Condition are to sanitise the engine bay area and clean the bones, rubbish etc that the rats have taken into the engine bay.

Here is just 2 photos of the damage caused:
https://ibb.co/168gxMH
https://ibb.co/gDRMvmF

My car space is next to the bins, the 7 week accumulation of rubbish led to the rat infestation. The rats then decided to nest in my car and cause the damage as they were next to an open food source.

davidmcn

hayz347 wrote: »

• I am a small business owner

Is this household or business waste? If household then I don't see the relevance of what you do for a living. In either event, I think you should have mitigated your loss by getting the rubbish disposed of by other methods.

CardinalWolsey

davidmcn wrote: »

Is this household or business waste? If household then I don't see the relevance of what you do for a living. In either event, I think you should have mitigated your loss by getting the rubbish disposed of by other methods.

It's an important consideration. The bins in the image look to be commercial waste bins, unless they are shared bins for a number of residential units. If this does relate to commercial waste, there are alternative waste collection suppliers to the local authority (or their subcontractors), and the OP should have contracted with one of those.
Additionally, some of the rubbish left out would not be collected by the "binmen" in any event. Cardboard such as the TV packaging would need to be taken independently to a recycling centre.
If this is related solely to residential waste, I think you're underestimating the cost to remedy: if rats have chewed through trim, labour cost and replacement trim could be significant - it's a Range Rover.

hayz347

It is household waste which is shared by 4 properties. What other methods would you suggest I cannot dispose of my own waste as well as my neighbours.

marcarm

davidmcn wrote: »

Is this household or business waste? If household then I don't see the relevance of what you do for a living. In either event, I think you should have mitigated your loss by getting the rubbish disposed of by other methods.

IANAL, but in this event, you can't see the bins are not being collected and continue to dump rubbish there KNOWING the bins are not being picked up, and then sue for damages.

You need to mitigate your losses, in this case it would be removing the rubbish by other means.

hayz347

The waste accumulation has escalated as people are now just seeing it as a place to dump rubbish. The TV box is neither mine or any of my neighbours. It was in neat piles but we have people who are coming to search the bins and opening the bags.

marcarm

hayz347 wrote: »

It is household waste which is shared by 4 properties. What other methods would you suggest I cannot dispose of my own waste as well as my neighbours.

You don't need to worry about your neighbours, but you could employ the services of any of the people that advertise on facebook, or take stuff to the tip yourself. You have a large vehicle, why could you not chuck some of the bags in the back of that and get rid??