Taking a Council to Small Claims Court

Les79

I do have sympathy to be fair, but I'm just not seeing the case here...


My initial question is:


- Given that light was planned to be reduced for 1.5 years, how does this compare in terms of trees dying within 1.5 years of reduced light VS dying within 4 years of reduced light?


Do you have anything to show that the trees would not be expected to die after/during 1.5 years but WOULD between 1.5 and 4 years? Any official documentation/studies?


Also, did you not have scope to mitigate the issue? Artificial light? You mention everyone being old, but surely there is some site manager or maybe carers for people? etc. People who could have, if asked, helped to keep them alive perhaps? Did you ask the council themselves at any point as well? If you've got some evidence of contacting the council BEFORE the trees died then fair enough, otherwise you never gave THEM the opportunity to mitigate the losses. You mentioned "We organised and had a public tenants meeting with managers from the council and contactors present" so I would be hopeful that you did something similar BEFORE the trees had died....


I think you'd need a few things to align for you to have a case here. EVEN IF you do, I would imagine that it would only be for the cost which you reasonably would have occurred if you had mitigated your losses (not the £2,000 you quote). The law is, unfortunately, quite emotionally distant and you don't always get preferential treatment because of sentimental value of something.


But hey, submitting a MCOL is fairly cheap and so might be worth a punt if you've got a few ££ floating around. You just might not win


You could also maybe send the council/whoever a Letter Before Action (you have to do this before MCOL to be fair) and *hope* that they decide to settle. If they don't, you'll either have to MCOL or give up.

davidmcn

shuko wrote: »

My gosh you both sound like council workers, cold and devoid of emotion.

Sell the plants? Pfft..

I just called a lawyer.. Actually you are both wrong. It comes under personal injury because as well as the value of the plants they have 'destroyed something that one has kept alive' and for the time involved, ie: 38 years and also for the 'emotional hurt and distress'. You are also entitled to claim for 'sentimental damages'.

Thread can be deleted now, thanks.

Wonder what went wrong with the above legal advice from 18 months ago...

The OP might find they're out of time to start a claim now anyway if their losses became apparent years ago.

Aylesbury_Duck

What's different from two years ago when you didn't want to hear the good advice you were being given and flounced off after deleting your post?

lincroft1710

shuko wrote: »

Hello folks.. need a little advice please.

Short version.. council did some major works on my block which involved wrapping the entire block in a plastic blue mesh around the entire scaffolding reducing the light into our flats by at least 40%. This work we were promised would take a year and a half. But due to huge mess ups involving their contactors and very badly done work this 1.5 years went on for a whopping 4 years! The work started and stopped numerous times. But, for that entire 4 years that light blocking blue mesh was left up the whole time leaving all our homes in a gloomy darkness.. resulting in he death of multiple tenants huge plant collections.. one of which was mine. Over 70 plants many of which were Bosnia trees that I started from seed at 15 years of age with my mother (now deceased) .. and cultivated and maintained for 38 years, these plants to me were the only living memory I had of my mother... all dead due to all the light being killed for 4 years.

All of my plants were started from seed.. some seeds took 3 years alone just to germinate.

To simply buy my (similar) plants back would cost me £2,000.. the price of wiping 38 years my time care memories in cultivating them does not bare thinking about. I am now 55.. I can never do this again.

The councils direct action destroyed my entire life's collection.

We organised and had a public tenants meeting with managers from the council and contactors present.. they were embarrassed apologised publicly for this huge mess and assured us that we would be compensated for inconvenience of the building works, dirt, dust, constant noise and sheer stress going 2.5 years over schedule. I even received emails from the councils Customer Service Manager apologising for the loss of my plants and told to make a claim..
One woman was even hospitalised due to a near death asthma attack brought on by being enveloped 4 years of dust and dirt..

We were told to request claim forms for damage to personal property like our plants etc.

30% of tenants that requested forms were denied them or simply ignored.

I managed to get mine completed it and sent it back. My claim was simply ignored and passed on to their insurers.

Their insurers have simply ignored all the proofs and documented evidence of almost 100 tenants who lived through chaos and simply replied by letter stating unbelievably that: "The Council is not Liable.." and just closed the entire case!

This utterly cold and cynical attitude and behaviour of the council has left the tenants of 54 flats in this block utterly dismayed, hurt and very angry. They have reneged on all their word and promises to us all.

Incidently the other 3 blocks nearby who were subjected to the same building works but only went 6 months overdue and experienced no property damage or loss were all compensated various amounts. Our block where the real disaster took place with 2.4 years overdue and the claims are more serious and substantial have been completely ignored and given zero compensation.

Sorry to go on for so long but I feel the background is relevant.

So.. I feel personally my and our last and only course of action is to take the council to small claims court. Can anyone advise how to do this please?

Thank you..

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

What's different from two years ago when you didn't want to hear the good advice you were being given and flounced off after deleting your post?

In case it happens again