Can I claim compensation for undone snags on a Shared Ownership?

HampshireH

IL ask again as it's been ignored.

What did the ombudsman say once you had completed a stages for the formal complaints process?

AdrianC

Making a claim is not the same as winning a claim.

Writing a letter is not the same as making a claim.

If you want to make a claim - then, by all means, do so. You're claiming more than £10k, so it's not a small claim.
That means either side can bring professional, paid legal representation in - and the loser may well get ordered to pay the costs of both sides...

Yes, you might win...
You might get awarded the reasonable cost for the work being done (which even you say are £3k at absolute most - and, frankly, sound a lot less to me). But you might still be told to cover your legal costs and perhaps even the other side's, if the court thinks you've been ridiculous in your claim.

Because the reasonable cost is under the small claim cap, you may very well get handed the legal bills, because they've only been generated in the first place because of your over-inflated, unrealistic claim - small claims do not use lawyers, so costs are minimal.

You want to go legal, and stand a fighting chance of winning? Simples.
Get the work done professionally, by a reasonably-priced local tradesman.
Then hand the bill to the HA. If they don't pay, launch a small claim for the amount of the bill.

Will you win £10k? Nope.
Will you win a free staircase to 100% ownership? Dream. On.

SpiderLegs

Bhavv said:

cheerfulmusicman said:

What snagging remained to be completed?

How did you come up with the value of this work?

Have you used the housing association's formal complaints process, and followed their direction on how to escalate your complaint because you are unhappy with their response?

The resolution is likely to be limited to them completing the work, or them paying your actual costs in completing the work, and a small sum of compensation for the inconvenience, say £100.

Post pipe burst flood water damage to the walls in the bathroom, upstairs hallway and ceiling of the lounge.

Unpainted downstairs W.C.

Upstairs toilet pushed forward from the wall due to its tube having too much forward tension and damaged the vinyl.

The total cost would be 3 rooms worth of repainting, new bathroom flooring and reinstallation of the toilet.

All complaints processes have already been followed. I have hundreds of emails back and forth with the housing association with them repeatedly promising throughout the first two years that the work would have been completed.

In fact the water pipe burst had happened before I bought the house, the housing association manager that I exchanged contracts with on the day of purchase said he had already gotten the pipes checked and fixed, and someone would be coming within the first two weeks of me moving in to repaint the water stained walls. 32 months later and at least 10 possibly up to 20 attempts to chase it up already and nothing has yet been done.

Hey up mate.
Time for talking is gone. You need to get the big boys involved and go see a solicitor. Might not be cheap but you’ve put up with the excuses for too long.

Justonemorecupoftea

You (or ideally a solicitor) need to go through your contract for remedies.

If you want to pursue this yourself then get 3 quotes for the cost of the work and ask for the middle one (send all 3).

If there are remedies to breach of contract you could include these too.

At a stretch you could maybe claim back time spent on chasing them (15 mins per email at minimum wage?) That's probably it.

Emotional impact and stress don't count for anything unfortunately. You need to be clear and thorough. Unfortunately you're slightly overcooked initial letter may have blown things for you...

Or go nuclear and stop paying the rent portion until it reaches the value of your claim (don't do this)

2bFrank

I am sorry to say but unfortunately you have shot yourself in the foot. by asking for £10k in damages or transfer of remaining share, simply shows you do not know what you are doing and dont have the right advice (i.e. solicitor). if it was me who was the housing assoication, I would simply ignore your requests as I know they are not going anywhere.

When you do finally get the right advice and go to court, the housing association can show how unreasonable you have acted and will simply get away with it, maybe pay a contribution to the repairs. None of your repairs are life threatening, or even a serious issue, it's mainly decor and finish, dont get me wrong they should have been done to the right standard in the first place and should be corrected, but due to your unreasonableness, the court will probably agree with the HA.

Your best course of action here is to start again, you need to get quotes for the work, three if poss, then go back to the HA with the cheapest quote and given them a reasonable time (say 14 days) to either fix the issues themselves, or pay for the repairs. If they refuse, then you need to follow any complains procedures the HA have, if its still not resolved, you need to then put in a small claims/ Money claim online for the amount.

At court you can then show you acted reasonably by following the complains procedure, and the court should (but not always) rule in your favour and you can then get the HA to pay for the repairs.

I understand how frustrating it maybe, but by acting the way you have you have put yourself at a serious disadvantage.

Bhavv

2bFrank said:

I am sorry to say but unfortunately you have shot yourself in the foot. by asking for £10k in damages or transfer of remaining share, simply shows you do not know what you are doing and dont have the right advice (i.e. solicitor). if it was me who was the housing assoication, I would simply ignore your requests as I know they are not going anywhere.

When you do finally get the right advice and go to court, the housing association can show how unreasonable you have acted and will simply get away with it, maybe pay a contribution to the repairs. None of your repairs are life threatening, or even a serious issue, it's mainly decor and finish, dont get me wrong they should have been done to the right standard in the first place and should be corrected, but due to your unreasonableness, the court will probably agree with the HA.

Your best course of action here is to start again, you need to get quotes for the work, three if poss, then go back to the HA with the cheapest quote and given them a reasonable time (say 14 days) to either fix the issues themselves, or pay for the repairs. If they refuse, then you need to follow any complains procedures the HA have, if its still not resolved, you need to then put in a small claims/ Money claim online for the amount.

At court you can then show you acted reasonably by following the complains procedure, and the court should (but not always) rule in your favour and you can then get the HA to pay for the repairs.

I understand how frustrating it maybe, but by acting the way you have you have put yourself at a serious disadvantage.

I've already acted reasonably and followed their complaints procedure prior to this. Making and asking for a claim with estimated prices is not at all being unreasonable, and if it is, my housing association has already been unreasonable to me already because last summer they made two phonecalls threatening my tenancy because they had received complaints about my garden while I couldn't get a gardener during the pandemic lockdown. The only reason I felt like sending them such a letter is following their behaviour towards me for being unable to find a gardener during the lockdown.

Bhavv

Justonemorecupoftea said:

You (or ideally a solicitor) need to go through your contract for remedies.

If you want to pursue this yourself then get 3 quotes for the cost of the work and ask for the middle one (send all 3).

If there are remedies to breach of contract you could include these too.

At a stretch you could maybe claim back time spent on chasing them (15 mins per email at minimum wage?) That's probably it.

Emotional impact and stress don't count for anything unfortunately. You need to be clear and thorough. Unfortunately you're slightly overcooked initial letter may have blown things for you...

Or go nuclear and stop paying the rent portion until it reaches the value of your claim (don't do this)

People have already gotten £3000 just for the emotional and stress impact for things like this. I am also a disabled tenant and got this property through a disability housing scheme called HOLD.

If the housing association wanted to claim that I am being unreasonable then its fair game for me to simply flash the disability card and claim discrimination.

Bhavv

AdrianC said:

Making a claim is not the same as winning a claim.

Writing a letter is not the same as making a claim.

If you want to make a claim - then, by all means, do so. You're claiming more than £10k, so it's not a small claim.
That means either side can bring professional, paid legal representation in - and the loser may well get ordered to pay the costs of both sides...

Yes, you might win...
You might get awarded the reasonable cost for the work being done (which even you say are £3k at absolute most - and, frankly, sound a lot less to me). But you might still be told to cover your legal costs and perhaps even the other side's, if the court thinks you've been ridiculous in your claim.

Because the reasonable cost is under the small claim cap, you may very well get handed the legal bills, because they've only been generated in the first place because of your over-inflated, unrealistic claim - small claims do not use lawyers, so costs are minimal.

You want to go legal, and stand a fighting chance of winning? Simples.
Get the work done professionally, by a reasonably-priced local tradesman.
Then hand the bill to the HA. If they don't pay, launch a small claim for the amount of the bill.

Will you win £10k? Nope.
Will you win a free staircase to 100% ownership? Dream. On.

Its actually quite dire that people really don't grasp how these kind of things work. If you ask for more than the case is worth, you can simply still be awarded less. If you ask for less then you can't be awarded more than your claim. Im not expecting to win either £10,000 or full ownership of the property but those are the maximum values of the claim and I would be willing to settle for less. 

I recently took an employer to an employment tribunal asking for over £6000 which I would have never gotten and they settled for £1500 for a case that employment solicitors told me was worth at most £500. If I had asked for £1500, they would have only settled for around £500 or even less. Thats how these things always work. The employer initially refused to settle, until 1 week before the case was due to be heard by video conference.

I also have an ongoing claim of medical neglect against the NHS that is still waiting for the investigation to finish that I have raised to 1.5 million. Based on legal advice and maximum values for the compensations, I could apparently get around £750k. So I simply doubled it because why not just also add my living costs and an actual full disability adjusted house to it as well?

You ask for much more than the case is worth to bluff a higher settlement.

Also regarding the cost of how much the snags are worth, there is no such thing as a maximum cost for any such work. I could offer to be a painter for £5000 per sqm of wall if I so wanted to. No one would have to hire me of course, but if anyone then wanted, they could use my pricing as an estimate towards how much such work might cost.

powerful_Rogue

Clearly someone doesn't want to listen to the top knotch advice they have been given, which begs the question of why you have come on here to ask the question? As you have demonstrated in your previous replies in which you state several times you know 'how these things work' - then there is little point in people replying to you.

Best advice now, speak to a solicitor. Them saying what others have said here might sink in a bit more. Otherwise, you could find yourself out of pocket due to your vexatious claim.

Bhavv said:

If the housing association wanted to claim that I am being unreasonable then its fair game for me to simply flash the disability card and claim discrimination.

Now this is just disgusting.

Bhavv

powerful_Rogue said:

Clearly someone doesn't want to listen to the top knotch advice they have been given, which begs the question of why you have come on here to ask the question? As you have demonstrated in your previous replies in which you state several times you know 'how these things work' - then there is little point in people replying to you.

Best advice now, speak to a solicitor. Them saying what others have said here might sink in a bit more. Otherwise, you could find yourself out of pocket due to your vexatious claim.

Bhavv said:

If the housing association wanted to claim that I am being unreasonable then its fair game for me to simply flash the disability card and claim discrimination.

Now this is just disgusting.

No, its reasonable to expect someone with a learning disability that believes anything they read on the internet to make enough error to misprice a claim. I most clearly would be saying 'I dont know how much these things would actually be worth and estimated them by googling'. My support worker can attest to this fact that just last week I literally believed that a gardener couldn't charge more than £25 an hour because some website said so, and now believe that a painter can charge £1 million per room because she said so. I take everything I read or hear literally. My margin for error is quite high.