Dealing with incompetent council

gesdt50

Hello does anyone know what is the best way to legally bring to court the council which is not carrying out repairs and have a different lies/story each time about what is happening with repairs?

Bendy_House

Yes.

You call up the Legal Protection group you have on your house insurance.

Assuming you were smart enough to have it added...

Grenage

Bendy_House said:

Yes.

You call up the Legal Protection group you have on your house insurance.

Assuming you were smart enough to have it added...

That's a little unfair, considering that on average one is better off saving the money rather than buying insurance (other than such required for a mortgage, car, etc).

Section62

gesdt50 said:

Hello does anyone know what is the best way to legally bring to court the council which is not carrying out repairs and have a different lies/story each time about what is happening with repairs?

If you've exhausted the Council's complaints process then the next logical step is to make a complaint to the Ombudsman

https://www.lgo.org.uk/


People who take their council to court typically have very deep pockets, or good financial backers (e.g. crowdfunding)


The best way forward will depend on what kind of repairs you are talking about.  Is this repairs to a LA property, repairs to a highway, or repairs to something else?

Section62

Grenage said:

Bendy_House said:

Yes.

You call up the Legal Protection group you have on your house insurance.

Assuming you were smart enough to have it added...

That's a little unfair, considering that on average one is better off saving the money rather than buying insurance (other than such required for a mortgage, car, etc).

Also that LP is not likely to be much use if the complaint is about the council not filling in potholes etc... unless the OP has suffered loss or injury and has some grounds to pursue a compensation claim.

And if the issue is building repairs for a LA property, having (personal) buildings insurance is not necessarily appropriate.

FaceHead

Section62 said:

gesdt50 said:

Hello does anyone know what is the best way to legally bring to court the council which is not carrying out repairs and have a different lies/story each time about what is happening with repairs?

If you've exhausted the Council's complaints process then the next logical step is to make a complaint to the Ombudsman

https://www.lgo.org.uk/

...

This is the correct answer. The ombudsman is intended to be an accessible route for escalating complaints against a LA without the need to resort to a very costly court process. 

Yes you can go straight to court, but the court would not look favorably on you bringing action without using the ombudsman which is available to you for free. 

You can still go to court after going to the ombudsman, but you'd need to carefully consider whether the court will simply agree with the ombudsman. 

Whilst legal protection seems like it wouldn't cover this (it doesn't seem to fit in the Contract Pursuit, nor any other section, of my policy) the helpline would be likely to give you informal advice - which I would expect to be 'you're not covered, but you have the ombudsman available'.   

Bendy_House

I was being somewhat flippant, folks, whilst dispensing what I believe is a piece of common sense.

I genuinely think you'd be nuts, these days especially with the usual services you used to be able to rely on for assistance being pared away, to not have this back-up.

How many threads on here would almost certainly have been sorted with the benefit of this mere £25 add-on?

In most cases action won't be needed, but the advice you'll be given will almost certainly be good guidance, and will often do the trick.

Section62

FaceHead said:

Yes you can go straight to court, but the court would not look favorably on you bringing action without using the ombudsman which is available to you for free. 
 

It does depend on what the issue is though.

There are some things - like a small claim - where the court route is more appropriate than an LGO complaint.  And some, such as an appeal against a notice to cut back a tree overhanging the highway, where statue defines the process of appealing to a magistrate's court.

At the other end of the scale, an application for permission for judicial review of a council's decision is usually time barred after 6 weeks/three months, and often that is incompatible with following the council's complaints process plus a complaint to the LGO.

In cases like that the court wouldn't look unfavourably on action taken without the ombudsman investigating it first.

However, as I said, taking a council to court can be a costly process and deep pockets are typically needed.  If the issue is something the Ombudsman can deal with then that is always the preferable route.  And if the Ombudsman doesn't agree with the complainant then as you suggest, careful thought needs to be given to whether a court will reach a different conclusion.

tacpot12

If this complaint is about repairs to housing, the OP should check whether the council is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. If they are, they can and should complaint to the Housing Ombusdman rather than the Local Government Ombudsman (once they have exhausted the  council's complaints process). 

Don't forget that a court will want evidence that the council have lied to you. Can you prove they have lied? To do so, you need to know the truth about a situation, and I suspect you don't know what the truth is - you just know that you are not being told the correct thing. This should be resolvable via the council's complaints process; but incompetence can extend into this process as well.    

gesdt50

In reply to""If you've exhausted the Council's complaints process then the next logical step is to make a complaint to the Ombudsman" 
  The council complaints is a complete farce, they will hang up at the drop of a hat without swear words or getting loud even. The website I'm very confident is designed so that tabs,notes & links are hard to get to in a logical way; basically they want tenants to go away and have numerous ways of trying this tabs, notes etc is just 1 way, they make up stories about the subcontractor and the subcontractor uses this as a way to get out of doing the job & blames the council; the subcontractor will do a job if it is a nice 2 minute or 5 minute job then they can sit in the van and tie,tok and exaggerate out a job to 2, 3 hours; nice easy day. 
The council ones that answer the phone can't seem to understand the word leak without having to repeat it numerous times at the beginning of the call; leak sounds so much like broken window, blocked sink. They'll say oh this is a really bad line I can't hear what your saying; can't understand how the line can be bad according to them 90% of the time one rings( more get out of actually doing the work & hope you will go away) They have tonnes of these tricks excuses and made-up B.S

Section62

gesdt50 said:

In reply to""If you've exhausted the Council's complaints process then the next logical step is to make a complaint to the Ombudsman" 
  The council complaints is a complete farce, they will hang up at the drop of a hat without swear words or getting loud even.

Have you been added to their vexatious or abusive complainants list?

If so, you need to follow the process they told you about when they informed you of this.

gesdt50 said:

The website I'm very confident is designed so that tabs,notes & links are hard to get to in a logical way; basically they want tenants to go away and have numerous ways of trying this tabs, notes etc is just 1 way, they make up stories about the subcontractor and the subcontractor uses this as a way to get out of doing the job & blames the council; the subcontractor will do a job if it is a nice 2 minute or 5 minute job then they can sit in the van and tie,tok and exaggerate out a job to 2, 3 hours; nice easy day. 
The council ones that answer the phone can't seem to understand the word leak without having to repeat it numerous times at the beginning of the call; leak sounds so much like broken window, blocked sink. They'll say oh this is a really bad line I can't hear what your saying; can't understand how the line can be bad according to them 90% of the time one rings( more get out of actually doing the work & hope you will go away) They have tonnes of these tricks excuses and made-up B.S

Stop phoning the council.

Write to them saying you wish to make a "Stage two" complaint. Briefly outline your complaint - don't write War and Peace: stick to facts: don't make wild accusations.

If they have an online portal to submit complaints then use that. If not, find the email address for the head of the housing department and email it to them, copied to the member with responsibility for housing.

Find out how many days the council have to 1) acknowledge and 2) deal with your complaint.  If you get no response by the deadline, resend the message with a polite note expressing disappointment that they haven't complied with their complaints policy.

Wait for up to 12 weeks. If no response by then, complain to the Ombudsman. It is free, and if the situation is as you've described they will very clearly tell the council they need to do better.