Taking the council to court

ArbitraryRandom

That may well be, but unfortunately I have to agree with the posters who have said suing the council is almost certainly going to be a non-starter based on what you've said. 

I would recommend your best option would be to ask the council for a copy of their complaints procedure; submit a formal complaint - follow the process through to resolution or deadlock; then go to the ombudsman... 

The advantage you have with an ombudsman rather than a court is that the ombudsman has a little more leeway to consider fairness/reasonableness vs strict legal liability - so it could be they award a sum for the distress and inconvenience that seem at the core of your complaint when a court wouldn't award actual damages. 

Plus if you go to the ombudsman and aren't happy then you can still go down the civil route against the council or the builder - if you start at small claims and lose there's no where else you can go (and it will have cost you money to file). 

I'd also think about what you're asking for... if your issue is the paint being damaged then you might (possibly) have more luck getting them to have their contractors repaint vs them paying market rate for you to hire someone. 

sn1994

ArbitraryRandom said:

That may well be, but unfortunately I have to agree with the posters who have said suing the council is almost certainly going to be a non-starter based on what you've said. 

I would recommend your best option would be to ask the council for a copy of their complaints procedure; submit a formal complaint - follow the process through to resolution or deadlock; then go to the ombudsman... 

The advantage you have with an ombudsman rather than a court is that the ombudsman has a little more leeway to consider fairness/reasonableness vs strict legal liability - so it could be they award a sum for the distress and inconvenience that seem at the core of your complaint when a court wouldn't award actual damages. 

Plus if you go to the ombudsman and aren't happy then you can still go down the civil route against the council or the builder - if you start at small claims and lose there's no where else you can go (and it will have cost you money to file). 

I'd also think about what you're asking for... if your issue is the paint being damaged then you might (possibly) have more luck getting them to have their contractors repaint vs them paying market rate for you to hire someone. 

Thanks for clarifying that taking the council to court would be a futile effort.

I will nonetheless follow your recommendations. 

First thing I did was ask the builders across the road to fix the damage. They told the council they are a considerate builder that work well with the local community, but they act poorly in person. 

Keep_pedalling

Demolishing a house creates dust, no real way of avoiding it, and I doubt if the council have any real powers to prevent it. I would have thought a power was would get the dust off, although it might nor be rather ingrained after leaving it for 2 years.

If your mother wants to take anyone to court it should be the builders not the council. 

sheramber

If everything sticks to the huse because of sap from the trees then is it the council/builder's fault that any dust stuck to it?

That must surely be a contributing cause.

Alderbank

It's not a consumer rights claim because your mother had no contractual relationship with the builder.
It's a straightforward claim in negligence. The builder had a duty of care to her (and everyone else who might be affected by their operations, whether they are council tax payers or not).

She has six years to bring a claim for damages. Her claim is against the builder but in practice it will be handled by their public liability insurer. The insurer will consider various factors including the cost of damages, the builders' working practices and risk assessments, etc., and will either make an offer to settle the claim or deny liability and risk being taken to court.

£4K is small potatoes for an insurance company and they are quite risk averse. I think they will just settle this one.

ArbitraryRandom

sheramber said:

If everything sticks to the huse because of sap from the trees then is it the council/builder's fault that any dust stuck to it?

That must surely be a contributing cause.

I think you're confusing two posters? The Op hasn't commented about local trees.

But (obviously depending on things like the local climate/weather, the quality of the surface/previous paint job, and the quality of the paint) it can be reasonable to expect to repaint every 5 years and for the colour to fade/not look freshly painted from 2 years on. 

The Op would say it's only the facing side of the property, but given prevailing winds, it's very possible for the front of a house to become worn before a protected side or rear... one question would be if any other houses were painted at around the same time and if they were impacted by the building work (or if they're not as close if their paint hasn't shown the same wear pattern).