Housing Assosication Not Paying Compensation

Diamond78

Hi,my problem is with my previous landlord(Housing !!!) from July 2006 when I was living in the there property.i was placed there by the council as a I was in a womans refuge due to domestic violence and the property was temporary accomadation for me and my son.This is the story.
A night in july my son had fallen alsleep in my bed as my friend and her daughter had come to stay at ours for the weekend so they were going to sleep in my sons room.To cut the story short I had water pouring out some pipe from near my sons window.I didnt know what this ment so was trying to find someone to ask but it was late at night and my neighbour was asleep.Then suddenly heard a noise from upstairs and ran up to see my sons ceiling cracking and hot water coming through.I quickly rang water comapny as didnt know what to do who told me to ring coucnil, rang council who said to ring housing !!! so i did asit was out of hours emergency.As I was o nthe phone to them the ceiling caved in with boiling water pouring out. A similar case was in the news recently but tragically the baby died.In my case I was very lucky my son was in my bed and that my friend and daughter had not gone to sleep as they would of been killed.The debris and damage was shocking.I had to ring the firebraigade who came out and turned my water off as I did not know where the stopcock was, when the firemen found it it was in a very stupid place and should of been in a better place. To cut it short, I was left with no water what so ever for several days and at that time there was a heat wave going on.I ws told that the tank should have never been in use and it was all changed and connected through bathroom or some sort which was done wrong and caused an 2nd leak from the bathroom to the kitchen but luckily the ceiling didnt crack and someone cam eout quick enought o stop it but as it had come through the walls of where my electrical cooker was I had to have the electrics turned off in kitchen.As it was a riday I was told no one could come out.Anyway, it took the housing over a year to do the repairs that had to be done by me constantly complaining,I made a offical complaint long not long after the incident and also went to my local paper who pubished what had happened.i was offered £50 compensation but this was an insult as the al lthe stuff that got damaged like my sons bed, toys clothes and his tv as it was mounted to the ceiling was worth a lot more than that.Aswell as that the stress.It will be 2 years in july since this happened I have got no where.I got a solicitor(as im on income sup) I get legal aid who was chasing up the repairs for me at the time.Then suddenly the solicitor changed to someone else.Due to haveing a solicitor the HA would not comment or discuss my complaint or compensation.I then contacted the housing omnibusman(sorry for spelling) who then told me i had not folowed correct procedure of the complaint process.But as far as i was aware i had.I have since contacted the housing omn again in dec who someone else is dealing with my complaint who has said till i do the complaint procedure properly they cannot help.But i have made lots of complaints and when i ring to find out the HA tell me they cannot discuss anything as i have a solicitor involved.

The HA has passed my claim to there insurers Zurich something who state if they have no reciepts they cannot offer compensation.Well I dont keep receipts for my sons clothes and toys as majority of the stuff were presents, I had sentimental stuff like photos to.I got on to the solicitor who took over i didnt really understand what she was saying but from what i understood I could take the HA to court but I would end up loosing some of the money from the compensation-something to do with the legal aid.When I last spoke to her she told me she was going to write to my gp (who is no longer my gp as I have moved-but my gp was the only person who knew how it was stressing me out and how it affected my son). before the ceiling collapsed my son woke up to all the comotion and witnessed what happened and he has neevr been the same.He still sleeps with me and his nearly 6. I was also seing a councillor at the time who also knew how this had affected me.

I have tried ringing the HA who still tell me they cannot tell me anything as i have a solicitor but i want my money so I can replace my sons stuff,even tho he still sleeps with me he has no bed and lost the a lot of stuff from when it all happened
I also took pics.Any advice or suggestions on what I can do.Im sorry its long

clutton_2

i think you need a different solicitor - 2 years is an outrageous amount of time for you to have this hanging on and on. You need someone on your side - it does not sound as if your solicitor is on your side - particularly as she does not explain things to you in a way that you can understand. I suggest you go to a "no win no fee" solicitor - they really do work fast for you - watch out for a television ad and ring them up and tell them your story - and you dont have to pay anything to the solicitor out of your compensation.

Any decent solicitor would be suggesting taking the HA to court for criminal negligence.

best of luck

Diamond78

Thanks clutton-I did say that to them,I explained that I was entiteled to legal aid and the compensation was for our loss, stress and inconvinience so I should not have to pay out of that when they are being paid through legal aid.Im going to ring her again monday as i feel they are wasting my time and not on my side,although no one got hurt mentally it has scared my son. I want to replace his stuff but I cannot as being on income support and being a lone parent it is very hard.I have no family that can help me,I have never got maintenance from his father so aprt from the presents my son got, the stuff i got him it took me ages to save and get him his presents.

I will keep an eye out for the ads.Thanks

Gorgeous_George

Your contents insurance should cover the damage to your property and may also provide legal cover (to save the taxpayer a bob or two).

How much are you claiming? I guess the solicitor's costs will outstrip the claim. There must be a better and faster way for these claims to be settled.

Best wishes.

GG

Diamond78

I never had insurance-im getting legal aid coz I am unable to work at the moment not coz i would want the taxpayer paying.If i could i would rather work than be on benefit.I didnt know i would of needed insurance-unfortunatly I am a bit slow at things.As i was temporary accomadation I was waiting to be moved into secure accomadation which never happened anyway.if i didnt have housing issues and personal probs i have been having and stil have believe me id be working now.Thanks anyway

Diamond78

sorry for get to say how much i ws claiming, with all the loss including stress and the amount of time it has taken them its about £800. I know it may sound a lot but its not compared to the amount of times they bmessed up and didnt do the woprks, they caused a 2nd leak which damaged my cooker and so much more.

Gorgeous_George

£800 sounds like peanuts in the circumstances. The solicitor will be making many times that

Insurance is cheap and IMHO everybody should have some for their contents.

GG

Diamond78

I know, ive learnt a big lesson now about insirance.I wish i had known that b4.But i never knew at the time as never in my life did i imagine something like that could happen.Im not living there no more anyway,left in october but when you dont know the legal side of things you think its normal that it takes this long-obviously not.The HA are not willing to pay out,they offered me £50 and i said no way, so if £800 is like peanuts why are the insurance company they are with not paying.I can understand them wanting reciepts ect but I have told them I dont have them.I dont think i will get anything as im loosing hope with them.But it would be a godsend if i did get it as it would help me and my son so much.thanks GG

Gorgeous_George

The HA probably feel that things like this happen all the time.

Pipes burst and cause damage to the tenant's property. It's not necessarily the HA's fault and, as I said, your contents insurance should cover it (if you'd had it). Just because you didn't insure your contents does not make the HA liable. If it did, everybody would save the insurance premium.

I suspect that you are claiming thta the HA was negligent and that their negligence caused your losses. This may or may not be the case. An £800 claim should be dealt with in the small claims court and should not cost thousands in legal aid fees.

GG

Diamond78

GG the HA accepted that the watertank should of never been in use and so did the fireman that came out say the same thing.Half of my sons ceiling came down and it was boiling water that came gushing down with it-had my son or my friend and her daughter been in the room they woud have been dead so am lucky.Like i said unfortuantly I am not clued up on things and a bit slow due to health problems.We was left with no water for days, the way we was treated was awful and that is why the local paper published what had happened.Its also been in the news recently how that little baby died when the same thing happened and she was in her cot and died from getting burnt-It wasnt a pipe that burst-the watertank was faulty aswell as the boiler and the water in the tank was boiling which caused it to overflow.It is being said that the council or HA should make sure these are inspected and checked but this doesnt happen which is why that poor baby died.

clutton_2

GG - of COURSE the HA is responsible !!!!! landlords are responsible for the maintainance of their premises and the equipment in it and for their tenants Health & Safety -- and not everyone can afford insurance GG - if you had ever lived on benefits you'd know that .......

It is clear that our OP does not have the knowledge to submit her own case to a court - hence why she is on legal aid. If the Legal Aid Board (or whatever they are called this year ) had thought there was no case to answer they would not have given her any funds for a solicitor to formulate a case on her behalf.

if there are injuries in such cases, then clearly an amount of time has to pass before these injuries can be assessed, but, there were no physical injuries here. However, since OP is claiming that her son has been psychologically traumatised by all this, why hasn't her solicitor sent her son for a psychiatric report.