Council response - legal

[FlatRoofProblems]

Cutting a long story short I am after advice.

My disabled parent was in receipt of a Disabled Facilities Grant on our home for conversion. The council hired the builders who deviated from the original plans and put a flat roof on instead a peak one. They fitted a wet room with a flat floor (no slant) so water runs out into the kitchen. They 'forgot' to put a gas safety switch by the cooker to turn off the gas. the flat roof was initially left with just a piece of felt and no stone covering. It was a nightmare. There was no monitoring of the grant or work by the council.

Fast forward to today. My parent has died and I want to sell the house. I can't as the planed extension does not match the house in its current state. I have rasied this with the council in August and was given a complaints champion. They had 20 working days to initially respond. They did not. The policy states that in exceptional circumstances they can add on an additional 10. It has now been 75 days and I have heard nothing. I keep emailing and all I get is that I will have a response shortly and they are taking the matter seriously.

Can anyone advise? The ombudsman won't pick this up for another 5 weeks - I've checked.

They have a clear complaints policy outlined on the internet, I have quoted accurately above. What else can I do?

If they're not following the complaint process write to your MP. Councils have to prioritise responding to MP 's

Could you contact your local Councillor?

My dad had some problems with the LA being slow to do something and complained to his GP. She happened to also be the leader of the council, made a phonecall and the job was miraculously done very quickly.

I second contacting your MP’s office. Email is best or book a surgery appointment.

Councils do not have to prioritise responses to MPs. Completely separate levels of government.

MPs have zero influence on local council staff. They just hand the issue onto the resident's councillor to deal with.

Your local councillor, however, is exactly the person who can intervene. A good councillor will pursue council officers (who do need to respond to them) and it can be a very effective way to get something done.

Check if your (or your parent's) household insurance policy includes legal expenses insurance. This might cover the cost of instructing a solicitor

Unclear whether the local authority (A) instructed the work themselves, or (B) as agents for your parent

Just to reiterate what others have already said, your local ward councillor is the person who can help you chase this up. Your councils website should have a page where you can put the postcode in (of the house for sale) to find out who it is and contact details.

Im not sure about councils not responding to MPs. A friend who was a senior social worker always said if an MP made contact the managers jumped!

Thank you for the responses. It is appalling that they do not follow their own guidelines and policy

The escalation is to local councillor and then to MP.
MP correspondence is monitored for response by the Council.
It is prioritised for response.

The Council won't be ignoring your enquiry for fun or out of malice, they will be dealing with all the previous complaints and enquiries.
So if you want to apply pressure then you escalate. My suggestion is to go to your MP as this will have more leverage.

Do councils not inspect works that are done via a grant like this? I don't know how it works, but did your parent (RIP) pay the builders and claim back the grant element? Would the council have paid without adequate proof that the works were A. actually done, and B. done properly?

I don't know, I'm just asking what I think are reasonable questions here.

Sadly, once you reach the Ombudsman stage you can expect a further delay of some months and then your case will be assessed to see if it will progress to investigation or be closed.

Contacting the Councillor makes more sense than the MP. You need to be clear what your complaint is and what you want the Council to actually do.

I used to work in the cabinet office of London Council, to expedite this, respond to the Council Officer and cc the cabinet member for housing and your local MP... I think you will find this will unblock the system really quickly.

All reasonable questions. They handed over the money to the builders without checking/inspecting the work

I want the council to fix the roof so it matches planning, and all the other problems. I know the ombudsman will delay things but I have a real case here. I have now inherited a house that is unmortgageable.

It depends what the complaint is about. Often the MP is contacted when the person didn’t get a ‘satisfactory’ response to their initial enquiry. The MP normally promises action because they want your vote. It goes to their office who send an email to the council. If it genuinely has merit, the council deals with it. Normally they have already turned down the request once so it’s a pointless second round of enquiry.
People think it’s a magic bullet when it isn’t.

agree with contacting your councillor as the best way forward, and also taking legal advice.

have you requested project details, plans, contracts etc from the Building Control department?

Why wasn’t the work stopped when the defects came to light? Surely someone must have noticed a flat roof going in rather than a pitched one for example? I suspect you haven’t had a reply as it’ll be complicated to resolve. Check the small print for the grant - was the onus on your dad to appoint builders/approve things etc?

When was the work completed?

You are going to babe to check the wording of the agreements.

The council I worked for made it very clear they were not liable for checking the quality of the works and were just administering the grants.

Surely you would pursue the builders ?

They don’t have to, but they do. I used to work for the public sector and management would jump through hoops to resolve an MP complaint.

I've done a full subject access request but they also missed the 30 day deadline.

We queried the roof and were told that's what you're getting by the builder. the council appointed the builders not us.

2023, we complained about the roof and the council appointed a company to come and cover the bare felt with a stone covering. they knew the problems and did nothing

my relative was vulnerable and disabled, the survey, party wall act and hiring of the builders was done by the council

I get your point and would feel exactly the same way.

Your argument is basically the Council had a legal duty to inspect the works on completion to ensure it met your late father’s needs. They failed to do so. This failure meant your father’s living conditions continued to be inadequate and that the failure to meet planning regulations detrimentally impacted your late father’s home and later his estate. In other words your late father was let down by the professionals who should have been looking out for him.

My guess is your complaint is winging its way between departments, probably they will get a legal opinion. You will eventually get an answer. Maybe at this stage the best strategy is waiting.