Council cock-up - would you pursue this?

[snowypenguin]

I own a flat in a block of 4. 3 of the flats are council owned with tenants in.

About 3 years ago the render on the gable end became damaged - eventually after 3 years of delays and trades letting the council down, it was repaired. The cost of my share was £550. The council sorted everything and I paid the bill just before Christmas.

Now I am being told that the whole block needs some work to which I can either participate or not. I have just spoken with the guy in charge of the works (private company) who said my share would be £525. For this amount I will get the following:

External wall insulation at 100 ml
UPVC downpipes
New soffits
and the whole building will be re-rendered!!!

I am really cross that firstly the council took 3 years to sort faulty render but now it is all going to be done again because of the council having funds to upgrade the whole block.

I am told if I don't take part basically the whole block will look like new but mine won't.

Do you think I have any come back with the council at all given the £550 paid just 3 weeks ago?

The work's been done so I think it is unlikely that they will reimburse. Tbh, if the new work costs you only £525, that sounds very reasonable for the amount that is being done (I can't really imagine how they can do it without doing your part of the building too). I'm assuming the whole building needs to be re-rendered to cover for the insulation. I know it is infuriating but the repairs department at the council is probably completely separate from the new works department and they have no idea what the other is doing. Complain by all means and point out the stupidity of this, see if they will allow you to pay for the new work over time as some sort of sop but you could save £500 in heating bills in a couple of years if the insulation is done well.

It seems an incredibly cheap price for the new works. I'm guessing there might be some scheme to improve energy efficiency so they can claim money on it.

So whilst I can understand your annoyance that the other work was wasted effort, if you think about it as paying £1075 for this new work, that is still pretty good value.