In November 2015 I had the roof of terraced flat repaired/replaced (20 year guarantee on both labour and materials - ha ha!). The work involved repairing/replacing rotten timber and strengthening the roof where it was no longer supported by an internal wall (removed by previous owner). The contractor mentioned Building Control and consulting a Structural Engineer but when I contacted Building Control they knew nothing of the job. The roof is very poorly done, there have been a number of leaks and the structural work is badly done. The contractor has been back numerous times to correct many things but the whole job is so bad the roof will probably have to be stripped and redone. Re-doing the roof was part of a refurbishment project that should have been completed a year ago; it is still unoccupied so consequential rent and council tax losses are mounting up. The original bodge-job cost £9.5K; I have been quoted £15 by a reputable company to put it right (not satisfying all of the Building Control requirements) so any claim would be over the £10K Small Claims limit. The current situation: Building Control are waiting for Structural Engineer's calculations from the contactor (contractor has had site meetings with both). The contractor has not replied to my emails/made contact with me since The contractor's solicitor has not replied to my emails, not even to confirm if he is taking instructions from/acting from him. The manufacturer of the roofing membrane (warranty) has not replied either All the usual letters have been exchanged (reasonable skill and care, CAB/Trading Standards Pre-action Protocol) but there is a stalemate. I cannot afford to spend over £15K to get the roof re-done, even if I did the contractor's solicitor has objected to any work being done by a third party making it more difficult to recover the money. A Fast-Track court case would take about a year and be very expensive - then the contractor would probably not pay-up or settle out of court after I had spent a fortune on legal fees. Every month I lose over £500. I got a solicitor to write a letter back in July, that cost me about £600 and he basically said I had already done what was necessary letter of claim wise. Any ideas please.

'DMs who no longer felt that they were genuinely at the heart of the decision making process reported that they had been given very specific guidance on how to approach cases where they disagreed with the advice of the Atos report. They stated that they had recently been told that they could not do this without first consulting with Atos (whereas immediately following the publication of the Year 1 Harrington Review, these DMs felt they had been told they could override the Atos advice if they felt that the evidence pointed towards an alternative outcome). Some felt that they had been told even more specifically that they could not override advice unless they had agreement from an Atos HCP that this was the correct route to take. Those staff who felt they had been instructed not to go against the advice of an HCP report unless they had agreement from Atos that this was appropriate tended to be those who felt least empowered and least central to the decision-making process. In cases where they consulted with HCPs and Atos elected to uphold the initial advice, then some of these DMs felt that they then had to ’rubber stamp’ a decision that they were not happy with. ‘We went from being decision makers to just rubber stamping what’s there...the simple fact is I’m your decision maker but if I get further evidence from you as the claimant, I am not the one to make a decision on it – it needs to go through Atos. To me, that makes [the] Harrington [Review] pointless.’ (IBR DM)' Taken from the DWP Research report series http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/report_abstracts/rr_abstracts/rra_788.asp (I have changed the link as the original was not working)