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Damage to plastic shed from loose roof tile.


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Hi, I rent a property from Town & Country Housing and yesterday a roof tile fell from our roof and damage our plastic shed.

 

T&C Supply us with a house insurance policy but after speaking to them they don't cover sheds and out buildings.

 

The roof is beyond being able to be repaired due to the damage from the tile so I am a bit miffed that I have now got to replace the shed myself.

 

Is there anything I can do?

 

Thanks

 

JJ 

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Who is responsible for the condition of the roof of the property which you rent? If it's the landlord, then are you happy to risk your relationship with the landlord?

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Thanks BF,

 

Yes it's the Housing Association responsibility.

 

At the moment I am already raising a complaint about a repair that hasn't been done so another one won't bother me 

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Hi

 

As this is Housing Association you need to make an offical Formal Complaint to them and to make sure and Title your Letter Formal Complaint and follow their Complaints Procedure.

 

Make sure and point out that this is not just the damage to the roof of your shed but is someone had been out in this area at the time this roof tile coming off could have caused serious injury therefore this is also a Health and Safety issue which you require a full inspection of the roof to be carried out as you are seriously concerned that other tiles may come off that roof.

 

I also require the following:

 

1. Clarification when the last roof inspection of this property was carried out and a copy of that report.

2. Copy of your Public Liability Insurance.

3. Copy of your Customer Care Charter/Policy (not the leaflet)

4. Copy of your Repairs and Maintenance Policy (not the leaflet)

5. Copy of your Health and Safety Policy (not the leaflet)

6. Copy of your Complaints Policy (not the leaflet)

 

 

 

If you have Contents Insurance as require by most Housing Association this will generally not cover items outside the property like your shed that is why you need a copy of their public liability insurance and you claim via that and the Housing Association should have been open and accountable and explained this to you but like most Housing Association they like to keep things like this to themselves.

 

You do need to make the point that this is a Health and Safety issue as that roof tile coming off was a danger to to anyone that could have been in that area at the time.

 

 

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You are more than welcome.

 

Now the Policies I said to ask for have a wee check of the Housing Associations website to see if they are available to download.

 

When you get these policies make sure you have something to mark it with as you read them i.e. pencil/highlighter and as you read just think to yourself 'DID THEY DO THAT' and if not make sure and mark it this way you can build your case to use their own policies against them.

 

Could you clarify if this Plastic Shed Fixed and can't be moved or not fixed and can be moved to any location? the reason I ask is if the Plastic Shed is Fixed and can't be moved you would have needed the Housing Associations Permission in writing to do this.

 

Importantly make sure and keep a good paper trail of all this if you need to take this further.

 

 

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Thanks Stu 007.

 

When all they details are sent through I will have a good read through.

 

No the shed is one of those plastic storage ones about the size of a big wardrobe that you can move anywhere.

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More than welcome please let us know what they say or excuses they come up with to try and get out of fixing/replacing the damaged shed.

 

What you have here is two fold:

 

1. The Damaged Plastic shed which unless they can get a new roof (most unlikely it will need to be fully replaced).

 

2. Health & Safety of that tile coming off there roof that could have caused serious injury if anyone had been in the vicinity when it came off the roof.

 

The Housing Association will more than likely try to ignore the Health & Safety issue and just concentrate on the damage to your shed DO NOT let them do this as it is serious and in any corrospondence with them always point this out and you require that roof fully inspected and the date it was last inspected.

 

As this is Damage to your shed they may also try to just pass this to their Legal Team (if the have one which they more than likely will) if they do always note what the signature is and importantly what it states below the signature i.e. Para Legal as an example. What you then do is you ask for that individuals qualification and there registration number of their registered body so you can confirm this.

 

With above I had this with my own Housing Association different scenario but their roof damage my car in their driveway, passed to legal team and was a Para Legal, asked for the above info the refused until I checked with Para Legal Association to find out they were not a Para Legal nor registered then fount out they were only training to be a Para Legal. I then challenged HA Para Legal and they suddenly backed off, HA panic and damage resolved.

 

With Housing Association never ever trust the Title that an individual may use in your case as an example say they decide to send a 'Housing Inspector' out how do you know its not some fancy title given to them by the housing association.

 

1. Are they an actual Proper Housing Inspector fully qualified  (not just a fancy title given to them by housing association)                       

2. Importantly that they are qualified in this specific area (nothing to stop you asking what there qualifications are and to put it in writing with any trade bodies they are registered with.

 

 

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Thank you Stu,

 

After speaking to some more residents here, there are only 9 in the cul de sac a couple of them have had trouble with loose tiles on their properties as well as loads of other problems to the houses and surroundings.

 

I am trying to get them to all complain at once and get the housing manager out to go through the problems.

 

One resident hasn't had any lighting upstairs for over a year because of a leaking roof

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi

 

Just thought I would pop in and see how this is going?

 

If other residents are having the same issues the all need to make a Formal Complaint to the Housing Association and title it as such each individually and they all must point out this is a Health & Safety matter with tiles coming off the roofs. 

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Hi Stu, not had anything back from the HA at all apart from a generic  reply saying they will look into it.

 

I have some spare time next week so might just give them a visit and try and get some answers 

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  • 1 month later...

Presumably you have a tenancy contract with them. What does it say about their responsibilities to maintain the property?

The easiest thing I can suggest is a claim for breach of contract. However you would need to get an independent inspection in a quotation for the work.

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HI

 

Well they are now in Breach of their own Complaints Procedure with there failure to even acknowledge your Complaint at Stage 1.

WWW.TCHG.ORG.UK

Complaints can be made by post by sending in a letter, telephone by calling 01892 501480, e-mail, in person or using our online form

 

So resend your Formal Complaint noting that you previously sent this on XX/XX/2021 and as they have failed to respond nor acknowledge your complaint as a Stage 1 Complaint you now require this Formal Complaint to be treated as a Stage 2 Complaint as per there process I also remind you that irrespective of COVID this complaint is also a serious Health & Safety matter.

 

Do Not Phone Them put it in writing and ensure to get free proof of posting from the post office, if you email make sure they acknowledge but also follow it with a letter referring to your email

 

 

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I advise to the best of my ability, but I am not a qualified professional, benefits lawyer nor Welfare Rights Adviser.

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But it would still be useful to know about the contract because that could be the way to attract their attention very quickly and to get something done.

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Thanks for everyone's input on their web site this is what they are responsible for:

 

Roofing:

 

Keeping the roof water & weather tight
Chimney breasts, stacks and flues
Roof timbers
Fascias, barge boards, soffits and associated roof joinery including replacement with PVC-u where total replacement is necessary
All rainwater goods including gutters, down-pipes
All canopies, storm porches and any other attached roof surface unless installed by the tenant
Any other structural attachments to the roof
Access to a height of three storeys
Loft hatches
Insulation to match existing insulation where removed to undertake works.

 

Electrical:

 

Storage heaters

Electric heaters (only when supplied by Town & Country)

Consumer units, electrical wiring and circuits, RCDs / MSBs etc.

Electrical components including sockets, spurs, bayonet and batten light fittings (only when fitted by Town & Country)

Trunking and conduits

Light fittings (not bulbs) – Only if supplied by Town & Country

Hard wired smoke detectors (but not back up batteries)

Communal door entry systems

 

These are the two that mainly effect me.

We have lived here for over 6 years and they are meant to be 'green' housing.

 

Here is a brief breakdown of the problems we have :

 

Hole in the roof reported 15th July via Online Portal - nothing has been done.

Solar Panels - reported nearly 2 years ago, engineer has drained them down as they leak and need scaffolding to repair - nothing has been done since. The only was we get hot water is via expensive immersion heater.

 

In the back garden we have a tank that fills with rainwater that is meant to flush the toilets, this has been setup wrong and fills straight the tank from mains water, engineer turned it off 3 years ago and never came back.

 

We are electrical only so have storage heaters, only one of these works properly and upstairs are just unless with hardly any heat coming from them.

 

It seems they are not interested in their responsibilities 

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I think the best thing to do is to deal with these as separate issues.

I'm afraid that you will need to get an independent assessment of the defects in each case and a quote for remedial works.

In respect of the solar panel problem, clearly you have also incurred extra expense in respect of the cost of energy and you should make an assessment of that as well because I would say that this is recoverable.

If you can come back with the reports and quotations and itemise your losses or potential losses then I think maybe we can proceed.

I think we need to understand the value of each one. It may well be that the solar panels are more than £10,000 but if we start with something manageable and which keeps you in the small claims court then very possibly a single legal action will send the message and get them moving.

Also if I were you I'd send them an SAR using our SAR template. Keep it very broad. Don't refer to any particular incident or any particular problem. You simply want to get all the data they hold on you in respect of any matter and in any form and respect of any time period.

Send it today

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Hi

 

I am afraid I have to disagree with getting with getting an independent assessment and quotes for the different remedial works as this is a Housing Association you should not need to do this at all as you have a 'Right to Repair''. The only difference to this where you may need to do this is for the damage to your plastic shed

 

If you do the above the Housing Association will NOT reimburse any costs as you have not went through them and used your Right to Repair and asked them for there list of contractors and compensation under the Right to Repair.

 

The Housing Association should also have kept you updated on how these repairs works are to be fixed.

 

Now your 3 year repair the tank in the back garden yup use the Right to Repair Scheme against them.

 

The Repairs 2 years till now unless and emergency bear in mind the COVID-19 Restriction were in place and most Housing Association even my own basically closed down due to these restriction to follow Government Guidance and were only carrying out Emergency Repairs only and had difficulty obtaining contractors/spare parts. It is only recently that most are back to normal but with a massive backlog of repairs to catch up on. Due to this the Right to Repair Scheme was suspended during this period.

 

You need to chase up these repairs in writing demanding to know with each one if they come under the Right to Repair and what action they are taking to complete these repairs


Right to Repair Scheme link:

ENGLAND.SHELTER.ORG.UK

Secure and introductory local authority tenants can use a specific set of remedies for disrepair and complaint procedures.

 

 

Housing Ombudsman Service link:

WWW.HOUSING-OMBUDSMAN.ORG.UK

Improving residents' lives and landlords' services through housing complaints

 

 

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Hi Stu007,

 

I did look into the right to repair but this is only for repairs upto £250, and I would think these repairs are going to be a lot more than this.

 

 

BF 

 

 

I have sent off the SAR and wanted a list of all repairs I have reported and dates if any that they have been completed.

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It actually is not just up to that limit is the bear minimum which it does not mention.

 

All you do with each of the repairs you have mentioned is ask is each of these are a qualifying repair under the Right to Repair Scheme.

 

If they respond that certain repairs or certain ones are you then have ammunition to use against them as to why they did not tell you that when you reported the repair initially as they are required to do so. (see where I am coming from you use it against them)

 

It is the same as there failure to respond to your complaint about the damage to your shed and the health & safety issue of the tiles falling off the roof that caused that damage and could have seriously injured anyone in that area.

 

IMO you need to approach the damage to your shed and the health & safety aspect of that first and to get the policies I mentioned previously as that will assist you with dealing with the other outstanding repair issues.

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Here is first draft of the complaint regarding the solar panels:

 

Ref: Complaint stage 2

 

Dear Sir or Madame;

 

On the July 2021 I raised a formal complaint via your online portal regarding repairs to the solar panel that have not worked properly since we took over the tenancy in xxxx.

 

I have attached a copy of the email from yourselves that was sent as acknowledge of my complaint.

 

After speaking to Swale heating your recommended contractor here is a brief breakdown of the faults and what has been done.

 

xxxx reported to Swale Heating

xxxx System drained following service due to faulty parts.

xxxx Fix Parts. These parts failed within 30 days

xxxx Swale Heating visited again and needed to order parts from Germany

xxxx1 Parts finally arrived fitted and still didn’t cure problem.

xxxx Swale Heating send 2 engineers out and they find Solar panels are damaged and cannot be fixed and scaffolding needed to property before any work can be done.

 

Swale heating then sent email regarding the need of scaffolding the day or so after this.

 

Since then, nothing has been done.

 

As the solar panels do not work the only way, we can receive hot water is by using the expensive Immersion heater in the hot water tank.

 

It is my understanding that Town & Country Housing are responsible for the repairs to the panels and you have clearly breached your responsibilities in this matter. As a rough estimate it cost around £1 per day to heat the water through the immersion and I will be claiming this since xxxxx

 

The complaint was first raised on the xxxx and Town and Country have not once tried to responded and I find this not only un-professional but shows a complete disregard for your tenants.

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Hi

 

At the Top always title your letter 'FORMAL COMPLAINT'.

 

in the Reference; remove complaint stage 2 and insert Formal Complaint raised July 2021 via Online Portal

 

in your very last paragraph add at the end:

 

Due to this it has passed the stage 1 complaint process time limit with no update nor response and should now be treated as a Stage 2 Complaint as per your own Complaints Policy.

 

I also require to know if this Repair is a Qualifying Repair under the Right to Repair Scheme and if so for a copy of that Policy and for a list of your nominated Contractors.

 

I fully understand that COVID-19 has affected all Housing Associations but the Government Restrictions in place did not stop you from updating your service users on what was happening with there repairs nor did it suspend Housing Legislation.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been speaking to a customer service manager at T&C and they have now down graded it to a Stage 1 complaint because they didn't reply to my original complaint.

 

They have been and repaired the roof tile and will be replacing the Solar panels in a couple of weeks, as well as asking for more photos of the damage to the shed so they can settle that claim.

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