Rising anger at rising damp (and the rubbish Housing Association)
OK, I’ve had a joke here in the past about the frustrations of the damp in the kitchen in my flat – we were growing mushrooms there a few weeks ago, thanks to a dripping pipe from the washing machine that the previous tenant had not noticed. But weeks have now passed, and Pathmeads, the lousy housing association, still have not managed to get their act together to fix it.
Monday this week we had the 3rd visit to look at the problem, and the plumber promised to return on Wednesday morning. He realised he was over-booked, and I was phoned to say the problems would be solved Thursday, but Thursday has passed and we are still where we were. Apparently the plumber crashed his van into a lorry yesterday and hence could not make it. No idea what we might manage to get tomorrow.
Pathmeads seems to have masses of people who work in offices, shuffling the papers to deal with these things, and very few people who seem capable of getting anything organised. Damned annoying.
Eh, Jon. Don’t worry too much. It seems very normal to me. Remember the problems I had with our bathroom mushrooms in Brussels…It all ended with a court case against the owner who simply didn’t bother to solve it in 12 months. The court procedures take their time though, so we’re expecting the answer in the next weeks, after starting the case in summer 2005:)
It can get worse:) So be happy if they come around in the next month…
I am not really familiar with Common Law etc, but there is is this legal concept where you – in a pratical application of this conscept – get your own plumber and reclaim the money spent from your landlord or deduct it from your next rent installment. In German it is called “Geschäftsführung ohne Auftrag”, although this tag is a bit misleading, since one takes into account the hypothetical will of the landlord to fix thing (assuming that he/the corporation wants to fix things as they are legally obliged to do so). Good luck!