> | Accessiblity Options | Text Only | Text Size: A+ A- Reset | Links | Site Map
LGO Advice Team: 0300 061 0614
Quality and efficiency
Click here for speech assisted browser support
Files with this symbol are in .pdf format. To view these files you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. It can be downloaded below free of charge. Click To Download
Housing sales/leaseholds Maladministration causing injustice
25 February 2008
Warrington Council’s management of a “challenging and complex project” was unfortunately marred by a single failure that caused a woman stress, anxiety and the expense of consulting a solicitor. The Ombudsman says that, in an otherwise “thorough and professional piece of work” in dealing with the decontamination of land (including land that the complainant’s home was built on), it failed to consider the position of people who had bought their homes from the Council under the right to buy scheme. The complainant (called ‘Mrs C’ in the report) lives in a house that had been built for the Council in the 1930s on a former landfill site. Alkali waste was discovered on the land, and the Council embarked on a project to take remedial action. Mrs C received a notice from the Council telling her that she might have to pay some of the decontamination costs. She had bought the house from the Council only two years before, under the right to buy scheme. Two weeks after serving the notice the Council sought legal advice. The advice it received was that the Council itself was liable for the decontamination costs and that it had not made ‘reasonable enquiries’ to establish whether this was the case. In the meantime, Mrs C had consulted a solicitor who made representations on her behalf. The Council refused to contribute towards her legal costs. The Ombudsman said that the Council “…could and should have recognised the effect on someone of being told they may be liable for some of the ‘clean-up’ costs.” If it had told Mrs C that it was considering whether it might itself be liable to pay the costs, she may then not have been so alarmed and may not have consulted a solicitor at that point. The Ombudsman found that the Council was involved in a challenging and complex project and had achieved high standards but had overlooked this one aspect. On receiving the Ombudsman’s draft report, the Council agreed to pay £1,500 compensation to Mrs C, and the Ombudsman commends the Council for this.
Date Updated: 17/10/08
are in .pdf format. To view these files you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. It can be downloaded below free of charge. Click To Download