Section: Repairs & Improvements

Repair Delay Led to Unsightly Appearance

Mrs A bought a maisonette that needed renovation, to let to tourists. Two months later, in February 1997, an explosion severely damaged a house owned by Leeds CC opposite and further damaged the two houses on either side of it - one of which was also a Council-owned house.

Mrs A complained about:

The delay in repairing and bringing back into use the two council properties.
Failure to maintain a reasonable appearance of the properties, including the gardens.

In February 2003, the Council handed over the responsibility for the management and maintenance of all of its properties in the relevant area to Leeds North East Homes Limited, an arms-length management organisation (ALMO). In July 2003 the ALMO decided to reinstate these two properties. Work started in May 2004 and is due to be completed in October 2004, at a total cost of around £150,000.

Mrs A says that the appearance of the street was adversely affected and the Council's delay foiled her attempts to extend her business and cost her about £125,000 in lost income and a lost business opportunity.

Ombudsman Patricia Thomas described this as a sorry tale of lack of contingency planning, delay, and drift put into sharp relief by the Council's public exhortations (in connection with its own Empty Property Campaign) to private property owners to do what it was not doing. She saw the Council's failings as maladministration.

The Ombudsman was not persuaded that Mrs A's claimed business losses could be directly attributed to such maladministration. However, she was caused a lot of time, trouble, and distress lobbying for action and pursuing her complaints.

The Council expressed determination to learn from its mistakes and offered the complainant £2,000 compensation, which (with the ongoing reinstatement) the Ombudsman concluded was a satisfactory remedy for the injustice.

Ombudsman Report No. 02/C/14792

New Regulations

The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 SI (Scottish) 406

These Regulations, which are made under the Building (Scotland) Act 2003, prescribe functional standards for buildings. These are to be found in Schedule 5 of these Regulations and cover a wide subject area. They are part of the reform of the building standards system as set out in the Building (Scotland) Act 2003.

The Regulations apply to construction, conversion and demolition of buildings, and also to the provision of services, fittings, and equipment in or in connection with buildings.

The Regulations come into force on 1 May 2005, but do not apply to any application for a warrant for work made before that date.

Section: Repairs & Improvements

Repair Delay Led to Unsightly Appearance

New Regulations

Legal Update

Reporting on July-Sept. 2004

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