And I say again… aaaaahh! There’s nothing quite like getting a provisional bill for £11,700 from your local council for repair works to the council estate on which you live, to make you go…. aaaaaah!
It’s not simply the complete lack of warning with which this documentation appeared, nor the fact that in a single side of A4 the council politely but firmly explains that the cost of redecorating the stairwell, re-fencing (the fences are fine!) and maintaining the roof, split across the block, equals a bill of £11,700 per household minimum… it’s the fact that legally speaking, they’ve got us all by the nuts. Not only is the council my landlord, but there’s even a fiendish clause in their contract whereby, if I attempt to move out now, they still demand the cash from me for these works. Making moving out really, really dumb, if not borderline impossible until the works are completed. And more – MORE – every year I pay over £750 in a ‘service charge’ to my council to maintain the estate, and what do I get in return? A statement pointing out that £250 of my service charge is spent on ‘managing the service charge’.
However, if you still aren’t reeling enough from getting a bill that represents a huge sod-off burden on your life, sanity and happiness, the council charitably suggests that for a mere £200 now and an unspecified ‘legal fee’ later, you might get away with spreading your bill over a few years, instead of the 14 days you have to pay upon completion of works. They even attach a helpful ‘FAQ’ page of double-sided A4, within which you may be happy to find that the answer to Q.3 ‘The costs appear to be high, how do you justify the high costs?’ is this:
‘Contracts are awarded on a competitive basis, with tenders assessed by a panel on the basis of cost and quality. [My local] Council demands high quality of work and is duty bound to comply with Health & Safety requirements. Therefore a sufficient number of site managers and Resident Liaison Officers are required to achieve this, and there is a cost involved. There are off site costs which may not be visible on site but are attributable to the running of the project e.g. feasibility surveys, drawing up plans/specifications of works, planning costs, consultation etc.. On site costs may include, statuary welfare provisions (WCs, washrooms etc), office accommodation and equipment (telephone, fax, computers etc), management staff salaries, this includes the Resident Liaison Officers and Site Managers etc.’
Or to put it another way…
Cost of repairs – £500. Cost of installing toilets, buying a fax, talking about it lots and having middle-management walk around in a hard hat looking exasperated – £10,500.
Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!
6 comments
Abi says:
November 15, 2012 at 3:40 pm (UTC 1 )
There are no words. How horrific!
Jeffrey Lemkin says:
November 15, 2012 at 6:38 pm (UTC 1 )
We feel your pain here in the US, land of the $US3,000 toilet seat and $10,500 anti-gravity torque wrench. OK, I’m kidding about the anti-gravity part. I have to wonder what kind of people can provide residents with information of this nature, without having their brains burst into flames from the cognitive dissonance.
Cheers
-Jeff
Mike Brooks says:
November 15, 2012 at 10:44 pm (UTC 1 )
I… what? They can just *do* that? That’s insane. How is someone just meant to come up with £11k off the bat?
Catherine Woodberry says:
November 15, 2012 at 11:46 pm (UTC 1 )
What?!! That is just SO wrong!!
R says:
November 16, 2012 at 7:15 pm (UTC 1 )
That’s nuts! 11k per household? How much does that total to? (surely several hundred thousand pounds). If I were you I would definitely be phoning to double check that they didn’t misplace a decimal point or two, demanding they reveal the accounts and getting in touch with the local newspaper/regional news office, because I just cannot see how they can justify that kind of bill out of the blue, without consultation, etc. I mean, you’d think maintaining council property has part of their pre-planned budget, part of what council tax and government funding goes towards. Something seems decidedly out of whack there…
AdrianH says:
November 19, 2012 at 1:45 am (UTC 1 )
Speechless! There was me thinking that maintenance of social housing was part of general spending paid from council tax, etc. I can’t see how they can genuinely expect anybody to find that sort of money, nobody is going to have access to those sort of savings, apart from those living in multi-million pound houses in Islington…
A big media campaign is called for, methinks.