Yes, the London Borough of Ealing has its tendrils reaching as far as Sussex-By-The-Sea, and one such example is the property I currently rent and inhabit.
Its a long sad story of how my ex ran away having run up several thousand pounds of debt in our joint names, which, as I was traceable and he was not, reverted to me, just when I found myself as a single mother on Income Support.
Its another sorry tale of how my Husband's ex kept their flat when they split, while he continued to pay the mortgage. She took it off the market thinking it had been 'on sale' for too long and was scaring buyers (she did this without consulting him, of course) only to find it had gone into negative equity and she was forbidden to put it back on the market. He ended up signing it all across to her and walking away empty handed.
Current sorry tale (cheer up, I collect 'em, its a hobby) is that Ealing Council has local contractors to do repairs.
The Council says they issue a job number for the bare minimum repair work, trusting the contractors to advise if more needs doing.
The contractors say thats hogwash, they only come out and do what they're told.
I am therefore proud to report that the leak under my kitchen sink has been repaired. However there appears to be nobody on God's earth prepared to take responsibility for what could politely be termed either associated repairs or making good, ie this:
Okay, okay. My own defence is that I hadn't heard the leak and hadn't looked in there for about a week.I mean, there was nothing in there but cleaners........
6 comments:
We had a leak in a basin upstairs, similarly hidden by the cupboard underneath it (which held, my, what a coincidence, cleaners!) - and it went through the ceiling and dripped into the bathroom downstairs. We noticed it when the ceiling collapsed. Not completely, but there was a large hole.
While we were still worrying about how to tell the landlord, the earthquake happened. Problem solved! It suddenly became a very small bit of damage that we just included in the general devastation when we were showing him the house afterwards.
I can't say I wholeheartedly recommend this as a method of redirecting blame, however.
Yeah, those floods under the sink are a real bitch. Especially when you have the wife standing over your shoulder saying, “I told you to hire a damn plumber instead of trying to do it yourself!”
You have my sink unit, complete with bowed, water damaged shelf.
I think badaunt's solutions is a bit drastic for South East England.
Hey, that could have been a photo of MY sink!
I'm lucky we haven't had that problem. I hestitated to say it because I don't want to jinx it.
I hope they'll come back & repair that for you.
Landlords love to fix these problems so promptly, don't they?
I fixed my trap leak myself, then I tried attacking the mold and rot under the sink with a mild bleach solution, to little effect. 'Til I can get around to some major carpentry work, I just scrubbed anyway with bleach, let it dry out over night, and put down some Rubbermaid shelf liner. Freud reached under for the dish soap and said, "WOW!" He thought I had repaired it myself (instead of just cleaning and covering it up).
Good luck with the Ealing Council.
Expat -- all good women know how to use a pipe wrench & you can tell her I said so!
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