Residents concerned about poor-quality maintenance work have called for greater transparency when making complaints.
The request came as members of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Central Area Housing Panel discussed a report into damage to homes resulting from major works.
At the meeting today (Wednesday 27 May), Jane Thorp, of the Hanover Residents’ Association and the Leaseholders Action Group, said that greater transparency was needed when householders complained about damage to their homes after leaks from new windows and roofs installed on council-owned blocks of flats.
She compiled the report for Brighton and Hove’s Leaseholders Action Group. It called for councillors to acknowledge the problems as well create a programme of remedies and a written process for dealing with disputes and compensation.
The report included images of water damaging homes in various estates across Brighton and Hove, through windows which were not installed correctly and through a new roof.
At the meeting, Mrs Thorp said that the council had only partially acknowledged the defects on the Clarendon and Ellen Estate, in Hove, and other blocks.
Mrs Thorp said that when people asked about compensation, they were directed to the council’s properties and investments team but not issued with any written details or leaflets.
She said: “They then go through a process which is invisible to them and they are then offered a sum of money. Usually, it is quite paltry in relation to what they’ve paid out or suffered as a result of the defects.
“I have been asking many times for a written process of compensation that is transparent to everybody and is not selective about offering lesser or more money to people in accordance with their skills of negotiation.”
People who ask for compensation who ask for more are told to seek legal advice she said, adding: “At stage two if you ask for too much, you’re sent to a lawyer.
“Which is going to cost you an awful lot of money so obviously a lot of people drop out at that point which is what the council wants as the process of remedying these defects costs a lot in itself.”
Mrs Thorp said that a lot of negotiation goes on which is unfair to those who cannot afford lawyers.
Green councillor Siriol Hugh-Jones, who chaired the meeting, said that she had asked for a report addressing all the leaseholders’ complaints.
The report is due to be completed before the September meeting of the council’s Housing Committee, when all 10 members should be present.
Currently, because of covid-19 restrictions, only three councillors are expected to attend the Housing Committee meeting in June.
Councillor Hugh-Jones said: “I’ve specifically asked for a written process for disputes and compensation.
“I know it has been frustrating,” she said, urging people to comment on the report once it was published. She added: “We are looking at this.”
And, she said, she welcomed suggestions from leaseholders before the committee meeting.
David Spafford, chair of the Leaseholders Action Group said that the issue went beyond being just a leaseholder or financial issue.
He said: “It’s a building problem. Sixty per cent of the residents are tenants. These problems occur in their flats as well.
“Just dealing with it as something to compensate the odd leaseholder who makes a strenuous effort to get compensation is not solving the problems. The problems are with the buildings that need action taken on them.”
He said that he hoped that major issues would not occur again now that the council repairs service had been brought “in-house”.
Glyn Huelin, the council’s head of housing repairs and improvement, promised to send the leaseholder group a spreadsheet detailing issues and remedies.
He said that not all issues had been resolved but the repairs team was making progress.
The report requested by Councillor Hugh-Jones is due to go before the Housing Committee on Wednesday 22 September.
