Lambeth Council refunded £1.5m to ‘gagged’ leaseholders – BBC News
June 30, 2024
Lambeth Council refunded £1.5m to ‘gagged’ leaseholders – BBC News
by Jamessuperfun
1 comment
I find this story absolutely shocking. Council chooses a shitty contractor who doesn’t complete or overcharges for major work, and bills the leaseholders. Leaseholder points out the work wasn’t carried out, or was much smaller scale than billed. Council eventually accepts that to be the case, but instead of pursuing the contractor it refuses to return the leaseholder’s money unless they sign an NDA and continues to pursue everyone else in the building for tens of thousands of pounds, for work it knew wasn’t carried out.
This would be scummy if a private business did it, but I find it completely unacceptable from a local authority. If they know they’ve billed for work that wasn’t carried out, it should be chasing the contractors and issuing refunds with an apology. This was the council’s failure, not the leaseholders’.
1 comment
I find this story absolutely shocking. Council chooses a shitty contractor who doesn’t complete or overcharges for major work, and bills the leaseholders. Leaseholder points out the work wasn’t carried out, or was much smaller scale than billed. Council eventually accepts that to be the case, but instead of pursuing the contractor it refuses to return the leaseholder’s money unless they sign an NDA and continues to pursue everyone else in the building for tens of thousands of pounds, for work it knew wasn’t carried out.
This would be scummy if a private business did it, but I find it completely unacceptable from a local authority. If they know they’ve billed for work that wasn’t carried out, it should be chasing the contractors and issuing refunds with an apology. This was the council’s failure, not the leaseholders’.