Furious , anybody any advice other than a stiff drink?

Lol, no I will not be standing as pretty sure after my tirade of emails and somewhat frosty meetings there will currently be a wax effigy of me festooned with pins on the desks of many council employees!

 

Sort of, but in my experience, not quite. Certainly it is usually best to reject the first offer for reasons I mentioned earlier (the first offer is usually a sweetener to make you go away, a fraction of the proper amount).

IF it goes to court, you need to be able to show that you've been reasonable. The courts don't like litigious people (they can even register you as a 'vexatious litigant', ie someone who sues on a whim). If you're suing, you need to ensure you can't be accused of being one of those, because your case falls apart immediately if you are one (once registered as a vexatious litigant, you legally can't sue anybody for a set period, unless you get a proxy to do it for you).

So you yes, it is prudent to be patient and make the other party sweat for a short while (a couple of weeks max) before rejecting their offer, stating good reason (and that it is not enough to cover your losses is a good enough reason). But you should never give the other party the opportunity to say that you were unreasonable, didn't respond to their correspondence in a timely fashion etc, because the courts want to see that you've tried your best to resolve the matter outside of court, and you only used the court as a last resort.

 

Silu: in the absence of pre-existing Union membership its possible that your home insurance includes [cover for] legal advice ??

 

I agree with all that. Dividing your claim into two, defined parts; that is the part you've costed and the part you can't cost yet would be consistant with reasonableness - though remember that magistrates look to fix fault first. Otherwise no one ever expects someone to compromise on costed damages, though councils might try it on. Both parties are equal before the law so if you damaged council property, just as they would look mad if they compromised on their costed claim, so would you. The best way to ensure you look reasonable is to offer the council a week to find alternative quotes or offer to meet them to discuss it at your house I reckon.

 

Thanks very much Kristen but unfortunately my home insurance doesn't cover legal advice. Legal Aid?...well we probably all know you have to be on skids row to qualify for that!

Having already spoken with my solicitor, I'm waiting for a reply to an email I sent them on 10th asking exactly when they contacted the power companies to get the all clear to start work, critical according to my sol. (health and safety issues where burn blocked)....not really but good excuse for council to delay even starting work. Email couched a veiled threat of freedom of information act as I found out the power companies have the info I need but can't give it to me without Council's agreement!

I am 59 years old and have NEVER sued anybody ever before so don't think I fall into the category of being a "vexatious litigant" !

With the weather turning quite severe we REALLY are looking at the possibility of having no even vaguely safe vehicular access from our property. Our road access 1 way has now been closed for 28 days and works to actually do the job properly don't even start until 21 Jan so likely to be another week onto that before we can get a car along the road, that's 36 day of considerable inconvenience to us our neighbour plus postie, oil delivery lorries, couriers, farmers, the list is endless. Just because I live in the countryside it doesn't entitle me to a reduction in my rates so in theory I should be entitled to exactly the same level of service as anybody else. All I can say is god help us if it's the same council (think they are involved!) that's building the new Forth Road Bridge. If they can't work out the bare minimum on a couple of pipes, I cannot begin to imagine the c..k ups and wasted money on a massive project.

 

Sorry, I hope I didn't give the impression that I was suggesting you could be, because that wasn't my intention at all.

When I mentioned that term, I was just saying what I said before, which is that if a case goes to court, you have to be seen to have been reasonable, which I reckon you have 100%. There was a hint that correspondence should be ignored, at least for a time, and I was just saying that that would be an example of being awkward, which would not help your case.

Misunderstandings all round I think. All intentions good as far as I can see

 

Absolutely no offence taken Clueless I can assure you far from it, you've been such a help. I have not received a reply to my email of 10th January 2013 which amongst others asks the 50 milliom $ question as advised by my sol.I will send a reminder email tomorrow and see if that "brings fruit". They may think because they have eventually given in re the repair I've "forgotten" about the potential damage to my garden. I have not!

 

I think that's over the Small Claims Court limit, and your Sol's eyes must be showing pound signs at the thought of the professional fees

 

Maybe it'll be the high court by the time I've added up everything including extra fuel needed for detours, the suspension of my car which is complaining bitterly, about 100 hours of phone calls and me needing to be committed to a funny farm to recover on top of the plants ruined. my beloved council.

 

I've started polishing my begging bowl in readiness

Fingers crossed that it goes well for you, and that you can get the planting back to a decent equivalent before too long. It looked lovely in the photos you posted.

I wish jobsworths like that would pull-finger-out and adopt a JFDI attribute instead.

 

I found this article most interesting what a lot of learned people our gardeners are
Re neighbours I had a big problem a year ago the fence that divided our private road from the public cycleway was vandalised by the local youth to give them a short cut to school it started as a trickle and finished up like the M1 over our frontage. So in desperation I personally decided to do some thing about it contacted a fence company got a quote for an anti vandal fence went ahead and got it done paid for it myself then approached my neighbours for a % of the cost and do you know they all contributed even tho 2 of them were tenants ,But the people whose kids were responcable contacted the council and claimed it was a right of way would you believe?So we had a jobs worth down here, the frontage is on our deeds we are 5 terraced houses on a private access road I also had painted in big yellow letters private road, do you knowwell a year on they still walk pass and look, hoping it would be taken down we planted it up with ever green shrubs and by the summer you will hardly see the 6ft metal fence .Peace and tranquility has been restored With the help of neighbours you can achieve much

 

So glad you got sorted rosietutu. Unfortunately with our scenario it is only us who have been seriously affected altho there is another neighbour who was reduced to only 1 perilous access to our road. Miracles do happen! our beloved council have today actually appeared with some old road metal and made the road passable.... just. Perhaps me threatening to go for them if by their actions or lack of I can't get to Edinburgh Airport this coming Monday morning did the trick! Mind you with the forecast and Heathrow already struggling my long time planned visit to Texas isn't looking too promising and can't blame all of this on the council!!!. Bet you my council are hoping I disappear, never to be heard of again!

 

Oh go on. That's what they're there for.
That and the bins.

 

More Victor Meldrew moments being had here. Looks like I'd be bonkers to try and fly into Heathrow on Monday unless it was essential. Travel agent phoned to advise DON'T so now got to try and rearrange.We have plenty of snow here but quite used to it so no big deal. It would have been if council hadn't got finger out and made access vaguely passable via their workings as postie just arrived from the direction which has been shut since 20th Dec as he couldn't get up the hill which until yesterday had been our only vehicular access.SO my beloved council I wasn't being an hysterical old bag, old bag yes but hysterical over the situation maybe not! What's a bin collection Cacadores? We've only had 1 since 25th November 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!