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things wrong in my flat

  • The council were unable to organise the different companies involved in the 'improvements' in our flats. They didn't know what they were going to do about the showers to begin with. Eventually they decided to pay a different company from Lovell to put in new cylinders so that the showers installed by Lovell would work. The new cylinders should have been put in before Lovell started work, not after. The company who put in the cylinders (Clairglow) put a pipe in front of pipes that Lovell had boxed in. My fridge will not go back as far as it should because there is a big pipe behind it, then boxed in pipes behind that. I tried to explain to the company that they should have put the new pipe with the old pipes behind the panel, but they wouldn't have it. They said they couldn't touch another company's work. I see this as a failure of competitive tendering where the council use different companies but fail to organise them.
  • Lovell's workmen seemed to be teenagers from a variety of countries. Often they just did not know what they were doing. I doubt very much if Lovell checked their references. This is another failure of competitive tendering, everything is done on the cheap and substandard, and the council don't care because they save money. But it is a waste of money. What is the point of doing work that does not need to be done, and do it to a lower standard. How is that an improvement? All my flat needed was paint on the walls and something on the floor.
  • The floor covering in the bathroom was not chosen by me, although I did choose the colour. It has a very rough texture, which I expect is meant to be non-slip. There are little holes in the surface, presumably to carry away water. I believe this floor covering to be unsafe and insanitary. It is unsafe because it is impossible to keep clean. Even if the surface is scrubbed the dirt will not come out. The dirt will build up and when all the holes are filled it will lose its non-slip surface. Sooner or later, someone will slip and injure themselves. I believe the council will be to blame for this. They may feel that they cannot be sued for injury because they have done what they can to avoid it, but I believe this is wrong. After the Lovell workmen put in the floor covering, they continued to work in the bathroom without putting a dust sheet on the floor. There are white specks on the floor that should not be there. These specks are plaster or grouting that have been trodden in and can't be removed. There is also a stain that I can't remove. Any urine that goes on the floor cannot be easily removed.
  • The extractor fan in the bathroom starts up by itself when it is raining outside, sucking damp air into the flat. It often does not come on when I am having a bath or shower. I keep it switched off most of the time to avoid the problem of it coming on when it shouldn't. I did not have this problem with the previous extractor fan which was needlessly replaced.
  • I was told towards the end by Lovell that there were 4 things remaining that they would do for me, 2 in the kitchen and 2 in the bathroom. I was told that a chain would be put at the back of my cooker to stop it from tilting forward. This was not done. I was told that they would measure the level of the bathroom sink; I had complained that it was not level. I don't know if this was done, they didn't say anything to me about it and the sink still does not function as it should. I was told that the slope in the wall near the bath would be corrected. A young man came to do this (a teenager?). First I had to ask him to put a dust sheet over the bath; he had commenced removing tiles without doing this. I noticed that he was removing tiles from higher up the wall than where the problem was. I should have said something. There wouldn't have been much point as he did not speak English. After he went I realised that he hadn't touched the area with the bulge, he had merely removed tiles from higher up and then replaced them, rather inexpertly. He also left marks on the white ceiling. Now a gap has openened up in the corner between the tiles, starting at the ceiling and moving down. After that I decided that I would not let any Lovell workmen do any work in my flat, they only make things worse. I don't blame him; he did not speak English and he had not been instructed properly. The fourth thing was to extend the tiling to behind the fridge, something I did not ask for and was not necessary. It took them 2 attempts to do this, as the worker was initially not instructed properly. One of the worst things that a company can do in terms of public relations is to say they will do something and then not do it. Nobody checked to see if the work has been done. That is the last I heard of them. I was fed up with complaining, things were not put right, and I don't want Lovell to do any more work in my flat as they are not competent and would only make thing worse.
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