Broken Lifts

Mermaid

My lift has now been broken for 9 days , it is having an impact on my daily life
what rights do I have to get this sorted out

[Deleted User]

Hey Mermaid

Depends on lots of things!

what kind of property are you in (council, housing association, private rented, personally owned)

also is it a flat or a house - where is the lift? ie before or after your front door?

how have you been managing the past 9 days? ie how severe is the impact (for example have you had to stay elsewhere because you can't access your property at all, or have you been able to sleep in the lounge and cope without upstairs access)

-B

Mermaid

Hi, I live in a housing Association flat there is 1 communal lift in the block for all to use I live on the 4th floor and am having trouble going out as I have trouble walking up and down the stairs so no lift lots of trouble, I had to cancel a doctors app today for example also my groceries cannot be delivered until the lift is fixed so I could say I am virtually housebound at the moment

[Deleted User]

K, so you need to contact the housing association to report it and you could also contact the adult social services team to advise them that you are a vulnerable adult with no means of getting out of your home, unable to attend appts etc. Does the housing association have an evacuation plan for you in case of fire? If not ask them to do one as this has highlighted an issue, etc. Keep the pressure on them to fix the lift!

Housing associations can be great, but they can be a colossal pain, there's normally just enough ambiguity of responsiblity between the HA and the council's housing teams to leave tenants stuck in the middle... ...do you have a residents association or rep you can speak to?

you could also get in touch with a disabled persons organisation - scope have a directory of them here: http://www.scope.org.uk/Support/services-directory?Type+of+service=information - to see if there is any help they can give you (maybe a caseworker?) Or if you are over 55 try Age UK


-B xx

[Deleted User]

you might find these links helpful:

Responsiblity for repairs in social housing:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/repairs_in_social_housing/responsibility_for_repairs

how to report repairs to a social landlord (includes template letter)

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/repairs_in_social_housing/reporting_and_allowing_access


hope this helps

-B xx

Mermaid

Thank you very much indeed