Cavity Wall Insulation Removal
Discussion
Keeping a long story shortish, I live in a block of 9 flats, 6 of which had CWI installed in 2013. Turns out one of the 6 tried to sell and through the survey process was told the building wasn't suitable for CWI as it is timber framed.
Fast forward to last week when a truck arrives with a lot of scaffolding, completely out of the blue. After pressing the haulier, scaffold hire place and scaffold erector I found out Eon had instigated it. Sure enough next day two guys from Eon turn up from Birmingham, along with a team from a company in Sheffield to remove it. The local outfit who put it in are nowhere to be seen.
I work from home and won't be doing much work for two weeks while they drill endless holes in the brick and suck the stuff back out. We've had no notification, no explanation, CIGA the guarantee body don't have any record of the issue, Eon are batting it around. I've had a look online and seen some no win no fee type lawyers but just asking if anyone had had similar experience or compo, what to expect etc...
Fast forward to last week when a truck arrives with a lot of scaffolding, completely out of the blue. After pressing the haulier, scaffold hire place and scaffold erector I found out Eon had instigated it. Sure enough next day two guys from Eon turn up from Birmingham, along with a team from a company in Sheffield to remove it. The local outfit who put it in are nowhere to be seen.
I work from home and won't be doing much work for two weeks while they drill endless holes in the brick and suck the stuff back out. We've had no notification, no explanation, CIGA the guarantee body don't have any record of the issue, Eon are batting it around. I've had a look online and seen some no win no fee type lawyers but just asking if anyone had had similar experience or compo, what to expect etc...
All that jazz said:
Mandat said:
What compensation are you looking for?
Presumably compensation for turning the exterior walls of his flat into something that closely resembles a collinder? I'd be mightily pissed off too.Also, on a pedantic point, the OP most likely doesn't own the external walls of the block, as leases on flats usually just include up to the internal faces of the walls.
Mandat said:
The holes are drilled in the mortar joints and are re-pointed again, so there is no collinder effect.
I wonder which you'd rather have, walls intact as designed, or walls with hundreds of patched holes from a botched job?In answer to the question I want compensated for loss of earnings whilst the work is carried out (I work from home), and the general inconvenience, not to mention the lack of notice or explanation and damage to the grounds.
But apart from all that, aye I'm a chancer.
A wee look online suggests compensation is relevant to this and I'll be after every penny I can get. I didn't start it, I didn't cause the problem, WTF shouldn't those responsible be paying us for the hassle?
technodup said:
Mandat said:
The holes are drilled in the mortar joints and are re-pointed again, so there is no collinder effect.
I wonder which you'd rather have, walls intact as designed, or walls with hundreds of patched holes from a botched job?In answer to the question I want compensated for loss of earnings whilst the work is carried out (I work from home), and the general inconvenience, not to mention the lack of notice or explanation and damage to the grounds.
But apart from all that, aye I'm a chancer.
A wee look online suggests compensation is relevant to this and I'll be after every penny I can get. I didn't start it, I didn't cause the problem, WTF shouldn't those responsible be paying us for the hassle?
One thing you might want to be wary of is admitting that you work from home, if your lease has any restrictions in this regard.
Edited by Mandat on Thursday 11th February 18:16
Mandat said:
Did you make any claims during the initial installation works,
No. Mandat said:
as the Freeholder may question why any compensation might be due now,
I'm in Scotland, we don't have a freeholder. Mandat said:
if you were happy during the initial works?
We were happy, insofar as we thought the job was done correctly. Which it wasn't.Bottom line is some cowboy CWI outfit were desperate for sales, approached us and we agreed to the work. During that 'process' a (their) surveyor signed off that everything was fine. Except the building isn't suitable for CWI at all.
I'm sensing a bit of opposition from you and I'm not sure why. I would challenge anyone not to want some form of satisfaction when supposedly professional people, in the process of taking the government coin for making us all eco bla bla make a
of it so badly it takes a team of five two weeks to correct. With all the inconvenience that involves.I'd guess it's costing Eon £10k to sort out already. And I want to push that up just a bit more.
The removal team will likely have to remove a good few bricks from the exterior wall to get the insulation out as removing it through small holes is often not practical. However they can be replaced and will look ok afterwards. There is a case for compensation against the original surveyor and installers if you can find them.
Mr GrimNasty said:
Probably because they subcontracted the original cowboys.
Sort of, not exactly sure of the process but it seems they funded it in some way. They weren't on any of the original documentation though. Their guy also mentioned buying carbon in a trade but my eyes were glazing over by that point.They have taken bricks out. I'm not massively concerned about the building, I know they'll make good, and I certainly didn't notice any difference in my heating bill so not fussed it's coming out. I'm pissed off that had someone by chance not stopped them at the car park gate this would all have started without any notification whatsoever. And obviously pissed off at the cowboys too busty chasing commission that they didn't stop to check if the building was suitable in the first place.
A quick Google brought up a few ambulance chasing no win no fee CWI lawyers. We have two lawyers in the building so we'll see what route we take but there's obviously money in these f
k ups, and I'm wanting some of it. 
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