amicushorizonrepairs

Amicus Horizon and Booker and Best

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On the 24th May 2009 you reported a leak in the downstairs WC ceiling. An emergency repair was raised and Booker and Best attended same day to make safe. The operative turned off the water supply to make safe and made a couple of small holes in the WC ceiling in order to release the pressure of the water trapped above.

On the 24th May 2009 at 16.27 we called Amicus Horizon to report a leak in our upstairs bathroom. The operator said that as it was a bank holiday there was nothing that they could do and ordered us to call again on the 26th May 2009 to request repairs. She ordered us to make holes in the downstairs ceilings to release the water.
When the situation became worse we called Amicus Horizon again at 20.27 and then again at 20.37. About one hour later a plumber called from Booker and Best. The plumber advised us that he was unable to make any repairs because his role was to just make sure that everything was safe. He did not make any holes in any ceiling and he did not turn off the water these things had already been done when we followed the orders from Amicus Horizon.
Booker and Best Maintenance Manager, Andy Miller stated at a later meeting Amicus Horizon present that Booker and Best would never advise a tenant to make holes in any ceiling.

On 26th May 2009 you contacted Amicus Horizon requesting confirmation as to when Booker and Best would return to fix the leaking pipe and to advise the light fitting/ceiling was coming down. You were advised we would contact Booker and Best who would confirm when you were booked in for the repairs.

We telephoned Amicus Horizon three times on the 26th May 2009 requesting a repair unfortunately their telephone number 0800 1216060 is a toll free number which conveniently for them means that calls to this number do not appear on itemised telephone bills because there is no charge but BT advise us that there would certainly be records of our calls on Amicus Horizons account which of course tenants cannot access.
In these calls Amicus Horizon apologised for the delays and said that they would arrange for Booker and Best to call the next day.

On 29th May 2009 Booker and Best attended and replaced the defective pipe but did not fix the ceiling.

On the 05th June 2009 Booker and Best did attend and repair a section of damage pipe (Click Here for picture gallery) in the upstairs bathroom, the repair took about twenty minutes.

On the 11th June 2009 you made an official complaint relating to the leak and other issues.

On the 11th June 2009 we did make a further attempt to lodge an official complaint regarding the leak and the damage to our property and the injury caused to my wife by Amicus Horizons failures. This complaint was first lodged with Amicus Horizon on the 26th May 2009 and on several occasions between the 26th may and the 07th June 2009 unfortunately Amicus Horizon are now claiming that they have no record of those complaints being made. Fortunately we made complaints regarding the same to other agencies who do have records and who also contacted Amicus Horizon to add weight to our complaints.
Our complaints to Amicus Horizon were not restricted to the leak that occurred on the 24th may 2009. Our complaints centred on the fact that because of our involvement with Churchillunited and because we had passed on the bank details of 27,000 of Amicus Horizons tenants to the Hastings Observer after they had been sent to us twice along with many emails from Booker and Best regarding repairs to other properties that any complaint from us or any request for repairs was being deliberately ignored by Amicus Horizon during our meeting with Amicus Horizon and Booker and Best Mr Miller from Booker and Best assured us that there was no such discrimination being applied by Booker and Best and we accepted that as true because we believe it is. Mr Goodsell from Amicus Horizon at the same meeting promised that he would return to his office and talk to his colleagues to ensure that that did not happen "in the future"
Amicus Horizon were in fact almost two years late on one installation which was supported in writing by Hastings Council and other official agencies.
Amicus Horizon are approx six months late on another installation which is supported and was requested on our behalf by the disability services. This installation is still not complete.
Our complaints regarding the first issue was first lodged with 1066 housing association and then Amicus Horizon in 2007 and this installation was finally completed in June 2009.

On the 16th June 2009 following receipt of your complaint, you were visited by Andy Miller from Booker and Best who ordered work to the ceiling which was completed the following day.

Mr Miller from Booker and Best has done his best to be helpful in all of these matters. He arranged for someone to visit and repair one of the ceilings and an electrician to repair the light fitting. The ceiling was repaired the next day the light fitting was forgotten but was repaired on the day we called his office to enquire as to when we should expect an electrician.
I would like to make a very obvious point here that I think cuts through all of the bullshit and clarifies the real situation regarding these things. Booker and Best are a business a large well run business who make money from doing repairs and who would lose money by refusing to do repairs. Amicus Horizon are a badly run business/charity who save money by not doing repairs or by doing them cheaply also, as we have shown so many times before Amicus Horizons biggest failures is that they work on personalities:Likes/dislikes they are inefficient and unless things have changed dramatically since their 1066 days have little control over their staff. A complaint against any one of them is considered taboo. (Click Here for copies of emails from Amicus Horizon aka 1066 housing)
So watch out.

On the 26th June 2009 you emailed me requesting that I look into your alleged uninsured losses due to the leak in question, alleged missed appointments and the inconvenience of not being able to use your toilet. Subsequent emails were exchanged about your claim and a receipt for your television was submitted and returned.

We did not at any time make any requests for Amicus Horizon to look into any losses that we had suffered due to a leak. Our request was that Amicus Horizon look into the losses we had suffered due entirely to their delay in arranging our property to be made safe which is something they certainly failed to do and also the losses that we had suffered because of the inexcusable delay in effecting a very urgent and very simple repair that Booker and Best had offered to do with no delay if we were a paying customer. The fact is that Booker and Bests stated reasons for not attending are reasonable they cannot go out and work on tenants properties without an order being raised and submitted by Amicus Horizon first and the true cause of the delays was that Amicus Horizon failed repeatedly to submit orders to Booker and Best. Also it was Amicus Horizon who ordered us to make holes in the ceilings and this has been accepted by Amicus Horizon who will no doubt now deny it. So if they are going to order tenants to do these things then they should be responsible for those repairs as we are actually acting on their instructions. We are left with two damaged ceilings we have redecorated three times in one room but the water stains still keep coming through we did not want this upheaval or these arguments or the losses we continue to suffer.
The most important thing to consider in all of this is that we never once asked for compensation from Amicus Horizon they were the ones who told us that we should apply for it. All we wanted was for them to do our long outstanding repairs.

On the 29th June 2009 you emailed me to inform me that there was a problem with the authorisation for the sliding door to be fitted.
On the 13th July 2009 a sliding door was fitted.
(Click Here for Pictures) (Click Here for Youtube Video)(Click Here to follow on Twitter)

This would be funny if it was`nt so sad. The truth is that the disability service requested that Amicus Horizon install a sliding fire door between our kitchen and bedroom months ago. Amicus Horizon ignored this request then and when they finally accepted that it should be fitted there was confusion at Amicus Horizon as to whether or not they had to fit a sliding fire door. Booker and Best did attend to fit a door but they said that they could not fit a conventional door because our door frames are made of metal. At this point there was no argument about the door other than Amicus Horizons refusal/reluctance to do any work necessary or not for us. Booker and Best arranged to return a week later to fit a sliding door and the video on youtube is their own example of craftsmanship-safety-and a job well done!
Even though Booker and Best have described this installation as incomplete-inadequate-dangerous and even though Amicus Horizon have agreed with all of those descriptions it appears now that they share an opinion that it is acceptable. Please see the video and decide for yourself and leave youtube comments. Not only is the door flapping in the wind most of the time it is two inches to short and it has already been accepted by Booker and Best and by Amicus Horizon that it is a real fire hazard and is likely to be the cause of injuries in the future. This posting was actually delayed by a surprise visit from Amicus Horizon and Booker and Best who actually offered to fit a door stop lol and now they are going to write and let me know what they intend to do regarding this threat to health and safety next week. In the meantime it`s left hanging in the wind.

On 17th July 2009, I visited you with Andy Miller, to discuss your compensation claim and at the visit you asked us to inspect the fitting of the sliding door particularly concerned that it was not a fire door.

The visit referred to here by Amicus Horizon was arranged by Mr Goodsell (In his words) so that he could investigate my complaints. Mr Goodsell when he stated the need for this visit said that he needed to examine the property along with an expert engineer who I assume was Mr Miller. I agreed to this meeting because there was/is work that needs doing urgently as for my claim It was my understanding that it was Mr Goodsell who started the compensation trail but look at the emails see what you think. (Click Here)
At this meeting Mr Goodsell seemed deliberately vague as to what he actually thought my complaint was about so I told him in the presence of Mr Miller that I was unhappy with the way that he:Amicus Horizon were deliberately discarding the main elements of my complaints and trying to focus on trivial matters. I handed Mr Goodsell a list and gave details of what was on that list so that I could be sure that there was no further misunderstandings. Mr Goodsell acknowledged the list, accepted a copy and acknowledged the contents of the list.
Mr Goodsells investigation was at best inept, I had to tell him when repairs were done, when phone calls were made etc he blamed his lack of knowledge on confusion but it is much more likely that the conclusion was decided long before the investigation began.
So far during his investigation Mr Goodsell has claimed that I confirmed that I was happy with the way that Booker and Best repaired my pipe on the 24th may-26th may- 29th may but none of those dates were correct and when Mr Goodsell says things like you could not use your toilet for a few days he actually means that we had no toilet facilities or water for almost two weeks! I find it particularly unpleasant that Booker and Best could not supply them with accurate information regarding dates they called that is of course assuming that they were asked.

Findings and Decision.

The repair to fix the pipe was booked in for 29th May 2009, three working days following the emergency order on the 24th May 2009. The repair was booked in as soon as practically possible by Booker and Best to limit the time without use of your toilet.
Booker and Best attended on the 29th May 2009 as verified via visual inspection of the job ticket completed by the plumber who attended.

The repair to fix the pipe actually took place on the 05th June 2009 and there are many witnesses who were present when Booker and Best called to carry out this repair. Booker and Best had arranged to do the repair on the 29th May but they cancelled by phone saying that their engineer had suffered a serious car accident. We contacted Amicus Horizon on the 29th May to request that they get a different company to carry out the repair because Booker and Best had cancelled. Amicus Horizon telephoned us back later that morning to say that Booker and Best had told them that their manager was off sick with flu and they had no one to do the repair. So if they have a job ticket it is fake like their investigation and complaints procedure.

I can find no evidence the appointment to repair the pipe was booked in for any other date than the 29th May 2009 nor any evidence that any appointments were cancelled by Amicus Horizon.

If the ticket allegedly supplied to Amicus Horizon by Booker and Best is dated the 29th May then it must be because Booker and Best have supplied a ticket that had been written for the cancelled appointment either that or it is a fake. As for the appointments that were cancelled by Amicus Horizon Booker and Best have said they did cancel Amicus Horizon have said Booker and Best cancelled that is something they must sort out between themselves as soon as possible would be nice.

The plumber who attended on the 29th May 2009 reported the leak was caused by a hole the size of a pinhole and is not of the opinion could have caused a leak significant enough leak into the living room ceiling.

The plumber who attended on the 05th June 2009 reported that the leak was caused by a perforated pipe and that it had probably been leaking unnoticed for a considerable time causing a large amount of water to collect in the ceiling space above the bedroom. This report was repeated on tape in the presence of Mr Goodsell by Mr Andy Miller of Booker and Best and at that meeting Mr Goodsell agreed with that report. (Click Her for youtube video)

Following the visit on the 17th July 2009 with Andy Miller, based upon information collated and statements taken by Booker and Best. It is my opinion no clear evidence exists to verify damage occurred to your plasma television or dvd player. From the same visit, I agreed the sliding door was not fitted to the standard expected and would be replaced. Please accept my apologies for this.

If booker and Best have supplied statements confirming the dates that haver been offered by Amicus Horizon then we will gladly dispute the authenticity and the truth of those unseen statements and without doubt discredit them as for evidence of damage we have requested reports from an engineer who will confirm obvious damage.

I accept that there has been a service failure where the repair to your WC ceiling should have been ordered when you reported it on the 26th May 2009 instead of on the 16th June 2009 following your complaint. Please accept my apologies that this was not ordered at the time.

Actually it was the pipe! both WC`s the ceilings.

In accordance with the current Amicus Horizon Compensation Policy an award of £40 goodwill payment is offered which is for the failure to order the ceiling repair and for the failure to fit an adequate sliding door. No award is made for compensation claimed for alleged damage to personal items as a result of the leak. I will now arrange for a cheque to be paid to you which may take up to two weeks to process.

How can it be possible for an investigation to be completed and an award given for failing to carry out repairs that have still not been completed. Now instead of having no door we have a very dangerous door the ceilings are still in need of repair and Mr Goodsells own words during the meeting dispute his own findings in this letter. Booker and Best do not seem to be fairing any better in their attempts to prop up a pathetically fake investigation they are creating complaints against themselves. We do of course reject the award and we will continue with our fight and once again urge those of you with complaints against Amicus Horizon and/or Booker and Best to use your camcorders and computers to record meetings and visits because the real purpose of their investigations is to see how much evidence there is against them so that they can judge whether or not they can win any possible court actions. I believe that they have misjudged in this case and we will when we get our turn prove them to be liars.