TTW

Put it on the Underhills' credit card

I’m cynical about the water meters due to a recent experience- We had a water meter installed last year- I have been monitoring the rates but not switched yet. Recently Thames Water contacted me saying the meter reading suggested a leak on our property (one of their questions when they called was ‘Do you own a swimming pool?’ Lol). They sent an engineer out (6 weeks later) who determined the fault was not on my property but on the street next to where they installed the meter (hmmmmm….). I’m currently waiting (+6 weeks) for a building team to come out and dig up the pavement and fix it. Because of this my recent meter readings have been off the charts expensive. I mentioned to TW that I was about to switch and what could I do about the meter reading issue. I was shocked to discover that even though none of this is my fault once you have a meter it becomes is your responsibility to submit a long ‘leak claim’ form requesting they adjust your bill. I did this and still haven’t heard back from them. Be warned.

The house next door to us (terraced) is being renovated. The builders are clearly on a deadline and behind, and are working late into the night every day of the week and on weekends. We've repeatedly asked them to stop work after 6pm (as per Southwark's regs) and they promise they will, then continue. The new owners of the property (recently sold) make excuses but don't seem inclined to keep to the mandated building hours. What's the next step for us to get this to stop - Southwark noise? Building regs? Any advice much appreciated.

I’ve also had Russell not show up to previously agree meetings on a couple of occasions. He’s done work for me in the past and I think he’s honest but found the constant chasing (on my part) frustrating and eventually moved on to a better communicator.

Does anyone have any experience of installing a cat flap into a glass door? Also, do you have any recommendations for local glaziers who can do it? Any advice much appreciated.

They want a basic scale drawing but have suggested I could do it myself. We need a structural engineer because of the retaining wall and he is going to do the drawing.

If anyone is interested/looking to do something similar, I ended up speaking to Southwark's planning department and their advice is: 'planning permission will be required for the bike shed at this location. I can reassure you that the Council will support this scheme and will seek to fast track a decision as soon as an application is received.'

Interesting. Can I ask what happened with yours in the end? Did you have to draw up plans etc?

Hi, wondered if anyone could give me some advice on this. We have a neglected basement level front garden that we are interested in renovating to build a bike storage shed (a permanent structure out of brick with a flat paved roof). This will be within the property boundary and below street level (it will be in line with the lower ground floor entrance; the roof will be just below street/pavement level) so it will not really be visible from the street. We are within the Holly Grove conservation area. Do you think we will need to see planning permission from Southwark Council? Any advice much appreciated.

The two individuals in this video / photos dumped a couple of chairs outside our house this afternoon. https://video.nest.com/clip/75ab600dba16498181bf2762ddedc346.mp4 If anyone recognises them please PM me. Thanks

Parcel nicked from Chadwick Rd off Bellenden this afternoon https://video.nest.com/clip/906a1fac9684445baf381c950970b27f.mp4

So proud our local surgery is on this list (and completely unsurprised).

Can anyone recommend a decent/reasonably priced sash window company? The one in Herne Hill has come in with a super pricey quote. Any advice much appreciated.

Applegreen petrol station on Camberwell had fuel today at 2:30pm. Limit of ?30 per vehicle.

We are having a dispute with a neighbouring housing association property and I'm wondering if anyone can advise. The garden wall between our two properties has partially collapsed. After two years(!) of umming and erring the housing association has admitted that the wall is their responsibility. However, rather than fix/rebuild it, they want to tear it down and stick up a fence (the cheap option). FWIW the resident of the property would like it to remain a wall (as do we). We live in the Holly Grove conservation area and assumed that the wall (which appears to date back to the construction of the houses) would need to be rebuilt. The housing association say they have consulted the rules and they do not apply to rear garden walls. Any advice on this matter would be much appreciated!