Residents left in a ‘state of anxiety’ due to legal threats by City of York Council

Residents of a York street say they have been left stressed and anxious by legal threats from City of York Council.

People living in 1-19 Carleton Street, off Leeman Road, were sent letters from the council saying they were liable for repairs to a wall, potentially costing tens of thousands of pounds.

The council said the wall was dangerous, and they would take residents to court within 30 days if they took no action to repair it.

But when challenged, the council “admitted that it did not even know to what extent, if any, the responsibility for maintaining the wall actually sat with the homeowners,” ward councillors said.

Furthermore, “the officer who sent the letter then admitted that the repairs were not actually urgent and could wait until autumn”.

The saga began last April, after council officers visited the site. They then sent the residents letters saying the wall between their rear yards and Foundry Lane, owned by Homes England, was a “dangerous structure”.

Homes England is one of the council’s partners in the development of the nearby York Central development.

If residents did not sort the wall, they could be charged by the council for any works deemed necessary, the letter suggested.

All gone quiet

The residents contacted their Holgate ward councillor, Labour’s Kallum Taylor, and together they sent some basic questions back to council. 

This led to the admission that the Carleton Street householders might not be responsible after all.

In June, the council agreed to establish who was responsibility for the wall and also to help coordinate any works done.

But residents have heard nothing since.

One resident, Liam Murphy, told YorkMix Radio he felt the response from City of York Council had been “pathetic”.

“We’ve asked the council to come and meet us to discuss it face to face so that we can ask them questions, and we can find out what’s going on,” he said.

“It’s been almost a year and a half now. And we’re still no close to a resolution.”

He jokingly suggested that he felt like taking direct action: “At what point do I have to go to West Offices and either chain myself to the gates or glue myself to the door and say, give me the answers that I need? Because we’re just not getting anywhere.”

Many residents could not afford to pay thousands of pounds for their share of a huge repair bill, particularly at such short notice.

Liam said: “We’ve got gents that have lived here all their life. They bought their first house when they were 18 or 19 – they’re now in their 70s or 80s.

“And the house is literally all they’ve got. And yet they seem to think that people are just going to pull money out of nowhere.”

‘A lot of grief’

Anna Good, who also lives on Carleton Street, said:”The initial letter caused a lot of grief and anxiety for the entire street; with only 30 days to ‘fix the wall’ and threatening court action, especially during the cost of living crisis.

“We have attempted to engage on numerous occasions to ensure we are working together and get the facts sorted but then it went quiet.”

Cllr Kallum Taylor criticised the council’s ‘hasty threats’, but stressed that the situation could still be sorted out.

He said: “This is a tricky case and instead of going into autopilot and dishing out legal threats to residents about an asset it knew next to nothing about, the council – with Homes England – should’ve engaged early and positively with them, established the facts and, if needed, worked on a shared plan to remove hassle and stress, reduce costs, and ensure the required level of work across the whole structure.

“It’s still not too late for them to do this but – given the worry they’ve caused, along with the apparent urgency of the situation – they need to get on with it.”

Councillors have written again to ask the council:

• to make clear who is legally responsible for the wall
• if any homeowners are responsible for the repairs, for the council or Homes England to work with them to organise the most cost-effective resolution
• for the council or Homes England to help residents afford any repairs via reasonable payment plans, if necessary.

City of York Council told YorkMix they would come back to us with a response.