The Wrong Paint

This story recently came to our notice, and we thought it would be of interest to homeowners considering repainting their homes.

It is a site rule that homeowners must maintain the outside of their homes, and the rules in this particular case stated the colour should not differ from the original colour scheme.

The chosen colour was clotted cream, a slightly lighter shade than the original colour. The site manager told the painters they were using the wrong colour, but they carried on and finished the job. The homeowner then received a letter from the site owner’s solicitor advising he was in breach of the rules and to repaint the home in the original colour, cream.

The homeowner took the advice and decided to ignore the letter; the site owner would have to apply to the First-Tier Tribunal for a judgement in any event.

Assuming that the matter would be referred to the Tribunal, residents helped construct a response providing evidence of other homes that had been repainted in a different colour; this evidence amounted to 52 pages and included several homes which had changed colour after the aforementioned incident  – from green to light blue!

Eventually, a Tribunal was initiated, but the site owner then decided to withdraw the court application advising that the park homeowner was not in breach after all!

So the moral of this story is that Park Home residents should stand up for their rights and at the very least take advice, either by contacting LEASE on 0207 832 2525, a resident’s association such as IPHAS or if you are a policyholder of PBIS you can call our legal advice help-line.