The story does not end there. Following the Inspectorate’s award of costs, I wrote to the Council setting out the costs I intended to recover from the Council. My policy of recording all time spent on timeEdition recording software was very useful in this respect. The system records client, project and task information to the second. The accurate fee information was summarised as an overview with the fee generated by certain tasks stipulated and individual records of each task were shown.
I normally provide these on invoicing. Here I used them to accurately portray the costs incurred by the client in having unnecessarily to appeal the Council's decision. It gave the Council very little room for manoeuvre and they accepted the figures and agreed to pay the £1007.25.
Despite assurance after assurance the payment was not forthcoming nearly six months on.
Unsatisfactorily, it took a formal complaint to secure the monies but my client did receive an apology from the Council’s Corporate Complaints Officer.
Darren Ridley Associate Royal Town Planning Institute Consultant,
The Planning Station [Date]
A landlord’s counterpunch
Two appeal wins, cost award and a formal complaint apology
