Woman saves Islington taxpayers a fortune after spotting council window blunder

A woman was horrified when she found the council planned to charge her to replace the windows in her home – even though they were still covered under guarantee.

Vicki Leonard, 55, of Haslam Close, Islington, says the council had no idea about the warranty and was set to charge all the block’s residents for the work.

She called to protest, and says the council officer knew nothing about the 10-year-promise – the windows were fitted seven years ago – and even asked her to send a copy of the guarantee.

Ms Leonard said: “This just shows the level of poor-recording keeping and maladministration that goes on. I was absolutely shocked by it. Any normal person would assume they had a guarantee, so why not the council?

“This affects everyone in the borough who has had their windows replaced – it’s reckless mismanagement of public money and it’s unbelievably careless.”

A spokesman for the council said: “The council retains guarantees for major works and we apologise that in this case there was an unacceptable delay in dealing with this request.

“If these renewal works are covered by the guarantee, the contractor will of course pay.”