Decision Report 201404811

Summary

Mrs C complained about the council's handling of complaints about some of their tenants in a neighbouring property, which was used by the council to temporarily house homeless households from 2011 to 2014. Mrs C complained about the way her complaints were handled by the council and, in particular, that the council had failed to investigate the issues raised and had failed to keep her advised of the progress and outcome of their investigations.

Our investigation found that concerns were raised about the tenants of the neighbouring property during 2011, and that the council explained the action they had taken. Incidents continued to be reported to the council, and the council continued to investigate these incidents and take action that they considered appropriate.

The council said they accepted that, during the time they had used the property, residents in the neighbouring block had had cause to complain about anti-social behaviour. They indicated they were sorry for the distress and inconvenience caused, and decided that the property would be returned to the owner and would no longer be used by the council to accommodate homeless households.

We were satisfied that the council took action on the incidents reported and kept the complainants informed of the action taken. While we did not uphold the complaint, we did find that it would have been helpful to support Mrs C by issuing her with an incident diary.

Recommendations

We recommended that the council:

• ensure that they adhere to their procedures in relation to the issue of incident diaries where appropriate.