Decision Report 201407616

Summary

A window at Mr C's property was damaged. The council made a repair that was not effective and it was not until some weeks later that they fixed the problem. Mr C complained and the council told him the initial repair had been effective. He remained dissatisfied and complained to us. We found there was evidence to suggest that the repair had not been effective and that, if it had been, it would be reasonable to expect the council to hold evidence that showed this. We upheld the complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the council:

• apologise to Mr C for the failures identified;
• remind appropriate staff to check that responses to complaints make reference to all council actions relevant to the subject of complaint;
• remind appropriate staff that correspondence indicating that the complaints process has been completed should not be provided to complainants while investigations are still on-going; and
• provide Mr C with a goodwill payment equivalent to four weeks of his rent in recognition of the inconvenience he suffered due to their not providing an effective repair to windows at his property within a reasonable timescale.