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Case ref:202200187
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Date:January 2024
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Body:Angus Council
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Sector:Local Government
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Outcome:Upheld, recommendations
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Subject:Repairs and maintenance
Summary
C complained about the actions of the council in relation to repairs required at their home. They considered the communication, quality of repairs and time taken to carry out and fully resolve the repairs were unreasonable.
While it was noted that there were significant efforts made to seek to resolve the issues, and some delays were outwith the council’s control, overall, we considered the council failed to reasonably respond to repairs. While some repairs were completed in the target timescale, others were not, and for other repairs there was no record provided to indicate whether they were complete and no mechanism to escalate the situation where repeated attempts to repair the same fault were unsuccessful. As such we upheld the complaint.
Recommendations
What we asked the organisation to do in this case:
- Apologise to C for failing to reasonably respond to C’s repair requests. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/information-leaflets.
- Ensure that the seven repair requests have now been completed.
What we said should change to put things right in future:
- Have a system in place to ensure repairs information for each property is recorded in a way that is clear and accessible. Ideally this will also include a record of seeking verification from the tenant that they are also satisfied with the repair.
- Have a system in place to identify and respond to situations where multiple repairs have not resolved the issue.
In relation to complaints handling, we recommended:
- Responses to complainants and the SPSO are thorough and complete, ideally in one response.
We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.