Decision report 201100365

Summary
Ms C’s property sits below a property that is leased to the council. She complained that the council failed to take appropriate action when they found out that a pipe had burst in the property above hers and that they failed to properly investigate her complaint. She also complained that the council failed to maintain the property when it was empty and left it without heating in extreme weather conditions.

Our investigation found that, although the council had taken appropriate action to look after the property while it was empty, including taking action to deal with the burst pipe, they had failed to make any contact with Ms C and had provided her with inaccurate information about the action they had taken.

Recommendations
We recommended that the council:
• review the circumstances of this complaint to consider whether there is a need for a written policy or procedure to formalise the action to be taken when dealing with future similar circumstances;
• in circumstances where an owner occupier cannot be contacted by the council, consideration be given to leaving a card for the owner occupier explaining the situation and providing relevant contact details; and
• apologise to Ms C for the inaccurate information provided when responding to her representations and take steps to try to ensure that accurate information is provided when responding to complaints.