Decision Report 201304370

Summary

Mr C owns a property in a building where the council administer a tenement management scheme (TMS). He was unhappy about the way in which the council billed him for various emergency works there. He also said that there was a delay in issuing invoices, the council did not ensure that invoices and final notices were printed and delivered in a timely manner, and that an incorrect date of payment received was referred to in responses to his complaint.

We made enquiries of the council, and received their comments and relevant paperwork. They accepted that there was an unreasonable delay in issuing the invoices, and we found that they did not appear to have told Mr C or other residents about their normal practice in dealing with these. We upheld this element of his complaint, as well as the incorrect date of payment being shown, which the council also acknowledged. In relation to Mr C's concerns about the printing and issuing of invoices and final notices, we saw no evidence that the delay was caused by the council's mail processing, and so we did not uphold this aspect of his complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the council:

• apologise to Mr C for the delay in issuing invoices for work undertaken at his property;
• review their invoicing procedure under the TMS, specifically in relation to the timely issuing of invoices and how residents are kept informed of when invoices will be issued; and
• apologise to Mr C for the errors in two of their letters.