Decision Report 201705213

Summary

Mr C complained about the lack of response from his housing association to concerns he raised that second hand smoke from a neighbouring property was entering his home. Mr C was unhappy that the issue had been ongoing for over a year without any action being taken against his neighbour. The association advised that they had attended Mr C's property, met with his neighbour, arranged for the local authority's environmental health services to conduct an inspection and hired a private company to conduct a further inspection. The association advised that none of these actions had been able to provide evidence to support Mr C's complaint about noxious fumes in the property.

We found that the association responded appropriately to Mr C's initial complaint about the fumes. We noted that following this, Mr C had identified that the fumes were strongest during the evening and through the night and, therefore, any daytime inspections are unlikely to find evidence as the odours will have dispersed. We found that it took the association a further seven months before an inspection of the property was arranged and a further five months before the environmental health service attended the property at night. The findings of the night inspection were that no fumes were observed and the matter was considered closed. We accepted that the investigation had been unable to find evidence to support Mr C's complaint of noxious smells. However, we considered that the inspection should have been carried out much sooner. Therefore, we upheld Mr C's complaint.

Recommendations

What we asked the organisation to do in this case:

• Apologise to Mr C for failing to inspect his property sooner and for the additional stress this caused him. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/leafletsand-guidance.

What we said should change to put things right in future:

• Review existing procedures to determine if more clarity should be included (e.g. in correspondence sent to tenants) to explain how an issue is being treated (i.e. a repair, anti-social behaviour, general enquiry).

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.