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Case ref:201100346
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Date:January 2012
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Body:The City of Edinburgh Council
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Sector:Local Government
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Outcome:Some upheld, recommendations
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Subject:Policy/administration
Summary
Mr C had been a council tenant for three years. He complained that during his time as a tenant he had been subjected to anti-social behaviour and that the council had failed to take effective action. As result of the antisocial behaviour he was forced to give up his tenancy in 2011 and he complained that the council had failed to take appropriate action at that time to meet his housing needs.
Our investigation found that during 2009 there had been faults in the council's handling of the matter. However, from December 2009 Mr C had made no further complaints until August 2010 and we found the council to have followed its policy in relation to Mr C's complaints from that period. In view of the faults identified during 2009, however, we upheld the complaint. We found that, when Mr C was forced to leave his tenancy in 2011, the council followed their policy and we did not uphold the complaint that they had failed to meet his housing needs.
Recommendations
We recommended that the council:
• apologise to Mr C for the failings identified in relation to their handling of the matter in 2009; and
• clarify whether the introduction section of the Edindex application form requires information on neighbour disputes or harassment to be passed to the Community Safety Team. If the information is not to be passed to any other section, the council should ensure that the application form is clear about the use of the information provided.