Decision Report 201609373

Summary

Mr C complained to the council as he was not happy with their response to his repair request relating to damp in his property. Mr C had previously experienced damp in the property and the council had attended and made repairs. The problem returned approximately six weeks later and Mr C had reported it again to the council. They attended the property and it was found that the cavity wall insulation had deteriorated. The council arranged to have this replaced.

Mr C was of the view that the poor quality of the cavity wall insulation was the main cause of damp in the property, and he believed this should have been identified and remedied by the council sooner. Mr C complained to us that the council had failed to respond reasonably to his requests for repair, and that they had dealt unreasonably with his subsequent complaint.

We found that the council had responded to the repairs within reasonable timescales, and that the options they had explored to treat the damp before having the cavity wall insulation replaced were reasonable. We did not uphold this aspect of Mr C's complaint.

With regards to complaints handling, whilst we found that the council's response to Mr C's stage one complaint had been late and they had not apologised for this, we found that the complaints handling was reasonable overall. We did not uphold this aspect of the complaint, but we did offer feedback to the council to stress that, if a complaints response is going to be outwith the timescale, then complainants should be notified where possible, and apologies for this should be provided.