Basildon Borough Council (202334594)
From: Raj Gupta
To: Anne Page (Basildon Borough Council)
Date: 11/12/2024 14:49:17
Type: Outgoing Portal message
Message:
Dear sir/madam
Complaint: 202334594 – Ms Wendy Wells, 47 Gardenia Court BASILDON, SS15 5PG
I am writing to let you know that Ms Wells’s complaint has been allocated to me for investigation. Thank you for the information you have provided previously. I apologise for the delay in the case being allocated.
The complaint
The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
a) The resident’s reporting of repairs including to the skylight, the heating system and to her aerial.
b) The resident’s reporting of damage to her personal possessions.
Please note that the wording of the above, may change slightly in the report.
Further information required
After going through the evidence you have supplied, there are some additional things I need for the investigation as follows:
- I can see from the papers you have provided these included 3 complaint responses; 2 stage 1 responses and 1 stage 2 response but it is unclear when each of these documents was sent to the resident (as two were via email and the copies you have provided are undated). The reference numbers for these complaints are :
CAS-07941-J2T8M6. – stage 1. When was this issued and was it passed to a stage 2 complaint?;
CAS-16557-Q0H3D3 which was a stage 1 response issued on 25/01/24. Did this proceed to a stage 2 complaint?
CAS-08410-D5R9B0 which was a stage 2 complaint. Again when was this issued to the resident and did this follow on from the stage 1 complaint under ref CAS-07941-J2T8M6? If not can you provide the stage 1 response for this particular complaint.
- I can see from the notes you provided that the majority of communication from the resident to you was via telephone. Is this correct?
- When did the resident initially raise her complaint with you? Can you please provide details of this including how the matter had been raised.
- The resident has been in touch with us to express concern over your visiting her premises in the coming days and clearing out items including from her loft as she says she has spoken to her neighbours and no one else has been asked to not store items in their lofts. She believes she is being treated differently to other neighbours by the landlord. The resident has asked the Housing Ombudsman to get in touch with you in respect of the matter, to enquire whether this visit can be stopped. Can I confirm that this cleaning and access of the property is a follow up to the court injunction which you enclosed with your papers which was obtained in April 2024?
- The resident has explained that in terms of her possessions in the garden and in the property that she was awaiting a council shed/garage to store these in but that the current council shed/garage does not have any space. Could you provide some clarity on this issue please. Where are the council sheds/garages located and what rights are provided to residents to use these facilities to store their own goods?
Please come back to me with this information no later than by 13 December 2024.
Please let me know if any more recent events have occurred in relation to this complaint that you think I should be aware of, or if you would like to discuss the case.
Investigation
You can find out more about how we investigate here: Investigation process explained | Fact sheet | Housing Ombudsman (housing-ombudsman.org.uk)
I am aiming to complete the investigation and send the decision within the next 4 to 6 weeks. I will contact you if the investigation takes longer to complete.
Yours sincerely
Raj Gupta
Adjudicator
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