Water damage from flat above on 11 occasions housing association tenant. [Merged]

_Penny_Dreadful

You agreed to close the complaint so now you’re going to have to start a new formal complaint. Make sure to include:

Make sure to include:

• what you're complaining about 

• when the problem started 

• what steps you have taken so far to sort it out

• any evidence you've kept of the issue

• what you would like the housing association to do

• Your return address

 The HA must respond within 5 working days. Do not agree to have the complain closed again if you do not agree with the outcome. If you do not agree with the outcome ask the HA to send you a final response which they must do within 20 working days. Then and only then can you escalate matters to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. 

https://www.spso.org.uk/

ProDave

I don't know why in this situation they still fit "ordinary" bathrooms, knowing if something leaks it will leak in the flat below.

I built my own house and fitted 2 wet rooms.  Absolutely fantastic idea.  It would take a massive leak in a wet room to cause a problem, you would have to block the drain pipe and then fill the whole room like a paddling pool until it leaked out of the doorway.  And it did not cost a great deal more than an ordinary bathroom.

It would make sense in this situation and avoid the regular repairing of the flat below so surely would save them money in the long term?

Debi_m_

I decided to call my HAs repair line to try and get a better understanding of the situation with my neighbour’s bathroom. The call centre agent seemed alarmed when I advised what I was told via twitter. They said the leak was resolved and further works are unrelated to the leak. They proceeded to book an inspection in for the ceilings to be repaired. They made a point of telling me it would be a DPA breach to provide details of why the leak occurred. Quite telling in my opinion.

Another resident of our block commented to me about the state of the bathroom upstairs. Apparently the floor is mouldy and rotten and the walls (under the bath isn’t wall tiled) too.

I emailed my HO as when I raised the complaint  last year she said I could contact her if I had issues with water coming through. I’ll give her a chance to get back to me. I’m concerned upstairs will delay appointment in late March and mould will spread. 

Debi_m_

I ended up raising a formal complaint, my HA encourages you to do this only online. I was going to wait for HO response but the ceiling started to get wet again on Sunday. The lady on the repair line was adamant the leak was resolved, quite different to what I was told via Twitter. The last time I complained they just sent it to the local office, someone called me but couldn’t comment on anything I was upset about and didn’t lodge a complaint. I only discovered this after I had no complaint ref. After I queried this they recreated the complaint but they didn’t have any details. Both a complaints advisor and the current HO discussed my concerns but they stated HO long term sick as an excuse and wouldn’t comment on the issues themselves. The lesson is to not let your home get flooded 9 times, complain after you realise is not a genuine issue!!

_Penny_Dreadful

Best of luck with the complaint @Debi_m_

Debi_m_

New water damage as of this evening 🤬 The boxed in area is a flue for the central heating. Actually have the fear at the thought of looking inside. Still nothing from Sanctuary re complaint, today is the 5th working day too.

dannim12345

Hi, I used to work for a housing association and yours might not been the same. There was a 2 stage complaints process so if you aren’t happy with the resolution at stage 1 you could ask for it to go to stage 2 and it would be looked at by a more senior manager. The next option was then for you to go to the housing onbudman but you have to go through the full formal complaint process first. 

In your complaint, don’t get sidetracked just start from the beginning explain what has happened clearly and how long it’s been going on, include dates and photos. 

Debi_m_

Leaking started through the crack above the bath now 🤬 last “leak” was at the other end of the room. You can see why the floor upstairs is mouldy and rotten now.

Debi_m_

dannim12345 said:

Hi, I used to work for a housing association and yours might not been the same. There was a 2 stage complaints process so if you aren’t happy with the resolution at stage 1 you could ask for it to go to stage 2 and it would be looked at by a more senior manager. The next option was then for you to go to the housing onbudman but you have to go through the full formal complaint process first. 

In your complaint, don’t get sidetracked just start from the beginning explain what has happened clearly and how long it’s been going on, include dates and photos. 

It’s still stage 1, just over the timeframe for contact. I appreciate all HAs have their own rules etc but it’s really not clear why this is being allowed to carry on. I’ve contacted all HAs in my area, I need a new home. They’ve been surprised by the lack of interest. It’s probably the stress but it’s like she’s related to someone in the organisation. I imagine they could be protecting themselves too, lots of tenants in newspapers because they get flooded from properties above.

dannim12345

As soon as you get a reply (if you aren’t happy) say please can this be escalated to stage 2. 

If they aren’t sticking to timeframes the housing ombudsman’s (if it goes that far) will ‘tell them off’. If our complaints were taking longer than our timeframe we would have to write to update the customer and set a new date/timeframe to respond by. 

I believe you can ask the housing ombudsman for help sooner but they will only contact the housing association and push long their complaints process and not get involved.