Key topic(s): Antisocial behaviour from neighbouring tenants
Award:
Written apology plus £100 compensation
Resolved by: Early resolution
What happened?
The complainant said:
- despite reporting the anti-social and criminal behaviour of the tenants at the beginning of last year, the situation has got worse due to the lack of action taken by the agent
- the tenants have subjected the complainant to severe verbal abuse, including false and defamatory accusations
- this was reported to the police, who had described it as ‘disgusting’
- one tenant had been referred to Checkpoint Cymru and the police are taking the other tenant to court
- the complainant previously raised this issue with the agent, but no adequate response or corrective action was taken and there were delays in responses
- the complainant is claiming a full explanation of past actions and an immediate resolution, including the enforcement of tenancy agreement and policies on anti-social behaviour to prevent any more harm
The agent responded, saying:
- the complainant was previously provided with a full response
- there are follow up actions relating to the complaint which the team is working on and will continue to work on them until the complaint is resolved
- the agent was unsure whether the complainant is unhappy with the response provided, or the follow up actions
- the agent has discussed this with the team to make sure all actions are escalated and dealt with within the next three to five weeks
What evidence was provided?
Email communication
What was decided and why?
the evidence showed that:
- the issues had been raised with the agent multiple times
- while some action was taken, the complainant still had some outstanding questions and queries
due to the delays in response times, the agent was to:
- send the complainant a written meaningful apology for the poor communication
- provide a written response to the complainant’s questions which were:
- since the complaint was first raised, what action has been taken?
- were the neighbouring tenants reminded of the antisocial behaviour policy in their tenancy agreement at the start of the tenancy, and if so, what steps have been taken to follow this up?
- Were these tenants issued with any warnings or were measures put in place to address their behaviour last year?
- what action does the agent intend taking to resolve the outstanding issues?
How can you avoid this happening in future?
- Make sure you respond to queries you get from direct and neighbouring consumers
- Always keep your landlord clients (if you are an agent) fully informed
- Keep all communications clear and send all updates and responses in a reasonable time
- Try to resolve issues as quickly as possible to prevent consumers from making a repeat complaint
