Mr L complained that Carmarthenshire County Council failed to properly deal with his reports about noise and antisocial behaviour from a neighbouring property. He also complained about the Council’s response to his formal complaint.
The Council upheld Mr L’s formal complaint and acknowledged that communications could have been better and agreed actions taken place sooner. It apologised to Mr L for the issues he experienced and implemented changes to prevent future delays and to encourage consistency when dealing with similar complaints. However, the Ombudsman found that a recommendation from the Council’s investigation remained outstanding. This related to the use of an appropriate system to record all actions taken by Housing Officers within the Simple Lettings team during an investigation. The Ombudsman decided to settle the complaint.
The Ombudsman sought and gained the Council’s agreement to write to Mr L to explain that the new system it would be implementing to record investigation work and to explain what interim measures it was taking to address the recommendation. The Council agreed to do this within 2 weeks of the Ombudsman’s decision.