Housing repairs hell

All of us have experienced the frustration of waiting in for a repair man to call and then the way it makes you feel when they fail to show up all together.

Imagine how you might feel if this had been going on for a period of months and the body responsible was your landlord: Reading Borough Council.

I got a message yesterday to call a constituent who was in despair about the service she had received from Labour-controlled RBC.

I called her immedietly to see what I could do to help.

As with all these types of things I felt bad that she had been putting up with this problem for such a long time and sorry I hadn't been able to help her sooner.

It turns out she has been waiting for three months for a basic repair to be carried out to the flat she shares with her young family in Whitley. 

The repair is not a trivial one.

She told me:

"This means I have to live with a 1st floor balcony door that doesn't close, doesn't lock and sometimes doesn't open, which is a fire hazard. I also have two young children"

My constituent had done exactly the right thing which was to contact the Council's housing repairs line and try and get the door fixed.

However, the service she received after this point was diabolical: multiple appointments were made by RBC and then contractors failed to keep them.  Information was not passed on between staff and contractors so more time was wasted etc

The Council recently introduced a texting service whereby residents are sent a text message to let them know when RBC housing staff will be visiting.

The aim was to stop appointments being missed by residents.

However in this case my constituent received a text message to say an appointment had been made...and then no-one from RBC turned up: they had missed their own appointment!

My constituent raised some very valid questions in an email to me:

"Why were all these appointments made for someone from Reading Borough Council to come round and look at the door if they don't deal with these kinds of repairs?

Why were appointments made but not kept?

Why have I been made to waste my time and credit ringing the repairs line, when they couldn't actually do anything?

Also during the last two months, I have had numerous occasions when I was told that someone would ring me about the door but no one has

Do Reading Borough Council normally not ring people back when they say they are going to? 

I feel that the whole situation has been dealt with appalingly and that I have not been treated with respect"

I am concerned this is the tip of the iceberg and that residents could be waiting months for repairs because of basic communcation problems at the Counci so I have written to the Director of Housing and Community Care and the Chief Executive of the Council asking for:

1.  The overdue repair to the property to be carried out urgently

2.  Answers as to why my constituent has been on the receiving end of such poor service

3.  Asking for lessons to be learned so other tenants do not suffer the same.

I have also copied in members of the Council's customer service improvement team as this case raises serious questions about RBC customer service. Problems like this represent a real threat to the Council's reputation for good customer service.

We receive regular performance reports at HHCC Scrutiny Panel and performance in repairs is improving.

However, we need to balance these offical reports against the reality as experienced by RBC tenants. 

I have informed senior officers in the housing department and the Labour Lead Member for Housing that I I am minded in my role as Chair of Scrutiny to call for an urgent scrutiny investigation into the functioning of RBC's housing repairs hotline to ensure problems are put right.

I am grateful to my constituent for sharing her experience with me particularly if it means other tenants can be helped too.

RBC need to pull their socks up on this one: these are basic errrors that are causing real distress to Reading residents. And we don't yet know how many.

Have you had problems with RBC's housing repairs service? Write to me and let me know: redlandslibdems@hotmail.co.uk

Comments

[Litigationthreatnotreqd]

Umm, but the housing associations in LD and Tory areas have the same problems, and the rents are higher.

Connaught and South Somerset Homes (now Yarlington) have lied to me when they made promises that they didn't fulfill, and I have been waiting for a major repair for 3 years!

Beware! Those that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!