BOSSES at Inverclyde’s largest housing association have been slammed after leaving a tenant waiting for more than six months to carry out repairs at their home.
The Scottish Public Services Ombusdman ordered River Clyde Homes (RCH) to apologise after finding that the housing association had failed to take reasonable steps to have the works progressed and completed.
RCH admitted the standard of service fell below what the tenant should have expected, and says it has undertaken a ‘robust internal review’ as a result of the complaint.
The ombudsman’s report states: “C [the complainer] complained on behalf of their parent (A) who is a tenant of the housing association.
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“C complained that the association did not undertake roughcast render works at A’s property within a reasonable timescale. A was concerned about the condition of the roughcast render at their property after some had fallen. An inspection carried out found that repairs were required.
“Over six months later, no work had been undertaken and more roughcast render fell from the property.
“A complained to the association about the length of time it had taken for the roughcast render works to be undertaken.
"The complaint was upheld and the association said they were in the process of procuring a contractor which they estimated would take four to six weeks.”
But the report also reveals that after that time period had elapsed, C escalated their parent’s complaint to ‘stage 2’ of RCH’s complaints procedure – and that they then went to the ombudsman because they were unhappy with the RCH response.
The SPSO report adds: “We found no evidence of a proper assessment of the scale of the required works until approximately five months after the need for repairs was confirmed. We also found no evidence of the association taking action to appoint a contractor until more than six weeks after their stage 2 response.
“The association did not assess the urgency of the required works, nor did it consider how failing to undertake them had impacted, or could impact, A’s living conditions. There was also no evidence of structured or consistent action being taken to progress the matter.”
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The ombudsman ordered RCH to 'apologise to A that they did not did not take reasonable steps to have roughcast render works progressed and completed at A’s property within a reasonable timescale'.
They also recommended that RCH should improve its complaint responses.
A River Clyde Homes spokesperson said: "We understand that the service experienced by our customer on this occasion fell below the standards we expect and accept the SPSO decision.
"We have since undertaken all outstanding repairs to fully resolve this matter.
"We have also undertaken a robust internal review to improve service delivery."
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