Kingston compensation for woman who waited more than two months for window repair – Surrey Comet

A South London council must fork out 100 after a woman was forced to wait more than two months for her windows to be fixed.

The housing watchdog found delays and failures in Kingston Councils handling of the unnamed womans complaint.

The woman claimed incompetence from the council had caused her a great deal of stress and inconvenience.

She also complained about the councils decision in December 2020 to keep a single point of contact to restrict communication with her.

The resident told the council on March 6, 2021 that there was water inside the double glazing in two window panes above the balcony and the seals and outer edge of the balcony window were broken.

The authoritys contractor later apologised for cancelling an appointment to repair the window on April 21 at very late notice due to a communication error.

It couldnt attend an appointment on April 29 that the resident requested, and rescheduled for May.

The Housing Ombudsman report found the delayed window repair was frustrating for the resident but said the old windows still functioned correctly.

It took around 49 working days, between March 6 and May 18, for the windows to be replaced after the initial complaint.

The report says: In this case, no evidence was seen to show theold windows stopped performing their required function before the replacements were installed.

"Nor was any information seen to show that theresident was adversely impacted by the water between the window panesinthe interim period.

But it adds: It is reasonable to conclude the resident was inconvenienced by thelate cancellationof the initial appointment on21 April 2021.

"The timelinesuggeststhe [single point of contact] could have notified the residentabout the cancellationprior to her allocated timeslot.

If they had, her overall level of inconvenience may have been reduced.It is also reasonable to conclude the resident had to make additional arrangements to facilitatea further (preventable) appointmenton5 May2021.

On that basis, the landlords apology was not sufficient to redressthe resident givenwhat went wrong.

"Generally speaking, an apology is ofteninadequateredressgivenmultiple issues.

"In this case, the evidence confirmsthe landlords failures includeddelay, a rescheduled appointment and incorrect information in the landlords stage one response.

"As a result, there was service failure in respect of the landlords responseto the residents report of window repairs, along with its subsequent complaint handling.

The council has been ordered topay 100 for the distress and inconvenience experienced by the woman due to the delays and failures.

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Kingston compensation for woman who waited more than two months for window repair - Surrey Comet