Colin Young, 54, came back to his home on Davidson Terrace in October to discover that scaffolding had been erected to undertake repair work on the roof of a neighbouring property, both at the front entrance and partially blocking the entrance to his back door, without receiving prior notice.
He had recently planned to put his house on the market, with a photographer scheduled to take photos within a two-week window to allow for a £250 discount off the listing fee.
The scaffolding prevented the photos from being taken, resulting in his discount becoming void and causing him significant frustration.
Mr Young said: “It seems there has been no prior planning, no health and safety; I’d like to know the risk assessment considering I wasn’t notified.
“I understand they have to do the works if something needs to be fixed, but I should have been told, not just them coming to do it.
“I mean, if that was an elderly person living on their own, it really is dangerous, they wouldn’t know what was happening and could easily hurt themselves in the garden.”
The works also caused minor damage to his property, with pieces of wall missing following the placement of and taking down of the works.
He also noted that some of the structures did not look “completely safe”, and that debris had not been cleared away by the contractors.
Despite other nearby housing association-owned properties receiving advance notice, Mr Young said he was given no warning by East Lothian Housing Association (ELHA) or its contractors about the works in writing or in-person.
He understood that “door-knocking” had taken place the day scaffolding was installed to inform him but, as he was at work, he described the approach as inadequate, adding that knocking on doors was “nothing short of cowboy stuff”.
In a complaint made on October 24 to ELHA, Mr Young asked to be informed of the policy for issuing notice, the associated risk assessments and requested £250 in monetary compensation for the discount he “missed out on” as part of the home listing offer.
Throughout the initial stages of the complaint, ELHA made several apologies for the lack of communication from themselves as well as contractors, and first offered a “goodwill gesture” of £50 in monetary compensation.
After rejecting the initial offer, his complaint was escalated to a formal investigation on November 26.
The investigation’s report, issued on December 12, acknowledged that neighbouring homeowners should have been notified when tenants were informed of the planned works in both May and September, and apologised for the “nuisance and disruption” caused.
The report added: “I apologise that we failed to communicate properly and took for granted your approval for the scaffold to be partially assembled in your garden.”
Following a review of the complaint and evidence of the financial loss, compensation was awarded at £250 to reflect the marketing discount.
The complaint has since been closed, with Mr Young not wishing to escalate further to the Scottish Public Sector Ombudsman (SPSO) and accepting the compensation, of which he pledges to donate £200 to Help to Heroes.
He said: “They thanked me for highlighting their mistakes within the works. This further cements the fact that all relevant procedures were not carried out.
“If they had planned and surveyed conclusively, then a risk assessment for placement of scaffolding in private property would and should have been carried out.
“It is not ideal or acceptable to return home from work to find scaffolding in the front and rear of my house.
“ELHA receive a large amount of money in Government grants. The taxpayers’ money should not be susceptible to compensation and fines through incompetence by so-called qualified directors and repair companies.”
A spokesperson from ELHA said: “We have now been able to fully investigate this complaint.
“We agreed with Mr Young that we got a number of things wrong, in particular around some of our communication about the works with him, and we have apologised for that.
“We have reached an agreement to put things right that we understand Mr Young is happy with, and we have recorded the lessons learned so we improve our services in the future.”
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