Ombudsman criticises Canterbury Council over toilet blockages

Archived press release

Date Published: 19/08/08

The Ombudsman recommends Canterbury City Council to pay £2,000 compensation for its four year failure in sorting out a tenant's blocked toilet problems.

Canterbury City Council failed to sort out problems of toilet blockages for some four years, finds Local Government Ombudsman, Tony Redmond. In his report, issued today (19 August 2008) he says the Council wrongly assumed that the tenant – a woman with a life-threatening heart condition – was causing the blockages, and failed to check that its contractor was dealing properly with the matter. He recommends the Council to pay the tenant £2,000 compensation.

‘Dr Lloyd’ (not her real name for legal reasons) complained that the Council failed to find out why her toilet kept blocking on a regular basis over a period of some four years – since she moved into her property. Instead of correctly identifying the fault and rectifying it, the Council failed to diagnose the problem, and so wrongly assumed that Dr Lloyd was responsible for blocking the toilet by repeatedly putting unsuitable objects down it, something which she consistently and strenuously denied. At one stage it also told her that she would have to pay to have the toilet unblocked should future blockages occur.

The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice because the Council:

• did not liaise properly with its contractor as to the reasons for the frequent callouts to Dr Lloyd’s property;
• threatened Dr Lloyd that she would have to pay for callouts as far back as 2003 but there was little evidence to show why this threat was made;
• kept no record, either written or digital, of the result of the CCTV surveys of drains;
• made assumptions that Dr Lloyd was the cause of the problem; and
• told Dr Lloyd that there had been no problems with the drains before she moved in, which the Council has now had to admit was wrong.

The Council has already made changes to its liaison arrangements with its contractor so that there are now regular minuted meetings where complaints are discussed and action agreed. The contractor now produces a written report and video footage of all CCTV surveys.

The Ombudsman recommends the Council to pay compensation of £2,000 to Dr Lloyd and reimburse her for any plumber's bills she incurred - when the council refused to attend to unblock her toilet - if she can provide receipts.

Report ref 07A00415