The End?

As I've mentioned a few times, we've had an issue with our roof, which sprung a leak on the 8th of August. Since then, I've been fighting against the council bureaucracy to try to get it fixed.

The major issue is that while almost everyone I've spoken to has tried to be helpful, I've never actually been speaking to the person who is actually responsible, but always through gatekeepers who have had to pass on messages. That, and the fact that I've seldom spoken to the same person twice has made it an exercise in frustration. (Ideally, in a case like this you'd be given a single point of contact who would follow the issue through from start to finish. That way, they would know the state of play, and you wouldn't need to recap the whole damn story every time you called!)

Anyway, over the past few days I've been speaking to someone new, and usefully the same "someone new" each time. A period that has been marked with two changes: not only did she actually call back when she said she'd call back, and indeed make sure that was done (which, sadly, has not been the norm), but she also seemed to take responsibility for pushing this issue forward. (And, indeed, in our penultimate call she listened to the concern I raised that perhaps what I was being told wasn't entirely correct, and agreed to recheck it with next guy along the chain.)

The net result of all of this is that as of today, the 30th of April, a mere eight months and twenty-two days after the roof sprang a leak, I am assured that the work to replace it has indeed been completed. Including, in particular, not just the work above our neighbour's appartment, but also over our own.

Huzzah!

Although when I said to LC that this was the case, she did say she was going to remain pessimistic. That may well be wise. (Then again, it only ever came through when the rain was really bad, the sheeting is still up there to prevent it happening again anyway, and they say they've fixed it properly. So, how many sets of belt'n'braces do you really need?)

All in all, I think I'll count that as a win.