Myself and my daughter are owner-occupiers and recently have tried to contact them regarding damage done to the windows of our flat when roofing work was carried out last year. Since a brief inspection was done in February we have heard nothing more.

We are also concerned that new PVC windows are to be installed in the landing areas without new external doors. They have obviously found that a great deal of money can be made out of leaseholders, and are good at sending quite substantial bills for various work (usually at greatly inflated prices). However, when it's a case of repairing damage that workmen have done, or replacing rotten external doors that are nearly 40 years old and letting in the wind and rain, they don't want to know.

I have now written four times to Sheffield Homes, the leasehold management team and the investment standards unit and, with the exception of one brief acknowledgement, my formal complaints have been ignored. They don't even follow their own code of practice, which is four days for an acknowledgement and 21 days for a full reply. I have begun to wonder if they have any staff capable of replying to letters or phoning back and have found that their communication skills are almost non-existent.

Last week, I was left with no alternative but to take direct action and stopped scaffolding being erected on our block of flats in order to get a response from Sheffield Homes. However, in spite of the doors now having been inspected, we still have no guarantee that they will be replaced, or that our other problem will be resolved. It is a disgrace that one has to go to these lengths in order to get them to address issues that are of concern to us.

Susan Richardson, Westminster Crescent, Sheffield S10.

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