A landlord has been warned over a delay with repairs to a West End flat but can continue to let out the property.

Council officials inspected the flat at 36 Bank Street in August last year and ruled work needed to be completed in the bathroom and to the windows.

However, they reported to the city’s licensing committee last week that the repairs were not confirmed until earlier this month.

Councillors on the committee decided to renew Sangkaran Ratnam’s licence for a house in multiple occupation (HMO) by three years but issued a warning over the future management of the property.

A council officer said the standard of management had been “deemed okay” and gas, electrical safety and building insurance certificates were all in place. 

However, wall seals on the bath and wash basin needed to be resealed, a mechanical extraction ventilation fan had to be “thoroughly cleaned” and a source of dampness had to be rectified.

Officers also said all exterior window sills needed to be repaired and painted.

Councillor Alex Wilson, the licensing committee chairman, asked why it had “taken so long to get these items addressed”. 

The applicant’s representative, Angela Kirkwood, from Grant Property Management Solutions, said all issues in the bathroom had been resolved in April but there had been a “slight delay” in notifying the council.

She said: “We’re disappointed it has taken so long. We did have high staff turnover in 2021 and the volume of repairs did increase dramatically as we exited the pandemic, which resulted in a slight delay for some of the smaller repairs taking place and quotes to be obtained for the larger one.

“Jobs were raised for those immediately and we asked contractors to provide quotes. A number of contractors declined, which led us to having to bring new contractors onto our previous list of contractors, which took a short time coupled by the Christmas season.

“Quotes were eventually obtained around late February, early March, and these were sent to the landlord who was overseas at the time so there was a slight delay in getting authorisation.”

Ms Kirkwood told the committee there has now been a restructure of the property management business and a full review of internal processes.

“We’ve put in place an audit system to ensure there are no delays like this in the future,” she said.

She added inspections had been difficult during Covid when “tenants were very reluctant to allow us access”.

She said: “We are now able to get into the properties and I can assure we have reinstated quarterly inspections.”