This has reminded me about some stories of my fathers. He was a building surveyor for the council and in the 1960s was managing contracts for updating pre war council houses.
The work was to update the bathrooms, toilets and associated plumbing and install backboilers to provide hot water. Also any rooms where the decorations had been distrubuted were redecorated.
In one property there was a minor problem with smoke blowing back from the fire so he arrange for a cowl to be put on the chimney pot. This cured the problem. However the next door neighbour asked to have the same on her house {presumably she thought she was missing out}
My father could not find any evidence of a problem and refused. She subsequently compalined and said she couldn't lite the fire and whenever he arranged to visit the fire was out. He caught her out one Saturday when he was on the way to the library and saw smoke coming from the chimney, so he stopped and knocked the door. She didn't complain after that.
Another tenant chased my father down the street one day to complain about the damage the contractors had done. My father went to look. The complaint was that the plastic toilet roll holder had been cracked. Never a man of great patience he gave the man 1/6d and told him to go and buy a new one at Woolworths.
But the all time classic was a tenant who complained about the work the electricians had done. My father was shown to the toilet but said he couldn't see anything wrong. The tenant talked to him as though he was being thick {never a good plan with my dad} as he said the problem was obvious. My father said he still couldn't see anything wrong. The complaint was that the electricians had left the pull cord on the light switch too long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
