The Complaint Diary

Councils, housing associations and ombudsmen all tell you the same thing: keep a diary. Then they hand you a photocopied sheet and leave you to it. This is that sheet, in your pocket. Tap when the noise starts and it writes the entry there and then, with the time it began, the time it stopped, and a reading from the microphone. Tap again when it ends and say what it stopped you doing, which is the part they act on. FOUR DIARIES, FOUR FORMS Noise, damp and mould, repairs that have not been done, and anti-social behaviour. Each one asks for what that problem's form asks for, and prints in the layout the published forms use: a landscape table of noise events, a block per incident for anti-social behaviour, a dated timeline of what you reported and what they said. WHAT YOU GET ON PAPER Your name, address and their reference at the head of every page. Page numbers and a signature line at the foot of each sheet. The declaration councils print on their own forms. Photographs with the date they were actually taken. A record of anything you changed after the fact, because a diary that can be quietly rewritten is worth less than one that shows its workings. Print it, email it as a PDF, or send the whole case as one file with the photographs, the recordings and a spreadsheet of every entry. HONEST ABOUT THE MICROPHONE A phone is not a sound level meter. The number is indicative, it depends on where the phone is lying, and no council will accept it as a measurement. The app says so on screen and prints the same words on the sheet. What does carry weight is a short recording, and the app keeps one with the entry if you ask it to. IT NEVER LEAVES YOUR PHONE No account, no sign-in, no servers, no cloud. Nothing is uploaded, ever. Everything you write, photograph and record stays in the app on your phone until you send it somewhere yourself. It works with the phone in aeroplane mode. Lock it with Face ID if the person you are recording lives with you. FREE, AND THE UNLOCK Writing entries is free and always will be: times, sound levels, photographs, recordings and everything you write, with no limit. Nobody should be stopped from writing down what is happening to them. The free version prints the first two pages of the sheet and keeps one diary. One purchase, no subscription, unlocks the whole sheet, the case file with photographs and recordings, the spreadsheet, as many diaries as you need, a passphrase on what you send, and encrypted backups. Checked against the diary sheets published by councils and housing providers in September 2026. Not legal advice.