First joint Ombudsman investigation finds vulnerable tenant not supported properly when faced with anti-social behaviour

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Housing Ombudsman have jointly criticised Nottingham City Council and Nottingham City Homes (NCH) for the way they dealt with a woman’s antisocial behaviour complaints and subsequent requests to move house.

This marks the first joint investigation made by the two Ombuds services, who said they are working together on complaints where their roles are “closely linked”.

The report noted that between June 2020 and June 2022, the woman behind the complaint, Miss X, was subject to issues including loud noise, alcohol issues, stones and mud being thrown onto her property and neighbours ‘ganging up on her’.

It was revealed that Miss X, who has medical vulnerabilities, was left feeling unsafe in her home and was afraid to go out.

The investigation found that Nottingham City Council “did not do enough to review the issues she faced via the Community Trigger Mechanism”, and NCH, on behalf of the council, “took too long to examine whether it could offer her a priority move to another area”.

To remedy the injustice caused, the Housing Ombudsman recommended NCH apologise to the resident, pay £550 in compensation and create an action plan to ensure that its staff maintain “clear and accurate records of their interactions with alleged perpetrators of ASB in future”.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman recommended the council review its processes to ensure that tenants receive written decisions and information about their review rights from NCH when the organisation is acting on its behalf.

According to the Ombudsmen, the council has agreed to produce an information sheet to give to people who report anti-social behaviour.

“It will also review how it can share information with different organisations when people report issues and provide staff guidance about the proper process to follow”, the report noted.

Paul Najsarek, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “The case demonstrates the benefit of us increasingly taking a partnership approach to investigating complaints with the Housing Ombudsman Service where our jurisdictions overlap.

“The Antisocial Behaviour Community Trigger was set up for exactly this sort of case, where vulnerable people are affected by antisocial behaviour local authorities can convene multi-agency meetings to see how they can best deal with problems."

He added: “In this case, the behaviour the woman was subject to was having a clear impact on her mental health and she was left for too long in a situation that could have been improved had all organisations carried out their duties efficiently.

“I am pleased the council and NCH has agreed to our recommendations to put things right for this woman.”

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “The landlord did not make use of its powers to effectively tackle antisocial behaviour and help a resident, who was presenting with mental health needs. This was unacceptable. 

“This joint work with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman shows how joint investigations can improve services in multiple areas at the same time, whilst providing holistic redress for residents. 

“In the coming months, we will be undertaking more of these joint investigations so that we are able to encourage landlords to view policies and procedures in key areas such as anti-social behaviour.” 

A City Council spokesperson said: “We fully accept the findings of the Ombudsman in what has been a complex and lengthy case. We acknowledge that there are areas in this case where we fell short of what the tenant had every right to expect from us, and we have apologised for that. 

“This case happened some time ago, and we have already made improvements to the way we handle issues of this nature. Feedback from this determination is also being used to review the way we work and inform our continuous improvement journey.”

Lottie Winson