Ombudsman makes five severe maladministration findings against London borough, calls for “radical improvements”

The Housing Ombudsman has called on Lambeth Council to “radically improve”, after finding five cases of severe maladministration, including one which left a resident without heating and hot water during winter months.

The Ombudsman said that the five severe maladministration findings were across three cases and came a year after the publication of its special report into the landlord, which called for action on a “myriad of issues”.

Across the three cases, Lambeth has been ordered to pay £4,350 in compensation.

In Case A, the Ombudsman found severe maladministration for the landlord’s response to damp and mould, its subsequent complaint handling and its record keeping, the report revealed.

The resident, who had a child with a damp and mould allergy, reported that mould had formed after a leak in the bathroom. She reported her child’s skin cracking and bleeding due to an eczema flare up caused by the issue.

The Ombudsman found that the landlord “repeatedly failed to carry out the necessary repairs works”, which started from a leasehold property above.

The report noted that although it is “not disputed that fixing the leak was the leaseholder’s responsibility in the first instance”, it would be appropriate for the landlord to have “a process in place to manage such situations”.

To remedy the injustice caused, the landlord was ordered to pay £1,350 in compensation.

In the second case (Case B), a resident was left for three weeks “without a functioning bath or shower”.

The Ombudsman found severe maladministration for how the landlord dealt with adaptations works, including the “quality of works and the conduct of its contractors”. Furthermore, it was found that the landlord did not have a policy in relation to adaptations.

The resident behind the complaint reported a leak to the toilet which was leading to water leaking from the downstairs hallway ceiling. This caused the “lights to trip” and further distress to the resident.

The Ombudsman investigated and found that nearly a year after an occupational therapist carried out a survey to set out how to make the ground floor into an appropriate living space, works started but the contractors “left the resident for three weeks without a functioning bath or shower, a bucket of water was needed to flush away any waste, and there were no taps on the basins in the bathroom”.

The Ombudsman concluded that while that some disruption might have been “inevitable” due to the Covid-19 lockdown, there was an “expectation that the landlord would use its reasonable endeavours to minimise this”.

The Ombudsman ordered the landlord to pay £2,050 in compensation, and for the chief executive of the council to “personally apologise to the resident”.

In Case C, the Ombudsman made two findings of severe maladministration, for boiler repairs and record keeping.

The Ombudsman found that a boiler repair should have happened under the landlord’s policy within seven days but was “not seen to for months, and included several missed appointments as well as visits being made without the resident being aware”. 

When an operative did arrive and complete some of the repair, it took the boiler fuse and left the resident without heating and hot water for a “significant period during winter months”, the report revealed.

The resident behind the complaint has rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, and the lack of heating and hot water exacerbated the pain they experienced because of these conditions, the Ombudsman said.

The Ombudsman found it is also not clear when the repair was made, due to “conflicting accounts and a lack of records”. In this case, the landlord was ordered to pay £950 in compensation.

In response to the Ombudsman’s decisions, learning identified by the landlord includes carrying out “extensive surveying of its homes”, sponsoring a “Disrepair Arbitration Scheme” to help residents get issues sorted fairly, and “speeding up visibility of complaints” with frontline teams.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “These three cases show both common points of failure and failures across several service areas, which the landlord has vowed to put right. 

“The distress and inconvenience experienced by its residents was considerable, and some actions were disrespectful of residents and lacked empathy for the impact on them. It is critical for the landlord to make changes to prevent similar failings affecting other residents.

“This requires strong leadership and a corporate focus on driving change, creating a culture that does not tolerate these sorts of failures. I welcome the constructive and positive engagement of landlord’s senior leadership on these issues. I recognise it will take time to embed change and expect it to continue to use the learning from our special report and these cases to radically improve services for residents."

In a learning statement Lambeth Council said: “By focusing on the themes and insights highlighted by the Ombudsman, we ensure we are continually listening to our residents and ensuring we learn valuable lessons and improve our services as a result.

“Lambeth has more than 33,000 council homes, undertakes over 2,000 repairs each week and our priority is ensuring all of our homes are safe and well-maintained for our tenants. We have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in improving our council homes and estates in recent years, in line with the Lambeth Housing Standard (LHS). But we have also concentrated on making improvements to the day-to-day delivery of repairs and maintenance work."

The council added: “Repairs are now being carried out promptly in the vast majority of cases. However, we know that there have been some cases in 2020 where we have not provided the standard of service that our tenants expect. We apologise for all of these, and we also work hard to ensure that any issues are tackled quickly.

“In the three cases identified by the Housing Ombudsman today, we fully accept that the service we provided fell below our usual standards. We have apologised to the tenants for this and, in line with the judgement, we have paid compensation in recognition of the inconvenience and frustration these tenants have experienced. We have also resolved the original problems reported at each property.”

Lottie Winson