Ombudsman awards over £18,000 compensation as Hammersmith & Fulham Council issued with seven findings of severe maladministration

The Ombudsman has ordered Hammersmith and Fulham Council to pay residents over £18,000 in compensation after significant failings led to one resident living in damp and mould for four years.

The Housing Ombudsman made seven findings of severe maladministration against the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham for various repairs failings, which left one resident significant damp and mould for four years and another with intermittent hot water during cancer treatment.

The seven findings, made over three cases, referred to in this article as Cases A, B and C, raise concerns over how the landlord operates and the services it provides.

In Case A, the landlord left a resident and his young daughter living with water pouring down their walls in heavy rain and subsequent mould and damp for approximately four years, which damaged plaster, decorations, and belongings.

The landlord visited the home on multiple occasions to take photographs and to treat the problem but failed to resolve it. There were also significant periods where the resident had to chase for updates and a number of issues raised by the resident were not addressed.

At every stage of the complaint, the landlord’s complaint handling was delayed, and its offer of £150 compensation was found to be completely inadequate and disproportionate.

The Ombudsman ordered the Chief Executive of the landlord to apologise in person to the resident, pay the resident £5,080 in compensation and inspect other properties in the block.

In Case B, the Ombudsman made three findings of severe maladministration for the landlord's response to leaks, its complaint handling and its consideration of the residents' vulnerability.

Despite assurances made to the Ombudsman, the landlord failed to fix the leak coming in from a neighbouring flat, causing significant distress, inconvenience, time and trouble to the resident over a five-year period.

The landlord repeatedly failed in its management and oversight of the repair, and did not take into account the residents’ vulnerability, failing to offer any support or make appropriate safeguarding referrals which could have reduced the impact on the resident.

The Ombudsman found that the landlord’s complaint handling was severely inadequate, and the resident had to repeatedly chase a response which caused further distress. As in Case A, the landlord’s complaint response failed to acknowledge where it went wrong, identify areas of improvement, or provide evidence it can prevent similar failures happening again.

The Ombudsman ordered the landlord’s Chief Executive to apologise to the resident in person, pay the resident £7,185.50 and carry out reviews into various policies, including on resident vulnerabilities.

In Case C, the Ombudsman made three findings of severe maladministration for the landlord’s failure to make multiple repairs, its complaint handling and poor record keeping.

The failings in the repair jobs meant damage within the toilet was left unresolved for two years, damage to a bathroom caused by its contractors wasn’t fixed for seven months and intermittent hot water outages that lasted for two and a half years caused significant distress for the resident – who was undergoing cancer treatment at the time.

The landlord’s complaints handling was poor and differed significantly from the timescales and guidance in its complaints policy. On top of this, the landlord’s compensation offers were not detailed and didn’t go far enough to provide redress.

The Ombudsman also found poor record keeping, including an insufficiently detailed audit trail of its repairs and what was found on inspection, what action was taken, and what follow-up action was required.

The Ombudsman ordered the landlord to pay £5,950 to the resident, apologise to the resident in person and ensure all follow up repairs are completed.

In its response to all three cases, the landlord said it has now completed the repairs to the homes, apologised to the residents and undertaken work to improve in multiple areas such as complaint handling and repairs.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “The experiences of each resident engaging its landlord is shocking. There were significant, multiple and common failings across these cases, which raises serious concerns about the landlord's services.

He highlighted the vulnerability of the tenants, which the landlord either did not take into consideration or ignored, a response that the Ombudsman classes as ‘simply unacceptable from a social landlord.’

He went on to state that “running through of all these complaints are failings in repairs, which we see often in our casework. However, it is the length of time residents have been waiting in appalling circumstances that is of greatest concern. There were multiple opportunities for the landlord to resolve all of the issues uncovered in our investigations and yet the urgency to do so wasn’t there.

“There is significant learning here for the landlord and the Ombudsman will be engaging with it over the coming months to ensure that lessons are learnt.”

When asked for comment, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham stated that they accept fully the Housing Ombudsman’s decisions and have apologised unreservedly and directly to the residents.

The authority have reportedly completed the repairs to the residents’ homes set out in these complaints, but acknowledge that failed to do so in a timely way in a period when their repairs service was adversely impacted by the Covid lockdowns and one of their three major contractors exiting abruptly.

The affected residents have accepted the apologies, and the Council has provided further support and recompense to these residents.

Hammersmith and Fulham claim to be working hard to improve all aspects of their repairs service and complaints handling, including directly addressing the Housing Ombudsman’s valuable findings and learning from residents’ feedback.

The borough are investing £1m a week over coming years to improve ageing housing stock, in addition to making millions of pounds of further funding available over the next three years to tackle individual repairs quickly and effectively.  This includes focusing on issues highlighted in these three cases: leaks causing damp and mould and upgrading windows.

Harry Rodd