Housing Ombudsman recommends £10,000 payment to two residents following ‘inexcusable’ failures by London borough

The Housing Ombudsman has called on Southwark Council to pay almost £10,000 in compensation to two residents after making severe maladministration findings against the local authority.

One case (Case A) related to the council's complaint handling after heating loss, with the other (Case B) concerning damp and mould in the home.

In Case A, the landlord was issued with a severe maladministration finding for its complaint handling after reports of heating loss during winter months by a resident who was pregnant and had a young child. The Ombudsman further found maladministration for the loss of heating.

The landlord’s delays in handling the complaint meant the resident was left without heating for six months in the coldest period of the year.

The landlord’s complaint responses were delayed, did not address the concerns of the resident, did not follow its own complaint policy and were issued without any apology or empathy, according to the Ombudsman.

Other failures included not escalating the resident's complaint to stage two, instead creating a new stage one complaint underneath her existing complaint.

It took the Ombudsman to issue a Complaint Handling Failure Order and a local MP to get involved before it was escalated.

Finally in this case, the landlord’s offer of compensation was too low and delayed.

The Housing Ombudsman ordered Southwark to apologise to the resident and pay £2,000 in compensation.

In Case B, the Ombudsman found severe maladministration for how the local authority responded to a leak and damp and mould. There was also maladministration for the landlord’s complaint handling and record keeping.

The resident and his young family were left with a worsening leak which impacted multiple rooms for 11 months, with the landlord refusing his requests for rehousing and compensation.

The damp and mould side of the complaint was not fixed for 17 months, which was particularly distressing for the resident whose children had eczema and allergies.

The Housing Ombudsman said it had had to take this timescale from resident reports as the repairs logs from the landlord were not kept. The council also failed to provide any survey reports when asked by the Ombudsman.

The landlord’s lack of resolution focus was inappropriate and the unfulfilled repair orders suggest the landlord failed to avoid or minimise the identified damp and mould hazard over an inappropriate timeframe, the Ombudsman said.

The landlord was told to pay the resident £7,541 in compensation, respond to the residents’ rehousing request and carry out a full inspection on the damp and mould in the home.

Southwark has said that since the Ombudsman’s investigations it has established a dedicated damp and mould team, improved its voids process and carried out a review of its complaint handling.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “These two cases concern different services the landlord provides but, in both instances, it fell well short of how it should have responded.”

He said residents deserved repairs to be fixed within correct timescales and for complaint responses to be appropriate in tone, adding that it was inexcusable for young families to live with disrepair for an extended period, especially as the landlord’s own records showed it was monitoring the issue.

“The council is a significant landlord in the capital and it is crucial for it to apply the lessons from these cases to help respond to the pressures on its services and to prevent residents experiencing avoidable detriment,” Blakeway added.

He welcomed the council’s response on its learning from this case and the changes made to improve its service.

Southwark said that both of these cases made “for very difficult reading”. It apologised unreservedly for the distress caused to these families by its actions and processes.

The council added: “As soon as the Ombudsman raised these with us, we made immediate changes to our processes to try to prevent such failures happening again.”

These changes included:

• Establishing a dedicated damp and mould team who support residents from the moment they report the issue to the council to its resolution. “The team work as one and remove the damp itself whilst looking for and resolving the underlying cause.”
• Teams involved in its void process working together to tighten procedures and improve collaborative working. The council also ensures that repairs issues are resolved fully before moving a resident into a property.
• Reviewing its approach to mutual exchanges when it comes to repairs being needed to ensure that no-one is blocked from moving again for repairs reasons.
• Conducting a thorough review of complaint handling, which had resulted in a training programme being designed for all complaints handling staff, and a further review of how best to ensure complaints are treated with priority and lessons are learnt from them.

Southwark added: “As the biggest social landlord in London, nothing is more important to us than ensuring our residents live in safe and comfortable homes. The challenges are enormous with growing demands and shrinking resources but we are determined to learn from every problem or challenge, and ensure we constantly improve and adapt our processes.

“We thank the Ombudsman for helping and supporting us in that endeavour, and rightly calling out when things go wrong.”

Harry Rodd

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