A series of complaint handling failures by the London Borough of Ealing led to a lengthy and frustrating delay for a resident in getting a leaking roof replaced, causing damp in her flat and impacting on her health.
The leaseholder complained in 2019 that she had been affected by extreme mould throughout the property for a number of years. The council initially identified that the flat’s roof needed to be replaced after an inspection in 2015.
The council said this would be included in its next planned programme of works but would complete temporary work to address the roof leak that was causing the damp. The resident complained the temporary work was of a poor standard and the ongoing dampness had a bad impact on the property, her health and her finances.
In its response the council focused on the single issue of the delay to the roof replacement works referring to procurement issues and then COVID-19 related issues. It failed to address the other issues raised by the resident. The council also failed to escalate the complaint as requested by the resident and missed her response to its stage two complaint. This resulted in a protracted and unsuccessful complaints process.
The Ombudsman found severe maladministration for the landlord’s complaint handling and maladministration for its response to the resident’s reports about water coming into her flat and the repairs carried out. It ordered the landlord to pay the resident compensation of £3,600 for the unreasonable delay in completing major works to the building, for the standard of temporary works to resolve the issues and for its complaint handling.
Significant detriment
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “It is clear that the resident experienced a significant detriment over an extended period of her time. She encountered significant difficulty in progressing her complaint, even with our assistance, and did not receive a final response at any point. The landlord’s consideration of her complaint lacked customer focus and led to a deterioration in the landlord and resident relationship.
“While it was appropriate to complete temporary repairs, the timeframe that the resident has been asked to wait for these works, approximately six years, to take place is not reasonable.”
A spokesman for the council, said:
“While we are disappointed at the persistent failure of service execution that have led to the Ombudsman’s determination of maladministration, we welcome this as an opportunity to learn lessons, review our working practices, and put in place new measures to ensure there is not a repeat of the issues identified in this case.
“With water ingress first identified in 2015, temporary repairs were made while a full replacement of the roof was planned to take place in 2018 as part of a major works programme. Due to procurement issues the Council was unable to call on contractors to carry out these types of works until 2020. In the interim, we were only able to carry out responsive ‘patch’ repairs in response to further reports of water ingress. We have learnt a number of lessons from this case, and have put in place, and plan to implement, improvements.”
In a separate case, which also resulted in a finding of maladministration, the Ombudsman ordered Great Yarmouth Borough Council to pay a tenant £1,700 in compensation on top of the council’s original payment of £500 for failing to deal with mould growth throughout the resident’s home that was causing damage, and then delayed in putting right faulty improvement works that worsened the situation.
By Patrick Mooney, Editor