Welcome to the latest issue of our newsletter bringing you news and updates on our service. In this issue: 

• Ombudsman's open letter to landlords
• Highest number of complaint handling failure orders issued 
• Spotlight on noise report published  
• Call for evidence on record keeping 
• Special report on Clarion following further investigation 
• Severe maladministration cases 
• New ARAC member appointed 

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Our report, Spotlight on noise complaints: Time to be heard, brought together learning from a review of more than 800 noise related cases dealt with over three years together with insight from 374 responses to our call for evidence plus interviews with front line staff and residents of some individual landlords. 

It identified a fundamental unfairness in the social housing sector’s approach to noise complaints with most of the issues treated as anti-social behaviour, even when they concerned general household noise. This was at the heart of the findings in the Spotlight report which called for the sector’s response to noise nuisance to be strengthened.  

We have issued a call for evidence to landlords to support our next systemic investigation which will look at record keeping and data management. This has been a consistent theme found in our casework with 67% of investigations upheld in 2021-22 involving poor records. Strong record keeping practices are integral to effective complaint handling and landlords’ overall service provision. The purpose of the call for evidence is to understand more about the current barriers to effective knowledge and information management. The survey closes on 23 December 2022. 

London Borough of Lambeth 

We found severe maladministration for the London Borough of Lambeth’s lengthy delays in repairing a window that left a resident with boarded up bedroom windows since June 2019. It came as the Ombudsman wrote to the landlord expressing his concern at the high level of failure seen in our casework since issuing a special report earlier this year. 

Onward Homes 

We made two findings of severe maladministration for Onward Homes’ failings in handling a resident’s complaint about damp and mould caused by rotten window frames and her request for compensation due to damaged belongings. Our investigation found that there was an unreasonable delay when the resident raised further concerns, due to the impact of the damp and mould. 

We found severe maladministration for Catalyst’s significant failings in handling a complaint from shared owners about cold and draughty rooms and other defects in their new build house. The landlord’s responses did not sufficiently identify what had gone wrong, what action would be taken to remedy the defects or assess to what extent it had met its responsibility.

PA Housing 

We found severe maladministration for PA Housing’s repeated failings in dealing with a leak coming into a resident’s bedroom from the property above causing her to sleep in her living room for more than 18 months. The landlord repeatedly failed to provide updates on works to fix the leak and repeatedly offered to reimburse her for the costs of a dehumidifier but then failed to do so.

Johnnie Johnson Housing 

We made three findings of severe maladministration for Johnnie Johnson Housing’s significant failings in responding to a resident’s complaint about anti-social behaviour, together with its record keeping and complaint handling. The cumulative impact of the failings caused significant adverse effect to the resident.