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The Housing Ombudsman has made two findings of severe maladministration after Torus failed to respond to mould reports and also poorly handled the associated complaint, resulting in resident distress and reports of physical and mental health deteriorating.
With the important role that social housing has to play in giving safe and secure housing to millions, the learning in these reports should help landlords provide effective services that protect this aspiration.
The investigation found excessive delays in the landlord progressing the works to remedy the damp and mould issue. Specifically, works did not start until nearly nine months after the issue was first reported. When damp progressed through the property, the landlord failed to replace the resident’s bed quickly, leading to the resident sleeping on the floor for at least three months.
The landlord claimed it cancelled the order for repair works after three failed attempts to gain access to the property, but there is not enough evidence to support this claim.
Also, the landlord did not record any consideration of decanting the resident from their home, despite the evident distress and inconvenience for the resident.
Communication was poor throughout, and the landlord frequently failed to communicate its plans with the resident and left him to call to obtain updates.
The landlord also did not apply its complaints process in line with its policy or the Complaint Handling Code. It treated the resident’s initial complaint as being at an informal stage, causing further delays in responding to the complaints and failing to acknowledge the landlord's failings.
There were also delays in responding to his stage one and two complaints and those responses did not fully acknowledge the landlord’s failings in addressing the issues raised repeatedly by the resident.
The response to enquiries made by the resident’s MP also failed to fully acknowledge the seriousness of the situation and the landlord further wrongly instructed the resident that he would have to wait for eight weeks before he could take his complaint to this Ombudsman when changes to the law meant that restriction no longer applied.
The Ombudsman ordered the landlord to pay the resident a total of £2,900 in compensation and provide an apology to the resident from the Chief Executive. A senior management review of the case was also ordered, with a particular emphasis on how the landlord responds to decant requests. In its learning, the landlord says it has created a specialist complaints team and a 24-point plan that culture and behaviour, housing management and communication to improve services for residents.
You can read the full article, including the Ombudsman's response and the landlord's learning statement on our website.
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