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The Housing Ombudsman found severe maladministration by One Housing Group in its record keeping following the landlord’s failure to address repair issues, lack of clear service charge information, and mishandling of resident complaints, resulting in distress and inconvenience for the Newham resident.
This failure in record keeping had a detrimental impact on the landlord’s repair and complaint handling operations. These failures have had significant consequences, causing unnecessary distress and inconvenience to the resident.
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 Ombudsman found that the resident, a tenant with two young children, had to continually chase the landlord to fix repairs to the walls, which took around 14 months to be corrected despite the landlord eventually admitting their mistakes.
Delays were found in fixing windows, taking about 15 months to address the issue, causing a total delay of over 2 years. The resident had a hard time contacting the landlord for help, which was stressful and inconvenient, especially given the family's worries about health, safety, and drafts.
Given the landlord's inaction, the resident eventually arranged her own short-term housing. The resident, her daughter, and baby were sleeping at a bed and breakfast due to dust, odours, and chemicals.
Furthermore, we found maladministration in the landlord's complaint handling process. The landlord unfairly closed the resident's initial complaint and failed to provide a complete response at the first stage.
Although the landlord offered compensation for these failures, it overlooked several important concerns raised by the resident in subsequent escalation requests. The stage two response inadequately addressed these issues, indicating a lack of attention to addressing the resident's specific requests.
The landlord was ordered by the Ombudsman to inspect the property for mould and inadequate repairs and take action accordingly, pay the resident £3,375 in compensation and issue a letter of apology to the resident.
The Ombudsman also ordered a review of the case including its processes for recording surveyor’s inspections; repairs record keeping with emphasis on potential safety issues; and its tendency towards informal complaint handling to ensure that its formal complaints procedure to be in line with the Complaint Handling Code.
In its learning from the case, the landlord says it has introduced improvements such as including a new transparent record-keeping procedure and enhancing peer review processes.
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