The Housing Ombudsman has urged GreenSquareAccord to further strengthen its complaint handling and address the root causes that give rise to complaints in order to extend fairness to other residents and prevent future complaints. 

The investigation found that the landlord had a 93% maladministration rate for complaint handling in the cases reviewed, against a national average of 76%. It also had a maladministration rate of 79% for property condition, compared to a national average of 54%. 

The special investigation was initiated under the Ombudsman’s powers to examine whether service failings in a complaint is indicative of wider failures and their impact on residents.  

GreenSquareAccord acknowledged many of its failings and has carried out several improvements by creating a new business strategy, revising policies, making changes to governance, undertaking recruitment, and working to change its complaints culture. The landlord’s merger had a significant impact on its handling of complaints and provides valuable lessons to the sector as the trend towards consolidation continues. Following the work between the Ombudsman and the landlord, no severe maladministration findings have been reported since August 2023. 

However, the Ombudsman is clear the landlord needs to take further steps to ensure these changes are effective and embed, during a monitoring period which follows the report. The report highlights critical areas of concern, namely property condition and complaint handling.  

The Ombudsman identified 4 key themes and set out a series of recommendations: 

Complaint Handling - There were significant deficiencies in the complaint handling process prior to April 2024, leading to informal complaint handling, delays and barriers to lodging complaints – all of which at odds with the Complaint Handling Code. This often led to residents reporting confusion about which step of the complaint process they were in. The report recommends staff training and policy updates to further align with the statutory Code and restore residents' trust. 

Compensation – The Ombudsman observed the landlord had failed to offer appropriate compensation, sometimes not taking into consideration all aspects of the complaint or the circumstances of the individual making the complaint. In total, on the cases reviewed, the Ombudsman has ordered over 3 times as much compensation as that originally offered. The Ombudsman recommended the landlord classify measurable loss payments, accept third-party duties, and include a wider range of remedies.  

Policies, procedures, and governance - Inadequately embedded policies and processes were shown to be associated with deficiencies in complaint management. For example, in many instances where individual circumstances were not taken into account, there was no documentation to support staff to make the correct decisions. The Ombudsman recommended the landlord publish a self-assessment on therecent Spotlight report on Attitudes, Respects and Rights and create a consolidation plan with a prioritisation framework. 

Repairs - The landlord's shortcomings included not registering vulnerabilities during repairs and failing to adapt its approach upon awareness. There were also long delays, a lack of communication throughout the process and no evident learning from these complaints. The report recommends assessing complaint handling procedures for repairs, providing updates on implementation, and training for a new Single Housing Management system to ensure efficient and timely repairs.