16 October 2024
Ombudsman shares over 100 severe maladministration cases on damp and mould ahead of Awaab’s Law to prevent future failings
The Housing Ombudsman has released its latest ‘learning from severe maladministration’ report, focusing on inspections and timeliness within damp and mould complaints.
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.
Throughout the report residents’ experienced distress and disruption from damp and mould as landlords responses were delayed, with residents losing the use of bedrooms or belongings, such as sofas, as mould spread, reporting ceilings near collapse and health impacts to them or their children, including asthma and eczema.
The decisions are grouped together to show the organisational risk to the landlord as well as the impact on the resident because of a lack of timeliness around initial inspections, the commencement of works or their completion. Some of these cases concern all three of these delays which would need to be addressed under Awaab’s Law which is proposed for both social and private landlords.
It is also important to stress that while this report focuses on findings about damp and mould, these cases often include a wide range of other property condition issues.
The Ombudsman has also used this report to show where the redress being offered by landlords for significant and prolonged failings was repeatedly inadequate. For example, one landlord offered just £150 compensation to a family who lived within extensive mould for 5 years, including their bedrooms being uninhabitable, and another proposed £850 for failings in damp and mould for 4 years, despite the huge impact the issues had on a disabled resident.
The explanations of the compensation provided in these cases should assist landlords to make consistent payments that are clear, specific and proportionate and help to prevent cases being escalated.
The landlords named in this report are:
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