Four landlords named in latest Housing Ombudsman cases

The case follows a spotlight report on damp and mould by the ombudsman last year, which accused social landlords of creating a “culture of blame” for tenants. 

Another case involved a service failure finding for Hyde Housing Association after a disabled tenant with mobility issues was forced to wait an “unacceptable” 19 months before her front entrance door was repaired. 

The resident complained to the landlord in May 2020. She said that she had been in contact with it since 2017 about the front door, which no longer opened automatically.

The fire strips were no longer intact, it had only one lock, a detached frame, was split and the plastering around it required repair. She said that the door presented a security and health and safety risk.

“The resident also clarified how her health conditions affect her mobility and how this meant that she was unable to open her front door, or the three communal doors she needed to access to enter/exit the building,” according to the report.

The managing agent was responsible for repairs and maintenance of the communal areas, including the tenant’s front door, while the tenancy agreement stated that the landlord was responsible for keeping “shared entrances, halls, stairways, lifts and passageways and other shared areas repaired”.

The ombudsman found that there was lack of clarity over who was responsible for the works and recommended a review.

It comes after another spotlight report by the watchdog found that the relationship between landlords and managing agents is at worst “dysfunctional”.

It concluded that there is a “culture clash” between regulated social landlords and unregulated managing agents, while the “increased complexity” of arrangements between parties seems to correlate with an increase in “confusion, delay and unfairness” for residents.

The watchdog found a service failure with Stockport Homes after it failed to identify all defects in a home before a new resident moved in. It also failed to recognise the impact on the new resident who had to report the repairs. 

Another case involved a complaint from a group of leaseholders of Notting Hill Genesis about communal defects and repairs.

The landlord had agreed to appoint independent surveyors to assess the defects but delayed this for more than a year. 

It did not acknowledge this failure in its complaints process and also delayed in progressing a resolution to the issues. 

The ombudsman made a finding of maladministration by the landlord for the response to the residents’ request for an independent surveyor assessment.

Housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway urged social landlords to use the database of decisions to learn. 

“Publishing this volume of decisions on our searchable database promotes fairness for residents and provides an incredibly rich source of learning for the social housing sector,” he said. 

He added: “In two of the cases highlighted here, the issues have been identified in our most recent systemic reports.”