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Ombudsman names five landlords that blamed damp and mould on tenants’ ‘lifestyle’
Five landlords that recently blamed damp and mould on the “lifestyle” of their tenants have been named by the Housing Ombudsman.
Local councils North Tyneside in the North East, Harlow in Essex and the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham were named by the ombudsman, alongside housing associations Torus and Westward Housing.
The cases have been highlighted by housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway as part of his mission to “banish” the word ‘lifestyle’ from social landlords’ vernacular when it comes to issues of damp and mould.
Mr Blakeway also wrote an open letter to all landlords this week to remind them to take a “zero tolerance approach” to mould, in the wake of toddler Awaab Ishak’s death from mould exposure.
The cases were highlighted by the ombudsman because of concerns over the landlords’ “tone and communication” with their tenants.
In one case, the ombudsman found maladministration by Liverpool-based housing association Torus, saying it had “unreasonably attributed blame” to a tenant who said mould in her three-bedroom house was making her family ill.
The ombudsman said that while the landlord had completed repairs to address mould growth in the property, it delayed unreasonably, failed to keep sufficient records of its diagnosis attempts and treated the resident in an unsympathetic manner by attributing mould growth to lifestyle.
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Torus was ordered to apologise, pay the resident £500 in compensation and create an action plan for how it will avoid “automatically apportioning blame to residents” when assessing the cause of condensation dampness.
Margaret Goddard, group asset director, Torus Group, said: “We are grateful to the Housing Ombudsman for highlighting these matters and completely agree that the use of language that infers these types of issues occur as a result of the ‘lifestyles’ of our tenants is totally inappropriate.
"This situation does not satisfactorily convey the supportive stance that we should take in these circumstances."
Ms Goddard added that Torus was continuing to educate colleagues on how this language was unacceptable and can often result in tenants feeling patronised or even stigmatised.
The housing association also said it was committed to addressing issues of damp and condensation and mould in its all its properties, adding: "The health and wellbeing of our customers is always our top priority."
Another mould case highlighted by the Housing Ombudsman was that of a tenant in a low-rise local authority block owned by the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham.
The council initially indicated that the damp issue the resident complained about was due to “lifestyle”, but when it reviewed the case some months later it found there was a leak from a flat above that it had previously been aware of.
The ombudsman found maladministration in the council’s handling of the resident’s reports and was ordered to apologise and pay compensation of £675.
A council spokesperson said: “We have taken on board the ombudsman’s recommendation and ceased the use of the word ‘lifestyle’ in all communications with tenants where concerns of damp and mould have been raised as a concern.
“We have paid compensation to the tenant as recommended and are currently engaged in a programme of visits to every property that has an open damp and mould case registered.”
Another case involved a family of four living in a one-bed flat owned by Harlow Council where the tenant complained of mould, particularly in the bedroom, which she shares with her husband and their two children.
The ombudsman found no maladministration in how the landlord responded to the mould complaints, as it had carried out a timely investigation and arranged for expert reports to be made.
However it noted that in its communication with the tenant, the council said the mould had been caused by the tenants’ lifestyle, a term the ombudsman said “suggests that the resident is choosing to live in a way that is causing mould”.
The ombudsman’s full report added: “This is clearly not the case, given that she had explained she was doing everything possible to alleviate condensation and that she considered the cause of the mould to be that there were four occupants in a one-bedroom property, which she also had not chosen and was attempting to transfer.”
In the case of South West housing association Westward Housing, the ombudsman said it was “reasonable” that the landlord recommended lifestyle changes as a “first line attempt” to manage a mould problem in a tenant’s two-bedroom property.
However it said the resident should have been encouraged to report back if this was unsuccessful, or if the problem worsened.
The tenant said she had been wrongly informed that the damp and mould were due to her lifestyle and felt discouraged from reporting further issues.
The final case was in relation to a tenant of North Tyneside Council, who had complained about damp at her two-bed flat.
The Housing Ombudsman said that the landlord’s response to the report of damp was reasonable and prompt, and no maladministration was found. But in its report, the ombudsman found that the council said that the resident’s ‘lifestyle’ was a likely cause for the condensation.
Peter Mennell, director of housing at North Tyneside Council, said: “The ombudsman report found our response to this case to be reasonable and prompt, with no maladministration on our part. We immediately implemented the recommendations from the ombudsman and have stopped the use of the word ‘lifestyle’ in our communication with tenants.”
Issues of damp and mould are in the spotlight following a coroner’s recent ruling that Awaab Ishak, a toddler in Rochdale, died as a result of prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s one-bedroom flat.
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), the association that owned the flat, later apologised for “making assumptions” about the family’s lifestyle.
The coroner’s verdict found that RBH had put too much emphasis on the mould being “due to parents’ lifestyle”, and the housing association later apologised for “making assumptions”.
Last year the Housing Ombudsman published a Spotlight report on damp and mould. Titled It’s Not Lifestyle, the report included a series of tables highlighting the worst performers regarding damp and mould in homes.
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