Ombudsman makes severe maladministration finding after resident left with leaking roof for six years

In its response to the complaint, the council focused on the single issue of the delay to the roof replacement works – referring to procurement issues and then COVID-related issues. 

It failed to address the other issues raised by the resident and failed to escalate the complaint as requested by the resident and missed her response to its stage two complaint. 

“This resulted in a protracted and unsuccessful complaints process,” according to the ombudsman. 

It ordered the landlord to pay the resident compensation of £3,600 for the unreasonable delay in completing major works to the building, for the standard of temporary works to resolve the issues and for its complaint handling.  

Housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway said it was clear that the resident experienced a “significant detriment over an extended period of her time”.  

“She encountered significant difficulty in progressing her complaint, even with our assistance, and did not receive a final response at any point. 

“The landlord’s consideration of her complaint lacked customer focus. 

“The fact that it chose to narrow the focus of the complaint just on the delay in the programme of works was a missed opportunity to address the resident’s points of dissatisfaction and resulted in a deterioration in the landlord and resident relationship,” he said. 

Mr Blakeway added that the six-year wait for these works was “not reasonable” and that he welcomed the opportunity for the council to “learn lessons” from the complaint. 

A spokesperson for Ealing Council said that while it was “disappointed at the persistent failure of service execution”, it welcomed the case as an “opportunity to learn lessons, review our working practices, and put in place new measures to ensure there is not a repeat of the issues identified in this case”.  

They said: “With water ingress first identified in 2015, temporary repairs were made whilst a full replacement of the roof was planned to take place in 2018 as part of the council’s major works programme. 

“Due to procurement issues the council was unable to call on contractors to carry out these types of works until 2020. 

“In the interim, we were only able to carry out responsive ‘patch’ repairs in response to further reports of water ingress.”

The spokesperson added that the council has put in place a number of improvements, including a new “streamlined and efficient two-stage corporate complaints procedure, mediated by a bespoke IT system, giving better oversight of complaints trends, enhanced quality checks of responses and an improved customer experience”.  

A planned programme of cyclical major works is also now in place, along with a patch management system for surveyors.

The council also plans to move towards more “proactive working practices”, including the implementation of automated flagging of repeated responsive repairs, renewed emphasis on post-inspections, and more active monitoring of interim repairs pending major works.