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Southern Housing (202329798)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202329798

Southern Housing

16 September 2025

 

Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this.

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint 

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
    1. Reports of a leak related to his shower in the bathroom.
    2. Reports of damp and mould at the property.
    3. Complaint about the conduct of contractors attending his property.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. The property is a 2-bedroom flat. The resident lives there with his wife and child.
  2. The resident made a stage 1 complaint to the landlord on 10 March 2023. A contractor had visited the property on 9 March 2023 to investigate reports of a leak. The resident was unhappy because:
    1. The contractor has said there was no evidence of a leak when the resident had video evidence.
    2. The contractor had said any works would need to be carried out privately.
    3. The resident believed this leak was causing mould at the property.
    4. The mould could have an impact on himself and his 23 month old son.
  3. The landlord provided a stage 1 complaint response on 16 May 2023 and its stage 2 complaint response on 28 February 2024. In summary, it said:
    1. It was sorry that a surveyor did not attend on or before 2 June 2023 as agreed.
    2. A surveyor attended on 2 August 2023 and works were agreed.
    3. An operative attended the resident’s property but could not complete the works.
    4. After this, no further actions were taken by the landlord.
    5. It was sorry that no action had been taken and that there were missed appointments in this period.
    6. It would compensate the resident for the additional water usage caused by the leak. It asked the resident to provide a bill from before the leak began and bills for the period of the leak.
    7. It apologised for the actions of its contractor on 9 March 2023, and said the issue was raised with the contractor’s organisation.
  4. The resident referred his complaint to us on 17 April 2024 as he was unhappy with how the landlord had responded to his concerns and because the leak had not been resolved.
  5. On 11 June 2025 the resident issued a claim to the County Court. The resident provided us with the notice of issue for the claim on 26 August 2025 and has confirmed to us that the details of the claim are the same as his complaint to us.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 41(c) of the Scheme states:

“The Ombudsman cannot consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion concern matters that are the subject of court proceedings or were the subject of court proceedings where judgement on the merits was given.”

  1. The complaint that was brought to us is now the subject of court proceedings. The resident has provided evidence of this and confirmed that this is the case. This means we are unable to consider the complaint in accordance with paragraph 41(c) of the Scheme.