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London Borough of Islington (202447925)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202447925

London Borough of Islington

30 September 2025


Our approach

The Housing Ombudsman’s approach to investigating and determining complaints is to decide what is fair in all the circumstances of the case. This is set out in the Housing Act 1996 and the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). The Ombudsman considers the evidence and looks to see if there has been any ‘maladministration,’ for example whether the landlord has failed to keep to the law, followed proper procedure, followed good practice, or behaved in a reasonable and competent manner.

Both the resident and the landlord have submitted information to the Ombudsman, and this has been carefully considered. Their accounts of what has happened are summarised below. This report is not an exhaustive description of all the events that have occurred in relation to this case, but an outline of the key issues as a background to the investigation’s findings.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of leaks, damp, and mould in the resident’s property.
  2. We have also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of a 1 bedroom ground floor flat.
  2. The resident had a history of leaks in her property dating back to 2019. The landlord had also raised works to address damp and mould in the property in 2023. The resident continued to have concerns with damp and condensation in the property due to water damage and reported this on 4 July 2024. The landlord created an action plan which involved inspecting her upstairs neighbour’s property to determine the source of the leak before completing follow on works in the resident’s home.
  3. The resident raised her complaint on 29 August 2024. She told the landlord that there was a leak from her neighbour’s property which had been ongoing for several weeks. Despite reporting and calling regularly to chase, it had taken no action as it could not contact her neighbour. She said the leak caused significant damage to her ceiling and bathroom. It had sent a letter to the neighbour on 8 July 2023 saying it would force entry if they did not contact it, but it appeared it did not follow this up. She then asked for an update around the forced entry.
  4. The landlord provided its stage 1 response on 7 October 2024. It provided a chronology of events between 22 May 2024 and 9 October 2024. It apologised for the delay in resolving the leak and the inconvenience the resident experienced. It explained it understood her frustration about its inability to share the actions it was taking but assured her that it was taking the necessary steps to resolve the issue. It upheld her complaint and awarded £417 compensation.
  5. The resident remained dissatisfied and declined the compensation offer on 9 October 2024. She asked to escalate her complaint. She told it that she originally reported the issue in 2019 and despite multiple follow ups, it never adequately addressed the issue. As a result, she had to repaint her bathroom several times due to persistent damage caused by the leak. She said she experience significant inconvenience due to missed appointments, where it did not tell her of scheduled visits, leading to records of no access. She said she also had several months where she had no light due to the leak. She disputed that it had sourced the leak as its operatives only accessed her neighbour’s property on 9 October 2024 and needed to complete a follow up appointment on 17 October 2024.
  6. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 6 November 2024. It discussed the repairs to the resident’s property from 2023 and explained it could not look back to 2019. It acknowledged the delay in resolving the leak and apologised for the inconvenience caused. It explained that it had arranged an appointment to inspect both hers and her neighbour’s property on 9 October 2024. It had accessed the neighbour’s home for the inspection and found the source of the leak. Since then, it had not obtained access to carry out the required works. It apologised for damage to the resident’s belongings and referred her to her content’s insurance. It upheld her complaint and awarded £502 compensation which it broke down as:
    1. £250 for the delay in carrying out the making good works between 22 May 2024 and 30 November 2024.
    2. £25 for the delay at stage 1.
    3. £25 for its poor communication.
    4. £200 for the resident’s time and trouble.
  7. The resident explained her concerns to us on 25 February 2025 and on 12 June 2025, she told us the damp and mould remained ongoing. She told us it was now everywhere in the property. A surveyor attended and believed the damp related to the pointing at the front of the building. The landlord has also said as her neighbour installed their own bathroom, which caused the leak, it was their responsibility to remedy and left her in the situation. As a resolution, she wanted the landlord to fix the damp, mould, and leaks. She also wanted it to compensate her.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. We understand that the resident has a history of leaks in her property. We also understand that there is a history of leaks from her upstairs neighbour’s property going back several years. However, the first time we can show that the resident raised a formal complaint about the issue is in 2024. As such we shall consider the resident’s concerns from 29 March 2023 until 30 November 2025, as the landlord promised to have the repairs completed by this time.
  2. The resident has raised concerns about the impact of the situation on her health. We cannot consider such issues, as they need a legally binding determination. A court can make such decisions, as they need considerations around causation and liability. The resident may wish to seek independent advice around this aspect of her concerns.

leaks, damp, and mould in the resident’s property

  1. Within the landlord’s responses, it acknowledged that there were failings in its approach to dealing with the resident’s concerns between March 2023 and October 2024. It acknowledged a service failure around an appointment for damp and condensation from water damage. It also acknowledged that there was a delay in the works to resolve the leak and apologised. It also apologised for the damage to the resident’s personal belongings and referred her to her contents insurance as a result.
  2. In this instance, our role is to decide whether the landlord’s offer was reasonable, fair and, enough to put things right. We must also consider if it recognised all its failings. While its offer of £502 goes a long way in trying to put things right, we do not consider this appropriate. This is because there were further failings with its handling of the resident’s concerns which it did not acknowledge.
  3. The tenancy agreement places a responsibility on residents to provide access to their homes to allow the landlord to complete repairs. The landlord’s repairs handbook states if it has grounds to believe a problem, such as water leaking from a resident’s property is affecting neighbouring properties, residents will need to allow access so it can check if this is the case and rectify the problem. If on request from it, a resident did not provide access, it may ask the court for permission to access the property and charge any costs to the resident. It can also force entry in emergency situations if it cannot reach the resident to make an emergency safe and carry out reasonable repairs.
  4. The landlord’s repairs handbook also says that a resident handles any repairs, maintenance, or replacement of an alteration they have made, that may be necessary. To complete a repair, it may have to remove or damage the resident’s improvement to access an area behind the alteration. It will not be liable for replacing the improvement or alteration because of the work. It says it can charge residents for repairs that do not fall under its obligation as a landlord, according to the law and the tenancy conditions. It will recharge for works where they are needed due to damage in a neighbouring property caused by the resident, where it must force entry to complete an emergency repair which is the resident’s responsibility, and where the work is the resident’s responsibility and it considers the repair to be an emergency or urgent repair.
  5. The handbook also says that it is responsible for repairing water leaks and water penetration issues affecting a resident’s home. It says it will attend emergency appointments within 2 hours, urgent appointments within 24 hours, routine repairs with 20 working days and planned works within 60 working days.
  6. Within her escalation request the resident explained that she had a lack of lighting in her bathroom for months. The landlord explained in its stage 2 response that it attended in June 2023 to isolate the lights and reinstated them in August 2023. From the landlord’s repair records this was the only instance in which it did not reinstate the lights on the same day during the complaint period. The resident also raised concerns about instances where the landlord did not tell her about appointments and then reported a lack of access.
  7. We would expect the landlord to have investigated the resident’s concerns and explain its findings. It has not shown that it did, and this raises questions around its investigation into her concerns. While it discussed a specific appointment for damp and condensation works in its stage 1 response, it has not shown that it looked to find whether there were other instances (as the resident mentioned “appointments”) and address them.
  8. The landlord explained that it aimed to complete the remedial works to the resident’s property by the end of November 2024. However, it did not do so due to access issues. This has been a consistent issue which affected its ability to resolve the resident’s concerns promptly. It is unclear why the landlord did not take robust action to obtain the necessary access. This is especially the case as she told it on 4 July 2024 that her concerns started after her neighbour installed a wet room. This should have prompted the landlord to consider whether it needed to take more robust and effective action to ascertain whether the installed wet room caused the issues the resident faced.
  9. Both the tenancy agreement and its policy allowed it to take actions such as obtaining court orders and forcing entry. While it reportedly told the neighbour that it would force entry to the property, we have seen no evidence that it took any such action. The landlord’s policy also allows it to complete repairs which are a resident’s responsibility and recharge for them. As such, had it acted promptly and in line with the tenancy agreement and policies, it may have identified the cause, completed the repairs to fix the leak, and then charged the resident’s neighbour for them, allowing it to resolve all the issues. It could then have completed the necessary works (including follow on works in the resident’s property) promptly. Its actions were not in keeping with the landlord’s repairs policy.
  10. Instead, the situation continued for a substantial amount of time. We asked the landlord to provide an update around any recent events, it explained to us that on 9 April 2025 an operative reported that the resident said she was getting intermittent leaks in bathroom. The operative attended the neighbour’s property and found that they altered the bathroom into a walk in shower room. There was a broken pan which was loose and a leak under the cistern. To resolve this the whole front panel needed removing and a special cone connector to cistern and flush pipe, which was major works. It also said there were none in relation to the complaint on 22 September 2025.
  11. In summary, while the landlord acknowledged failings with its approach in resolving the issue and told the resident it aimed to complete works by November 2024, it did not do so. It did not take prompt action in line with its policies and the tenancy agreement to resolve the issue. Nor did it show that it considered whether it remained appropriate for her to remain living in the property or if there were any temporary solutions it could put in place to resolve the issue until it could permanently resolve it. Based on this we find that there was maladministration.
  12. The landlord’s compensation policy says that it will award compensation for time and trouble (£100-£300) because residents sometimes have to pursue their complaint to a higher level of its process that they should need to due to poor investigation, communication, or lack of appropriate remedies offered or completed at earlier stages. It awards compensation for delays (£25 per month), and distress (£100 to £300 and up to £1000 for prolonged stress) which it says can take many forms and it must consider this as part of the complaint resolution. It says when it considers distress it should account for length of time involved.
  13. Based on the landlord’s policy, its compensation offers within its responses are in line with its policy. However, due to the failure to meet its own deadline, its poor investigation, lack of appropriate remedies offered around the situation, and distress caused to the resident, we order that the landlord pay the resident additional compensation.

Complaint handling

  1. The landlord operates a 2 stage complaints process. Its complaint policy says it will acknowledge a complaint within 5 workings days of receipt. It will respond at stage 1 of its complaints process within 10 working days of acknowledging a complaint. It will response at stage 2 within 20 working days.
  2. Within its complaints response, the landlord acknowledged that it failed to respond within the appropriate timescales at stage 1. It should have responded by 19 September 2024 in line with its policy, instead it responded 12 working days later than it should have. Its stage 2 response was however within the appropriate timescales. To put things right, in line with its compensation policy it offered the resident compensation of £25. While this goes some way in putting right its failings, it does not go far enough. This is because there was an additional failing the landlord failed to account for.
  3. As explained previously the resident had raised concerns about the landlord’s handling of appointments, and its records around what occurred. This is because she said it often said there was no access when it reportedly provided no notice of the appointments her to. As she had queried its actions around the appointments, we would expect the landlord to explain its investigation into her concerns and provide an appropriate response about how it arrived at its decisions that she had not provided access. It failed to respond to this within its complaint response and this was inappropriate. Based on this we find that there was an additional service failure, and in line with its policy order that it pay the resident additional compensation.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was:
    1. Maladministration with the landlord’s handling of leaks, damp, and mould in the resident’s property.
    2. Service failure with the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report, the landlord must:
    1. Provide the resident with a written apology for the failings identified within this report.
    2. Pay the resident compensation of £752. This is inclusive of its previous offer of £502. If it has paid the resident the £502 previously it should subtract this from the total, meaning the outstanding amount is £250. We break this down as:
      1. £200 for its failure to meet the provided deadline of November 2024 to complete the necessary works.
      2. An additional £50 for its failure to adequately respond to all of the resident’s concerns within the complaint.
    3. Inspect the resident’s property and identify any areas of concern in relation to leaks, damp and mould. It must then provide a schedule of works with proposed dates of completion of any works found (if it identifies any works), and an action plan on how it proposes to address the issue. The landlord should provide a copy of the schedule of works and action plan to both the resident and us.
    4. Provide proof of compliance with these orders.