London Borough of Lambeth (202500618)

Decision
Case ID	202500618
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	London Borough of Lambeth
Landlord type	Local Authority / ALMO or TMO
Occupancy	Secure Tenancy
Date	24 November 2025

Background

The resident lives in a 1-bedroom flat with her son who is now aged 15. The landlord commissioned an asbestos survey after a roof leak. Following this the resident complained about the landlord’s failure to replace a damaged ceiling.

What the complaint is about

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of replacement of ceilings containing asbestos.
We have also investigated the landlord’s complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

We found that there was:
1. Maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the replacement of ceilings.
2. Maladministration in the landlord’s complaint handling.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

Ceilings

The landlord has not communicated the outcome of the latest asbestos survey to the resident and there has been an unacceptable delay in it replacing the ceilings as promised.

Complaint handling

There were delays in the complaint handling process and the landlord did not follow remedies through to completion.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration, or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

Order	What the landlord must do	Due date
1	Apology order The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure: The apology is provided by a manager. The apology is specific to the failures identified in this decision, meaningful and empathetic. It has due regard to our apologies guidance.	No later than 22 December 2025
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £900 made up as follows: £800 for the time, trouble, distress, and inconvenience caused by its failures in replacing the ceilings. £100 for the time, trouble, distress, and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling failures.	No later than 22 December 2025
3	A manager must contact the resident by the due date to discuss the decant and removal of her belongings and arrange a mutually convenient date for the works to commence.	No later than 22 December 2025
4	Starting the works The landlord must take all steps to ensure that the work to replace the ceilings is started no later than the due date. If the landlord cannot start the works in this time, it must explain to us, by the due date: Why it cannot start the works by the due date and provide evidence to support its reasons. It must provide a revised timescale of when it will start and finish the works; or The steps it has taken to start the works and provide us with documentary evidence of its attempts to ensure the works were started by the due date. It must provide a revised timescale if it is able to or explain why it cannot. What suitable alternative accommodation will be made available to the resident. Advise us and the resident if the work is likely to take longer than 1 week to complete.	No later than 12 January 2026

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.

Our recommendations
The landlord should provide a copy of the 2024 asbestos survey to the resident.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
25 February 2025	The resident complained to the landlord. She said that: The landlord had commissioned an asbestos survey on 3 October 2024 following a leak and damage to a ceiling. She thought that the ceiling contained asbestos and that this was bad for her and her child’s health. She would like to move to a property with no damaged asbestos.
26 March 2025	The landlord provided a stage 1 complaint response. It said that: It had arranged for a contractor to remove the asbestos in the kitchen, living room, and bedroom ceilings on 24 March 2025. It upheld her complaint because it had not completed the work by the target date.
26 March 2025	The resident asked the landlord to escalate the complaint to stage 2 of the complaints process. She said that: She thought she was living in a property that was a health risk to her and her child due to exposure to asbestos fibres. The contractors arrived on 24 March 2025 but said they could not remove asbestos from the ceiling with all her furniture in place and that she would not be able to live there while the work was completed.
2 May 2025	The landlord provided a stage 2 complaint response. It said that It gave sincere apologies for the distress, inconvenience, and uncertainty the situation had caused her. It had 2 active repairs jobs outstanding for asbestos removal at the property. These had initially been delayed because the resident must move her furniture. However, it had now decided that it would not be safe for her to remain in the property while it completed the work. Therefore, it would provide a temporary decant for the duration of the work and her belongings would be moved out of the property. It had begun the decant process and a member of staff would contact her shortly to guide her through next steps, including support for the removal and storage of her belongings.
Referral to the Ombudsman	In November 2025 the resident advised us that the landlord had not yet begun the work. It had not contacted her to arrange for the decant and removal of belongings. The resident said that she would like to move to an alternative property with no asbestos.

What we found and why

The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that’s happened or comment on all the information we’ve reviewed. We’ve only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

Complaint	Asbestos
Finding	Maladministration

The resident’s concerns and anxiety about the finding of asbestos materials within her home are understandable. However, it is not our role to investigate the level of asbestos or the risks involved, but to provide an independent review of the landlord’s actions in its response to the resident’s concerns.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) confirms that asbestos can be found in any building built before 2000. It confirms that if asbestos materials are in good condition, and in a place where they are unlikely to be disturbed, then they should not cause any harm. It is only when the materials are damaged or disturbed, that asbestos can become a concern.
The landlord’s asbestos management procedure says that it will make every effort to reduce the risk from exposure to asbestos to its residents to a negligible amount. If this isn’t possible then its aim is to reduce the risk to as low as practically possible. It also says that it is not its policy to remove asbestos containing materials (ACM) that are not damaged or deteriorated.
When the resident moved in the landlord gave her a copy of an asbestos survey for the property dated 2017 which said that there was no asbestos detected in the property.
Following a leak affecting a ceiling in the property in July 2024, the landlord commissioned another asbestos survey. A specialist completed this on 3 October 2024 and said that there was:
1. Asbestos texture coating to the ceilings in the bathroom and bedroom of the property.
2. “Strongly presumed” asbestos textured coating to the ceilings in the lounge, hall, and 3 cupboards in the property.
3. That the condition of all ceilings was “very low damage”.
4. That the risk from all ceilings was “very low”.
5. Action required was to “inspect”.
The resident asked the landlord for a copy of the report on 25 November 2024 and 18 December 2024. However, she advised us that the landlord has not given her a copy or given a reason why it did not supply one. While it is not obliged to do so, this failure has caused the resident further distress because she was not aware of the full outcome of the survey. It has also cost her time and trouble asking the landlord for copies.
The landlord raised a repairs job to plaster the ceiling in the bedroom on 6 November 2024. It raised 2 further repairs jobs to remove asbestos in the property on 7 January 2025 and 28 January 2025. However, despite confirming that it would complete the work in both its stage 1 and stage 2 complaint responses it has still not done so over a year after the asbestos survey was completed. This has caused the resident a great deal of distress because she believes that the asbestos is affecting her and her child’s health. It has also cost her time and trouble because she has complained and chased the landlord for updates on a number of occasions over this time.
The landlord identified the cause of the delay in its stage 2 complaint response. This identified that there was a lack of communication regarding the removal of the resident’s belongings. However, despite this, 6 months later it has still not completed the work.
In summary, the landlord has not communicated the outcome of the asbestos survey to the resident. This has caused her distress and cost her time and trouble. There has also been an unacceptable delay in completing the promised work. Therefore, there was maladministration in its handling of this aspect of the complaint.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Maladministration

The landlord’s complaint handling policy says that it will acknowledge complaints within 5 working days of receipt. It will then respond to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days and stage 2 complaints within 20 working days.
In this case we have seen no evidence that the landlord acknowledged the complaint. It then took 22 working days to respond at stage 1 and 27 working days to respond at stage 2. These delays and failure to follow its policy meant that the resident was waiting longer for a resolution which caused her distress and inconvenience. It also delayed her access to an investigation by this Service.
The Housing Ombudsman’s complaint handling code (the Code) says that all remedies offered must be followed through to completion. However, in this case the landlord has not contacted the resident to arrange a decant, which it has advised should be for 1 week into a hotel, and removal of belongings so that the work can be carried out. Therefore, it has not used the complaints process to rectify the situation which has caused the resident further distress and cost her further time and trouble escalating the complaint to us.
Due to the delays and failure to action and deliver the remedies it offered there was maladministration in the landlord’s complaint handling.

Learning

The landlord should ensure that it has adequate oversight frameworks and associated processes in place to make sure that promised work is completed within reasonable timescales.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

None identified in this case.

Communication

There was a lack of communication from the landlord regarding the outcome of the second asbestos survey. The landlord should consider its practices in sharing the outcome of asbestos surveys with affected residents to help alleviate distress in some circumstances.