London Borough of Wandsworth (202342211)

Decision
Case ID	202342211
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	London Borough of Wandsworth
Landlord type	Local Authority / ALMO or TMO
Occupancy	Leaseholder
Date	20 November 2025

Background

In February 2023 the resident told the landlord of his concerns about the use of the communal bin store. He said rubbish was piling up and it was not regularly cleaned. He said the landlord should revise the service charge payments due to this.

What the complaint is about

The complaint is about the landlord’s:
1. Handling of concerns about an increased service charge adjustment figure.
2. Response to concerns about waste storage and cleaning.
3. Complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

We have found that:
1. There was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of concerns about an increased service charge adjustment figure.
2. There was a service failure in the landlord’s response to concerns about waste storage and cleaning.
3. There was maladministration in the landlord’s complaint handling.

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

Summary of reasons

Handling of concerns about an increased service charge adjustment figure

The landlord’s explanation of the service charge adjustment figure was in line with the lease. Its explanation of the need for consultation for certain works could have been better, but this was an issue that it later clarified. The landlord’s response was fair and reasonable.

Response to concerns about waste storage and cleaning

The landlord did not monitor the standard of cleaning of the bin store between February and June 2023. However, it handled matters better following the resident’s report from September 2023.

Complaint handling

The landlord failed to start its internal complaints process despite the resident’s repeated expressions of dissatisfaction. This meant that despite the resident’s emails he had to complete online complaint forms before it responded. When it did issue its complaint responses it failed to show insight into its complaint handling failings and made no attempt to put things right.

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 18 December 2025
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £300 made up as follows: £100 for the distress and inconvenience cause by its response to concerns about waste storage. £200 for the distress, inconvenience, time and trouble caused by its complaint handling failings.	No later than 18 December 2025

Order

What the landlord must do

Due date

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

18 December 2025

Compensation order

The landlord must pay the resident £300 made up as follows:

£100 for the distress and inconvenience cause by its response to concerns about waste storage.
£200 for the distress, inconvenience, time and trouble caused by its complaint handling failings.

No later than

18 December 2025

Recommendations

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

Our recommendations
The Ombudsman recommends the landlord contact the resident to discuss any ongoing issues with waste storage. It should consider if there are other options available to resolve the issue and/or if a further reminder to residents should be issued.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
24 March 2023	The resident told the landlord there was an issue with waste storage in the bin store and its cleaning. He said the landlord should revise the service charge amount due to the issues.
20 September 2023	The resident raised his complaint. He said The waste storage and bin store cleaning issue took 6 months to resolve (in June 2023). The issue was only resolved after he contacted the cleaning company directly. The landlord should reflect this in a service charge discount for the following year. The landlord should investigate the issue, adjust the service charges and talk to neighbours to address the issue. It should clear the bin store regularly.
10 October 2023	The resident complained about the adjustment of service charges being too high. He said the previous year’s adjustment was £88 but for the 2022 to 2023 financial year it was £235.66. He asked the landlord to explain the work completed for the £235.66 charge. He repeated how it should reduce the service charge invoice in light of the issue with the bin store and waste collection.
23 October 2023	The landlord issued its stage 1 response. It said: It was not able to determine in advance the actual expenditure and due to this an adjustment was made the following financial year. Leaseholders were required to pay the difference and explained further how the adjustment figure for 2022 to 2023 was calculated. The service charge bill for 2022 to 2023 was estimated as £704 based on actual expenditure from 2021 to 2022. The actual costs for 2022 to 2023 was £939.66 and the difference of £235.66 was due. The resident should let it know if he required a full breakdown of charges for 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023. It understood the resident’s concern about waste storage and cleaning. It had told cleaning staff to be more proactive and make efforts to establish those not disposing of waste correctly. It did not uphold the resident’s complaint.
24 October 2023	The resident asked the landlord to escalate his complaint to stage 2 of its internal complaints process and review all the evidence he had provided. He said the waste storage and cleaning issue had been complained about for a year. He asked why the landlord had not previously mentioned the increase in service charge costs.
24 January 2024	The resident escalated his complaint again via the landlord’s website. He said the waste problem with overflowing bins was ongoing. He was unable to use the bin store until the day of waste collection. Despite his requests for the landlord to review the service charges due to the issues reported, it had not done this. He told the landlord to find a permanent solution for the waste management issue. He added that the service charge invoice for 2023 to 2024 had increased significantly.
16 January 2024	The landlord issued its stage 2 response. It said: Its stage 1 response provided a detailed and clear explanation of how service charge adjustment figures were calculated. Since then it had provided the resident with a full breakdown of charges for the previous 2 years. There was an issue with filling the bin store to capacity. It wrote to all residents on 24 November 2023 to ask they ensure all refuse was stored correctly. It was working with waste services to see if there was an alternative way to store refuse prior to weekly collections. It would investigate this and update the resident. It did not uphold the complaint.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident remained unhappy with the landlord’s response and referred his complaint to us for further consideration. The resident has said the landlord should revise its service charges due to the ongoing issue with waste storage.

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	Handling of concerns about an increased service charge adjustment figure.
Finding	No maladministration

What we did not looked at

The resident has raised complaint issues which have occurred since the complaint exhausted the landlord’s internal complaints procedure. We have no power to investigate complaints where the landlord has not had the chance to put things right first. There is no evidence to show the resident raised a complaint about service charges for the financial year 2023 to 2024. Therefore, we have not investigated this issue.

What we did investigate

The lease sets outs the resident’s requirement to pay service charges. In October 2023 the landlord provided the resident with the service charge adjustment for the financial year 2022 to 2023. This explained the estimate was £704 and the actual expenditure was £939.66. At that time the landlord provided the resident with a summary of costs and explained the adjustment amount of £235.66 was due. The resident complained that the landlord had not explained the increased adjustment of £235.66 and asked for details of the work completed.
Within the landlord’s stage 1 response it explained its process for estimates and actual service charges. The lease says the landlord should initially provide an estimate of service charges and once it has certified the actual expenditure for the financial year (usually in October) the resident should pay the difference due. The landlord’s explanation was in line with the requirements of the lease.
The resident raised concerns about the adjustment figure for 2021 to 2022 being £88 and increasing to £235.66 for tax year 2022 to 2023. While there was an increase with the actual expenditure for 2022 to 2023 the landlord’s explanation as to why this was the case was reasonable. Following the stage 1 response the landlord provided a full breakdown of charges for tax years 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023. This was also reasonable.
The resident raised concerns about the landlord not consulting on work. Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires landlord to consult leaseholders on works to the building where a leaseholder would have to pay more than £250. There is no evidence to show this applied. However, the landlord’s explanation on Section 20 requirements may have caused confusion. This is because instead of referring to the individual leaseholder limit, it quoted the overall building limit. The landlord later clarified this. While this was a shortfall in the landlord’s response to the resident’s queries, its response was otherwise fair and reasonable. The landlord’s handling of the matter amounts to no maladministration.

Complaint	Response to concerns about waste storage and cleaning.
Finding	Service failure

The evidence shows that between February and June 2023 the resident regularly reported concerns about waste storage/collection and the cleaning of the bin store area. He said rubbish was left outside the bin store, bags were piled, and the area was not cleaned.
The landlord acknowledged the reports and said it had made the waste collection team aware. In April and June 2023, the landlord gave the resident contact details of the cleaning company.The resident contacted the cleaning companyin June 2023 and the area was cleaned.
The leaseholders guide says estate cleaning is carried out by private contractors and the landlord is responsible for the monitoring of the cleaning. While the landlord did pass the resident’s reports to the cleaning company, there is no evidence to show it monitored the standard of cleaning between February and June 2023. This was a failing.
On 20 September 2023 the resident reported similar issues. He said he could not put his waste bags in the area and asked the landlord to apply a reduction to service charges in light of the issues he had reported. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s reports and said it had followed up on the issue with the cleaning company.
The landlord wrote to all residents on 24 November 2023 to remind them to dispose of waste properly. It assessed photos sent by the resident and attended the site in January 2024. Here it found no issues. The landlord’s handling of the matter following the September 2023 report was better and its actions demonstrate its attempts to resolve matters.
Within its stage 2 response the landlord said it would consider if there was an alternative way to store waste and continued to investigate the issue.Following the end of the landlord’s internal complaints process, in August 2024, it explained that it had spoken to residents and its contractor. It found no need for an alternative waste storage method. It explained there would be a significant charge to leaseholders for the installation of bin stores, supply of large bins and as such it would not be practical.
It is important to explain that it is not our role to say the landlord should provide additional or alternative waste storage methods. The landlord’s actions here demonstrate it considered the options available to it and the larger impact before informing the resident of its decision. The landlord’s approach was reasonable in the circumstances. However, the resident has reported similar ongoing issues and as such a recommendation has been made for the landlord to consider any other options available to it, including the if it needs to issue a further reminder to all residents.
As part of the resident’s complaint he asked the landlord to reduce his service charge in light of the issues with the bin area. The landlord was clear in its responses, that it could not do this especially as the service was provided and explained that the issue was with how the area was being used. While the leaseholders guide allows for a discretionary service charge reduction, it does explain this is usually for grounds of “exceptional financial hardship”. However, the recommendation we have made may assist with resolving how the area is being used.
Overall, there is no evidence to show the landlord monitored the standard of cleaning between February and June 2023, despite the resident’s regular reports of the same issue with the bin store. The landlord’s failure to monitor the issue meant the resident has been left feeling the issue resolved following his direct contact with the contractor and that the landlord could have done more. The landlord’s failure to monitor the issue, in these circumstances amounts to a service failure.
Had the landlord not taken the positive steps it did following the reports after September 2023, the failing would have been greater. When considering all the points combined, a compensation amount of £100 has been decided as appropriate. This amount falls within the service failing banding of our remedies guidance and has been decided as appropriate in the circumstances.

Complaint	Complaint handling.
Finding	Maladministration

On 24 March, 26 April and 29 June 2023 the resident expressed dissatisfaction with the landlord’s cleaning service and service charges. On 26 April 2023 he asked the landlord to escalate the issue. Despite the resident’s expressions of dissatisfaction the landlord did not trigger its complaints process or clarify if the resident wanted it to.
On 20 September and 10 October 2023 the resident submitted online complaint forms. It took the landlord until 12 October 2023 to acknowledge the complaints and 23 October 2023 to issue its stage 1 response. The timeframe of around one month (from September 2023) to issue a stage 1 response exceeded the 10 working day timeframe set within its complaints policy.
The resident asked to “appeal” the landlord’s stage 1 response on 24 October 2023 and repeated his complaint points. While the landlord was in communication with the resident after this, it did not escalate the complaint to stage 2 of its internal complaints process or clarify if the resident wanted it to, if it was unsure. This meant the resident had to complete another online complaint form and it took the landlord around 4 months to issues its stage 2 response (February 2024).
The landlord’s repeated failure to identify complaints and progress these in line with its complaints policy demonstrates its complaints process was not working effectively at that time. It missed opportunities to identify its complaint handling failings and made no attempt to put things right within its complaint responses, which was a further failing. It is noted that the landlord updated its complaints procedure in May 2024. However, when considering the failings identified, the landlord’s complaint handling amounts to maladministration.
When deciding an appropriate remedy, we have considered our remedies guidance and a compensation payment of £200 has been decided as appropriate in the circumstances. This amount falls within the maladministration banding of our remedies guidance and is to acknowledge the impact of the landlord’s repeated complaint handling failings.

Learning

The landlord’s complaints process was not working effectively at the time of the resident’s complaint. While it has since updated its policy, in May 2024, it may wish to consider if its current policy is being applied correctly.