London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (202502882)

Decision
Case ID	202502882
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Landlord type	Local Authority / ALMO or TMO
Occupancy	Secure Tenancy
Date	1 April 2026

Background

1. The resident lives with her 2 young children. Since at least January 2022 the resident has been reporting issues with damp and mould in the property. The landlord has carried out multiple treatments on the damp and mould. However, the resident has said it has not treated the root cause of the damp and mould because it keeps returning.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
   1. Reports of damp and mould.
   2. Request to be rehoused. 
   3. Complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was maladministration by the landlord in respect of its handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould.
4. The resident’s complaint about the landlord’s handling of her request to be rehoused is not within our jurisdiction to consider.
5. There was reasonable redress offered by the landlord in respect of its handling of the resident’s complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

6. Through its complaints process the landlord acknowledged there had been delays with it inspecting and carrying out works on the damp and mould. It offered appropriate compensation for this. However, the majority of the compensation was offered after the complaints process had ended. Therefore, the landlord did not do enough to put things right during its complaints process.
7. The resident’s concerns about the landlord’s handling of her request to be rehoused did not form part of her original complaint. We have no power to investigate complaints which the landlord has not had the chance to put right first. There is no evidence the resident raised the complaint about the landlord’s handling of her request to be rehoused. Therefore, we find this aspect of the complaint is outside jurisdiction because we have no power to investigate it. As such, the resident may wish to raise a new, formal complaint about this particular issue. The landlord, as the local authority, is responsible for its rehousing policy(s) and we do not hold jurisdiction over it. It is also responsible for registering and banding housing applications. A complaint regarding these aspects would be more appropriately dealt with by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). Because of this, the resident should refer these concerns to the LGSCO if she wishes to pursue these aspects of the complaint further.
8. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint, requested a deadline extension and issued its stage 1 response within its complaints policy timescales. However, the landlord acknowledged the delay the extension had caused and offered £25 reasonable compensation.

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 the landlord’s senior management team. 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 29 April 2026

Recommendations

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

Our recommendations
The resident has told us the damp and mould issues are ongoing. As such, the landlord should carry out a further damp and mould inspection to see if further repairs are required to address the issue.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
22 November 2024	The resident raised her complaint. The landlord’s records indicate the resident raised this by phone and she wanted the damp and mould jobs redone properly so it would last. She said the landlord only ever painted over the mould and it kept returning.
18 December 2024	The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response. It acknowledged it was meant to inspect the property on 28 March 2024 but this did not take place until 15 April 2024. It apologised for the delay this caused and offered £150 compensation in recognition of this. However, it said that following the inspection it raised orders for the works it identified. It confirmed these works had been completed in May 2024 and it had not received reports of damp and mould since. The landlord also acknowledged there had been a delay in it issuing its stage 1 response. It offered £25 compensation in recognition of this.
3 January 2025	The resident escalated her complaint. She said she first reported damp and mould in 2022 and then again in 2023. She said in 2023 the landlord inspected the property but took no further action to address the issue. She said she was unhappy with the recent inspection on 30 December 2024 because the surveyor was dismissive of her concerns. She said he had told her what she needed to do to prevent damp and mould, for example put the heating on between 2am and 6am. However, she said she could not afford to do that and it would not resolve the root cause of the issue. The resident also mentioned she had been trying to contact her housing officer about being rehoused but had not had a response.
30 January 2025	The landlord issued its stage 2 response. It acknowledged the resident’s concerns about the advice given by the surveyor in December 2024. However, it said this advice was provided to help prevent condensation and mould reoccurring after a mould wash and painting are completed. It confirmed that following the results of the survey in December 2024 and a heat loss survey in January 2025, it would install a radiator in the toilet. It confirmed it was waiting on quotes for those works and it would keep her updated. The landlord also apologised that her housing officer had not responded to her requests to be rehoused. It said a housing manager would contact her directly about this. The landlord acknowledged there had been further service failures, including communication, since its stage 1 response. In recognition of the impact these had on the resident it offered a further £150 compensation. This brought the total compensation offered for the complaint to £325.
24 June 2025	The resident confirmed she wanted this Service to investigate the complaint. She said the landlord had still not permanently resolved the damp and mould issues in the property and she was unhappy with the advice given by the surveyor. She said she had also been emailing the landlord about adding her baby son to the tenancy and being rehoused. However, she said the landlord had not responded to her emails.

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	Damp and mould
Finding	Maladministration

9. The landlord’s damp and mould policy says that following reports of damp and mould it will investigate the cause of damp, mould and condensation. It says it will then carry out remedial repairs and actions in accordance with the tenancy agreement. The landlord’s repairs policy says it will carry out routine repairs within 20 working days and planned repairs within 60 working days.
10. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 places a statutory obligation on the landlord to keep the structure and exterior of the property in repair. The landlord also has a responsibility under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, introduced by The Housing Act 2004, to assess hazards and risks within its rented properties. Damp and mould growth are a potential hazard and therefore the landlord is required to consider whether any damp and mould problems in its properties amount to a hazard and require remedying.
11. The resident has referred to historical issues with damp and mould going back to 2022. However, we have not seen evidence that she raised a formal complaint about the landlord’s handling of the issues until 22 November 2024. We encourage residents to bring complaints to the attention of the landlord within a reasonable time of the problem occurring, usually within 12 months, so the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to resolve the issues. Therefore, the scope of this investigation includes events from November 2023 (12 months before the complaint was made) up to the point the resident’s complaint completed the landlord’s internal complaints process (30 January 2025). Anything that happened before this is considered for context purposes only.
12. There were delays with the landlord’s works to address the reported damp and mould in the property. It has acknowledged this and offered compensation in recognition of the impact this had on the resident. Therefore, the question before us is whether the landlord has provided sufficient remedy to recognise the impact of its failings and put things right in line with our dispute resolution principles, be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes.
13. In its stage 1 response the landlord confirmed it had missed the appointment to inspect the property on 28 March 2024. It said it had rebooked the inspection for 15 April 2024 and following this it raised work orders for the works identified. The landlord acknowledged the missed appointment and the delay this caused to repairs taking place. It offered £150 compensation. It was appropriate for the landlord to acknowledge its failings and offer compensation for the impact.
14. In its stage 2 response the landlord acknowledged there had been further service failings, in particular with communication, since its stage 1 response. In recognition of this the landlord offered a further £150 compensation. It also confirmed works it had raised to resolve the damp and mould issues in the property. It was reasonable for the landlord to acknowledge that there had been further failings with its handling of the damp and mould.
15. We are also aware that after the stage 2 response the landlord carried out further inspections on and treatments to the damp and mould in the property. This included the installation of a radiator in the toilet. The information seen indicates that all these works were completed by 12 June 2025. On 3 July 2025 the landlord emailed the resident to confirm it had requested its contractor make good around the areas they had worked on. In this email the landlord acknowledged there had been delays with these repairs and offered a further £400 compensation. It broke this offer down as £200 for delays to completing the repairs and £200 for the time, trouble and inconvenience this caused. This brought the total amount offered for the resident’s complaint to £725.
16. We appreciate the resident has said the landlord only carried out temporary fixes to the damp and mould but did not solve the root cause. However, landlords are entitled to rely on information provided to them by their contractors and representatives in the absence of independent third-party evidence to the contrary. In this instance, the survey reports from 16 April and 30 December 2024 recommended the landlord carry out treatment works on the affected areas of the property. The report from 30 December 2024 also recommended a heat loss inspection for the toilet to see if a radiator was required to help combat the mould. Following the resident’s escalation of the complaint the landlord contacted the surveyor, who said the root cause of the damp and mould was the level of humidity and condensation in the property. They also explained the information they gave the resident was about steps she could take to help address the cause of the damp and mould. Overall, it was appropriate for the landlord to follow the surveyor’s recommendations by carrying out the treatments and the heat loss survey.
17. The compensation of £725 is appropriate. This is in line with our remedies guidance, which suggests awards in this range where there have been failings by the landlord which adversely affected the resident but there was no lasting impact.
18. However, only offered the majority of that amount 6 months after its stage 2 response, which was an unreasonable delay. Therefore, we have made a finding of maladministration. We order the landlord to apologise for the failings identified in this report. We are aware it paid the initial £325 offered in its complaint responses by 11 February 2025 and the further £400 on 27 August 2025. As such, we have not made any orders regarding payment. As the resident has reported the damp and mould is ongoing, we recommend the landlord carries out an up to date inspection to see if any further repairs are needed.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Reasonable redress

19. The landlord’s complaints policy says it will acknowledge complaints and escalation requests within 5 working days. It says it will respond to a stage 1 complaint within 10 working days of it being logged. It also says the landlord will respond to stage 2 complaints within 20 working days of it being logged. The policy says that should more time be needed at either stage the landlord will inform the resident. It says an extension will not exceed a further 10 working days at stage 1 or 20 working days at stage 2. This is in line with our Complaint handling code (the Code), which sets out our expectations for landlords’ complaint handling practices.
20. The resident raised her complaint on 22 November 2024 and the landlord acknowledged the complaint the next day. On 6 December 2024 the landlord contacted the resident and said it needed more time to issue its stage 1 response. It gave a new deadline of 18 December 2024 and then issued the response on that date. This was in line with its complaints policy.
21. The resident escalated the complaint on 3 January 2025 and the landlord issued its stage 2 response on 30 January 2025. This was within the timescale set out in the landlord’s complaints policy.
22. However, in its stage 1 response the landlord acknowledged there had been a delay in it issuing that response. In recognition of this it offered £25 compensation.
23. Having taken into consideration the delay and the impact this had on the resident, we find the total amount of £25 offered for the delay in responding to the resident’s complaint is reflective and proportionate to the circumstances of the case. Therefore, we have made a finding of reasonable redress. This is in line with our remedies guidance, which suggests awards in this range where there have been failings by the landlord which did not have an impact on the outcome of the complaint nor a lasting impact on the resident.
24. We are aware the landlord paid the compensation offered in its stage 1 response on 11 February 2025.

Learning

Repairs

25. The landlord should ensure it inspects and completes repairs, especially on potential hazards such as damp and mould, within its policy’s timescales. It should also communicate with the resident if it is unable to attend an appointment.

Record keeping

26. The landlord’s records were accurate and comprehensive enough to allow us to carry out our investigation.