London Borough of Camden Council (202525117)

Background

1. The resident lives in a property with an adapted bathroom. The bathroom was installed by the landlord in early 2022. The resident reported repairs to the bathroom and raised concerns that it had not been installed correctly in April 2025, which caused repeated floodings. The landlord completed several repairs and accepted that the bathroom had not been installed correctly.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of repairs to the adapted bathroom, including damp and mould.
3. We have also considered the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

4. We found the landlord responsible for maladministration in its handling of:
   1. Repairs to the adapted bathroom, including damp and mould.
   2. The associated complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

Repairs to the bathroom

5. The landlord did not fully address the resident’s complaint and did not investigate its handling of any repairs to the bathroom reported prior to September 2024. It delayed its damp and mould inspections and did not identify the underlying cause in a timey manner. It delayed completing repairs to resolve the bathroom leak and did not respond to her concerns about a fly infestation or her request that it replace or reimburse her for damaged flooring. Its response to the resident’s reports of faults to the shower was inconsistent. The landlord did not acknowledge all the failures we have identified in this investigation. Its offer of compensation was not sufficient to put things right.

Complaint handling

6. The landlord issued its stage 1 response within its published timescales for complaint handling. However, it delayed issuing its stage 2 response. It did not identify this failure or make attempts 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.

 Our investigation

The complaint procedure

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.

7. We would not expect the landlord to investigate its handling of matters that were not brought to its attention as a formal complaint within a reasonable period of time, usually within 12 months of the matters arising. However, the landlord failed to fully investigate its handling of repairs to the adapted bathroom within this period as it only focused on the reports of repairs related to a leak and to the shower in September 2024 and January 2025.
8. The resident explained that she had been experiencing issues since the wet room was installed in 2022. However, due to the landlord’s poor record keeping, it is unclear whether the resident made any reports of repairs to the bathroom prior to September 2024 and within the 12 months leading up to her complaint. We have seen evidence of work orders about drainage investigation, but they were not dated. As such we cannot conclude whether the landlord addressed the full period of the resident’s complaint and whether its investigation was sufficient.

Damp and mould

9. In response to the Ombudsman’s Spotlight Report on Damp and Mould (published October 2021), the landlord committed to inspecting all reports of damp and mould within 5 working days. The landlord therefore delayed inspecting the resident’s property for damp and mould as it did so on 9 September 2024, 9 working days after she reported the issue on 27 August 2024.
10. The landlord failed to provide sufficient information regarding its findings following its damp and mould inspection on 9 September 2024 and has not provided the survey report from this visit. It also failed to complete a risk assessment of the damp and mould to take account of the severity, proportion of the property affected and any risk factors such as the age and health of the resident. This was not in keeping with the landlord’s commitments following the Ombudsman’s Spotlight Report on Damp and Mould. This is particularly concerning as the resident is elderly and potentially more susceptible to the impact of damp and mould due to her age.
11. The landlord’s surveyor carried out a mould wash and requested that a plasterer attend to fill in holes to the hallway walls which they had made whilst scraping off the plaster. The plasterer attended 16 working days later, on 1 October 2024. This was in keeping with the timescales set out in its repair policy of 20 working days for routine repair appointments. However, the plasterer was unable to carry out any work because the wall was showing signs of damp. It is concerning that this had not already been identified by the landlord’s surveyor on 9 September 2024.
12. Following the plasterer’s appointment, the landlord requested that a drainage company attend to complete a camera survey. The landlord actioned this promptly and the drainage contractor attended the same day but could not identify any drainage issues. The landlord took no further action until the resident reported damp and mould to it again on 14 January 2025. This was a failure by the landlord in monitoring the case. Up until that point, it had only completed a mould wash and had not identified the underlying cause of the damp and mould.
13. The landlord’s surveyor attended to carry out another damp and mould inspection on 29 January 2025. Again, it was delayed in completing the inspection, doing so in 11 working days. The landlord also failed to produce a survey report from this visit. However, its notes suggest there was mould on the bathroom walls and ceiling and a possible leak inside the bathroom. It scheduled an appointment to investigate this on 3 February 2025.
14. The landlord scheduled a mould wash for 20 February 2025 but did not allocate enough time for the repair operative to complete the work. This caused avoidable delay. Overall, the landlord delayed completing the mould wash and did so on 21 March 2025, 37 working days after it was identified by its damp and mould inspector.

The leak to the bathroom

15. The landlord attended to inspect a leak to the bathroom on 3 February 2025, 3 working days after the damp and mould inspection. This was in keeping with its published timescales for urgent repairs.
16. The repair operative confirmed there was a leak from the bathroom. They raised follow on work to replace tiles and to replaster the wall which the landlord scheduled for 14 April 2025. This was inappropriate as the resident did not have proper access to bathing during this time. This was later confirmed on 14 April 2025 when the repair operative noted they had made safe the bathroom so the resident could continue to use the shower. The resident also had arthritis and therefore the impact of this delay was increased due to her health condition.
17. The resident reported that there was a fly infestation to the landlord on 28 May 2025. The landlord failed to respond to this element of the resident’s complaint, and it has not provided any evidence it took steps to address this issue. This caused the resident distress as she told the landlord using the bathroom had become intolerable and unhygienic. The landlord’s lack of response to this issue is concerning and demonstrated it did not take her concern seriously at the time.
18. The landlord also failed to respond to the resident’s request that it replace her flooring due to damage caused by the leaks. This is despite the landlord identifying this as an element of her escalation request in its stage 2 response. This was a failure by the landlord in its complaint handling.
19. The landlord said its repair supervisors would inspect the property on 28 May 2025. It has not provided any evidence of the outcome of this visit. Its stage 2 response said that estimates for repair work were being sought, but that no progress had been made since. Although the resident has said the landlord carried out some repairs at the end of June 2025 to remedy the leaks to the bathroom, the landlord has not provided evidence of these works, and we are therefore not satisfied it has resolved the issues fully. As a result, we made the inspection order above, including inspecting damage to any flooring as a result of leaks and to determine whether there is a current fly infestation.

Repairs to the shower

20. The resident made 5 reports of faults with the shower pump and drain between 3 September 2024 and 10 April 2025. The landlord’s responses during this period were inconsistent and its records did not provide enough detail. It attended on 2 occasions within its routine repair timescales, but it did not confirm whether the resident had bathing facilities during these periods. As the faults were the same as those treated as emergencies, we have concluded that the resident did not have access to bathing on these occasions. This was a significant failure by the landlord as it left the resident without bathing facilities on 2 occasions, each lasting more than 5 working days.
21. Our remedies guidance sets out that payments between £600 and £1000 are appropriate where there was failure which had a significant impact on the resident. In ordering £800 compensation (inclusive of the landlord’s offer of £500), we have considered further failings related to its lack of evidence for work completion, its response to damaged flooring and the resident’s reports of the fly infestation, and the periods of time when she was without bathing facilities, which the landlord did not identify and which had a significant impact on the resident.

What we have not considered

22. The resident told us that she was dissatisfied that the landlord had not taken responsibility to repair the toilet that was installed as part of the bathroom adaptation. This issue was not part of the resident’s initial complaint, and it was not raised during the complaints process. We have therefore not assessed the landlord’s actions in relation to this as part of our investigation. The resident can raise a formal complaint with the landlord if she wishes to pursue this concern further. If she remains dissatisfied with the landlord’s final response, she may be able to then refer the new complaint to us for consideration.

23. The landlord has a 2-stage complaints process. It aims to acknowledge both stages within 5 working days. It says residents should then receive a formal response to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days and stage 2 complaints within 20 working days of the complaint acknowledgement.
24. The landlord issued its stage 1 response 11 working days after the resident’s initial complaint. This was in keeping with its published timescales. The landlord issued its stage 2 response to the resident 60 working days after her escalation request on 28 May 2025. This was not in keeping with its published timescales.
25. Our remedies guidance sets out that payments of up to £100 are appropriate where the complaint response was delayed by more than several days. In ordering £100 compensation, we have considered the impact of the landlord’s delay at stage 2 of its process which it failed to identify and put right.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

26. The landlord’s record keeping was insufficient. Had it maintained robust records of repairs and inspections, this would have enhanced its ability to respond to the resident’s complaint.

Communication

27. The landlord did not provide sufficient evidence that it communicated with the resident appropriately throughout the time she reported repairs to bathroom. Had it done so, it might have been able to take a more pro-active and customer focused approach to the issues.