North Tyneside Council (202330528)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202330528

North Tyneside Council

12 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 the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the property.

Jurisdiction

  1. What the Ombudsman can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. When a resident brings a complaint to us, we must consider all the circumstances of the case, as there are sometimes reasons why we cannot investigate a complaint.
  2. Paragraph 42.e of the Scheme notes as follows:
    1. The Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion concern matters where a complainant has or had the opportunity to raise the subject matter of the complaint as part of legal proceedings.
  3. Following the resident’s formal complaint on 16 October 2023, the resident lodged a legal disrepair case with the landlord. The issues of concern raised in the case were in relation to the condition of the property including the damp and mould.
  4. On 29 October 2024, the legal disrepair claim was settled, and the resident accepted an out of Court settlement of £4,000.
  5. After carefully considering all the evidence, under with paragraph 42.e of the Scheme, the complaint about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Background

  1. The resident has been a secure tenant of the landlord since 3 June 2015. The landlord is a local authority. The property is a house and the resident lives with her child.
  2. Following reports of damp and mould in the property, the landlord completed a survey on 27 September 2023. The survey found the property needed work to resolve the damp and mould. The landlord raised the works from the survey on 5 October 2023.
  3. The resident raised a formal complaint on 16 October 2023 in which she said the property had damp and mould in the kitchen, both bedrooms and the bathroom. The inspector had said a leak in the roof could be causing the issue but there had been no movement on the repairs. She said she was not staying in the property, and it had affected her mental health and daughters’ development.
  4. The landlord provided its stage 1 response on 27 October 2023. It gave an extensive history of the surveys it had undertaken in the property since the resident had reported damp and mould in January 2022. It made the following key points:
    1. It gave details of the works it had completed following the survey and confirmed the dates it would complete the outstanding works.
    2. It had tried to complete an inspection of the roof, but no one was home when it attended. It had rearranged an internal inspection for 31 October 2023.
    3. It confirmed that the property was part of planned refurbishment for the kitchen and bathroom in 2022/23, but the resident had refused the works at the time. It had since agreed to add her to its planned investment list for 2024/25.
    4. It had agreed to replace the boiler which it had done on 26 October 2023.
    5. It advised the resident if she thought the landlord was liable for any damage to her property, she could pursue a claim via its insurance and gave the relevant details.
  5. The resident requested escalation to stage 2 on 20 November 2023 as she was unhappy that the landlord had not completed the repairs and felt the landlord was not listening to her.
  6. It provided its stage 2 response on 16 January 2024. The key points were as follows:
    1. It had attended the resident’s property on 4 January 2024 to discuss the resident’s concerns and identified the further works needed in the property.
    2. It confirmed it had completed remedial works on 8 January 2024, and it would install a fan in the property in due course.
    3. It confirmed the resident had mentioned the positive impact the internal vent tiles installed in the loft had on the property since their installation on 22 December 2023.
    4. It did not uphold the complaint.
  7. The resident requested to escalate her complaint to stage 3 of the complaints process on 19 January 2024 due to the “sheer hassle” of having to chase up the repairs. The landlord contacted the resident on 19 February 2024 to confirm it would not consider the complaint at stage 3 as it had found no evidence of service failure.
  8. Following the legal disrepair claim, the landlord completed the outstanding works to resolve the damp and mould in the property, and other issues raised in the claim, on 14 June 2024. We understand the landlord paid the legal costs in relation to the claim in March 2025.

Determination

  1. Under paragraph 42.e of the Scheme, the complaint in relation to the landlord’s handling of the leak is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.