Birmingham City Council (202419765)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202419765

Birmingham City Council

12 June 2025


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this.

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
    1. Damp and mould in the resident’s property.
    2. A leak in the resident’s property.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a resident brings a complaint to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why we will not investigate a complaint.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Reasons

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of a 1 bedroom ground floor flat. The resident’s tenancy started in January 2015.
  2. The resident reported issues with damp, mould, and repairs in his property between 2016 and 2024. The landlord explained to us that leaks had occurred within the property from many sources. It also had difficulty addressing the damp and mould in some instances in 2021 as the resident declined the works across multiple appointments. The issues remained unresolved, and this led to the resident raising a complaint on 14 March 2024.
  3. Prior to his complaint however, the resident raised a court claim against the landlord. The landlord provided us with a copy of the proceedings dated 3 October 2023, and the particulars of claim. Within the particulars of claim, the resident raised concerns with disrepair in his property which included damp, mould, issues around habitation, and distress and inconvenience the situation caused.
  4. The landlord confirmed to us that both the resident and his solicitor raised concerns about a leak in the bathroom during a disposal hearing listed for 9 July 2024. A settlement was provided, and the landlord confirmed this was in relation to repairs which formed part of section 11 Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 works it needed to complete.
  5. Within the proceedings, we can see that the resident raised concerns about the level of distress and inconvenience caused to him as a result of the disrepair. As such the courts considered these matters within the disposal hearing on 9 July 2024 and compensated the resident.
  6. Paragraph 41.c. of the Scheme says that we cannot consider matters which were the subject of court proceedings where a court has given judgment on the merits.
  7. The resident raised his complaints about the damp and mould in the property within the proceedings along with other issues of disrepair generally. The landlord has also confirmed that he raised his concerns about a leak in the bathroom during the hearing. We can see that the court ordered compensation, and the landlord has also offered further compensation around disrepair in April 2025.
  8. As such, based on this paragraph of our scheme, the complaints about the handling of reports of damp, mould, leaks, and the subsequent distress and inconvenience fall outside of our jurisdiction. Therefore, we cannot investigate these complaints and the file is now closed.