Haringey London Borough Council (202320122)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202320122

Haringey London Borough Council

26 June 2024

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

The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of repairs including taps and pipework; metal sticking out of the bedroom floor; broken guttering; and damp and mould.
We have also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

We understand the resident has a secure tenancy agreement with the landlord and has lived at the property for over 30 years. We have not seen a copy of this agreement. The property is a 2‑bedroom house. The landlord has no vulnerabilities recorded for the resident. The resident lives in the property with her adult son. At times they used a representative to contact the landlord for the purposes of the report, I will refer to them all as “the resident”.
Following reports of damp behind the washing machine, the landlord decided a survey should be carried out because there was discoloration on the outer wall and internal cracks behind the sink and the washing machine.
The landlord could not provide this survey report to the Ombudsman, but it evidenced that repairs were subsequently raised on 23 December 2019 for scaffolding so that guttering could be cleared at the rear of the property. It noted a potential breach to the damp proof course in the rear elevation.
Some 18 months later in July 2021, the resident reported a knocking sound from the pipes. The repairs log evidences that this was resolved on 4 August 2021, but the log does not include any detail of the action taken. The resident raised this matter again in November 2021 and the repairs log evidences that this issue was resolved on 30 November 2021 and was caused by the tap being opened and closed very hard and action had been taken to reduce the water pressure to minimise the noise.
On 7 April 2022 the repairs log evidences areas of repairs required, including:
1. There was leaking guttering on the front elevation and scaffolding was required to renew the fascia and gutter. Some work was undertaken on 12 April 2022; the operative noted “refixed and cleaned gutter best I could for now”.
2. Action was required to clear out a blockage to the rear gutter, repair it and provide a rainwater channel to discharge into the existing rear gully. Tower scaffolding would be needed for the gutter clearance. The log notes this was completed in January 2023.
3. A mould wash to be carried out in both bedrooms. The log notes this was carried out on 7 and 8 July 2022 along with some patch repairs to the plasterwork in one of the bedrooms.
4. Investigate the cause of noise in the pipe work system and remedy. The log notes a visit to the property on 18 January 2023 and noted this problem only happened when the washing machine was being used or filled. It noted this was due to an issue specific to that machine.
On 31 May 2022 the resident reported metal sticking out of the floorboards. The landlord said this was resolved in January 2023.
On 1 July 2022 the resident reported noisy taps and toilet. The log notes that this was resolved on 27 July 2022 by resolved remedying an issue with the water pressure.
On 14 September 2022, over 2 months later, the resident again reported noisy taps. The repairs log notes this was resolved on 7 October 2022 when the mains water pressure was adjusted.
On 9 October 2022 the resident approached their MP who, in turn contacted the landlord. On 25 October 2022 the landlord responded to an enquiry from the MP saying it had raised various jobs including:
1. Mould behind the radiator: An appointment for the mould treatment had been booked for 16 December 2022.
2. The resident claimed a loud banging noise when the toilet and washing machine were used: an appointment had been arranged for 3 November 2022.
3. Roofing: its roofing contractor had attended, and it was awaiting a further inspection. The works included renewal of the fascia and soffit gutter, union and gutter clips.
On the following day the landlord noted that the gutters should be checked for leaks as they were causing damp and mould. It also noted that the downpipe to the front had been cleared.
On 4 November 2022 the resident asked the landlord to escalate the complaint. This covered several repair issues including: the guttering; metal sticking out of the floor; black mould in both bedrooms and in the front room; and noisy taps and pipes. The resident also asked for compensation for items they had had to dispose of due to mould. They said their health was affected by the mould and damp.
On 11 November 2022, in response to an enquiry from a local councillor, the landlord confirmed that roofing work was scheduled for 25 November 2022 and a mould wash treatment for 16 December 2022.
On 22 November 2022 the landlord undertook an inspection of the property. Several issues were identified including at least one high damp reading and it noted that a wall should be dried out; that pointing was required to external brickwork; there was metal sticking out of the floor; and a bent gutter.
On 25 November 2022 the landlord acknowledged the complaint escalation request and said it would respond by 19 December 2022.
On 7 February 2023 the landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response. It gave details of the work it had undertaken. It also said that all the works carried out by its previous contractor in relation to the guttering had failed the post‑inspection; all subsequent reports of blocked gutters had been attended to and cleared. The landlord noted that the repair works it had carried out did not require the resident to be decanted (moved into short-term accommodation). In relation to the resident’s request for compensation for damaged possessions, the landlord explained they could make a claim on its liability insurance and explained how they could do so. The landlord signposted the resident to the Ombudsman.
On 29 June 2023 there was a damp and mould inspection of the property. This identified that the living room had damp and mould of “medium severity” and was in poor condition. It noted damp was evident in the wall plaster to the front window wall due to damaged/missing brickwork pointing to the front elevation. The report noted that the rainwater ingress was exacerbated by a blocked/overflowing front gutter. The report noted that works had been raised to treat the mould in the living room and to replaster after the front elevation had been repointed. The report noted that the damp and mould in the bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen was due to a lack of adequate heating and ventilation and advice had been given on that.
The landlord arranged for a plumber and bricklayer to attend the property on 31 October 2023 to try to resolve the guttering issues; however, that appointment did not go ahead as the bricklayer was unable to attend. The visit was re‑arranged for 4 December 2023 but did not go ahead. The landlord also arranged for a mould wash to take place on 3 December 2023.
On 4 December 2023 the resident contacted the landlord about the missed appointment. In an internal email later that day, the landlord noted that it had arranged the following work:
1. 6 December 2023: gutter cleaning, access required from the neighbour and a letter would be sent to advise that access was required.
2. 12 December 2023 brick work to be sealed.
3. 13 December 2023 work to complete a mould wash in a bedroom, the front room and living room. The operative would also inspect the kitchen and front bedroom for mould and carry out works, if required.
On 26 January 2024, in response to an enquiry from a councillor, the landlord said that there were no rising damp issues, and the mould was due to lack of adequate heating and ventilation.
On 14 April 2024 there was a further inspection of the property. The issues noted included: loose and missing plaster on exterior of property; front gutter damp needed to be aligned; mould needed to be cleaned (it was not clear what room(s) were referred to here); mould at the back of washing machine; back wall needed repointing; metal sticking out from the front bedroom floor which needed to be made safe; and a plumber to investigate the noise coming from a tap.
When the resident approached the Ombudsman, they said there was still mould behind the washing machine and the kitchen cupboards smelt strongly of damp. They said they had concerns about the air quality in one of the bedrooms due to the damp. They added that the living room walls that had been replastered were still wet. The resident said no action had been taken to remove the metal from the floor and the taps and pipes were still a problem. The resident told us that they wanted the issues resolved once and for all. They added that a contractor had visited the property in mid-May 2024 and drawn up works to be completed but they were unsure of the extent of those works.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

We have considered matters from 2019 in our investigation because, in its correspondence with us the landlord has acknowledged failings from that time. Therefore, it is clear that the landlord has had the opportunity to consider events from 2019 as part of its response to this complaint. It is evident correspondence including a report from April 2024, which the landlord provided to us, that matters have not been fully resolved and we have therefore considered matters up to that date.
The resident mentions that their health was affected by the damp and mould in the property. The Ombudsman does not doubt the resident’s comments regarding their health. It is widely accepted that damp and mould can have a negative impact on health. However, but this Service is unable to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, specific impacts on health and wellbeing. Matters of personal injury or damage to health, their investigation and compensation, are not part of the complaints process, and are more appropriately addressed by way of the courts or the landlord’s liability insurer as a personal injury claim. We can consider any distress and inconvenience the resident may have experienced as a result of errors by the landlord as well as the landlord’s response to the general risk posed by the damp and mould and its response to the resident’s concerns about their health.

The landlord’s handling of repairs

Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 places an obligation on landlords to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the property and keep in repair and proper working order the installations for the supply of water, gas, electricity, sanitation, heating, and heating water.
The landlord’s repairs handbook confirms that it is responsible for the structure and outside parts of the property such as walls, roofs and drainage. It confirms it is also responsible for the water pipes.
It explains that there are 4 categories of repairs:
1. Out of hours: a repair that is so urgent that it cannot wait until the next working day. Examples include major water leaks and a property having no electricity.
2. Emergency: a repair which puts a person or property at risk during the day. The landlord will attend within 24 hours of the report. Examples include major water leaks and a property having no electricity.
3. Agreed appointment: this includes nearly everything else that can be completed in one visit. The landlord will offer an appointment to suit the resident and which it can keep within 28 days. Examples include roof leaks, minor plaster repairs, glazing repairs and flooring.
4. Planned: a repair that has to be pre-inspected, in order for larger components to be measured and manufactured; where the job may take several days to complete; or where it is more economical and efficient for the work to be packaged up. For these repairs, the landlord will inspect within 28 days and tell the resident at the inspection when the job will be carried out. Examples include plastering large areas, renewing joinery such as windows, and fencing.
I will deal with the repair issues in turn in this assessment.

Taps and pipework

The evidence demonstrates that the resident reported noisy taps and pipes regularly throughout 2021 and 2022. The landlord acted appropriately by visiting the property each time and carrying out works which the evidence suggests involved reducing the water pressure to minimise the noise. The landlord noted that the resident had not reported this matter since January 2023; however, it is clear that this problem is ongoing because the inspection in April 2024 included a noisy tap.
The action taken by the landlord in response to these reports has been reasonable to alleviate the noise. The water pipes are the responsibility of the landlord, and it should continue to respond to reports and take proportionate action to resolve this matter fully. It can take multiple attempts to resolve repair issues as different approaches may be needed to find the cause of the problem. This does not in itself indicate a failure by the landlord provided, as in this case that the landlord attends promptly and takes reasonable steps to investigate and resolve the issue.

Metal sticking out of the bedroom floor

The resident reported metal sticking out of the flooring in the bedrooms at the end of May 2022. While the landlord noted in its stage 2 complaint response that this had been resolved in January 2023, the evidence does not support that. The recent inspection report from April 2024 notes that there was still metal sticking out of the flooring.
The landlord should have raised a repair within 28 days of this being reported. Its failure to do so was not appropriate and has meant that the resident has lived in a property that could have caused them injury for almost 2 years. An order has been made in respect of this repair. Financial compensation is appropriate for the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident and this has been considered when assessing compensation, as detailed later in this assessment.

Broken guttering

The landlord’s handling of the issues raised by the resident in respect of the guttering at the property was not appropriate. There were long delays in carrying out work to clear a blockage in the rear gutter which was raised in April 2022 and cleared in January 2023. In relation to the front gutter, work to clear it was carried out in April 2022 – some days after it was raised but renewal of fascia and soffits which was also raised at that time did not take place until October 2022. The time taken complete these works was outside the timescales set out in the repairs handbook. This delay was not appropriate and would have caused distress and inconvenience to the resident.
In its complaint response of March 2023, the landlord acknowledged that the work carried out in October 2022 had failed the post-inspection. The landlord noted that the gutters had since been cleared but it did not explain what action it would take to remedy works that had failed the inspection. We note that the property inspection in April 2024 raised issues with the guttering (one downpipe did not reach the gully), which suggests this matter has not been resolved fully.
An order has been made for the landlord to inspect the guttering at the front and rear of the property. It should then write to the resident with details of any work required and dates for when that work will be carried out. Compensation is also appropriate for the inconvenience and frustration caused and this has been considered later in this assessment.

Damp and mould

The Ombudsman’s Spotlight Report on Damp and Mould was published in October 2021. This gave recommendations for landlords, including that they should:
1. Adopt a zero-tolerance approach to damp and mould interventions. Landlords should review their current strategy and consider whether their approach will achieve this.
2. Ensure they can identify complex cases at an early stage and have a strategy for keeping residents informed and an effective resolution.
3. Ensure that they clearly and regularly communicate with their residents regarding actions taken or otherwise to resolve reports of damp and mould.
4. Identify where an independent, mutually agreed and suitably qualified surveyor should be used, share the outcomes of all surveys and inspections with residents to help them understand the findings and be clear on next steps. Landlords should then act on accepted survey recommendations in a timely manner.
While the landlord now has a damp and mould policy, at the time of the events complained about, it did not have one.
When the landlord provided evidence to us, it acknowledged that defective gutters, external brickwork, and missing roof tiles had contributed to the damp and mould in the property.
The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould was not appropriate because:
1. There is no evidence it followed up on the potential damp proof course breach in the rear elevation in 2019.
2. While it was reasonable for it to have carried out mould washes in July, October and December 2022, it should have taken action to have tried to identify the source of the damp and mould at the same time. It would have been reasonable for the landlord to have engaged a specialist damp surveyor to do so.
3. A damp inspection was not carried out until June 2023, some 3 and a half years after the damp was first reported. At the time, it identified that the cause was damaged and missing exterior brickwork as well as blocked and overflowing gutters.
4. The evidence suggests this at least some of these repairs were still outstanding in April 2024.
5. When it corresponded with a councillor in January 2024, the landlord said the damp and mould was due to lack of adequate heating and ventilation. That was misleading because, by then, the landlord was fully aware of the damaged brickwork and gutters that were causing the water ingress and were at least partly responsible for the damp and mould.
These are significant failings by the landlord in handling the reports of damp and mould. The delay in resolving the damp and mould has had a detrimental impact on the resident. It is evident that this matter has caused them great distress, inconvenience, and frustration and that they have gone to a great deal of time and trouble chasing this matter up with the landlord by way of their local councillors and their MP to try to resolve matters.
The landlord told the Ombudsman that, since the initial report of damp and mould in 2019, works had been carried out to address the issue, however these had failed to fully resolve the water ingress. It added that it understood the frustration this would have caused and acknowledged that the time taken to remedy the damp and mould would have had a detrimental effect on the resident’s health and wellbeing. Despite that acknowledgement, the complaint response did not include an apology to the resident nor compensation to acknowledge this impact on them.
Our special investigation report into the landlord published in July 2023 found that there was a culture of apathy and that there was a distinct lack of ownership, accountability, and intrinsic motivation when handling complaints. We found that, where shortfalls had been identified, there was no evidence of learning to prevent these failings reoccurring, and little evidence of contrition or a resolution-focused approach to complaints handling. The landlord’s approach to the issues in this case largely reflect those findings.
In that special report, we recommended that the landlord undertook several improvements in the areas of repairs and complaint handling. Following this investigation, we held monthly meetings with the landlord as it actioned the recommendations and set out how it would further improve and will continue to work closely with the landlord and keep an eye on the complaints coming into us to assure ourselves the landlord has learned lessons from past investigations. Therefore, this report has made no individual orders in respect of the wider issues identified with the landlord’s processes.
In summary, the significant failings identified in relation to the repairs along with the landlord’s failure to consider the impact on the resident means that we have made a finding of severe maladministration in relation to its handling of repairs.
In relation to the failures identified, the Ombudsman’s role is to provide fair and proportionate remedies where maladministration or service failure has been identified. In considering this the Ombudsman takes into account our Dispute Resolution Principles: Be Fair, Put Things Right and Learn from Outcomes as well as our own guidance on remedies.
Financial compensation of £3,500 is appropriate for the impact on the resident of the delay in resolving the repair issues at the property. This takes into account a delay of 2 years to remove the metal from the floor; lengthy delays to fix the broken gutters at the front and rear of the property; and a delay of almost 3 and a half years to take robust action to identify the cause of the damp and mould. This also takes into account the time and trouble taken by the resident in pursuing matters. The sums awarded in this report are in line with the Ombudsman’s Remedies Guidance (published on our website) which sets out our approach to compensation. Awards in this include cases where there have been significant delays in investigating and remedying repair issues which had a severe impact on the resident.
Given the length of time that this has been ongoing, and to reassure the residents of the landlord’s intentions to resolve this once and for all, an order has been made for the landlord to appoint an independent damp surveyor to carry out a full damp inspection of the property and make recommendations as appropriate. The landlord should share this report with the resident and carry out the recommended works within 6 weeks of the report being received. If the landlord is unable to follow any of the recommendations, it should explain why to the resident, in writing. The landlord should consider if the resident should be moved into short-term accommodation for the duration of the works and put that decision in writing to them.
In response to the resident’s request for compensation for damaged belongings, the landlord provided details of its liability insurer. That was reasonable because the insurer can decide on whether the landlord had acted negligently and, if appropriate, the amount that should be paid to the resident. Landlords are entitled to use liability insurance to manage the cost of such claims as the landlord was not obliged to consider a claim outside the insurance process.

Complaint handling

The landlord’s complaint procedures say it aims to respond to the complaint within 10 working days at stage one and within 20 days at stage 2.
The landlord’s complaint handling was not appropriate. We were not provided with a copy of its stage one complaint response which means we cannot be certain when it was issued. In turn that means we cannot reach a view on whether it was issued in good time or whether the landlord properly addressed the key points raised in the complaint. The evidence shows that the landlord acknowledged the escalation request on 25 November 2022 and said it would respond at stage 2 of its complaints process by 19 December 2022. The response was sent out on 7 February 2023. That response was not sent within the timescales set out in its complaint policy which in place at the time of 20 working days.
In line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance as referenced above, financial compensation of £150 is appropriate for this 7-week delay which would have caused inconvenience to the resident as she had to wait for the landlord’s final response before referring her complaint to the Ombudsman.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was severe maladministration by the landlord in respect of its handling of the resident’s reports of repairs.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was maladministration by the landlord in respect of its complaint handling.

Orders

The landlord shall take the following action within 4 weeks (unless otherwise stated) and provide evidence of compliance with these orders to the Ombudsman:
1. The Chief Executive to apologise to the resident for the failings identified in this report. In doing so, the landlord should have regard to the apologies guidance on our website.
2. Pay the resident the sum of £3,650 made up of:
  1. £3,500 for the impact of the repair failings.
  2. £150 for distress and inconvenience caused by the landlord’s complaint handling failures.
3. Remove the metal sticking out from the floor in the property.
4. Inspect the guttering at the front and rear of the property and write to the resident with details of any work required and dates for when that work will be carried out.
5. Appoint an independent damp surveyor to carry out a full damp inspection of the property and make recommendations as appropriate. The landlord should share this report with the resident.
6. The landlord should arrange for any recommended works to be carried out within 6 weeks of that damp inspection report being received. If the landlord is unable to follow any of the surveyor’s recommendations, it should explain why, in writing to the resident. The landlord should consider if the resident should be decanted for the duration of the works and put that decision in writing to them.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the landlord should let the resident know what works its contractor identified in the survey of May 2024 and when it plans to complete them.