Irwell Valley Housing Association Limited (202420100)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202420100

Irwell Valley Housing Association Limited

22 August 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 resident’s reports of a leak causing damp and mould at the property.

Background

  1. The resident lives in a 2-bedroom house owned by the landlord. This is on an assured tenancy that began in 2013.
  2. On 2 May 2023 the resident raised a complaint with the landlord about 2 separate leaks: 1 from the bath and 1 from the chimney. The resident said the carpet on the landing had become damaged. She said the chimney leak had been ongoing for 9 years.
  3. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s stage 1 complaint the following day. It sent its stage 1 complaint response on 17 May 2023. It partly agreed with her complaint and apologised for the inconvenience. It said:
    1. It had attended to a leak on 28 April 2023. It decided the leak was containable until it returned on 2 May 2023 to complete further investigations, however, it recognised the leak had worsened and it apologised.
    2. It had visited the property on 5 May 2023 and agreed to replace the lounge floor covering and partial redecoration work to the affected areas.
    3. It visited again on 15 May 2023 and agreed additional work to the lounge, bathroom, front bedroom, and external front porch. It is unclear what the work entailed.
  4. The landlord’s records of 30 May 2023 showed it had replaced a bath panel, 5 roof slates, skirting, utility timber works and full redecoration.
  5. The resident escalated her complaint and the landlord acknowledged this on 9 January 2024. It provided her with its stage 2 complaint response on 13 February 2024. It then agreed an extension with her up to 16 February 2024. It identified several failures that included its delay in resolving a roof leak and missed appointments. It had carried out various work in an attempt to resolve the roof leak, but this was unsuccessful. It told her:
    1. It would provide a dehumidifier for 1 week to dry out damp in the bathroom.
    2. Provide decoration vouchers at the value of £75 towards redecoration of the bathroom and bedroom.
    3. It offered her £1250 compensation to put things right for her.
  6. The resident confirmed to the landlord that scaffold had been erected and operatives had attended the roof on 31 January 2024. On 8 March 2024 the landlord arranged to replace insulation and pay her £100 towards decorating in vouchers. Its records showed roof repairs were completed on 5 April 2024, however, it noted the roof was still leaking and it needed to reattend urgently.
  7. The resident escalated her complaint to us in August 2024. She was dissatisfied that the landlord had not fully resolved the issues. The landlord reviewed the complaint as part of providing us with its evidence. It increased its compensation offer from £1250 to £1850 in recognition of the following failures:
    1. It did not acknowledge the resident’s stage 2 complaint.
    2. It had not addressed all the issues.
    3. It did not acknowledge or act on reports of a continual leak affecting her child’s bedroom on 23 December 2023.
    4. It had not met its service standards regarding the replacement of 3 tiles following electrical work in 2021.
    5. It did not pay £75 decoration voucher that had been agreed.
    6. Delay in scheduling scaffolding work.
    7. Failure to provide liability insurance details and housing options advice.
  8. On 26 March 2025 the landlord’s inspection report concluded further work was required which was completed in April 2025. The work involved:
    1. Dye test to pipe work.
    2. Inspection of external roof covering.
    3. Sweep the redundant chimney.
    4. Replacement of plaster to bathroom.
    5. Renew damaged and missing insulation.
    6. Replace flexible ducting.
  9. On 10 June 2025 the landlord’s surveyor raised an issue with the type of plaster applied directly onto the brickwork stating it may not be sufficient to remedy the damp. It then exposed the affected walls to allow them to dry out using a dehumidifier, completed plaster works and a full redecoration to the bathroom with anti mould paint in July 2025. The work was completed July 2025, and it was arranging decoration vouchers for the resident.

Assessment and findings

  1. Paragraph 53c of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that:
    1. “The Ombudsman may determine the investigation of a complaint immediately if satisfied that the member has made an offer of redress following the Ombudsman’s intervention which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint satisfactorily.”

The Ombudsman’s intervention

  1. We contacted the resident and the landlord as part of our introductory process. The resident updated us on recent events involving additional inconvenience of plaster work having to be done again. We discussed the landlord’s increased offer of compensation of £1850. The resident said that she wanted the landlord to consider an increased compensation amount of £2500 in recognition of the additional inconvenience in plaster works. The landlord accepted the resident’s proposal to increase its compensation offer to £2500 in light of the recent events.
  2. We are therefore satisfied that, following our intervention, that the landlord has agreed to increase its compensation offer to £2500 and provide its learning to us on how it will prevent the issues from happening again.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53c of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the complaint was resolved with our intervention.

Recommendation

  1. The landlord should send an apology letter and make the compensation payment of £2500 to the resident.
  2. The landlord should provide us with its learning from the complaint in relation to how it will proactively manage repairs that involve leaks and damp within a property. The landlord should refer to our Spotlight report on damp – it’s not a lifestyle (October 2021) and our Spotlight on repairs and maintenance – repairing trust (May 2025) for best practice.