Islington Council (202226162)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202226162

Islington Council

19 March 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

  1. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
    1. Reports of damp and mould in the property.
    2. The associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is a leaseholder.
  2. The property is a three-bedroom flat on the third floor of the block. A child who was born in January 2022 lives in the property.
  3. The resident contacted the landlord to report damp and mould in the property on 1 December 2020. On the same day, the landlord raised a work order for a surveyor to attend the property to carry out a damp assessment. This was organised for 21 January 2021.
  4. The resident raised a complaint with the landlord on 8 December 2020. She told the landlord she had been attempting to resolve damp and mould in her property since 2016. She said she believed this was caused by penetrating damp. She said she had spent thousands repairing the damage the damp had caused and that this had affected her health.
  5. The landlord provided its initial stage 1 complaint response on 13 January 2021. It partially upheld her complaint, apologising for the delay. It also said it would write again once the survey had taken place. The damp and mould survey took place on 21 January 2021. The resident e-mailed the landlord following this up on 10 April 2021, chasing the report and an action plan. She said the survey had identified structural causes of damp, but she had heard nothing further from the landlord.
  6. The landlord provided a follow up stage 1 complaint response on 26 May 2021. It upheld her complaint providing compensation of £100 for distress and inconvenience, £100 for the delay in providing updates and £83.82 for failing to progress the repairs since December 2020. It also confirmed that it had issued the necessary work orders and that it would be in touch to agree appointments. The landlord provided another stage 1 complaint response on 27 July 2021. It apologised for the continued delays and advised it expected the works to be completed by August 2021. It upped the compensation offered to £417 with £150 for the distress and inconvenience, £100 for the delay in progressing the matter and £167 for the delay in completing the works.
  7. The landlord’s records indicate that the external works were completed on 29 July 2021, with works to the windows taking place on 17 August 2021. The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 on 27 October 2021. Following this, the landlord performed a new survey on the property on 26 November 2021. The landlord completed works recommended by this survey on 24 March 2022 after originally completing these on the wrong floor.
  8. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 19 August 2022. It upheld the resident’s complaint, providing a total of £767 compensation. This figure represented the £417 offered at stage 2 plus an additional £350, consisting of a further £100 for its delay in progressing matters after the January 2021 inspection, £100 for its delays in providing its stage 2 complaint response and an additional £150 for the distress and inconvenience.
  9. The resident contacted the Ombudsman on 26 January 2023 and confirmed she wished for us to consider her complaint. She said she considered the stage 2 complaint response to be inadequate. She said she had been trying to resolve the matter for 6 years and that the landlord had failed with its responsibilities as a freeholder. She was unhappy with the delays in completing the necessary works. She added she would like significant compensation towards the £5,000 she had been forced to spend redecorating due to the recurrence of damp and mould.

Assessment and findings

The scope of this investigation

  1. The resident has said that the damp and mould has had a negative effect on the health of the inhabitants of the property. It is beyond the remit of the Ombudsman to decide on whether there was a direct link between the landlord’s actions and any ill-health. The resident may wish to seek independent advice on making a personal injury claim if she considers that health has been affected by any action or failure by the landlord. While the Ombudsman cannot consider the effect on health, consideration has been given to any general distress and inconvenience which the resident experienced as a result of any service failure by the landlord.
  2. The Ombudsman expects that a resident makes a complaint about any issues within a reasonable period of time, usually 12 months of an event occurring. The resident has advised the Ombudsman that the issues with damp and mould have gone as far back as 2016. The evidence suggests that whilst the resident may have been in touch with the major works team regarding this in the 12 months prior, the repairs team was first made aware of the need for potential responsive repairs on 1 December 2020. This investigation has not therefore considered any historic reports of damp and mould, however these have been noted for context.

The landlord’s handling of reports of damp and mould

  1. The resident’s lease states that it is the landlord’s responsibility to ‘keep in good repair order and condition…the structure of the building and in particular the exterior or interior walls for which the tenant is not liable’. It goes on to further describe the landlord’s obligations as including ‘the roofs foundations timbers joist beams chimney stacks gutters and rainwater and soil pipes thereof and the frames of the window’.
  2. The landlord’s repair policy states that it will complete routine repairs within 20 working days. For planned repairs (‘high value jobs which are often complicated to complete’), it says these will be completed within 60 working days.
  3. Throughout the course of the complaint, the landlord performed 2 surveys. For the first survey, it took the landlord 34 days to complete this from the point of the December 2020 report. Given the fact the resident had informed the landlord of damp and mould and potential water ingress into the property, this was an excessive amount of time for the landlord to diagnose the problem. For the second survey, it was informed of the issue on 8 November 2021, and performed the survey on 26 November 2021. The second survey took place within the timescales of the repairs policy.
  4. When performing the recommended works from both surveys, there were significant delays that were likely to have caused the resident additional distress and inconvenience. These were especially significant considering the resident being pregnant and later having a newborn in the property. The first set of works took over 9 months to complete from the date the resident first reported them, and it took the landlord 4 months from the survey being completed to raise work orders. This was significantly outside the landlord’s repair timescales and represented a failure in service.
  5. The first set of repairs the landlord undertook failed to properly rectify the potential water ingress. The second set of repairs took over 4 months from first being reported to complete. This, again, represented poor practice from the landlord. Whilst the landlord’s repair records do not describe exactly what has caused the delay, the resident reported in both instances that works were completed on the incorrect floor of the property. This represented a failure from the landlord to manage its contractors appropriately and to provide them with the correct information. The landlord should consider reviewing the information it provides to contractors when completing works to minimise the possibility of future errors of this nature.
  6. Overall, it took the landlord 16 months from the first report of damp and mould to rectify the cause of the water ingress and perform all of the works its two surveys recommended. The length of time the landlord has taken to perform these represents maladministration. The landlord also failed to communicate with the resident throughout the works, not offering regular or meaningful updates. This led to the resident spending additional time having to chase the landlord.
  7. The resident has said that throughout her time living in the property she has been forced to spend £5,000 completing redecorations due to the damp and mould. Under the lease, decorations are the resident’s responsibility. The landlord therefore would not be expected to pay towards these costs. The resident would generally be expected to attempt to recuperate these costs through her insurance. She could also potentially claim on the landlord’s insurance. The landlord should write to the resident to outline the steps she needs to take to make such a claim.
  8. Both surveys mentioned issues with condensation in the property being a contributing factor to the damp and mould. Such issues would fall under the resident’s responsibilities to repair and rectify, and the landlord was entitled to rely upon the expert opinion of the surveyors when assessing responsibilities for repairs.
  9. Throughout the complaints process, the landlord offered the resident £567 in relation to its failure to handle the situation in a timely manner, and the distress and inconvenience this caused. Having considered the levels of service failure, the Ombudsman is not of the view that this appropriately compensates the resident for the significant delays in performing the repairs and the level of distress and inconvenience these delays caused the resident.
  10. Overall, the landlord’s failure to perform works, to address what the resident reported to be a long-standing damp issue, within a reasonable timeframe represented maladministration. It took 16 months to rectify the issue and acknowledged that it contributed to delays and there were periods where the works were passed between its major works and repairs departments. It failed to perform the repairs in the timescales specified in its repairs policy, despite the potential vulnerability of the residents at the property. For its failings throughout this complaint, the landlord should pay the resident £1,000 compensation, inclusive of its previous offers of compensation. This figure is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance.
  11. The landlord should contact the resident to confirm if the damp and mould is still ongoing. If this is the case the landlord should then arrange to perform a survey and re-inspect any external works to check these have been successful. The landlord should arrange to do so within the timescales set out in its repairs policy.
  12. The Ombudsman conducted a special report into the landlord under paragraph 49 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme and this was published in October 2023. This made recommendations for improvement as to how the landlord handles reports of damp and mould and these are currently being monitored by us so service improvement orders will not be made in this case.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

  1. The landlord’s complaints policy has 2 stages. At stage 1, the landlord says it will take 5 days to log and acknowledge the resident’s complaint. It then aims to provide its response within 10 working days of the acknowledgement. At stage 2 of the complaints process, the landlord aims to provide a response within 20 working days of receiving the complaint.
  2. The landlord failed to provide its stage 1 complaint response within the timescales set out in its policies. It took 24 working days to provide its original stage 1 complaint on 13 January 2021. This response was provided prior to the survey being completed with the landlord promising to write again following this. The landlord’s response does not appear to have provided the resident with information about how to escalate her complaint to stage 2 of the complaints process. This represented service failure from the landlord – its actions were unfair to the resident and likely meant that the complaints process was more protracted than it should have been.
  3. Following the landlord’s follow-up complaint responses, the resident requested an escalation of her complaint to stage 2 of the complaints process on 27 October 2021. Neither party has provided evidence of this escalation request. The landlord did not provide its stage 2 complaint response until 19 August 2022. This was almost 10 months later. This again represented service failure from the landlord.
  4. For its failings in handling the resident’s complaint, the landlord provided the resident with £100 for its stage 1 delay, and £100 for its stage 2 complaint response. Given the length of the delays at stage 2, and its failures to properly signpost the complaints process at stage 1, the Ombudsman is of the view that the compensation offered by the landlord was insufficient. The landlord should provide the resident with £400 for its failings, inclusive of its previous offer of £200.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of reports of damp and mould at the property.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Orders

  1. It is ordered that, within four weeks of the date of this letter, the landlord:
    1. Pay the resident £1,400 consisting of £1,000 for its failures in handling the reports of damp and mould, and £400 for failing to handle the resident’s complaint in a fair and timely manner.
    2. Provide the resident with information on how she may be able to submit a claim to its insurer in relation to her damaged belongings.
    3. Contact the resident to confirm if the damp and mould is still ongoing. If this is the case the landlord should then arrange to perform a survey and re-inspect any external works to check these have been successful. The landlord should arrange to do so within the timescales set out in its repairs policy.
    4. Apologise to the resident in writing.
    5. Provide evidence to this Service that it has complied with these orders.