Karbon Homes Limited (202436994)

Decision
Case ID	202436994
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Karbon Homes Limited
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	15 December 2025

Background

1. The resident lives in a house. She reported an infestation of flies coming from under the skirting boards at the front of the property. The landlord cleaned and repaired the impacted area. The resident also said her housing officer had not supported her in managing her rent account. The landlord responded with the support it had offered.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to:
   1. A smell, an infestation of flies, and the associated repairs at the property.
   2. The resident’s request for support with her rent account.
   3. The resident’s associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. The landlord made an offer of redress which, in our opinion, resolved the errors in its response to a smell, an infestation of flies, and the associated repairs at the property.
4. There was no maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s request for support with her rent account.
5. There was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

A smell, an infestation of flies, and the associated repairs at the property.

6. There were delays in the landlord’s handling of this repair. It appropriately apologised for this and accepted its communication could have been better. The landlord’s offer of compensation appropriately reflected the impact the delays and poor communication had upon the resident.

 

The resident’s request for support with her rent account.

7. The landlord advised the resident about the different types of support her housing officer had provided between December 2022 and January 2024. Overall, the information and support given to the resident, and the landlord’s explanation in its final response was reasonable in the circumstances.  

Complaint handling

8. There was a delay in the landlord sending its written stage 1 complaint response. It failed to address this, and the landlord has not provided an appropriate remedy to recognise the impact this caused the resident.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

Order	What the landlord must do	Due date
1	Apology order The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure: The apology is specific to the failures identified in this decision, meaningful and empathetic. It has due regard to our apologies guidance.	No later than 19 January 2026
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £100 to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by its delay in its complaint handling. This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date.	No later than 19 January 2026

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
4 October 2023	The resident complained about being unable to live in her property for 3 weeks. She said this was because of a dead animal which had resulted in an infestation of maggots and flies coming from under the skirting boards. She explained the landlord’s pest contractor had been unable to access impacted area due to suspected asbestos. She was still waiting for the report from the asbestos survey and wanted compensation for the delay and distress the situation had caused her.
8 December 2023	The landlord sent the resident its stage 1 complaint response. The landlord apologised for the time it had taken to resolve the issue of the flies. The landlord also: Explained its pest contractor never located a dead animal inside or outside of the resident’s property, but the smell had dispersed. Sent the resident a copy of the asbestos report for the property. Said it had removed the bag of clothing from outside her property.
8 March 2024	The resident escalated the complaint. She was unhappy with: The landlord’s stage 1 complaint response which had left her frustrated in its handling of her complaint. A lack of support from her housing officer, including when she said she had been struggling with managing her rent account which was in arrears.
4 April 2024	The landlord sent the resident its stage 2 complaint response. The landlord said: Its pest contractor confirmed there was no smell or flies in the property during its final inspection on 19 September 2023.     The resident’s housing officer had sent her energy vouchers. They had also referred her to the discretionary housing fund, housing support, an employment adviser, and a food bank between 6 December 2022 and 30 January 2024. It disputed the resident was not within her property for 3 months.   The landlord awarded the resident £542.30 compensation which it put against her rent account and reduced her arrears by 23.5 percent. It said this compensation returned the resident’s arrears on her rent account to the amount they were before she reported this incident. This compensation was broken down as: £302.28 for 3 weeks rent £86.13 for 3 weeks heating costs £153.89 for inconvenience.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident asked us to investigate. She wanted to be assigned a new housing officer, and for the landlord to review its offer of compensation.

What we found and why

The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that’s happened or comment on all the information we’ve reviewed. We’ve only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

Complaint	A smell, an infestation of flies, and the associated repairs at the property
Finding	Reasonable redress

9. On 4 September 2023 the resident said there was an infestation of flies and larvae coming from under the skirting boards. She suspected it was caused by a dead animal and temporarily moved out of the property the same day.

 

10. The landlord’s repairs policy says it will respond to emergency repairs within 24 hours. It is positive the landlord’s pest contractor visited the property the same day, in line with this published timescale. The contractor had been unable to access where they suspected the flies were coming from due to concerns the wall contained asbestos. 
11. The landlord carried out a limited scope asbestos survey 7 working days later. This scoping survey confirmed the wall was at medium risk of asbestos. It recommended a full asbestos survey would be needed before any remedial works could be completed.
12. We understand this further delay impacted the resident. However, it was important the landlord carried out these works safely to protect its staff and the resident, in line with the advice given by its professionals.
13. On 19 September 2023 the resident chased the landlord to resolve the fly infestation at the property. The landlord raised another emergency repair. It was positive the landlord’s contractor attended the same day and:
    1. Hoovered and removed the existing fly larvae.
    2. Sealed the cracks and crevices in the skirting boards to prevent a further infestation.
    3. Advised the landlord there was no longer a smell or evidence of a fly infestation.
14. The landlord’s repairs policy says it aims to complete standard (non-emergency) repairs within 20 working days. The landlord completed a full asbestos survey at the property on 25 October 2023. It then carried out the works to replace the asbestos insulation board 5 months later in February 2024. These works were carried out via an external cupboard door at the front of the property. The contractor found no evidence of a dead animal under the skirting boards. It is not known what caused the fly infestation in September 2023.
15. We accept the circumstances involving this repair may have meant it had to take longer than the landlord’s published timescale for a standard repair as specialist operatives are required to remove asbestos. However, this was a significant delay during which the landlord failed to communicate updates to the resident. Whilst this caused the resident frustration, we accept the impact to the resident was reduced because the smell and the infestation of flies had been resolved 11 working days after she first reported the issue.

 

 

16. In the landlord’s final response to the resident’s complaint, it was reasonable that it agreed to provide the resident with compensation of 100 percent of her weekly rent and heating bills. For the 3 weeks it is accepted she was not at the property due to the infestation and smell. In addition the landlord awarded the resident £153.89 compensation for distress and inconvenience caused by its delays and poor communication. The landlord offset this compensation against the resident’s rent account which was in arrears. This was reasonable as it was in line with its compensation policy which says any compensation payments awarded will be offset against any rent account that is in arrears.
17. Our remedies guidance (published on our website) sets out our approach to compensation. It says an order between £100 and £600 in compensation may be appropriate where there was a failure by the landlord which had an adverse impact on the resident, but there may be no permanent impact.
18. The landlord’s overall offer of an apology, compensation including £153.89 for distress and inconvenience, and the works it completed was appropriate to put right the adverse impact upon the resident from its errors in this case, in line with our remedies guidance.

Complaint	The resident’s request for support with her rent account
Finding	No maladministration

19. When the resident escalated her complaint, she asked the landlord to assign her a new housing officer. She said this was because they had not assisted her with her rent account, which was in arrears.
20. The landlord acted appropriately in its final response to the resident’s complaint (April 2024) by listing the financial, employment, and welfare support its housing officer had provided the resident between December 2022 and January 2024. The landlord’s overall communication and responses to the resident were fair and reasonable in the circumstances. The landlord was not expected to provide additional support with the rent account in this situation. This is the reason we find no maladministration for this aspect of the resident’s complaint.
21. The resident asked the landlord to change her housing officer as part of the resolution to this complaint. The landlord was not required to do this, and we would not order it to, as it is outside our role to interfere in personnel issues.
22. The landlord would also need to consider the availability of its staff, and we do not have access to this information so we do not know if it would be reasonably possible for the landlord to change the resident’s housing officer in the circumstances.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Service failure

23. The landlord has a 2 stage complaints process. The landlord’s stage 1 complaint response was sent 47 working days after the resident raised her complaint. The landlord should have provided this within 10 working days, to be in line with the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code), which sets out our expectations for landlords’ complaint handling.
24. The landlord provided its stage 2 written complaint response within 20 working days which was in line with the timescales set out in the Code.
25. The delay in the landlord sending the resident its stage 1 complaint response would have inconvenienced the resident as she was waiting longer than she should have been for a response to her concerns. The landlord failed to acknowledge this delay in its complaint responses.
26. As such, the landlord did not act in line with the Dispute Resolution Principles to put things right and learn from mistakes. Therefore, there was finding service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.
27. Our remedies guidance suggests awards of between £50 and £100 for such situations, where there has been a failure in the service provided by the landlord, which did not significantly affect the outcome of the complaint, but it has not appropriately acknowledged this or put things right. In line with this guidance, we have ordered the landlord to pay the resident £100 compensation for distress and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling delay.

 

 

 

 

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping) and communication

28. Our spotlight report on repairs and maintenance explains that failures can be avoided when landlords:
    1. Tell residents what to expect regarding repairs and provide a clear schedule for repair visits.
    2. Gather feedback from residents and conduct inspections to ensure the work is satisfactory.
29. In this case, the records do not show if the landlord regularly updated the resident on the information provided by its pest contractor and on the status of the repair. Frustration and dissatisfaction may have been avoided if the landlord had followed our spotlight report recommendations.