London Borough of Croydon (202314582)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202314582

London Borough of Croydon

30 September 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 landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
    1. Reports of antisocial behaviour (ASB) by a neighbour.
    2. Associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of a 1-bedroom property where he lives with his wife. The landlord, a local authority, owns the property. The landlord is aware of the resident’s health concerns.
  2. The resident asked for our assistance in making a complaint to the landlord on 10 October 2023. He stated he was unhappy with its handling of his reports of ASB and the impact this was having on his health. He was also unhappy about its handling of his complaint.
  3. The landlord sent its stage 1 complaint response to the resident on 31 October 2023. It said it met with him in March 2023 where he raised issues regarding his neighbour smoking in the garden, causing noise nuisance and keeping his awning open. It advised him about its expectations of the neighbour. It told him it had received counter allegations about noise nuisance and spraying substances into the neighbour’s garden. He received a letter about his conduct.
  4. The resident asked the landlord to escalate his complaint on 22 December 2023. He said the situation had not changed and it failed to provide a response since November 2023.
  5. The landlord sent its stage 2 complaint response to the resident on 14 February 2024. It apologised for the delay. It acknowledged the stage 1 response did not include how his case would be progressed. It accepted there had been failings in progressing the issues reported since March 2023 and apologised for the impact. It set out an action plan on how it would progress the case and offered him compensation of £600 which comprised:
    1. £400 for the delay in progressing the case from November 2020 to November 2022.
    2. £100 for failure to effectively progress some of the ASB issues since March 2023 and to keep the resident informed.
    3. £100 for the impact on the resident and his wife.
  6. The resident was unhappy with the landlord’s response and brought his complaint to us. He told us the ASB is ongoing, and the landlord failed to act.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident said the situation has caused him stress which affected his physical and mental health. The courts are the most effective place for disputes about personal injury and illness. This is largely because independent medical experts are appointed to give evidence. They have a duty to the court to provide unbiased insights into the diagnosis, prognosis, and cause of any illness or injury. When disputes arise over the cause of an injury, oral testimony can be examined in court. Therefore, this element of his complaint is better dealt with via the court. However, we can consider any likely distress and inconvenience as a result of any failings by the landlord.
  2. The resident told us he raised a new issue with the landlord about parking. He also raised concerns of staff members dealing with his reports of ASB. These did not form part of his complaint in October 2023. Therefore, we have not considered these issues as part of this investigation. The resident may wish to raise a new complaint to the landlord about these matters. If he remains dissatisfied, he can refer it to us.

Reports of ASB

  1. We do not have any evidence of the resident’s reports of ASB prior to his contacting this Service in 2023. However, the resident asserts he has been reporting ASB by his neighbour to it for several years. The landlord did acknowledge it had no records for this period but offered some explanation for events at that time. It is, therefore, not disputed that there were delays in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of ASB. When there are failings by a landlord, as is the case here, we will consider whether the redress offered by the landlord (apology, compensation and how the case will progress) put things right and resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances.
  2. Cases where there is a history of ASB over an extended period, such as this, and where there are counter allegations made are often the most challenging for a landlord to manage. In practice, the options available to a landlord to resolve a case do not extend to the resident’s preferred outcome and it therefore becomes difficult to manage a resident’s expectations. In such instances, closely following the ASB policy ensures that the landlord can progress the case to a resolution, even if that resolution is not the outcome requested by the resident.
  3. The meeting between the resident and landlord to discuss his reports of ASBin March 2023 was a positive step takenby it to understand the resident’s concerns. During the meeting it advised that some of the noise he was reporting was general domestic noise. He told it he wanted the neighbour to stop smoking under his window in the garden and to close the awning. The landlord said it could not tell someone where to smoke but confirmed the neighbour had to close his awning by 10pm. It also discussed counter allegations made against the resident regarding banging on the walls, thus causing a disturbance to his neighbour. He admitted this as well as spraying a substance in the garden but said was not in the neighbour’s direction.
  4. Between March 2023 and June 2023, the resident made approximately 25 reports of ASB. He complained the neighbour was regularly absent from his home and allowed other people to stay who were causing noise nuisance. He added the neighbour’s awning when left open in the wind caused a noise nuisance keeping him awake. This impacted on his physical and mental health.
  5. In response to the 25 reports of ASB we can see the landlord sent 4 emails to the resident acknowledging his reports. It thanked the resident but did not provide any further information as to what the next steps would be. The landlord’s ASB Policy states that reports of ASB will be responded to in 3 working days. We accept that it may not be possible to respond to every report but we would expect it to have communicated with the resident on a regular basis so he understood how his case would progress. This is also set out in its ASB policy. If it had communicated with the resident this would have helped manage his expectations as to what actions it may take.
  6. In the landlord’s stage 1 response dated 31 October 2023 it advised the resident that mediation had not taken place in 2020 due to Covid. It repeated to him that the neighbour could smoke in their garden. It had asked the neighbour to close the awning and be mindful of noise nuisance in the garden after 10pm. It had written him because of the counter allegations of noise nuisance by the neighbour. The letter asked him to keep away from his neighbour and his visitors, not to spray bug spray, and to stop banging on the partition walls. It confirmed it was working with the Fraud Team regarding the allegations of subletting.
  7. While the landlord confirmed some actions it was taking, we have seen no evidence it considered how the case should progress based on the evidence it had received. It did not acknowledge their poor record keeping from 2020 to 2022 or apologise for this. It failed to consider that it could have offered mediation between the parties or an Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) to try to resolve the issues. It also failed to consider the resident’s vulnerabilities and carry out a risk assessment in line with the national guidelines and its ASB policy. This would have provided a picture of the potential impact and along with an action plan could have outlined a clear pathway to address the ASB.
  8. Between November 2023 and February 2024, the resident reported approximately 18 incidents of ASB. He reported the neighbour was breaking the agreement from the meeting in March 2023 by leaving the awning open causing noise nuisance. He also reported noise nuisance at night from the neighbour’s property keeping them up. He also continued to report his neighbour was smoking in the garden, having loud conversations, and playing the radio loudly. These prevented them from opening their windows. He continued to report the neighbour was absent from the property and they did not feel safe as the visitors were threatening.
  9. The landlord sent 3 acknowledgement emails to the resident during this period. None of these emails updated the resident about what it was doing in response to his reports of ASB. It has not provided any evidence of giving any advice to the resident such as reporting threats to the police at the time, or that it contacted his neighbour about the complaints. It did address the allegations of subletting by confirming it was working with the Fraud Team. The landlord failed to follow its ASB policy which sets out its aim to contact complainants regularly to update them on progress with cases.
  10. The landlord’s stage 2 complaint response of 14 February 2024 acknowledged there had been failings in its handling of the resident’s reports of ASB. It apologised for its lack of record keeping during 2020 to 2022. It also apologised for failing to have a translator present at the meeting in March 2023 and a friend of his translated instead. It accepted the stage 1 response was inadequate as no information had been given as to how the case would progress. It stated he should have been given information on his option to use the Community Trigger to have the case reviewed independently. It admitted it had failed to respond appropriately to reports of ASB received during 2023 as those responses did not inform the resident of case updates or action that was being taken.
  11. The landlord repeated its stage 1 response regarding the counter allegations and the steps previously taken to address the ASB. It set out an action plan stating the new Tenancy Officer would contact the resident by 15 February 2024 to arrange to meet him with a translator, to go through the response, actions and next steps.
  12. The landlord apologised for the level of service the resident had received and awarded compensation of £600. This comprised £400 for delay in progressing the matter from November 2020 to November 2022, £100 for failure to effectively progress some of the ASB issues raised from March 2023 and £100 for the impact this had on the resident and his wife. It was appropriate that it apologised for its failings and recognised it should have kept better records. We find that its compensation offer was reasonable and within the range of awards set out in our remedies guidance.
  13. In summary, the landlord acknowledged its failings in handling of the resident’s reports of ASB, apologised for these and set out how the case would move forward. Its compensation offer was proportionate to the failings. It also demonstrated it had learnt from the complaint and training had been given to its staff on ASB cases.
  14. Following the landlord’s final response, the evidence shows the Tenancy Officer contacted the resident and met with him to discuss the response letter and action plan. He continued to report ASB throughout 2024, as did the neighbour. It provided evidence that it has worked with the Police and other agencies to try to resolve the issues between the parties. Despite this, the resident has told us the ASB continues. We have made a recommendation for the landlord to review any further complaints received by the resident and to ensure it follows its ASB Policy.

Associated complaint

  1. The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) specifies that a stage 1 complaint should be finalised in 10 working days from the acknowledgement of the complaint, with no more than a further extension of 10 days. A stage 2 complaint should be finalised within 20 working days from the acknowledgement of the complaint, with a further extension of 20 days if required. A landlord should not exceed these timescales without good reason.
  2. The Code defines a complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents. A resident does not have to use the word ‘complaint’ for it to be treated as such.
  3. The resident’s complaint to the landlord with our intervention was on 10 October 2023. It provided a stage 1 response on 31 October 2023, although no acknowledgment was sent, the response was within the timescale given to the landlord by this Service at the time.
  4. On 5 November 2023, the resident contacted us and the landlord stating that the ASB was continuing. The landlord should have considered escalating his complaint to stage 2 at this point as it was clear the resident was unhappy with the stage 1 response. We contacted the landlord on his behalf on 22 December 2023 requesting it raises a stage 2 complaint and issue a response by 31 January 2024. It failed to comply with our request.
  5. We wrote to the landlord again on 1 February 2024 instructing it to provide the resident with a stage 2 response. On 2 February 2024 it emailed the resident to explain there was a delay in issuing the stage 2 response. It apologised for the delay but gave no indication of when the response would be sent.
  6. On 13 February 2024 we wrote to the landlord advising that unless it provided a stage 2 response by 20 February 2024 we will issue a Complaint Handling Failure Order. The landlord complied with our second request and provided its stage 2 response on 14 February 2024, 11 working days after the response was due. It apologised for the delay in the response. However, it failed to recognise the resident had expressed his dissatisfaction with its service within the reports of ASB received from March 2023. It failed to consider whether it should have raised a complaint at an earlier stage. It also failed to escalate to stage 2 of its complaints process until we requested this.
  7. Although the landlord apologised for the delay, it failed to offer any redress. We therefore find service failure in the handling of the resident’s complaint and have awarded compensation of £50. This is in line with our remedies guidance. There were shortcomings in the handling of the resident’s complaint, but this did not affect the overall outcome.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of ASB by his neighbour.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report the landlord is ordered to take the following action and must provide evidence of its compliance to this Service:
    1. Pay the resident, and not offset against any arrears, the sum of £50 for distress and inconvenience for its complaint handling failures.

Recommendations

  1. Our finding of reasonable redress is made on the basis the landlord pays the resident the sum of £600 compensation as set out in its stage 2 response of 14 February 2024, if not already done so.
  2. We recommend that the landlord ensures any further reports of ASB are dealt with in accordance with its ASB policy.