London Borough of Hackney (202425099)

Decision
Case ID	202425099
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	London Borough of Hackney
Landlord type	Local Authority
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	24 December 2025

Background

The resident complained outstanding damp, mould, ceiling, and flooring repairs, and raised concerns about her son’s asthma. The landlord acknowledged delays, apologised, offered compensation, and arranged another inspection. The resident later escalated her complaint as work had not started and she felt the compensation offered was inadequate. The landlord acknowledged avoidable delays, noted vulnerability, further apologised, and increased its compensation offer. The resident remained dissatisfied.

What the complaint is about

The complaint is about:
1. The level of compensation the landlord offered for its repair delays.
2. The landlord’s handling of repairs to the residents living room flooring.
3. Complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

We have found:
1. Reasonable redress in the compensation the landlord offered for its repair delays.
2. Service failure in the landlords handling of repairs to the resident’s living room flooring.
3. Reasonable redress in the landlords complaint handling.

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

Summary of reasons

Level of compensation

The landlord acknowledged avoidable delays and subsequent service failures. It offered reasonable compensation and other remedies appropriate to the circumstances of the complaint.

Living room flooring

The landlord did not complete the living room flooring repair or provide any explanation despite acknowledging the issue and raising related works.

Complaint handling

The landlord offered compensation in line with its policy for the delay in providing its stage 1 response.

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	Compensation order In light of the failings found in this report, the landlord must pay the resident £250 for its handling of the resident’s floor repairs. 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 21 January 2026
	Inspection order The landlord must contact the resident to arrange an inspection of the living room floor. It must take all reasonable steps to ensure the inspection is completed by the due date. The inspection must be completed by someone suitably qualified to complete an inspection of the type needed. If the landlord cannot gain access to complete the inspection, it must provide us with documentary evidence of its attempts to inspect the property no later than the due date. What the inspection must achieve The landlord must ensure that the surveyor: Inspects the resident’s living room flooring and produces a written report The survey report must set out: Whether the landlord is responsible to repair or resolve the issue together with reasons where it is not responsible A full scope of works to achieve a lasting and effective resolution to the issue The likely timescales to commence and complete the work	No later than 24 February 2026

Order

What the landlord must do

Due date

Compensation order

In light of the failings found in this report, the landlord must pay the resident £250 for its handling of the resident’s floor repairs.

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

21 January 2026

Inspection order

The landlord must contact the resident to arrange an inspection of the living room floor. It must take all reasonable steps to ensure the inspection is completed by the due date. The inspection must be completed by someone suitably qualified to complete an inspection of the type needed.

If the landlord cannot gain access to complete the inspection, it must provide us with documentary evidence of its attempts to inspect the property no later than the due date.

What the inspection must achieve

The landlord must ensure that the surveyor:

Inspects the resident’s living room flooring and produces a written report

The survey report must set out:

Whether the landlord is responsible to repair or resolve the issue together with reasons where it is not responsible
A full scope of works to achieve a lasting and effective resolution to the issue
The likely timescales to commence and complete the work

No later than

24 February 2026

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
19 March 2024	The resident complained to the landlord that work from an inspection on 20 November 2023 had not started and operatives had missed appointments.
29 May 2024	The landlord responded to the complaint by explaining the work it had raised and listing the remaining repairs for damp and mould, the ceiling, and living room flooring. It committed to carrying out another inspection The landlord apologised and acknowledged the delay. It offered £665 compensation.
8 November 2024	The resident escalated her complaint because the works were still outstanding. She said the compensation was inadequate given the delays and the additional gas and electricity costs she incurred as a result.
13 December 2024	In its final response, the landlord confirmed a surveyor had attended and acknowledged a lack of action on repairs. It committed to a “pre-start” inspection on 16 December 2024 and said it would monitor works through to completion. The landlord accepted its poor handling and apologised. It offered £1,335 compensation, replacing the earlier £665 offer.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident brought her complaint to us. She said the landlord refused to complete flooring works and that new issues have since arisen with the ceiling. She wants the landlord to repair the flooring and increase its compensation, given the delay and her son’s health vulnerabilities.

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	Level of compensation.
Finding	Reasonable redress

What we have not investigated

The resident has informed us of a further complaint about new issues that arose with her ceiling. Before we will consider a complaint, it needs to have exhausted the landlord’s complaints process. Accordingly, the resident should raise her concerns about the ceiling with the landlord as a complaint. If she remains dissatisfied once she has received its final response, she has the option of bringing the matters as a new complaint to the Ombudsman.
As part of her complaint, the resident said she was concerned about the impact of the landlord’s delays on her son’s asthma. The Ombudsman cannot assess the cause of, or liability for, any impact on health and wellbeing. If the resident considers that her son’s health has been affected by the landlord’s actions or inaction, she may be able to make a personal injury claim. This is a legal process, and the resident may wish to seek legal advice if she wants to pursue this option. As this issue is more appropriately addressed through the courts, it will not be considered in this report.
The resident told us that the delays had been ongoing since 2021. However, she did not raise a formal complaint with the landlord until March 2024. Complaints should be raised promptly so landlords can take action to resolve issues, as records may become harder to obtain and memories fade over time. This investigation will therefore focus on the landlord’s handling of the resident’s repairs during the year prior to her complaint in March 2024 and up to its final response in December 2024.

What we have investigated

In her complaint in March 2024, the resident said repairs had been outstanding for over a year. She stated that contractors failed to attend scheduled appointments. An inspection took place in November 2023, which identified work required and despite the resident chasing the landlord and its contractor, the work remained outstanding. The contractor arranged to start work on 26 February 2024, but no one attended. The resident had paid for a service to move furniture in preparation for the works.
In its stage 1 complaint response, the landlord acknowledged repairs for damp and mould, a cracked ceiling in the kitchen, and broken flooring in the living room were outstanding. It recognised that its contractor failed to attend or notify the resident of a cancellation. It apologised for the delay since the inspection in 2023 and advised that it no longer used the contractor responsible for the delays. It committed to carry out another inspection to identify the current repairs. The landlord apologised and offered £600 for the delay in completing the works and £25 for the missed appointment.
Records show the inspection took place on 8 June 2024. However, the resident was not provided with information on when the identified works would start. She escalated her complaint as no date was given for damp and mould works and said the compensation offered was inadequate.
In its final response, the landlord confirmed the works identified at inspection. It acknowledged a lack of action on repairs raised in January 2024. Although some works were completed, most remained outstanding. It said most delays between February and December 2024 were avoidable. It committed to operatives attending on 16 December 2024. The landlord apologised and changed its compensation to £1295 which included £300 in recognition of the added impact from the household’s vulnerabilities and £370 for avoidable delay.
The work was subsequently completed in February 2025.
The landlord’s compensation policy states that residents should receive a minimum of £1,000 for severe, long-term impact where there were serious failures and repeated service failures that had a detrimental impact on the resident over a significant period. In this case, it offered £1295. That was in line with its compensation policy for failings of the scale and nature the resident experienced and clearly showed the landlord’s awareness of the additional impact on the resident due to her family health concerns. It was also in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for similar reasons.
The resident told the landlord she had incurred increased energy usage and charges due to the delayed repairs. She provided recent statements as evidence. In response the landlord asked her to provide evidence of her bills prior to the repairs to show the impact. The resident subsequently told the landlord she was unable to do so. Nonetheless, the landlord’s request was not unreasonable given that it was only with that information that it could robustly consider whether any increased costs were due to greater usage or general price fluctuations.
Overall, the landlord’s response was reasonable (with the one exception of a living room floor repair, which is addressed below). It acknowledged its failings and apologised, explained how it would put things right, and offered a proportionate level of compensation. Taken together, the landlord’s remedies and compensation were suitable to resolve the complaint.

Complaint	Handling of living room flooring.
Finding	Service failure

The resident told us that while most of the repairs in her complaint have been completed, the flooring repair in her living room remains outstanding.
In its stage 1 response on 29 May 2024, the landlord acknowledged that the resident had reported a repair to the living room flooring in October 2023. It said it would carry out another inspection due to the time that had passed since the initial inspection. It also confirmed that during a call with the resident on 24 May 2024 she said the flooring was still an issue.
Records show the inspection took place on 8 June 2024. A scope of works dated 19 July 2024 included replacing the vinyl flooring in the living room. The resident later emailed the landlord on 13 August to confirm that the inspection had taken place to assess the broken flooring but said that work had not started. There is no record of the landlord responding to this email.
The landlord raised further work in late August 2024, but this did not include the flooring. The resident told us that the landlord later changed its position regarding repairing the flooring, saying it would no longer carry out the works. There is no record of this change, and there is no evidence that the flooring was repaired or that the landlord explained why it could not complete the work.
In her escalated complaint the resident said that work from the recent inspections had not been followed up on.
In its final response the landlord did not comment on the living room flooring or respond to the resident’s concerns about it. That was unreasonable because it was one of the outstanding repair issues noted in its stage 1 complaint response. It is not clear from the evidence why the issue was not part of the repair work the landlord arranged in the second half of 2024. Nonetheless, it was clearly part of the resident’s escalated complaint and the landlord failed to respond to it. She has said the issue remains outstanding and nothing in the evidence suggests otherwise.

Complaint	Complaint handling.
Finding	Reasonable redress

The landlord operates a formal two-stage complaints process. Its policy states that it will respond to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days and stage 2 complaints within 20 working days. If an extension to the stage 2 timescale is required, the landlord must inform the resident and explain the reasons. This policy aligns with our Complaint Handling Code.
In this case, the landlord acknowledged the stage 1 complaint on 27 March 2024. It informed the resident on 10 April 2024 that it required an extension and would respond by 24 April 2024. On 24 April 2024, it requested a further extension and said it would respond by 8 May 2024. The reason given for the extensions was a delay in receiving the information needed to respond. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 29 May 2024, which was 22 working days after the promised extended deadline. It acknowledged the delay, apologised, and offered £40 compensation.
The landlord acknowledged the resident’s escalated complaint on 15 November 2024 and confirmed it would respond by 13 December 2024. It issued its stage 2 response on 13 December 2024 and within its policy timescale. In this response, it revised its compensation from £40 to £60 for the delay at stage 1.
The landlord did not meet its policy timescale at stage 1. However, it acknowledged the delay and offered compensation in line with its policy. It met its timescale for the stage 2 response.

Learning

In regards to the living room floor, the landlord could potentially take lessons from the Housing Ombudsman’s Spotlight report on repairs and maintenance – Repairing Trust. The report highlights that delays and poor follow-up are among the most common causes of complaints. It explains that without clear systems and effective communication, repairs can be missed or cancelled without explanation.