London Borough of Havering Council (202532414)

Background

1. In September 2025, the landlord’s contractor repainted the resident’s balcony and got paint on her jacket, children’s trike and playhouse. The landlord replaced the jacket. However, the playhouse remains damaged, and despite the resident trying to clean the trike as advised by the landlord, it was too badly damaged to use, so she had to dispose of it.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of damage caused by its contractor.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of damage caused by its contractor.

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

Reasons

4. The landlord’s repairs policy says it may pay compensation where damage is caused by someone acting on its behalf.
5. After the resident complained on 2 September 2025, the landlord’s contractor agreed to replace the jacket. This was a positive step, but there were delays in ordering it and the resident had to chase updates. As a result, the resident was without a jacket for over 3 weeks, causing inconvenience due to the rainy weather at the time.
6. The landlord said it had cleaned the playhouse and trike on 3 October 2025. However, there is no evidence of this, and the resident told us that the contractor did not attend as planned.
7. The landlord is ultimately responsible for the actions of its contractors. We therefore find that the available evidence does not show it did enough to put things right for the resident.
8. In line with the landlord’s repairs policy and our compensation guidance, we have ordered the landlord to pay the resident £250 compensation. This level of award is appropriatefor circumstances where a failure had a significant impact. It is proportionate to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident and the cost she will incur to replace the damaged items.
9. The resident also raised concerns about the contractor’s conduct. As these were not included in the stage 1 or stage 2 complaints, the resident should first raise them with the landlord so it can complete its complaints process before further investigation. She may then refer this matter to us if she is dissatisfied with the landlord’s final 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.