London Borough of Waltham Forest (202515515)

Background

1. The resident raised a legal disrepair claim in April 2024 regarding damp and mould in her home. She also raised a formal complaint to the landlord about its handing of damp and mould on 24 June 2025. As part of the legal disrepair claim, the landlord made a formal settlement offer under part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules on 10 July 2025. The landlord then issued the resident with its stage 2 response to her complaint on 16 July 2025. The resident accepted the formal settlement offer. She then escalated her complaint to us. She said she was unhappy with the settlement offer and said damp and mould issues were ongoing.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould.

Our decision (determination)

3. We have not investigated the resident’s complaint because it is outside our jurisdiction.

Reasons

4. We cannot investigate issues which are also subject to legal proceedings or where matters at court are connected so closely to the complaint, they cannot be separated. In this case, we can see legal proceedings were issued at court and the resident accepted the landlord’s part 36 settlement offer in July 2025 in relation to the same repairs, damp and mould which were the subject matter of her complaint. The matters at court relate to the resident’s complaint of the landlord’s handling of reports of damp and mould. This means we have no power to investigate the complaint.