Orbit Housing Association Limited (202413205)

Decision
Case ID	202413205
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Orbit Housing Association Limited
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Secure Tenancy
Date	16 October 2025

Background

The resident lives in supported housing. She has complained about how the landlord handled her reports of ongoing anti-social behaviour (ASB). This includes reports of racist behaviour towards her and what she believes to be unfounded noise disturbance allegations against her. The resident asked us to investigate as she was not satisfied with the landlord’s response.

What the complaint is about

The landlord’s handling of ASB reports concerning the resident.
We have also investigated the associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

There was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of ASB.
There was severe maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

Handling of ASB

In summary, the landlord:
1. did not record the hate incident in March 2023 in line with its ASB policy.
2. did not take steps to recognise the ongoing impact on the resident.
3. did not follow its ASB policy and complete a risk assessment following the incident in March 2023.
4. failed to adequately communicate with the resident in 2023 and 2024.

Complaint handling

The landlord did not respond to the complaint in line with the Code and failed to respond to the resident’s complaint prior to intervention from this Service.

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 provided by the CEO of the landlord. 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 13 November 2025
2	ASB review order Review its case management system and ensure the resident’s reports are recorded as hate incidents in line with its Hate Incidents Policy. A written copy of this review should be sent to this Service by the due date.	No later than 13 November 2025
3	Learning order The landlord must review its complaint handling process to understand why the resident’s 2023 complaint was not acknowledged and why there was a delay in escalating the resident’s stage 2 complaint. The landlord should consider how it can prevent similar failures in future. A written copy of this review should be sent to this Service by the due date.	No later than 13 November 2025
4	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £1,100 made up as follows: £800 for any distress and inconvenience caused by its failures in the handling of the ASB reports. £300 for any time, trouble or distress and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling failures. This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date. The landlord may deduct from the total figure any payments it has already paid as offered in its complaint responses.	No later than 13 November 2025

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
25 March 2023	Neighbour 1 allegedly made a racist comment about the resident to a member of the landlord’s staff. The staff member reported this to the resident and the landlord says this was logged in internal emails.
18 September 2023	A law centre raised a complaint on the resident’s behalf. It said the resident has been subject to racism, abuse and malicious complaints fuelled by prejudice. The resident complained the landlord was not recording ASB reports and allegations and the resident was being treated less favourably than her other neighbours. The resident requested a community protection warning for her neighbour and a managed move.
April 2024	The resident raised ASB concerns with the landlord. It offered mediation between her and neighbour 2.
September 2024	The resident stated she was unhappy with the landlord’s handling of neighbour 1’s racist comment. The resident reported being verbally abused following a dispute about noise with neighbour 2.
24 January 2025	The landlord logged the resident’s complaint from September 2023.
31 January 2025	The landlord provided a stage 1 response. It said it: – recognised concerns raised to the previous scheme manager were not raised internally. It apologised for this. – would contact her next week to discuss assessing and investigating the allegation of racial abuse. – would discuss options for a managed move with the resident. – awarded £50 compensation for delays in complaints handling.
5 March 2025	The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2.
10 March 2025	The landlord sent a follow up letter summarising a visit on 6 February 2025 and its service investigation. This said the resident believed 2 neighbours behaviour to be motivated by racial prejudice. The landlord said it had investigated and found the following: A previous member of staff had told the resident neighbour 1 had used unacceptable language about her in 2023. The landlord had sent neighbour 1 a warning letter. It would not take further action as no new incidents had been reported. The resident could report any racial comments to the police. The landlord did not believe neighbour 2’s behaviour was motivated by racial prejudice. The landlord understood the resident had been very affected by a letter from Environmental Health and reassured her no noise nuisance had been proven. It suggested mediation between the resident and neighbour 2 to resolve the issues.
7 May 2025	The resident said the landlord’s investigation had not addressed all issues. She said neighbour 3 had sworn at her daughter using a derogatory and gender specific word in July 2024. She said there had been unacceptably loud noises in the early morning of 2 September 2024 and that neighbour 2 had called her another derogatory and gender specific word on 4 September 2024.
22 May 2025	The landlord gave a stage 2 response. It awarded £450 for the length of time taken to resolve the problem and said it could only review complaints about issues in the previous 12 months. It also apologised for not raising a complaint in September 2023. It said its service manager had investigated this incident in March 2023.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident approached this Service in October 2024 and said the landlord was not responding to her complaint. This Service contacted the landlord on 24 January 2025 and asked it to provide a stage 1 response. In September 2025 the resident said she felt the landlord had not listened to her and she felt intimidated by the neighbour who had made the racist comment. She was concerned the landlord had not kept records of all reports. She said she’d been really impacted by the situation, having to “train her mind not to think about it every minute of the day” and that she had sought support from her local law centre and local wellbeing service.

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	The landlord’s handling of ASB reports concerning the resident.
Finding	Maladministration

The resident said the incidents reported caused her significant distress and anxiety. However, it is important to note it is not the Ombudsman’s role to determine whether ASB occurred or, if it did, who was responsible. What the Ombudsman can assess is how a landlord has dealt with the reports it has received and whether it had followed proper procedure and followed good practice, taking account of the circumstances of the case.
It is evident from the summary above that the landlord failed to follow its Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) policy in 2023. In addition, the landlord did not respond to the resident’s further explanations in 2023 and 2024 regarding the impact of the racist comment.
Hate incidents were defined in the landlord’s policy as an incident which was perceived by the victim or other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based on a personal characteristic. The racist comment witnessed by a staff member on 25 March 2023 was likely to have met this definition.
Under its ASB policy and hate incident procedure the landlord was required to respond within 1 working day. It should have then considered if there were safety concerns which required escalating or further support. This process could include carrying out a risk-based assessment and agreeing an action plan with the resident. The landlord’s emails from the time logged the likely racist comment and informed the resident, but it did not carry out any further actions in line with its policy.
The resident told the landlord she was distressed and impacted by the incident in September 2023. The landlord did not consider its ASB policy or hate crime procedure at this point.
The resident again explained her continued distress because of the March 2023 incident and reported further ASB in April and September 2024. The landlord should have logged these in line with its policy and considered offering support or a risk assessment.
In its stage 1 response the landlord said it would discuss the resident’s request for a managed move with her. There are no records of this discussion, and it is not referenced in the landlord’s letter dated 10 March 2025. This was a failure to follow its proposed solution to completion and may have further contributed to the resident’s lack of trust.
The landlord reviewed the case and wrote to the resident on 10 March 2025. It said it had taken actions in 2023 and had recently spoken directly to the neighbour 1 who was alleged to have made the racist comment. There were no records of the actions it reported to take in 2023 or 2025 and this was unreasonable. While the actions it reported to take around reports from neighbour 2 were appropriate, and the landlord sought to reassure the resident, it should have recorded these actions on its case management system, and a lack of records has prevented a full assessment. This was a record keeping failure.
The landlord’s policy was clear that hate incidents are defined as being perceived by the victim to be motivated by prejudice. The landlord told the resident it did not agree with the resident’s perception of neighbour 2’s motives. It would have been useful at this point to refer explicitly to its policy and to internally mark the record as a hate incident.
The landlord explained the Environmental Health process and explained it had not opened an ASB case against the resident because of neighbour 2’s report to Environmental Health. This was appropriate.
The resident has repeatedly explained the impact of the March 2023 incident and the impact of the landlord’s lack of action. She said she has had to “train her mind not to think about it every minute of the day” and she feels like she is walking on eggshells. The evidence shows the landlord’s lack of action and record keeping failures significantly damaged trust in the landlord/tenant relationship.
The landlord offered £450 for the failure to log and respond to the resident’s 2024 reports of ASB. This was a step towards putting things right. However, it said it would not investigate the March 2023 incident. The evidence shows this likely caused the resident distress and impacted her experience of living in her home going forward. This was unreasonable and the landlord took limited steps to put things right or to show it had learnt from its failures. The remedy offered was not quite proportionate when assessed against our Remedies Guidance.

Complaint	The associated complaint
Finding	Severe maladministration

The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (‘the Code’) sets out when and how a landlord should respond to complaints. The relevant Code in this case is the 2023 edition (April 2023). The landlord has a published complaints policy which meets the Code’s timescales.
The resident complained on 18 September 2023. The landlord logged this complaint on 24 January 2025, after it was contacted by this Service. This was a 15-month delay which prevented the resident from resolving or escalating her complaint. This was a failure when assessed the landlord’s complaint policy and the Code.
The landlord provided a stage 1 response on 31 January 2025. This was 5 days after it had logged the complaint.
The resident asked to escalate her complaint on 5 March 2025. This was logged on 30 April 2025 and acknowledged on 1 May 2025. This 2-month delay was unreasonable when assessed against the Code and the complaints policy. The delay prevented the resident from bringing her complaint to this Service in a timely manner. The landlord has not shown it took steps to learn from its previous failings.
The landlord responded on 22 May 2025. This was within 20 working days of the acknowledgement. The landlord said it would not investigate issues which had occurred more than 12 months ago. This was unreasonable when assessed against the Code and its complaint policy. The resident had complained about the March 2023 incident within a reasonable timeframe. It was the landlord’s failure to respond which delayed its investigation.
The landlord offered £50 at stage 1 for the delayed response. It did not offer compensation for complaint handling at stage 2. This was unreasonable and the landlord took limited steps to put things right or to show it had learnt from its failures. The remedy offered was not appropriate when assessed against our Remedies Guidance.

Learning

Our observations are there were repeated record keeping failures from 2023 to 2025 to log reports and support on its case management system.
In communication with the Ombudsman, the landlord acknowledged the extremely limited records in this case. Had the landlord followed the recommendations outlined in the Ombudsman’s Knowledge Information and Management (KIM) spotlight report, this failure may have been prevented.
We’ve asked the landlord to conduct a learning review.