Peabody Trust (202528118)

Background

1. The resident’s complaint concerns the level of compensation offered by the landlord in response to prolonged delays in answering his solicitor enquiries and providing mandatory leasehold documentation. The resident said this caused him significant distress and financial implications.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s offer of compensation for delays in responding to solicitor queries.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was maladministration in the landlord’s offer of compensation for delays in responding to solicitor queries.

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

Reasons

4. In a leasehold remortgage, lenders require documents such as the management pack (LPE1), Landlord Certificate, and building safety information to confirm that there are no legal, financial, or fire safety risks affecting the property. Without this information, a remortgage cannot proceed. Where an EWS1 form is not required, lenders still expect suitable alternative evidence to be provided.
5. The resident raised concerns about prolonged delays by the landlord in supplying these documents, despite repeated chasers from August 2024 onwards. The delays significantly exceeded the landlord’s 30-working-day service standard and directly hindered the resident’s ability to refinance. He said this resulted in increased mortgage payments and placed his home at risk. At stage 1, the landlord accepted that the delays were caused by internal handovers, missed follow-ups, and poor communication. It also acknowledged that, although the building was assessed as low risk, alternative documentation was only provided after the resident’s escalation, and the management pack was not issued until March 2025. The £125 compensation offered by the landlord did not reflect the level of detriment experienced.
6. Despite assurances given by the landlord at stage 1, the service did not improve. At stage 2, the landlord confirmed further unreasonable delay and poor case management had occurred. This resulted in the resident being required to resubmit documentation after months of delays already attributable to the landlord. While the landlord was not solely responsible for the increase in mortgage payments, its sustained failure to meet its own response timescales materially hindered the resident’s refinancing. Delays and inadequate communication continued from August 2024 through to September 2025, even after service failures had been acknowledged.
7. Although the landlord ultimately increased its offer of compensation to £350, this amount did not adequately reflect the overall 12 month delay, lack of communication, or the stress and financial uncertainty caused, and was disproportionate to the impact of the landlord’s actions. The increased amount ordered is in line with our compensation guidance for circumstances where a failure significantly impacted the resident.

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.