Severe maladministration for Tendring Council’s significant and avoidable delays

Tendring District Council’s significant and avoidable delays in dealing with a resident’s repairs led to a finding of severe maladministration by the Ombudsman. The repairs, including a leaking roof, rotten window frame, blown plaster and damaged artex, had initially been reported in 2019 and were still not fully resolved in late 2021.

When the resident complained about the lack of repair work, the landlord did not acknowledge or properly address her concerns over the length of time that had already been taken to deal with the repairs she had reported. Neither did it give any timeframe for when it aimed to resolve the issues.

The resident said she felt angry, frustrated and depressed at the prospect of having to endure another winter without the repairs being completed. She said the landlord’s response to her complaint did not demonstrate that it had considered the effect of the delayed repairs on her.

In its stage two response to the complaint, the landlord acknowledged that there had been significant delays in addressing the repairs, but was not able to provide any detailed repair records or a satisfactory explanation for why the repairs were not appropriately addressed for such a long period of time. While it apologised to the resident and did provide better communication regarding the progress of repairs in late 2020, its responses were often vague and did not provide her with a clear timeframe for when the matters would be resolved. Its offer of £100 compensation was not reasonable redress for the inconvenience and distress caused.

We found severe maladministration for the landlord’s handling of the repairs, maladministration for its complaint handling and service failure for its record keeping.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “It is a significant concern that in late 2021 the landlord still appears to be attending to repairs initially reported in 2019, over two years earlier. There were missed opportunities during this time to fully respond to the resident’s concerns and provide a more detailed explanation of the action it had taken to progress the repair together with an idea of how much longer the works may take.

“As our Complaint Handling Code sets out, landlords should clearly set out what will happen and when and it did not do so in this case. The landlord’s stage two response did not amount to a ‘substantial response’, nor did it fully outline any findings of the enquiries it had made into the resident’s complaint. This was not appropriate and meant that she was not treated fairly during the complaint handling process.

“Our investigation also highlighted extensive issues with the landlord’s record keeping so the landlord was not able to adequately show what steps it took to deal with the repairs, and was unable to demonstrate whether it responded appropriately.”

We ordered the landlord to pay the resident a total of £2,110 compensation, issue a further apology, carry out a further, final inspection of the property and provide a plan of action. We also recommended that the landlord’s senior management review the findings and remedies set out in the decision and draw up an action plan to improve its repairs service delivery.

Read the case summary

In cases of severe maladministration, we invite the landlord to provide a short statement on the lessons it has learned following the decision.