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Clarion Housing Association Limited (202324940)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202324940

Clarion Housing Association Limited

3 December 2024

 

Our approach

The Housing Ombudsman’s approach to investigating and determining complaints is to decide what is fair in all the circumstances of the case. This is set out in the Housing Act 1996 and the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). The Ombudsman considers the evidence and looks to see if there has been any ‘maladministration,’ for example whether the landlord has failed to keep to the law, followed proper procedure, followed good practice, or behaved in a reasonable and competent manner.

Both the resident and the landlord have submitted information to the Ombudsman, and this has been carefully considered. Their accounts of what has happened are summarised below. This report is not an exhaustive description of all the events that have occurred in relation to this case, but an outline of the key issues as a background to the investigation’s findings.

The complaint

  1. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the property.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the property owned by the landlord. The resident explained members of the household have several medical conditions including asthma, obsessive compulsive disorder, and autism.
  2. In November 2022, the resident complained to the landlord. He said he submitted a list of repairs to it prior to summer 2022, including rising damp, which it had not addressed.
  3. The landlord responded at stage 1 on 8 December 2022. It recognised there was a delay recording the resident’s requests for repair following a mutual exchange. It stated that it experienced a cyber incident in summer 2022, which may have impacted its response. It said it would arrange an appointment to investigate the repair issues and offered him £125 in compensation.
  4. In March 2023, the resident raised a further complaint. He said the landlord had not completed the repairs and its communication was non-existent. The landlord treated this as an escalation of his previous complaint.
  5. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 18 April 2023. It recognised there was a service failure following the surveyor’s inspection and explained it had encountered some issues trying to progress works. It outlined the current position with each repair. It apologised and awarded an additional £150 compensation to reflect the delays, resulting in total redress of £275.
  6. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s final complaint response and referred his complaint to this Service. He said the damp and mould issues were his primary concern.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident was concerned about the impact the living conditions had on the health and wellbeing of the household. The Ombudsman empathises with the resident. However, as this Service is an alternative to the courts, we are unable to establish legal liability or whether a landlord’s actions or lack of action had a detrimental impact on the health of a resident or a family member. The Ombudsman is therefore unable to consider the personal injury aspect of the resident’s complaint. This is better suited for consideration by a court or a personal injury claim.
  2. This Service can only investigate matters which have completed the landlord’s complaints procedure, as per paragraph 42.a. of the Scheme. We recognise that after the landlord issued its final complaint response, the resident expressed other concerns such as its handling of a decant, repair delays, and damage to belongings, including carpets. It is open for the resident to contact the landlord directly and make a separate complaint. We would expect a landlord to consider additional concerns through its formal complaint procedure.
  3. This investigation considers matters from when the resident initially reported repairs in May 2022, up to the date of the landlord’s stage 2 response dated 18 April 2023. Reference to more recent events is to provide context only. While the resident referenced several repairs in his initial complaint, this investigation focuses on damp and mould which he explained to this Service were his primary concern.

Damp and mould

  1. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 places a statutory obligation on the landlord to keep the structure and exterior of the property in repair.
  2. The landlord has a responsibility under the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS), introduced by The Housing Act 2004, to assess hazards and risks within its rented properties. Damp and mould growth are a potential hazard and therefore the landlord must consider whether any mould problems in its properties amount to a hazard that may require remedy. Landlords should be aware of their obligations under HHSRS.
  3. The landlord’s responsive repairs policy sets out that it should complete non-emergency repairs as soon as possible and within 28 days.
  4. The landlord’s ‘leaks, condensation, damp, and mould’ policy (effective from February 2023) explains that, where it identifies particularly severe or recurring issues, it will undertake a comprehensive risk assessment which may result in a range of actions to support the resident depending on their circumstances.
  5. Following a resident’s report of damp and mould within a property, the Ombudsman expects a landlord to conduct an inspection to understand the extent of the problem, the probable cause, and decide an appropriate course of action.
  6. The landlord’s repair record shows the resident first reported mould in a bedroom on 18 May 2022. The landlord referenced this on a work order which included a guttering repair. The same repair record shows an operative attended on 9 June 2022 and marked the work order as complete. However, from the limited information available, it is not clear if the operative felt the guttering issue was the sole cause of the mould or if any further actions/investigations were required.
  7. It is vital for landlords to keep clear, accurate and easily accessible records to provide an audit trail of events. This helps the Ombudsman to understand the landlord’s actions and decision making. If this Service investigates a complaint, we will ask for the landlord’s records. If there is disputed evidence and no audit trail, we may not be able to determine that an action took place or that the landlord acted fairly and in line with its policies.
  8. In the resident’s complaint he said that he had reported rising damp before the summer of 2022. While we do not dispute this, the landlord’s records provided as evidence did not reflect this. On 30 October 2022, the landlord’s repair record shows the resident reported an issue with rising damp in the living room, affecting 2 walls. The landlord raised a work order on 3 November 2022 to investigate the cause. The landlord’s notes reference that it offered to inspect the property on 19 December 2022, however it is unclear whether this appointment took place. This is further evidence of a shortcoming in the landlord’s record keeping which also is likely to have impacted on its handling of the works.
  9. Evidence provided by the landlord demonstrates a ventilation survey took place on 27 February 2023, some months after the resident’s initial report of damp. Within this report, contractors quoted for the installation of a positive input ventilation (PIV) system. The Ombudsman finds the landlord’s delay in progressing investigations into the damp and mould to be unreasonable and not in line with its own repair timescales.
  10. The landlord has not evidenced that it took actions in the interim to reduce the impact on the resident, such as mould treatment. Additionally, it is of concern that there is no evidence to suggest that the hazard of damp or mould and the impact upon the household was appropriately considered or addressed. The lack of a risk assessment and exploring options with the resident indicates disregard for the vulnerabilities of the occupants.
  11. The landlord failed to communicate effectively with the resident throughout this case. It did not update the resident regularly and it is clear he spent time chasing for updates. The Ombudsman determines that the communication failings exacerbated the situation, delayed the resolution of the substantive issue, and worsened the impact on the resident. This further undermined the landlord/resident relationship.
  12. The landlord does not dispute that there were delays in its response to the resident’s requests for repair. At stage 1, the landlord recognised there was a failure logging the repairs reported by the resident. At stage 2, it explained that it would arrange a specialist damp survey, however it was waiting until its new contractor had its preferred sub-contractor on board. It committed to booking the survey with the resident within 28 days. Records show this survey took place on 20 April 2023. While this was within the timescale it committed to within the complaint response, the Ombudsman finds this occurred far too long after the resident’s initial report of rising damp in October 2022.
  13. When there are failings by a landlord, as is the case here, this Service will consider whether the redress offered (apology, compensation, and commitment to complete a specialist survey) put things right and resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances. In assessing this, we consider whether the landlord’s offer of redress was in line with our dispute resolution principles, be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes.
  14. The landlord’s final complaint response recognised its shortcomings and offered total compensation of £275 to the resident. Our remedies guidance suggests an award in the range of £100 to £600 for failings which adversely affected a resident with no permanent impact. We acknowledge the landlord accepted its shortcomings and attempted to put things right with its compensation offer. However, after considering the impact on the resident living with worsening damp and mould, the Ombudsman is minded that compensation of £600 is more appropriate in the circumstances.
  15. The resident contacted this Service on several occasions between October 2023 and September 2024. He explained that while the landlord had taken some actions to address the damp, it had still not resolved the matter. In November 2024, the landlord informed this Service that all repairs to the property were complete. The Ombudsman has not seen evidence of this. While we are not assessing events that happened after the stage 2 complaint response, the Ombudsman recognises the property remained affected by damp and mould significantly after the completion of the landlord’s internal complaint process. This raises questions about the effectiveness of the landlord’s oversight of repairs once a resident had exhausted its complaints process.
  16. In summary, the landlord did not remedy the resident’s report of damp in the property within a reasonable time frame. It failed to learn from the complaint as there were further delays completing repairs and additional reports of poor communication. It did not comply with its repair policy, fully consider the detriment to the resident, or its obligations under HHSRS. For these reasons, this Service finds maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould within the property.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould within the property.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 6 weeks of the date of this report, the Ombudsman orders the landlord to:
    1. Apologise in writing for the failures identified.
    2. Pay the resident £600 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by its handling of his reports of damp and mould in the property up to 18 April 2023. This is inclusive of the £275 previously offered through its complaints process.
    3. Arrange an independent survey to determine if there are any outstanding repairs in the property for which it is responsible for (if the resident disagrees that all repairs are complete).
    4. Write to the resident following the independent survey with an action plan of how it intends to complete said repairs (if applicable). The action plan must include a proposed timeline. The landlord should use its best endeavours to complete the repair(s) within a reasonable timeframe.

Recommendations

  1. The Ombudsman recommends that the landlord should consider whether any additional compensation is due to the resident from the date of its stage 2 response onwards for any avoidable delays resolving the substantive issue. We recognise this is a complex case and the landlord may decide to open another complaint to assess this in more detail.