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Westminster City Council (202207113)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202207113

Westminster City Council

23 November 2023

 

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. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of reports of leaks, damp, and mould in the property.

Jurisdiction

  1. What the Ombudsman can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is governed by the Scheme. When a complaint is brought to the Service, the Ombudsman must consider all the circumstances of the case, as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, the Service has determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident raised a complaint in January 2022, about unresolved damp and mould. The resident explained the impact this was having upon the health of the household. The landlord upheld the resident’s complaint, apologised for service failings, set out the steps that it would take to resolve the matter, and offered £700 in compensation.
  2. The resident raised a stage 2 complaint in March 2022. The resident said that remedial works remained outstanding, and the property did not provide the household with a safe and healthy environment. The landlord said that it had completed all works that had been agreed with the resident’s solicitor. However, the mould had returned. It had investigated and subsequently identified another possible cause of the damp and mould, which it was dealing with. It acknowledged that it had not kept the resident adequately updated, for which it offered £20 compensation. It reoffered £700 compensation in respect of service failures.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 41 (c) of the Scheme states that “the Ombudsman cannot consider complaints, which in the Ombudsman’s opinion, concern matters that are the subject of court proceedings or were the subject of court proceedings where judgement on the merits was given”.
  2. The landlord informed the Service on 1 September 2022, that the resident had raised a legal disrepair claim in relation to damp and mould. This was at the pre-action protocol stage. The Service asked the resident on 11 September 2022, to inform the Service if the case was progressed to litigation. It said this was likely to raise jurisdictional issues, which could affect the determination of the case.
  3. Documents provided to the Service show that the resident issued county court proceedings for disrepair on 7 March 2023. Accordingly, the complaint is no longer a matter that can be considered under the Scheme. The Service appreciates that this determination may be disappointing for the resident. The Service apologises for the length of time it has taken for this decision to be made.