The Housing Ombudsman has published two severe maladministration findings for the London Borough (LB) of Lambeth. The Council failed to deal with a long-standing complaint about damp and mould caused by leaks which had been coming into the resident’s property since 2015. The resident had suffered extreme stress over several years that impacted on the family’s wellbeing.
The Ombudsman’s investigation found:
- severe maladministration for the landlord’s failings in dealing with the leaks and associated damp and mould at the property
- severe maladministration for the landlord’s handling of the complaint with long delays and failure to address the complaint in any meaningful way and
- maladministration for the landlord’s poor record keeping.
LB Lambeth was ordered to pay £2,500 in compensation to the resident, as well as responding to a series of orders to put things right for the resident, including confirmation that all works had been completed.
Last month the Ombudsman published a Special Report on the London Borough of Lambeth’s complaint handling, as a result of the volume and frequency of complaint handling failure orders issued and a series of formal investigations.
Complaint handling failure orders are issued to landlords where they fail to progress complaints through their procedures or to provide information to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman issued five complaint handling failure orders to Lambeth between January and September 2021, three of which it did not comply with. The Ombudsman consequently contacted Lambeth to explore the issues impacting on its complaint handling and agreed an action plan with the landlord to progress the complaints.
In November 2021 the Ombudsman issued nine formal decisions to Lambeth which were progressed together, in order to identify any systemic learning, and which included this case. Three themes were identified across the cases: poor record keeping, significant delays or failing to respond to complaints and failings in responding to repairs.