Watchdog Concludes Council's Treatment of Tenants was 'Shocking'
Issues fines totaling £18,000 for seven cases of maladministration
Neglected leaks resulted a build up in mould. Picture: Hammersmith and Fulham Council
May 9, 2023
Hammersmith & Fulham Council has been forced to pay out more than £18,000 after the housing watchdog identified seven cases of severe maladministration over repairs to its properties.
The Ombudsman concluded that the way the borough was operating as a social landlord was ‘simply unacceptable’.
In one of the cases, it was found that a father and his young daughter were made to live for four years with water pouring down their walls, which caused a build-up of damp and mould.
The water wrecked internal plastering as well as the family’s belongings, a report by the Housing Ombudsman found.
The report says borough housing officers visited the property multiple times to take photos and treat the problem but failed to fix it.
It also noted there were long periods of time where the resident was forced to chase for updates and then had their concerns ignored.
The report added the council’s handling of the complaint was delayed and its offer of £150 in compensation was “completely inadequate and disproportionate”.
The council’s housing chief was ordered to apologise in person and pay the family £5,080 in compensation. It also told the council to inspect other properties in the block.
The Ombudsman also highlighted two other cases in the borough. One resident had been forced to wait five years for council contractors to fix a leak in a neighbour’s flat that had damaged his apartment. Another was left with “intermittent” hot water for two-and-a-half years as they received treatment for cancer.
The watchdog said the council failed to repair the tenant’s toilet for two years while damage caused by its contractors to the bathroom wasn’t fixed for seven months and led to the hot water shortages.
It caused “significant distress” to the resident who was undergoing cancer treatment at the time, the report read.
It said, “The landlord’s complaints handling was poor and differed significantly from the timescales and guidance in its complaints policy. On top of this, the landlord’s compensation offers were not detailed and didn’t go far enough to provide redress.
“We also found poor record keeping, including an insufficiently detailed audit trail of its repairs and what was found on inspection, what action was taken, and what follow-up action was required.”
The council was ordered to pay £5,950 and told to finish the repairs.
Speaking about the leak, it said despite assurances made to the Ombudsman, the council failed to fix the issue from a neighbouring flat which caused “significant distress”.
The ombudsman also slammed the council’s handling of the complaint and how it dealt with the resident, who was deemed to be vulnerable.
It said, “The landlord repeatedly failed in its management and oversight of the repair, and did not take into account the residents’ vulnerability, failing to offer any support or make appropriate safeguarding referrals which could have reduced the impact on the resident.
“The landlord’s complaint handling was severely inadequate, and the resident had to repeatedly chase a response which caused further distress. As in [an earlier case], the landlord’s complaint response failed to acknowledge where it went wrong, identify areas of improvement, or provide evidence it can prevent similar failures happening again.”
For this case, the council was ordered to apologise and pay £7,185.50 in compensation. It was also told to carry out a review into various policies, including how it deals with residents who are deemed to be vulnerable.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said, “The experiences of each resident engaging its landlord is shocking. There were significant, multiple and common failings across these cases, which raises serious concerns about the landlord’s services.
“In all three of the cases, there was a vulnerability present that the landlord either did not take into consideration or ignored. This is simply unacceptable from a social landlord.
“Running through of all these complaints are failings in repairs, which we see often in our casework. However, it is the length of time residents have been waiting in appalling circumstances that is of greatest concern. There were multiple opportunities for the landlord to resolve all of the issues uncovered in our investigations and yet the urgency to do so wasn’t there.
“There is significant learning here for the landlord and the Ombudsman will be engaging with it over the coming months to ensure that lessons are learnt.”
Hammersmith and Fulham Council said in a statement, “We accept fully the Housing Ombudsman’s decisions and have apologised unreservedly and directly to the residents.
“We have completed the repairs to the residents’ homes set out in these complaints, but acknowledge that we failed to do so in a timely way in a period when our repairs service was adversely impacted by the Covid lockdowns and one of our three major contractors exiting abruptly.
“The affected residents have accepted our apologies. In addition to completing the repairs, the council has provided further support and recompense to these residents.
“We are working hard to improve all aspects of our repairs service and complaints handling, including directly addressing the Housing Ombudsman’s valuable findings and learning from our residents’ feedback.
“We have strengthened our Housing leadership team and contractor capacity and will continue to do so. We are investing £1m a week over coming years to improve our ageing housing stock, in addition to making millions of pounds of further funding available over the next three years to tackle individual repairs quickly and effectively. This includes focusing on issues highlighted in these three cases: leaks causing damp and mould and upgrading windows.
“We are improving our culture, processes, and systems to ensure that we deliver our repairs promptly and effectively with excellent customer service. More broadly, we are working to improve all Housing services for the benefit of our residents.”
In total, the council was forced to pay out £18k to vulnerable residents after failing to carry out repairs on their flats.
Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, said Hammersmith and Fulham council’s response to the man’s complaint was “shocking”.
He said the watchdog has looked into two other separate cases and found the council had committed “significant, multiple and common failings” across them, raising serious concerns about the quality of service to tenants.
Mr Blakeway said, “In all three of the cases, there was a vulnerability present that the landlord either did not take into consideration or ignored. This is simply unacceptable from a social landlord.
“Running through of all these complaints are failings in repairs, which we see often in our casework. However, it is the length of time residents have been waiting in appalling circumstances that is of greatest concern.
“There were multiple opportunities for the landlord to resolve all of the issues uncovered in our investigations and yet the urgency to do so wasn’t there.”
Hammersmith and Fulham Council said in a statement, “We accept fully the Housing Ombudsman’s decisions and have apologised unreservedly and directly to the residents.
“We have completed the repairs to the residents’ homes set out in these complaints, but acknowledge that we failed to do so in a timely way in a period when our repairs service was adversely impacted by the Covid lockdowns and one of our three major contractors exiting abruptly.
“The affected residents have accepted our apologies. In addition to completing the repairs, the Council has provided further support and recompense to these residents.
“We are working hard to improve all aspects of our repairs service and complaints handling, including directly addressing the Housing Ombudsman’s valuable findings and learning from our residents’ feedback.
“We have strengthened our Housing leadership team and contractor capacity and will continue to do so.
“We are investing £1m a week over coming years to improve our ageing housing stock, in addition to making millions of pounds of further funding available over the next three years to tackle individual repairs quickly and effectively. This includes focusing on issues highlighted in these three cases: leaks causing damp and mould and upgrading windows.
“We are improving our culture, processes, and systems to ensure that we deliver our repairs promptly and effectively with excellent customer service. More broadly, we are working to improve all Housing services for the benefit of our residents.”
Adrian Zorzut - Local Democracy Reporter