Ombudsman makes severe maladministration finding against council after family left "with unsafe and rotting windows"

The Housing Ombudsman has found severe maladministration for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s continued repairs failings over 18 months, which left a family in “unsafe conditions”.

The resident behind the complaint, who had young children, said it had a “detrimental impact” on the family, who lived with unsafe and rotting windows.

The Ombudsman also found that after the resident reported mould in the property, it took the landlord eight to 10 months to rectify the issue.

During the 18 months the landlord took to repair the windows, the Ombudsman said there was a “lack of reasonable management or communication from the landlord”, who had noted that the windows were unsafe.

The report states that even when the resident had told the landlord of his safety concern due to having a toddler and young child in the property, the landlord “did not contact the resident to arrange an out of hours repair”.

The Ombudsman noted: “There was also no attempt to progress the repair with the contractor, despite the safety issues and freezing weather conditions.”

The landlord also took 15 months to act on the roof leak and “even then, it did not fix the issue, with the resident reporting that water was still coming in when it rained”. The resident had trouble cooking and maintaining meal preparation due to the leak, which was brown and smelled, and he was concerned about the fire risk, the report revealed.

The Ombudsman also outlined an outstanding repair to the smoke detector, which the landlord had failed to address within a reasonable timeframe, which “amplified” the resident’s concern about fire safety.

To remedy the injustice caused, the landlord was ordered to apologise and complete repairs on the resident’s home, pay the resident £1,050 in compensation and undertake a “senior management review of the case and repairs communications more generally”.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “The landlord repeatedly failed in its repairing obligations to the resident. Poor communication about the repair action plans, inefficient management of the repairs, and unproductive systems of raising repairs to completion or escalating outstanding issues with its contractors.

“Throughout the case, there was a lack of satisfactory completion records and an absence of evidence to show the landlord’s reasonable investigation into reports of continued issues."

He added: “The resident and his young family has experienced distress and inconvenience, living with health and safety hazards during the duration of the outstanding repairs. The landlord failed to offer interim solutions and the redress it offered was disproportionate to the significant detriment caused by its multiple delays and service failures."

The Ombudsman also found maladministration for the landlord’s complaint handling, with the resident experiencing time and trouble chasing responses and relying on Ombudsman intervention to escalate his complaints.

The Ombudsman investigated and concluded that the landlord’s responses were “not always clear in setting out the status of the complaint” and were “not issued within appropriate timescales”.

In a learning statement Hammersmith and Fulham Council said: “Hammersmith & Fulham Council accepts unconditionally the decision of the Housing Ombudsman. We fully acknowledge that we failed to respond to and address the repairs needed in the family’s home and did not resolve them in a timely manner.

“We have made a direct, sincere, and unreserved apology, which has been accepted. The family has acknowledged they are content with the resolution the council has already provided."

It added: “We continue to improve all aspects of our repairs service and have made improvements to our complaints handling, which directly addresses the valuable feedback and findings we received from the Housing Ombudsman service.

“We reviewed the family’s experience thoroughly to ensure we learnt from this case and are working with our delivery partners to develop process improvements that will mitigate against future service failures of a similar nature.

“The improvements made incorporate changes to policy and processes, operational changes, staff training and contractor management and accountability.”

The council said these include:

• The introduction of a specialist Leak Management Team
• Refresher and additional training in call handling and customer care
• Improved feedback to delivery partners on service failure; more regular liaison to review and resolve complaints; more collaboration and reporting on unresolved complaints
• Reviewing and improving the escalation process (internally and with delivery partners)
• Changes in how it addresses and learns from Ombudsman cases including the introduction of a council-wide Ombudsman Board.

Lottie Winson