‘Undeniably unacceptable’ nine-month delay in complaint response left resident in disrepair

The Housing Ombudsman has made a finding of severe maladministration after Ealing Council took nine months to respond to a complaint, delaying repairs and redress for the resident. 

Following this, the Ombudsman was forced to issue a Complaint Handling Failure Order to get the council to issue a response. There were also recorded vulnerabilities for the resident.

The complaint related to a leak which the resident believed was coming from the flat above. After reporting the issue, the council landlord visited both flats and made some repairs, but the resident reported the issue was still ongoing and made a complaint two months later.

In the following six months, the resident kept in touch with the council landlord but it provided no update on the complaint, and it took the Ombudsman to intervene for the landlord to provide more information to the resident.

The resident then escalated her complaint but did not receive a response until nine months later, leaving the problems unresolved.

In order to get a response, the resident had to take the time and inconvenience to message the landlord on various occasions, but they only received one when the Ombudsman issued it with a complaint Handling Failure Order. Further to this, the complaint response was inadequate as it did not cover all of the issued raised in the complaint.

The Ombudsman ordered the council to pay the resident £1,225 in compensation, update its records with vital information about the case and ensure it is compliant with the Complaint Handling Code. 

In its learning from the case, Ealing Council said it had overhauled its complaints handling process and was seeking a new contractor to improve services for residents.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: ‘The fact we’ve had to intervene on numerous occasions during this complaint is undeniably unacceptable. The Complaint Handling Code is there to support landlords to deliver an effective complaints procedure. The timescales are clear markers for landlords to ensure residents are listened to and their concerns dealt with promptly.

‘As the Complaint Handling Code becomes statutory under the Social Housing Regulation Bill, we will be exercising our powers a lot more in this area.

‘I welcome the landlord’s response to this case and urge the sector to learn the wider lessons on the Complaint Handling Code and the implications for not getting it right.

‘We are now hosting monthly drop-in sessions on the Code and would encourage landlords to sign up to these to ask any questions or if they need guidance on compliance.’

The Ombudsman also found maladministration for how the council handled reports of a leak and noise from plumbing above the flat.

In its learning statement, Ealing Council said: ‘We are committed to providing high-quality housing services to our residents and take complaints and grievances very seriously. However, we acknowledge that, in this case, our procedures and communication failed to meet the expected standards. We recognise our shortcomings and the subsequent impact it’s had on our resident’s experience.

‘The maladministration findings from the Housing Ombudsman service have allowed us to review where our standards of service were not what we should expect and have allowed us to make improvements to the service to benefit all of our residents.’