The Housing Ombudsman – who presides over housing associations and other social housing providers – has ordered a chief executive to apologise to a tenant.
“We ordered the Chief Executive of Six Town Housing to apologise on behalf of the landlord directly to a resident after her noise nuisance complaints were ignored or not acted effectively on for nearly two years” says an Ombudsman statement.
When staff did acknowledge the complaints, the internal correspondence contained inappropriate remarks, including officers saying they “could not be bothered to add the resident’s calls to its system”.
The Ombudsman says that irrespective of the officer’s views about the tenant’s reports, the landlord should have treated her with respect and clearly communicated its position. However, the investigation found evidence that the landlord chose not to respond to the resident and closed cases without contacting her.
The landlord also failed to take into consideration the detrimental impact of consistently failing to respond over a prolonged period. Nor did it manage the resident’s expectations by not clearly explaining to her which reports were considered to constitute anti social behaviour and which ones were not.
In one month alone, the resident filled out 16 diary sheets, but landlord records do not show these were ever reviewed.
Later when later the resident said she could not complete the diary forms due to worsening mental health, there is no evidence the landlord considered reasonable adjustments to help her.
The Ombudsman continues: “We ordered the landlord to pay £1,100 in compensation and review the resident’s current ASB concerns, implementing a clear action plan to address them. We gave the landlord six weeks to provide clear guidance to its staff about the importance of objective record keeping and using professional language.”
Six Town Housing says it has revised and refreshed its complaint handling policy, placed more onus on good record keeping and offered the resident involved in this case extra tenancy support.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, comments: “There is clear and repeated evidence of a lack professionalism by the landlord in response to its resident’s requests for help. These failings were over a prolonged period and meant the landlord failed to follow its own ASB policy and procedure.
“The result was significant distress for its resident over a long period of time. This led the resident to understandably feel victimised by her landlord.
“The sector needs to respond to noise nuisance far more effectively. It is a significant driver of complaints after disrepair.”
