A retired bookkeeper lay dead in his flat for six years until a social landlord forced entry to carry out a gas check, an inquest has heard.
Robert Alton’s remains were discovered at his home in Bolton. The subsequent police and coroner’s investigation has concluded the death was not suspicious and that he likely died in May 2017.
A statement from the social landlord - called Bolton At Home - says: “Everyone at Bolton at Home has been deeply shocked by this and we realise it will concern and upset people to learn his body remained undiscovered for such a long time. It’s completely unacceptable to us that something like this has happened, and we’ve taken action to reduce the risk of it happening again.
“The reason we didn’t discover Robert’s death for so long is because our previous procedure, while meeting legal requirements, wasn’t strong enough to prevent something like this happening.
“We’d made Robert’s home gas safe in June 2017 by turning off the gas supply externally after we were unable to contact him to arrange the annual gas safety check.
“Following this, we made many attempts to contact Robert over a number of years to arrange gas safety checks. It’s clear that the action taken by us to understand why we couldn’t contact him didn’t go far enough. Opportunities were missed in spotting that something was potentially wrong. We should have done more to check on Robert’s welfare.”
Bolton At Home says it changed its procedure in July 2022 and now immediately begins seeking access to someone’s home via a warrant in instances where it cannot contact them to arrange a gas safety check. It was this change and subsequent review of previous instances that ultimately led to the landlord seeking a warrant to access Robert’s home and discovering his body.
The statement, from chief executive e Noel Sharpe, continues: “The change to our procedure significantly reduces the risk of something like this from happening again. In addition, we’re also taking steps to enable our tenancy support team to work more closely with our gas safety team where we’re struggling to gain access to a property and where there may be welfare concerns. We’re also exploring what else we might be able to do to further reduce the risk of this being repeated.
“I would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to Robert’s loved ones, friends and neighbours and apologise to them for the opportunities we missed in finding out why we couldn’t contact him.”
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Oh and it’s not a private let…. Who knew !! All these headline stories are in the social sector, but it’s we that are being hammered 😱
How did the rent continue to be received. Or as long as the Standing Order kept being paid then the Social Landlord didn’t care. Tragic. Shocking and most of all very sad. No dignity in this for anyone.
Unbelievable Another Housing Association, imagine turning off the gas without checking on the Resident, he could have died of hunger not being able to cook or frozen to death.
As said was the Housing Association getting paid rent for
5 years after turning off the gas,
if not it doesn’t add up to have a property on their books with no income or was it automatic payments regardless.
Bring back Landlords right to access like it used to be and shouldn’t have been removed.
Surely though after a week of turning the gas off, the tenant not making contact then is sus surely!?
And the tenant groups think more social housing is the answer!
Someone in that housing association needs to face criminal charges for manslaughter in this very sorry case! You can’t tell me that turning off the supply didn’t lead to the death of that poor man. Terrible abuse of power.
Nothing less than criminal proceedings will be appropriate/ sufficient.
Outrages dereliction of duty.
So if the housing benefit has been paid all this time will it be repaid by Bolton Council?
I am quite sure if it had been a private Landlord Bolton Council would have already issued the request for its repayment and probably Council Tax as well!
V True - Old Agent. With interest as well.
Manslaughter ? Cutting of the heating supply whilst someone who is at risk is in there ?
My agents do property inspections, including internally, every 6 months. The staff who do these thus know tenants quite/very well. No chance of this terrible situation occurring in the small Landlord Private Rented Sector (conceivably it might in big Build-to-Rent schemes - I don't know for sure).
We/I think of our tenants: including e.g. a longstanding one who started to develop serious dementia. I worked with her son who lives in the USA to resolve matters. He knew I had Section 21 powers to evict should she become too much of a danger to herself and the occupant of the flat above (also mine). I allowed more time than one might, and the agents advised, so she could transition to a specialist dementia care home.
One wonders if govt. plans for S21 abolition will still leave us LLDs enough powers to be able to cajole/act in such circumstances as the example above.
If she hadn't had a son, I would have approached social services myself and pointed out I was able to evict, so they would have to get their act together (personal experience is it has to be pretty bad for them to get really interested, I know they face pressures): they have access to care homes that I don't have.
As a letting agent, we had a tenant with dementia, we constantly monitored him, helped him when he forgot to load up his electricity card. He had no family locally - so we had to deal with social services to get him into a care home - it took years and we had to deal with constant complaints from neighbour even though the council told her that we could not do more. We were about to issue a section 21 - just because we had got to the point where he was becoming a danger to himself. Unfortunately all the neighbours complaints did was delay as Care Homes rejected him because of them. So often in so many situations, we are expected to be social workers.
However, in this case, were his family/friends never concerned in 6 years? Whilst poor from the social housing association - surely a friend or family member should have raised alarm!
We have had a couple of older tenants pass away - we have found them as when their relatives can't get hold of them, we step in and visit the property.
Social housing yet again penalising the PRS who from my experience 99% of landlords keep habitable, safe and comfortable homes for their tenants. the government need to target the housing associations and make sure they are regulated like we are in the PRS.
Well, as long as the rent keeps coming in, which is what happens with social housing isn’t it? Why bother? And that was very impressive they kept up to safety standards by cutting out the gas supply from the outside. He probably froze to death without heating and hot water for all we know! Would it be possible for any of us in the PRS to have escaped with such a statement as to the “improvements”. We would be labelled as the greedy landlord fined for (probably jailed too??) for their unscrupulous behaviour and not bothered about the tenant! What a joke!!!!!!!!!!!! Who is to voice for us - seriously!! What are the Landlord associations doing honestly?????
Z
And they didn’t think of contacting the police??? Or the council??? With the worry that there is no answer from the tenant for sooooooooo long????? Genius!!
The word "social" really should be in the headline as this story reflects badly on private sector landlords.
What about family, friends, and neighbours not having any concerns for this poor gentleman?
What about post not being collected?
There must be so many indicators that something is wrong - yet no one cared enough to do anything about it. This is a very sad story about society today on many levels.
Interestingly this hasn’t appeared as a national headline yet. Why?
Agree it’s vital that the media pick this up and confirm it was a Social Landlord not a private landlord.
We must not ‘carry the can’ for this colossal failure.
Where are the Landlord Associations on this. Not that I would like to use this poor soul, but it should high light the difference between big business and a local Landlord.
A Landlord whom is invested in his property by association is invested in their tenant. Big business only see the money.
Our Government need to reflect on this and take a long hard look at the agenda they are pushing!
Where was the rent increase during those 6 years?
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