Yet another social housing provider has been extensively criticised by the Housing Ombudsman, who presides over the social sector. 

Hyde Housing Association has been the subject of a special investigation by the HO, following a string of severe maladministration findings and a high overall maladministration rate.

Included in the faults of the provider were issues such as repairs and damp and mould (100%). Between April 2023 and June 2024, the Ombudsman made 137 determinations, with 353 findings. These included 23 findings of severe maladministration (10 relating to property condition, and nine relating to complaint handling). 

There was an overall maladministration rate of 82% and the Ombudsman put forward 548 orders to put things right for residents in these cases.

The HO says that the providers poor service “has, on occasion, caused distress and inconvenience to residents with unreasonable delays to repairs, barriers to complaints and poor communication.”

A statement from the Housing Ombudsman’s office says: “In one case, the landlord inferred blame for the severity of a leak on a resident as they were away at the time the leak occurred. The landlord disputed that their home was uninhabitable and whether a bed had been damaged by water. It also did not offer appropriate compensation, despite the resident dealing with the additional stress of having cancer. 

“In another case, the landlord failed to make a repair for nearly a year, leaving a vulnerable resident with peeling wallpaper, mouldy walls, and damaged furniture. The resident was afraid to use the heating due to the issues. Once again, the landlord failed to provide appropriate redress.”

Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, comments: “The timing of this investigation provides a valuable opportunity for the landlord to further establish an open, positive complaint handling culture throughout what is a growing organisation.

“Our investigation shows that residents have experienced the same problems repeatedly over several years, but the landlord was initially slow to recognise and respond to these.

“Problems within repairs and maintenance, in particular the management and monitoring of contractors, had consequences across other teams which meant residents received poor service from more than one part of the landlord. The landlord was complacent about delays in numerous areas of its service.

“More recently, there have been encouraging steps. Action has been taken on delays in three service areas, there has been a focus on better communication with residents, and recognition of the need to improve the adequacy of redress offered. These actions are welcome.

“However, as the landlord has noted, and our more recent investigations highlight, there is still some way to go, and we will work with the landlord to help reach the ambitious goals it has set itself.”

A spokesperson for Hyde Housing Association says: “We recognise that historically we haven’t always met some of our customer’s expectations, and we apologise to those customers where we could have done things better. We know the impact this can have and are committed to learning from these experiences to ensure we do better in the future.

“ … Over the past two years, we’ve taken significant steps to improve our services and strengthen relationships with our customers to achieve better outcomes. This includes increasing investment in customers’ homes and adopting a more localised approach. 

“We’re also supporting customers online to help them manage their homes more conveniently, alongside the launch of our new Customer Service Centre and digital offering, which is enabling our colleagues to resolve around nine in ten customer enquiries at the first point of contact.

“To ensure timely resolutions, we’ve also doubled the number of colleagues handling complaints and brought our repair service in-house.”

In recent months there has been a series of critical reports from the Housing Ombudsman into local councils and other social housing providers.