Industry News
Ombudsman orders HA to compensate tenant almost £3k for repeated failings over a long- running leak
A
housing association with more than 23,000 homes across London, the south east and the Midlands, was strongly criticised by the
Ombudsman for failing to properly repair a water leak which leſt its tenant unable to sleep in her bedroom for more than 18 months. Te Ombudsman found severe
maladministration in PA Housing’s repeated failings in dealing with the leak coming into the disabled woman’s groundfloor bedroom from the property above. Te tenant had to sleep in her living room for at least 84 weeks, while waiting for the leak to be repaired. Te long-running leak was previously reported
on by ITV News, as part of a series of reports highlighting disrepair cases endured by tenants of social landlords. In this case the tenant’s condition was made worse by being forced to sleep on an airbed for long periods. PA Housing repeatedly failed to provide updates
on works to fix the leak and repeatedly offered to reimburse the costs of a running a dehumidifier but then failed to do so. It failed to respond to the resident’s queries about compensation for damage and what support it could offer in relation to her disabilities. At one point it even closed the tenant’s complaint. Te landlord acknowledged in August 2020 that
it needed to carry out works to the tenant’s property following the leak. It did work on the neighbour’s property upstairs to address the leaks, but no
evidence was found of work done in the resident’s property. It made arrangements but then failed to follow up or the works were delayed.
LACK OF SUPPORT It later acknowledged that the leaks had caused damage to the resident’s bedding and this had led to the resident having to sleep in her living room. Te landlord raised the possibility of compensation but never followed it up. It was also aware that the resident had a disability and initially failed to offer any support. When it said it could offer support by adapting her spare bedroom to her needs, it never did this despite further queries from the resident. Te Ombudsman also found maladministration
for the landlord’s complaint handling and ordered it to pay a total of £2,830 compensation (replacing the landlord’s previous offer of £150), apologise to her, provide a timescale for completing rectification works and carry out a review of its overall management of the case. Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman,
said: “Troughout this complaint there were multiple instances where the landlord’s lack of communication caused distress to the resident. Even where it did provide timeframes for works, these were oſten not met and no communications given to the resident with an explanation or updated timeframe for works. “Te landlord’s failure to acknowledge the
resident’s reports of leaks, having previously advised
that it would keep her up to date, would have caused considerable distress for the resident, who remained unsure about how and when the leak would be resolved and continued to leave her without the use of her bedroom.
In a statement, a spokesperson from PA Housing said: “We’re deeply sorry for the errors made throughout this case, and the distress it has caused our resident. Our hope is always to provide the best possible services to our customers, and it’s clear this did not happen here.”
Te association also revealed that it has employed
TPAS to provide many of its front line staff with specialist training, including how to empathise with tenants. It is also more actively managing complex cases such as complaints and leaks, with daily reports on the longest running cases.
Homeless families being rehoused outside their local area
Tousands of homeless households across England are being uprooted and rehoused many miles from their families, friends, jobs and schools in contravention of good practice advice and the number of lives it is disrupting. An investigation by the Guardian newspaper
has revealed that more than 6,000 households were moved more than 20 miles from their local
neighbourhood in out-of-area placements by 53 councils in the last four years. Te figures were obtained by reporters using
Freedom of Information Act requests. Tey said their figures are probably an under-estimate as the majority of the councils did not provide figures for 2021/22 figures. Overall, more than 32,000 outside-council
placements have been made by 66 local authorities since 2018/19. However, the figure could be far higher given that a lot of councils did not respond to the FoI requests. Te practice of rehousing homeless families
outside of borough boundaries started in London but has now spread to other parts of the country due to the shortage of homes and high cost of temporary accommodation. Half of out-of-council placements outside of London involved moves of more than 20 miles in
20 | HMMDecember/January 2023 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
2020/21 compared with only a third in 2018/19. Ninety-seven placements made by non-London councils in 2020/21 were more than 50 miles away and 11 were more than 100 miles away, both up on previous years. Te housing charity Shelter said the lack of
affordable housing was making it difficult for councils to find suitable homes for homeless families. But it warned that out-of-area placements leſt councils open to legal challenge. Polly Neate, Shelter’s chief executive, said: “Te
law is clear that councils should always try to keep homeless families within their local areas, and if they can’t, they must make sure moving them doesn’t cause disruption. “In practice, we know this doesn’t always happen
and families are forced to uproot their entire lives and move away from jobs, schools and vital support networks, causing immense trauma.”
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