G15 landlord gets severe maladministration sanction over shared owner complaint failures

The Housing Ombudsman said that although residents had reported cold and draughty rooms, it found no evidence that the landlord had asked for updates from the developer or provided oversight on fixing the issue.

It found that the landlord had failed to mitigate a delay in the developer investigating the defects, leaving residents approaching a second winter with no indication that any further works to reduce the draughts and coldness would take place. This demonstrated a lack of urgency by the landlord in reaching a resolution, the watchdog said.

Richard Blakeway, housing ombudsman, said the case raised serious concerns about the landlord’s complaint handling.

“Taken altogether the landlord missed opportunities to address the wider aspects of the resident’s complaint, show empathy and possibly improve the landlord/resident relationship,” he said. “The landlord also delayed in sending its complaint responses, not meeting the timeframes set out in its complaints procedure at each stage.”

As well as the compensation, Catalyst was ordered to confirm its position on the issues in the property and carry out further investigations, inspections and works as required. It was also told to to review the failings in its complaint handling.

A Catalyst spokesperson said that it apologised for the failings and had paid the compensation. It had also commissioned an inspection of the property and was liaising closely with the customer to resolve outstanding issues.

“As an organisation that supports the Ombudsman’s complaint-handling code, we are disappointed to have fallen short of the standards expected on this occasion and have already made improvements to our service,” the spokesperson said.

“We have improved aftercare arrangements and quality control procedures for all new homes and are also carrying out more thorough tests and checks to ensure properties perform as designed.

“Our process for providing aftercare has moved to a central function, which provides a better, more consistent service for customers.

"We have also provided colleagues with refresher training to stress the importance of providing thorough, timely responses, and have implemented more robust measures to improve internal record keeping and ensure better communication.

"In addition, we have tightened procedures for how we monitor, flag and fix problems like this.”

Mr Blakeway said that he welcomed the landlord’s response on its learning from the case and the changes being made to improve its service.

"We also welcome their engagement with us on our wider investigation,” he said.