Landlord’s failure to do repairs had ‘serious detrimental impact’ on disabled resident with PTSD

The NCH tenant has respiratory problems, PTSD, brain trauma and memory loss. 

A few weeks after moving into a new build home with her daughter, the resident reported that rainwater was coming in through the front and rear doors and that there were issues with the windows. 

Poor records from the landlord meant repairs were not noted, and problems with the windows and doors continued.

A survey by NCH found that the doors were in a poor state of repair. 

However, another delay in fixing the issue followed, as a breakdown in communication meant the contractor misunderstood the brief. 

Despite not making repairs to ensure water was not coming in, NCH said it would not replace the doors, as they were “safe and usable”.

The delays meant the resident was left with water coming into her home for two years, according to a report by the ombudsman. 

“Separate repairs to the cladding, cleaning of the gutters and fitting gutter guards and loft insulation also took time to complete, with the resident having to chase the landlord six months later, causing frustration and inconvenience.

“While a boiler problem in the home was fixed after a month, the resident reported other heating issues, including with the radiators, and that the home was ‘excessively cold’. 

“Five months after telling the resident that there was nothing wrong with them, the landlord conceded that the radiators were not the correct size,” the watchdog said. 

When the resident reported that the toilet was unusable, NCH did not treat the repair as an emergency or seek alternative arrangements for the resident and her daughter. 

This left them without the use of a toilet in their own home.

At the time of the investigation, there were still a number of repairs outstanding, which the ombudsman ordered the social landlord to fix. 

It ordered the landlord to apologise and pay the resident £2,120 in compensation and to improve the information and process of enacting a defects liability warranty claim on new build developments.  

It ordered that the report be shared with the landlord’s governing body.

The landlord said in its learning from the case it had undertaken a comprehensive review of systems and processes, and was running training for staff on latent defects.

A latent defect is a fault in a property that could not have been discovered by a reasonably thorough inspection before the sale.

Yesterday, the ombudsman raised concerns about the sector’s treatment of vulnerable tenants. 

Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said: “This is another example of where a landlord’s service failures were compounded because it responded neither sensitively, nor reasonably, to a resident presenting clear health needs. 

“This is an emerging theme in our casework and a cause of considerable concern.

“In this case, the series of significant service failings have had an especially detrimental impact on a vulnerable resident and shows the landlord did not take her concerns seriously.

“The landlord failed to provide a service in line with its obligations under the tenancy and had disregard for good practice in dealing with the defects highlighted by the resident.

“I welcome the landlord’s response on its learning from this case and the changes being made to improve its service. 

“I would encourage other landlords to consider the learning the case offers for their own services.”

In a statement, NCH apologised “unreservedly” for the “poor level of communication and service standards” to its tenant. 

It had “worked relentlessly since being presented with the findings to ensure we learn from this case and implement service improvements”.

“It is important to us that, as a learning organisation who put our customers at the heart of everything we do, we [put] such important feedback from both the ombudsman services and the customer’s experience to good use in reflecting and improving things that went wrong.

“The learning in this particular case was around raising awareness and available information relating to latent defects. 

“If there had been clearer internal staff pathways, then these would have helped identify and signpost the issues raised in this case earlier, resulting in a speedier resolution and understanding of the works being reported,” it said. 

As a direct result of the case, the landlord now runs a series of training workshops for staff in relation to information and awareness around latent defects.

It said it reviewed systems and processes to “ensure appropriate data collection and accurate record-keeping”.

From now on, a specific, named person will act as a single point of contact where different services are involved and agree on a collaborative approach.