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Large landlord reviews thousands of cases after failing two residents living in damp and mould
A large South of England landlord has reviewed thousands of damp and mould cases after the Housing Ombudsman found it had failed two vulnerable residents.
The ombudsman awarded two A2Dominion residents a total of £8,000 in compensation following the severe maladministration finding.
In the first case, chief executive Ian Wardle was ordered to apologise directly to the west London resident and to review its vulnerable persons policy after the G15 landlord left the resident in damp and mould, alongside a pest infestation for months.
After it was reported that there was a leak to the roof causing the issue, it took A2Dominion nearly 16 months to fix it after multiple attempts. Additionally, the association took at least 18 months to deal with the mice problem in the home.
This was despite a contractor telling A2Dominion that the resident was “living in bad conditions” and the home was not fit to live in.
The lack of evidence the landlord was able to provide for this case suggests that it was missing, incorrect or not used, the Housing Ombudsman said.
When the landlord did respond to the resident’s complaint after failing at first to acknowledge it, it was outside of the timescales set out in the ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
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In the second case, A2Dominion left water coming into a vulnerable resident’s bedroom for 13 months.
The ombudsman said that this delay caused the west London resident distress and inconvenience, particularly considering the extent of the repairs and the resident’s vulnerabilities.
After the initial reporting of the repair, which included water coming through the light fitting and plaster crumbling due to the amount of damp, the landlord kept moving the date for completion back by several months.
Many of the delays were due to poor internal communications. When the resident raised that the repairs were unlikely to be fixed by the deadline set, it is not clear the landlord ever responded to her concerns.
On top of the lack of updates throughout the repair, A2Dominion also failed to take into account the residents’ vulnerabilities.
The resident’s physical health was also impacted as she had to climb an additional flight of stairs to sleep in a different room, and a smaller bed.
The ombudsman found maladministration for the association’s complaint-handling in this case, for not responding within sufficient timeframes, not taking into account the residents’ vulnerabilities and then finally not providing the appropriate redress for the failings.
Housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: “In both of these cases, residents with health conditions were let down by their landlord. The impact of these disrepair issues would be hard for any household to handle, but makes it even more serious when there is a health condition involved.
“There were multiple missed opportunities to resolve these issues but these were lost which resulted in the residents living with significant disrepair for a prolonged period.
“Disrepair issues dominate our casework and I urge landlords to read our reports and find the lessons so that this does not happen to your residents. Not knowing about your residents vulnerabilities or knowing and not taking that into account when you deal with them is simply unacceptable.”
In its learning statement, A2Dominion said: “We would like to offer our sincere apologies to both of our residents for the problems they experienced with damp, mould and repairs in their homes, and we acknowledge the distress this inevitably caused them.
“The safety of our customers remains our number one priority. In both cases there were significant delays in our response in terms of repairs carried out, communications with our customers and in the way we escalated their issues.
“Also, the amount of compensation we offered was not sufficient to cover the distress and inconvenience caused by lack of repairs. Both customers have since been compensated in line with this ruling and we have complied with all the orders in this case.”
The landlord said that full repair work has now been completed, and that its new corporate strategy includes the creation of a dedicated damp and mould team which has reviewed over 5,000 historic cases.
A2Dominion has also vowed to improve its record-keeping, the timeliness and quality of service, and the initial diagnostic for repairs and damp and mould cases.
Just last month, A2Dominion reported a net deficit of £12.8m for the last financial year, after more than £32m in impairments and write-downs.
The reported deficit by the landlord comes just days after the English regulator placed the association on its gradings under review list.
The Regulator of Social Housing said A2Dominion could be downgraded to a non-compliant grade following an investigation.
The landlord’s deficit on £12.8m in 2022-23 contrasts with the £40.4m surplus it reported in the previous year.
A2Dominion said its annual figures reflect its increased investment in existing homes to ensure they are safe and comply with new regulations, as well as significant increases in its operational costs and planned fall in sales income.
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