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London council apologises after ‘multiple’ failures left family of four in ‘unsafe’ flat
A London council has been forced to apologise and pay a family of four compensation after the Housing Ombudsman found multiple failures relating to rotting windows, a leaking roof and mould in a one-bedroom flat.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council has become the latest social landlord found culpable of “severe maladministration” over its handling of the case.
In a 14-page report, the ombudsman said the council had failed to address multiple repairs within a “reasonable timescale”.
It also said it had failed to “proactively manage repairs” despite being aware at an early stage of the delays the resident and his young family were experiencing.
The resident lived in the third-floor property from 2019 to 2021, with “unsafe” and rotting windows, the report said.
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“This also affected the warmth in the property, which the landlord acknowledged (i.e. freezing during the winter periods) and it was also an ongoing hazard and source of concern due to young children in the property that was also on the third floor of the building,” the report added.
It took the council 15 months to act on a roof leak, which caused the resident problems with cooking.
Repairs to a smoke detector in the flat took 18 months, when it should have been resolved within five days, the ombudsman said.
The resident reported mould in the flat, but this took eight to 10 months to fix, the ombudsman said.
The ombudsman also found maladministration for the council’s complaint-handling, as the resident chased responses and relied on the ombudsman’s intervention.
Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said Hammersmith and Fulham Council had “repeatedly failed” in its repair obligations to the resident.
“Throughout the case, there was a lack of satisfactory completion records and an absence of evidence to show the landlord’s reasonable investigation into reports of continued issues,” he said.
“The resident and his young family has experienced distress and inconvenience, living with health and safety hazards during the duration of the outstanding repairs.”
Among its demands, the ombudsman told the local authority it must apologise to the resident, pay £1,050 in compensation and conduct a “senior management review” of the case and repairs communications more generally.
In response, the council said it accepted the ombudsman’s decision “unconditionally”, and among the actions it has taken is launching a specialist leak-management team.
“We fully acknowledge that we failed to respond to and address the repairs needed in the family’s home and did not resolve them in a timely manner,” it said.
“We have made a direct, sincere and unreserved apology, which has been accepted. The family has acknowledged they are content with the resolution the council has already provided.”
It added: “We continue to improve all aspects of our repairs service and have made improvements to our complaints handling, which directly addresses the valuable feedback and findings we received from the Housing Ombudsman service.
“We reviewed the family’s experience thoroughly to ensure we learnt from this case and are working with our delivery partners to develop process improvements that will mitigate against future service failures of a similar nature.”
Last month, the council revealed it was considering bringing its entire housing management service in-house to improve the quality of service.
