Major landlord ordered to pay nearly £11,000 in compensation to residents

In another case, the watchdog found two counts of severe maladministration for how the landlord responded to a damp and mould complaint, as well as the associated complaint-handling.

It said Clarion failed to act quickly to a resident’s complaints of damp and mould in two bedrooms, while she experienced “significant” difficulty in getting it to acknowledge concerns about the fabric of the building. 

The ombudsman said Clarion’s responses often “lacked empathy and put the onus on changing her lifestyle”.

The resident contacted her MP for help as Clarion’s communication continued to be poor, and she described feeling suicidal. 

The ombudsman ordered for a senior member of the Clarion’s management team to apologise in person, £5,000 to be paid in compensation, and an investigation and response to the resident’s reports of discrimination and racial bias.

In another case, the watchdog found severe maladministration after Clarion failed to take all the steps it should have to investigate and resolve the damp and mould issues, causing a resident and her family “significant distress”.

The resident said as a result of the disrepair, she has been unable to use a bedroom and has provided medical evidence referring to her housing situation possibly exacerbating her children’s medical conditions.

Although Clarion made some attempts to resolve the issue, “the fact it remained ongoing for so long meant there was an obvious need to do more”, the watchdog said. 

It ordered the landlord to appoint an independent external damp and mould specialist to undertake a thorough and rigorous assessment of the property, including the exterior walls and ventilation, as well as pay £1,200 in compensation and assign someone in the organisation to be her single point of contact for all communications.

Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said: “In these cases, residents had to go to extraordinary lengths for the landlord to take action, which should not have been necessary.

“There is also evidence of the landlord failing to join the dots or having similar points of failure, especially in the cases where there were multiple related complaints from the same block.

“Running throughout these cases is evidence of delay, poor communication and ineffective action.

“There were multiple instances in these cases where it would not have been too late to rectify the situation for the resident and repair the relationship between them and the landlord. However, these opportunities were also missed.

“Complaints about leaks, damp and mould have increased significantly in the past year and these cases show where landlords can make decisive changes to improve its service for residents.

“With the wet weather and storms impacting homes over the festive period, we are urging landlords to take any reports of leaks and damp seriously, take responsive action and ensure residents feel they are being treated with respect and empathy.”

Clarion’s full statement in response to the findings is included below. 

A Clarion spokesperson told Inside Housing: “We sincerely apologise for the failings in our service in these cases. 

“All three cases predate the new leaks, condensation, damp and mould action plan we launched in December 2022. 

“Our new approach has seen every member of staff undertake damp and mould training, we have new processes in place to check for and record any health issues or vulnerabilities and our teams now have new technology that can be used to detect damp and mould, taking a ‘property first’ approach to help us diagnose the root cause. 

“We have also hired 100 additional staff to help tackle the issue.”