Special investigation launched into large landlord after six severe maladministration findings

The operative did not want to install the hatch, due to the size of the roof space and potential fire safety implications. This was eight months after the resident reported the issue.

After not hearing anything for four months, the Chippenham resident chased the landlord again, which said it would arrange an inspection. This never happened. It was left to the resident to make contact again, another four months later.

When the landlord did inspect the home a month later, it did not know how to address the issue and therefore said it would come back to the resident.

The resident then got in touch with the ombudsman after hearing nothing back regarding her stage-one complaint or queries to the local authority’s environmental health team. 

The ombudsman said: “It was unreasonable that the landlord did not follow up on the environmental health team’s recommendations for how to treat the issue.”

The landlord had fitted the hatch in the ceiling after the resident contacted the ombudsman, but no works to deal with the infestation had taken place. Works remained outstanding 31 months after the issue was first reported.

As a result, the landlord was ordered to carry out the works and rid the home of rats, apologise to the resident and pay £1,250 in compensation.

The landlord was also asked to review its staff’s training needs regarding its responsive repairs policy’s timescales in relation to pest infestations. 

In Case B, the ombudsman made three findings of severe maladministration for how GreenSquareAccord handled a noise nuisance case, the associated complaint-handling and its record-keeping.

After a Birmingham resident reported noise to the landlord, it initially responded appropriately. But by the second report, the landlord opened an anti-social behaviour (ASB) case, despite the resident saying she knew it was not deliberate and that she was simply seeking some soundproofing.

GreenSquareAccord did not conduct a risk assessment or start an action plan, and despite the resident’s vulnerabilities, it was not proactive in offering support and monitoring the situation. 

The resident often had to chase the landlord for updates. It took seven months from the initial report for the landlord to comment on the outcome of the noise-app recordings she had taken, only for the landlord to tell her the noise did not meet ASB thresholds.

During the complaint, the landlord’s correspondence with the resident was often heavy-handed and unsympathetic, the ombudsman found, and it failed to take a victim-centred approach. This contributed to a breakdown of trust between the resident and her housing officer.

The ombudsman also found severe maladministration for how the landlord handled the complaint and for record-keeping.

This was the result of GreenSquare Accord not issuing a stage-two response and for failing to record the resident’s vulnerabilities, alongside failing to demonstrate all its interactions with the resident while putting the onus on her to keep a written record of her contact with it.

In this instance, the landlord’s chief executive was ordered to apologise to the resident, pay £1,700 in compensation and carry out a full review of its staff training on its ASB policy and procedure, with particular focus on the use of risk assessments and action plans.

In Case C, there was a double severe maladministration finding for how the landlord handled repairs during a void stage and then how it handled its repairs obligations once a resident had moved in.

There was little evidence that a proper inspection of the home had been carried out. The boiler not working sufficiently, issues in the wet room and a broken toilet cistern were among the works needed when the resident moved in.

The landlord had noted a need for roof repairs, but there was no evidence about when this would be fixed or communication with the resident about it.

This was particularly concerning for the Corsham resident, because of her vulnerabilities, which included mobility issues.

The landlord also failed to address repair issues reported by the resident, and in some cases categorised them incorrectly. 

There were issues with the boiler and although some repairs appointments were attended within timescales, the provision of temporary heaters was outside the 24-hour window required for this action to be taken. 

Records show that the parts needed for the boiler were not ordered promptly. Therefore, the resident had to be shown how to restart the boiler manually from the garden. The ombudsman said this was inappropriate, due to her vulnerability.

Additionally, the resident had to lay flooring in the kitchen at her own expense when the landlord did not do this during the void period, and other repairs that were required were all scheduled outside the timescales set out in its repairs policy.

The ombudsman said: “Given these should have been completed during the void period, these repairs were excessively delayed and was an unreasonable response from the landlord in the circumstances.”

The landlord’s chief executive was ordered to apologise, pay almost £3,000 in compensation and review its procedures for the handling of void-period repairs, general repairs and tenancy changes.

Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said: “In all three of these cases, the landlord failed to fulfil some of its basic responsibilities, which resulted in evident detriment to its residents. 

“There are common failings across these cases. On multiple occasions, there were excessive delays and communication was often poor, with resident reports being ignored or them left in the dark about the actions the landlord would be taking. The landlord failed to follow its own policies or handle complaints effectively and in line with our code, and, in one case, inadequate record-keeping. 

“A number of these issues arose following its merger between two substantial housing associations – a wider issue for the sector we highlighted in our Spotlight report on Knowledge and Information Management.”

GreenSquare and Accord Housing Association merged in April 2021 to create a new 25,000-home housing and care organisation.

Mr Blakeway added: “We have decided that we will be opening a special investigation into the landlord. We will present the findings of that report following an in-depth look at some of the issues the landlord is facing and I welcome its ongoing engagement with this process.”

In its learning from these cases, the landlord said the issues the ombudsman had dealt with reflected the ongoing challenges it faced after its merger, when it was still agreeing a single process for handling complaints and bringing together its operational services.

Ruth Cooke, chief executive of GreenSquareAccord, said: “We take complaints very seriously and we are sorry the customers involved in these cases did not receive the level of service they should have. 

“We have fully complied with the Housing Ombudsman’s orders in each case and taken learnings from them forward. This includes apologising to the customers, compensating them, completing any follow-up work required, and updating our policies and procedures. 

“We now have a much more robust complaints-handling process and many of the challenges identified in these cases are now either resolved or are in the process of being resolved.”

Ms Cooke said the landlord had also conducted its own internal investigation to review what it would do differently and test whether the changes it had made go far enough.

She added: “We continually review and learn from complaints, and we now run regular sessions to share detailed learnings from all complaints with colleagues to help to avoid cases like this in the future.”

The association said it welcomed the opportunity to share the progress it had made to address these issues and how it would drive further improvements as part of its long-term strategy.