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Ombudsman issues special report over repairs ‘maladministration’ at large association
Large housing association Metropolitan Thames Valley failed to comply with an order to carry out maintenance, the Housing Ombudsman has said in a rare and scathing ‘special report’.
In the report, published this morning, the ombudsman said it found “maladministration” at the housing association in November 2017 in relation to maintenance at one housing block.
At the time, it said, it ordered Metropolitan Thames Valley to provide more information to the resident who had complained, pay compensation and carry out the maintenance by 1 April last year.
The 57,000-home association carried out the first two orders but failed to finish the works before the deadline, according to the Housing Ombudsman’s report.
The unusual action of a formal written report comes at a moment when the regulation of tenant services sits sharply in the political spotlight.
The government has promised sharper teeth for the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), and is due to publish a white paper this year.
Meanwhile Grenfell survivors have asked the government to go further and set up a specific regulator to police tenant services.
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The ombudsman resolves disputes between tenants and landlords – both social and private. Talks over how its role interacts with the RSH have been underway since 2017.
In October last year, the ombudsman met with Metropolitan Thames Valley to discuss its non-compliance with the order.
This was shortly after Metropolitan and Thames Valley completed their merger, which it says will help it to increase development to 2,000 homes a year.
According to the report, the association said that the delay had been caused by “procurement and personnel difficulties” and confirmed that works were underway.
Metropolitan Thames Valley acknowledged that failing to comply with this order “had caused further distress and inconvenience to the individual complainant and to the other residents in the block affected”.
Interim Housing Ombudsman Andrea Keenoy said: “It is important that residents have confidence in our service so, in those rare situations where a landlord does not comply with our orders, we must make sure they are held accountable for that non-compliance.
“Following a meeting with Metropolitan, I am pleased to report that they responded positively by providing confirmation that the works were underway and carrying out a wider review to learn from the outcomes.”
A spokesperson from Metropolitan Thames Valley said: “We regret this previous non-compliance and are working hard to fully address it, in line with our revised timescales.
“As outlined in the report, we have responded positively to the ombudsman, with outstanding work underway and a review undertaken to learn from the outcomes of this case.”
It is compulsory for social landlords to sign up for the Housing Ombudsman Service, but the ombudsman has issued relatively few public reports on them over the years.
Nevertheless, it has been part of the ongoing increase in focus on tenant engagement, with complaints to the Housing Ombudsman rising by 16% in 2017/18.
