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Ombudsman reveals latest landlords to be hit with complaint-handling failures
The Housing Ombudsman has named the latest landlords to be hit with complaint-handling failures following a record number of orders being issued during the past quarter.
A total of 32 complaint-handling failure orders were issued between January and March 2022. This is more than any previous quarter and brings the total for the first full-year since they were introduced to 101.
The watchdog’s latest quarterly report revealed that 21 of the 32 orders were complied with, but there were 11 cases where cases were not complied with within the time period. This is the highest number of these cases in a quarter to date.
The 11 non-compliance orders were issued to seven providers, including four for Lambeth Council.
Of the 21 orders that were complied with, Catalyst alongside Islington, Southwark and Lewisham councils were named twice.
Large G15 landlords Peabody, Clarion and L&Q were among the other associations issued with a single compliance order.
Seven other councils were also named as part of the disclosure.
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The type of orders include landlords that had unreasonable delays in accepting or progressing a complaint through its process (Type 1) and unreasonable delays in providing information requested by the Housing Ombudsman (Type 2) (see tables below).
In addition, housing associations that failed to comply with their membership obligations were hit with a Type 3 order.
As a result, the ombudsman has called on landlords to properly resource and respect their complaint teams.
The purpose of a complaint-handling failure order is to ensure that an association’s complaint-handling process is accessible, consistent and enables the timely progression of complaints for residents, as set out in the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
The orders should also help landlords identify where their complaints procedure may need to be strengthened.
Across 2021-22, landlords complied with the orders in 81 cases and there were 20 cases of non-compliance.
The ombudsman said the issues identified over the past quarter highlighted the importance of the code, which was strengthened in March to include a requirement for landlords to complete an annual self-assessment against the code.
The watchdog said associations should consider the self-assessment as an important tool to assess whether their service is delivering a positive complaint-handling culture for their residents.
Landlords have until 1 October to become compliant with the strengthened code.
Below are three tables: Table one represents the landlords that have been hit with complaints and are currently at the ombudsman’s dispute support stage. Table two represents the complaints against landlords that are currently under the ombudsman’s formal investigation stage. Table three represents the orders that were issued where the landlord did not comply within target timescales.
Table 1: Complaints within the landlord’s complaints process
| Landlord | Date the order was issued | Order type |
Catalyst | 04/01/2022 | 1 |
Southwark Council | 04/01/2022 | 1 |
Peabody | 19/01/2022 | 1 |
| L&Q | 19/01/2022 | 1 |
| Notting Hill Genesis | 21/01/2022 | 1 |
| Catalyst | 23/01/2022 | 1 |
Swindon Council | 26/01/2022 | 1 |
Ealing Council | 26/01/2022 | 1 |
Islington Council | 26/01/2022 | 1 |
Park Hill Housing Co-operative | 28/01/2022 | 1 |
Cornwall Housing | 03/02/2022 | 1 |
Guildford Council | 07/02/2022 | 1 |
Camden Council | 11/02/2022 | 1 |
Barking & Dagenham Council | 14/02/2022 | 1 |
Birmingham Council | 08/03/2022 | 1 |
Lewisham Council | 09/03/2022 | 1 |
Southwark Council | 11/03/2022 | 1 |
Islington Council | 23/03/2022 | 1 |
Table 2: Complaints within the Housing Ombudsman’s formal investigation
| Landlord | Date the order was issued | Order type |
Lewisham Council | 23/02/2022 | 2 |
Clarion | 01/03/2022 | 2 |
Riverside | 24/03/2022 | 2 |
Table 3: Orders issued where the landlord did not comply within target timescale
| Landlord | Date the order was issued | Order type |
Greenwich Council | 12/01/2022 | 1 |
Lambeth Council | 14/01/2022 | 2 |
Lambeth Council | 01/02/2022 | 2 |
Lambeth Council | 01/02/2022 | 2 |
Orbit | 14/02/2022 | 1 |
Lambeth Council | 21/02/2022 | 1 |
| Greenwich Council | 24/02/2022 | 1 |
Westward | 01/03/2022 | 2 |
Lewisham Council | 05/03/2022 | 2 |
Ekarro Housing Co-operative | 17/03/2022 | 1 |
Birmingham Council | 23/03/2022 | 1 |
Responses from the landlords
Inside Housing has contacted all of the social landlords that were issued with orders of non-compliance, here are their responses:
Lambeth Council spokesperson: “Lambeth has been working intensively with the Housing Ombudsman over several months to resolve the issues he [Richard Blakeway] has raised with us. As a result, the ombudsman has asked us to share our experiences in terms of the improvements we have put in place and to also attend their leadership team meetings to highlight the partnership as an example of best practice.
“We expect to receive confirmation soon that, as a result of our improvements and engagement, our responsiveness and compliance is where it should be.
“By focusing on the themes and insights raised by the ombudsman, we ensure we are continually listening to our customers and ensuring we learn valuable lessons along the way.
“Lambeth has more than 33,000 council homes and our priority is ensuring all of these are safe and well maintained for our tenants. We have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in improving our council homes and estates in recent years, in line with the Lambeth Housing Standard.
“We work very hard to resolve our tenants’ concerns quickly and comprehensively. We will continue to positively engage with the ombudsman and we are committed to tackling any issues raised to ensure that we provide the best possible service for all our tenants.”
Greenwich Council spokesperson: “We are disappointed that the ombudsman has issued Royal Borough of Greenwich with two complaint-handling failure orders for delays in responding to formal complaints, but we accept their findings are complying fully with their recommendations and requests for information.
“In both cases, our teams maintained regular communication with the affected residents.
“We also continue to work towards resolving all issues that have been raised. We have also been reviewing our approach to complaint-handling and have set up a project team to deliver a range of improvements to the service over the next six months – this will include an increased oversight of complaint-handling as well as learning from where we have made mistakes or failed to meet our resident expectations.”
Orbit spokesperson: “We recognise that on this one occasion, we did not respond to the Housing Ombudsman within the timescale set.
“However, in the past 12 months we have used customer feedback to transform our end-to-end complaints process and were pleased to see a 37% reduction in the number of ombudsman referrals in the past 12 months and a 55% decrease in adverse findings.”
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