The Housing Ombudsman has named Ealing Council among 27 landlords in a report it has released concerning severe maladministration over how the landlords responded to leaks and the impact it has on tenants.
The Ombudsman criticised Labour-run Ealing Council over the way it handled a leak over a period of three years which caused damage to the residents personal property as well as impacting their lives.
In the ‘leararning from severe maladministration’ report’, the Ombudsman said of Ealing Council: “Its communications with the resident were poor throughout which led to her having to constantly chase and re-report the leak. There were also multiple instances of the landlord not being able to retrieve or know what the issues were in the home and therefore asking the resident again for information.
“The resident had expressed suicidal thoughts, and the landlord did not treat the situation seriously. The landlord said it had called the police out of concern for the resident’s welfare, however, it does not appear to have followed this up, or to have taken any other safeguarding steps.
“The Ombudsman ordered the landlord’s Chief Executive to provide a written apology, to pay £3,700 in compensation and for the landlord to work with the resident over damaged possessions and either reimburse her directly or pursue a case with its insurer.”
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman said: “Leaks can be complex and challenging. These cases show how leaks can also cause acute distress and disruption to families and the sector needs to be more consistent and robust in response.
“There are common strands of learning from these cases and various moments when the landlord could have taken decisive action to make things right for the resident and restore trust in its ability to resolve these issues.
“Too often the basics are not being done right in these cases and that compounds what is already a complex area to deal with. Landlords must identify these key touchpoints during the lifetime of these cases, and act appropriately to mitigate the impact on families and households.”
Councillor Gary Malcolm, leader of Ealing Liberal Democrats told EALING.NEWS: “Labour-run Ealing Council has been failing residents for many years, leaving many tenants living in hell with leaks, mould, damp issues and long standing problems. Lib Dems would sort these out and be better at prioritising the most urgent issues first.”
Speaking to EALING.NEWS, an Ealing Council spokesperson said: “Keeping our residents safe and well in their homes is a top priority for us. No-one should have to live with a leak in their home, and we are sorry that some of our tenants have had to wait a substantial time for repairs to their homes.
“With more than 9,000 socially rented homes to manage, repairs are a major area of work for us, and last year we did roughly 16,000 maintenance jobs on our residents’ homes. But like many social landlords, we are still struggling with a backlog which dates back to the pandemic.
“We are prioritising the most important cases and in the last six months we have cleared a large number of jobs from the backlog. We have also made a raft of changes to our processes. We have appointed two new repairs contractors and a new repairs manager to help improve our response times.
“We have also commissioned new software to document all property inspections and allow better reporting, and we are currently undertaking wide ranging surveys of our entire housing stock, to help us better understand where problems are likely to occur so we can tackle them before our residents are affected.”
