A council has been ordered to pay a disabled tenant £3,200 for failing to deal with mould caused by a leak it took almost four months to fix.
The case has seen Arun District Council given its first ever finding of severe maladministration by the housing ombudsman.
The tenant first complained in December 2020 about the leak. According to the ombudsman’s report, he was left “collecting water in pots and pans” which, due to his disability, was “making him poorly”.
The resident complained about the leak twice more before it was fixed – 112 days before he first alerted them.
Urgent repairs are meant to be done within five working days, routine repairs within 20 days, and emergency repairs within two hours or make the property safe and schedule full repairs later.
The first complaint led to an inspection from the council and the second the council “would admit it never responded to”.
Then, the leak came back. In October 2021 water leaked from the roof into his electrical sockets and over four years his kitchen had been flooded ten times.
He also said in January 2023 he had been living outside of the property in the winter due to ‘the leak and mould’.
The ombudsman said: “In summary [the council] failed to act in accordance with its repairs handbook and guidance on its website for managing damp and mould.
“It was aware of the resident’s vulnerabilities yet failed to respond to the resident’s concerns about damp and mould even when he highlighted the impact it was having on health.
“It failed to fully consider the time and trouble, anxiety, stress, and uncertainty it caused to the resident through its poor handling of the repairs to the property.
“The resident said he had lived with ‘four years of unacceptable failures’ and his son had not been able to visit him during the whole period due to the leak. He said he was housebound and had to breathe in black mould spores.”
The roof was replaced in October 2023, but following further complaints of leaks had to be repaired again in May 2024, after which the ombudsman said the resident was happy with the outcome of the repairs.
Arun District Council (ADC) was ordered by the ombudsman to pay the tenant £3,200 within four weeks of the decision as a result of the severe maladministration findings.
It was also required to issue a written apology from a senior member of staff for the failings, implement a review into its housing service and provide training for staff around complaint handling if they had not already done so within the last 12 months.
The ombudsman’s report was issued to the council and the tenant in July. Ombudsman reports are made public about three months after being issued to complainants.
The findings were heard by members of the council’s housing and wellbeing committee at its meeting on Thursday, November 21, as part of a report on complaints handling.
From July 1 to September 30 this year, the committee report said as well as the severe maladministration finding, the ombudsman had outlined, across five cases, seven findings of maladministration, four service failures and two issues of reasonable redress.
The ombudsman said the council had acknowledged in 2023 its complaints process had ‘let the resident down’, implementing a new policy in 2023 partially to address its failures.
ADC also introduced a new four-year resident engagement strategy in 2022 to help it gain feedback from residents to improve its housing service.
It also changed its housing repairs contractors in 2023 to address high levels of voids in its housing stock and lagging repair times compared to its key performance goals.
Richard Tomkinson, the council’s group head of housing, said: “We’ve done a full review in respect of the case that resulted in severe maladministration to ensure no repeat of circumstances which gave rise to the findings.
“All the orders and recommendations (by the ombudsman), have been complied with.”
He added that although a separate report by the ombudsman had shown the maladministration rate in ADC had increased from 67 per cent over 2022/23, to 83 per cent in 2023/24, the rate was still in line with other councils of a similar size.
Jackie Pendleton (Con, Middleton-on-Sea) asked Mr Tomkinson at the committee meeting if there were any other ‘historical cases’ the council was aware of that might ‘hit’ the council in the future.
Mr Tomkinson said he would have to check the council’s complaints tracker, but said the ombudsman had been ‘catching up’ with a backlog of complaints from 2020 onwards.
A spokesperson from the council said: “Arun District Council takes this first severe maladministration finding extremely seriously and has complied with all orders related to it, including a full review of why the failings occurred.
“Although determined by the Housing Ombudsman in July 2024, the case relates to matters which gave rise to a complaint in April 2021 and significant improvements in process and policy have been implemented since that time.”
