Watchdog Fines Ealing Council Over Bungled Repairs
Took over nine months to sort out leak in tenant's flat
June 19, 2023
Ealing Council has been ordered to pay over £1,200 in compensation to a resident after it was found to that it had mishandled complaints, leaving repair work outstanding. The Housing Ombudsman has ruled that the council was guilty of ‘severe maladministration’ following a nine-month delay in repairs to fix a leak in a 6th-floor flat.
The complaint was made by residents who said that the leak was coming from the flat above. Once the issue was reported, the Council visited both flats making insufficient repairs prompting the resident to report the problem as still ongoing and making a follow-up complaint two months later.
Despite requests for updates, the resident, who is considered vulnerable, hadn’t received any information from the Labour-run council, only being notified of the state of their complaint after six months when the Ombudsman intervened.
In a summary of the Ombudsman’s report, it read, “We have found severe maladministration for Ealing Council after a nine-month delay in its complaint handling left repairs outstanding and the resident without redress. We were forced to issue a Complaint Handling Failure Order to get the council to issue a response.”
The summary adds that the response that the council was forced to issue was found to be ‘inadequate’, escalating the complaint and eventually resulting in the Ombudsman ordering Ealing Council to pay £1,225 in compensation to the resident.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said, “The fact we’ve had to intervene on numerous occasions during this complaint is undeniably unacceptable. The Complaint Handling Code is there to support landlords to deliver an effective complaints procedure. The timescales are clear markers for landlords to ensure residents are listened to and their concerns dealt with promptly.
“As the Complaint Handling Code becomes statutory under the Social Housing Regulation Bill, we will be exercising our powers a lot more in this area.”
Ealing Council has said that it has now overhauled its complaints handling process and is seeking a new contractor to improve services for residents.
Rory Bennett - Local Democracy Reporter