An Ealing resident had "expressed suicidal thoughts' after waiting three years for Ealing Council to repair a leak in their home.

The latest Housing Ombudsman report on 'learning from severe maladministration' reveals that Ealing Council was ordered to pay £3,700 in compensation for its handling of a leak and damage to a property.

The female resident, who is unnamed and referred to as case 202214396, had to constantly "chase" her landlord (Ealing Council) for three years to repair the leak in her home.

In its report, the Ombudsman states: "Its [the landlord's] 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 social housing watchdog also found that Ealing Council did not handle the case appropriately after it was made aware that the resident expressed suicidal thoughts.

"The resident had expressed suicidal thoughts, and the landlord did not treat the situation seriously," says The Housing Ombudsman.

"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."

Aside from paying the resident £3,700 in compensation, the landlord was ordered to provide a written apology to them.

The Housing Ombudsman adds: "In its learning from this case, the landlord says it has rehoused the family and has made changes to processes such as appointing a second repairs contractor to improve timescales, adopted a new complaints approach and commissioned new software to document all property inspections and allow for better reporting."

This report comes as the Ombudsman finds that landlord's responses to leaks, and the resulting damp and mould is a significant driver of complaints to the organisation.  

It says that leaks are complex to deal with and the report highlights 27 different landlords with failings in this area.

The Ombudsman believe the sector should be handling leaks more effectively under obligations in the Landlord and Tenant Act and the introduction of Awaab's Law will require proactive and timely resolution.  

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. 

"These cases also reveal in stark terms that some landlords are not ready for Awaab's Law and how widely variable landlord policy and practice can be, which is neither desirable nor sustainable." 

Ealing Council says last year it dealt with 16,000 maintenance jobs in its tenant's homes (credit: Ealing Council).

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 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."

To read the full report, click here

We want to provide Ealing with more and more clickbait-free local news. To do that, we need a loyal newsletter following. Help us survive and sign up for our free weekly newsletter by clicking the link HERE.

Follow us on Facebook , Instagram and X to stay updated on the latest news in your area. Don't miss out!