The Housing Ombudsman has reported 'severe maladministration' by the London Borough of Ealing's complaint handling after a resident experienced lengthy and frustrating delays getting a response to her complaint.

The damning findings published yesterday held the landlord, London Borough of Ealing, accountable for severe maladministration in its response to an Ealing resident's reports about water coming into her flat and the repairs carried out.

The resident filed a complaint in 2019 that she had been affected by extreme mould throughout her flat for a number of years.

This was despite the roof being identified by the landlord, London Borough of Ealing, in 2015 as in need of replacement following an inspection.

The landlord said the roof replacement would be included in its next planned programme of works but that temporary work would be completed to address the roof leak causing damp.

The resident complained that the temporary work was of a poor standard and about ongoing dampness and the impact on the property, her health and her finances.

The Housing Ombudsman report stated that the landlord's response to the complaint focused on the single issue of the roof replacement works delay, referring to procurement issues and then COVID-19 related issues, however it failed to address the other problems raised by the resident.

The landlord also failed to escalate the complaint, as requested by the resident, resulting in an unsuccessful complaints process.

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Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: "It is clear that the resident experienced a significant detriment over an extended period of her time.

"She encountered significant difficulty in progressing her complaint, even with our assistance, and did not receive a final response at any point.

"The landlord's consideration of her complaint lacked customer focus. The fact that it chose to narrow the focus of the complaint just on the delay in the programme of works was a missed opportunity to address the resident's points of dissatisfaction and resulted in a deterioration in the landlord and resident relationship."

He added that the timeframe of approximately six-years which the resident had to wait for the temporary repairs and roofing works is 'not reasonable' and welcomed the opportunity the landlord has taken to learn lessons from this complaint.

The London Borough of Ealing commented: "Whilst we are disappointed at the persistent failure of service execution that have led to the Ombudsman's determination of maladministration,we welcome this as an opportunity to learn lessons, review our working practices, and put in place new measures to ensure there is not a repeat of the issues identified in this case.

"With water ingress first identified in 2015, temporary repairs were made whilst a full replacement of the roof was planned to take place in 2018 as part of the Council's major works programme.

"Due to procurement issues the Council was unable to call on contractors to carry out these types of works until 2020. In the interim, we were only able to carry out responsive 'patch' repairs in response to further reports of water ingress."

They stated the improvements put in place / plan to implement which include;

• A new streamlined and efficient two-stage corporate complaints procedure, mediated by a bespoke IT system, giving better oversight of complaints trends, enhanced quality checks of responses and an improved customer experience.  

• A planned programme of cyclical major works is now in place, with two contractors appointed in 2021 to carry out the programme based on our Stock Condition Survey. 

• A fully fledged patch management system in place for surveyors. 

• Plans to move to more proactive working practices, including the implementation of automated flagging of repeated responsive repairs, renewed emphasis on post-inspections, and more active monitoring of interim repairs pending major works.