The Housing Ombudsman has ordered Clarion to pay £10,800 in compensation to households after it made four findings of severe maladministration across three cases, one being a west London resident.

In its report, the Housing Ombudsman refers to the west London resident as 'Case A' where Clarion Housing Association failed to rectify leaks reported by the resident for five years, causing her a high level of "distress" and "inconvenience".

The Ombudsman ordered the landlord to pay the resident £4,400 in compensation, have a director apologise to the resident and to review how oversight and engagement with third parties could be improved to avoid the inconsistencies in responding to different residents.

About the case, the Ombudsman said: "Whilst leaks can be tricky to fix first time, a point also acknowledged by the West London resident herself, this does not excuse the length of time taken to resolve the issue. On top of this, the resident spent a lot of time and effort chasing for responses and action."

Another reason the landlord used to explain the delay was correspondence with the developer. However, this only happened years after the resident moved into the property and did not account for the majority of the delays experienced.

The landlord also did not appear to manage her repair consistently or in the same way as it did other reported leaks within the same block. Which meant the resident had a vastly different outcome to her neighbours, who had similar issues resolved in a much timelier manner.

"This was not appropriate and calls into question the landlord's ability to identify core issues being raised", said the Ombudsman.

It added: "The offer of compensation to the resident within its complaint response was insufficient and a further 12 months passed after this before the leak was finally resolved. Compounding the failings."

Clarion Housing Association says it has taken on new Service Level Agreements which would see that if a contractor or developer doesn't fix the issue, the landlord will rectify the issue itself and levy costs afterwards.

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