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Swindon Borough Council (202324022)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202324022

Swindon Borough Council

14 April 2025


Our approach

The Housing Ombudsman’s approach to investigating and determining complaints is to decide what is fair in all the circumstances of the case. This is set out in the Housing Act 1996 and the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). The Ombudsman considers the evidence and looks to see if there has been any ‘maladministration’, for example whether the landlord has failed to keep to the law, followed proper procedure, followed good practice or behaved in a reasonable and competent manner.

Both the resident and the landlord have submitted information to the Ombudsman and this has been carefully considered. Their accounts of what has happened are summarised below. This report is not an exhaustive description of all the events that have occurred in relation to this case, but an outline of the key issues as a background to the investigation’s findings.

The complaint

  1. The landlord’s handling of bathroom repairs relating to damp and mould.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a local council. He has lived at the property since 2016.
  2. The resident reported that there was damp on his bathroom walls and ceiling on 22 November 2022. No evidence has been provided of the events following this report until the stage 1 complaint on 31 May 2023. He said that the extractor fan in his bathroom was not working, which was causing damage to the bathroom decoration. He explained that he had reported this to the landlord through its website and email, but it had taken no action. He requested the landlord inspect his bathroom and arrange repairs.
  3. The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 2 June 2023. It said it had asked its contractor to contact the resident to arrange repairs to the bathroom. The landlord completed a damp and mould survey on 9 June 2023, which identified repairs were needed to the bathroom extractor fan and decorations. The resident escalated his complaint on 30 August 2023. He said that no work had been carried out.
  4. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 22 September 2023. It said it had raised a work order to improve the bathroom ventilation. It also said it had booked a job to scrape back the paint in the bathroom. It explained that once it had completed this work, it would redecorate the bathroom walls.
  5. The resident asked us to investigate his complaint on 15 November 2023. He said that the landlord had replaced his bathroom extractor fan but not repaired the damage to the bathroom walls. The landlord told us that it completed the decorative repair of the bathroom in July 2024. The resident confirmed to us that the landlord completed the repair. He requested that the landlord provide him with a written apology for the delay in it completing the work.

Assessment and findings

Policy and procedure.

  1. The landlord’s maintenance and repairs policy states that for emergency repairs, it will attend and make safe within 2 hours. For urgent repairs, it will complete these the next working day and it will complete non-urgent repairs within 40 working days.

The landlord’s handling of bathroom repairs relating to damp and mould.

  1. When investigating a complaint, the Ombudsman must first consider whether a failing on the part of the landlord occurred and, if so, whether this led to any adverse effect or detriment to the resident. If it is found that a failing did lead to an adverse effect, the investigation will then consider whether the landlord has taken enough action to ‘put things right’ and ‘learn from outcomes.’
  2. The evidence shows that the resident reported damp on the bathroom walls and ceilings on 22 November 2022. The landlord’s records do not show that it took any action regarding this until it completed a damp and mould survey on 9 June 2023. This survey identified that a humidity controlled extractor fan was required. It also found that mould treatment and redecoration was required. The landlord has provided no evidence explaining the nearly 7 months of inaction between November 2022 and June 2023. Given the unexplained length of time to complete an inspection and the landlord’s repair timescales, the time taken was excessive and unreasonable.
  3. The landlord completed work to the extractor fan in October 2023, and the bathroom decoration work in July 2024. This was approximately 13 months after it identified this work the previous year. As with its initial delay, the landlord provided no explanation for the length of time taken to complete this work between October 2023 and July 2024.
  4. The landlord explained that it “regretted” the resident’s dissatisfaction with its first complaint response, but did not identify its significantly delayed repair work or apologise for it. It also incorrectly referred him to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if he wanted to escalate his complaint, rather than the Housing Ombudsman.
  5. Overall, there was a significant delay in the landlord taking action to inspect the resident’s bathroom and to then complete the repairs identified. The delays caused the resident inconvenience and frustration. The landlord failed to identify its poor handling of the work in its complaint responses, meaning the resident’s complaint remained unresolved and the landlord did not put things right or learn from the outcomes.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of bathroom repairs related to damp and mould.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord must:
    1. Pay the resident compensation of £500 for the failures identified within this report.
    2. Provide the resident with a written apology.
  2. Within 8 weeks, the landlord must review this case to identify what learning it can take to prevent similar repair failings occurring in the future. Evidence of its findings must be provided to the Ombudsman and the resident.
  3. Evidence of compliance with these orders must be provided to the Service by their respective deadlines.