Wandle Housing Association Limited (202429613)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202429613

Wandle Housing Association Limited

30 May 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 complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of roof repairs and damage to a bedroom wall.
2. The Ombudsman has also considered the associated complaint handling.

Background

3. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, of a 3-bedroom house. The resident informed us that she has a medical condition that is made worse by stress.
4. On 9 August 2023, the resident reported that her bedroom wall was crumbling due to a leak. The resident raised a complaint about the landlord’s handling of her repair reports on 8 April 2024. She said:
   1. it took 2 months for the landlord to schedule an appointment after she initially reported the repairs in August 2023.
   2. the operative who attended advised that a roofing contractor was required to inspect the roof, but the landlord had not contacted her about this.
   3. the landlord scheduled an appointment for the crack in the bedroom to be repaired which the operative attended, despite the resident asking for the date to be changed.
   4. every time it rained, water ran down her walls.
   5. the landlord needed to arrange for a roofer to fix the roof before the internal damage could be made good.
   6. the landlord should complete the job and compensate her for the stress caused.
5. The landlord responded at stage 1 on 18 April 2024. It said:
   1. a job had not been raised on its system for roof repairs and the only job raised was for repairs to internal damage caused by the leak.
   2. it had raised a job for the roofers to attend and a further job would be raised for internal repairs once the roof was fixed.
   3. it apologised that the roof repairs were not raised sooner.
6. The resident contacted the landlord on 23 April 2024. She said the repairs job had been ongoing since last year and nothing had been done until now. The resident said she had been chasing the landlord about the issue. She said she wanted the complaint to be escalated to the final stage.
7. The resident emailed the landlord again on 23 May 2024 and said that the roof works were completed 2 weeks prior. She stated the crack in the wall had not been rectified, but the landlord had marked the repair as complete. She said she tried to escalate the complaint but the landlord had not responded to her request.
8. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 30 July 2024. It said:
   1. following the 31 October 2023 repairs appointment, the repair was marked as completed without follow up repairs being arranged.
   2. it had demonstrated poor communication throughout the repair journey and the problem had been left unresolved for too long.
   3. its policy states repairs should be resolved within 28 days, but the repairs fell far outside of that.
   4. it offered £500 compensation, made up as:
      1. £400 for the unnecessary delays to the repair and its poor communication.
      2. £100 for the delay in escalating complaint.
9. In August 2024, the resident raised a further complaint that the landlord had still not resolved the repairs. On 1 October 2024, the resident raised further dissatisfaction that an operative attended a repairs appointment despite her asking the landlord to re-schedule the visit. The landlord issued a further stage 1 response on 3 October 2024. It said:
   1. an appointment was scheduled for 21 October 2024 to carry out an inspection and any follow-on works would then be scheduled.
   2. it apologised for miscommunication regarding the resident’s request for the repairs appointment to be re-scheduled. 
10. The resident contacted the landlord on 23 October 2024 and said she wanted to escalate her complaint. The resident said that the delay in completing the repairs had caused stress and affected her health. She said that the compensation offered was insufficient given the time, stress and frustration she had endured.
11. The landlord responded to the resident on the same date and said that the stage 2 response sent in July 2024 was its final formal response to the complaint and the resident had exhausted the complaints process.
12. The resident referred her complaint to the Ombudsman on 1 November 2024. On 25 February 2025, she said that the roof was still leaking and causing damage and damp and mould to the bedroom wall. The resident said the issue was impacting her health and she had been sleeping downstairs due to the bedroom not being habitable.
13. On 19 May 2025, the resident told us that the issues remained ongoing and that the landlord had not undertaken any further repairs to the roof or bedroom wall. The resident said the issue had caused her stress which had made her medical condition worse. She said that in order to resolve her complaint, the landlord should repair the roof and wall and pay additional compensation.

Assessment and findings

14. The landlord’s repairs policy states it will respond to routine repairs within 28 days.
15. The resident reported the leak which had caused damage to the bedroom wall on 9 August 2023. The landlord scheduled a repairs appointment for 31 October 2023. There was therefore a delay in the landlord responding to the repair, which was outside of the 28-day timeframe set out in the landlord’s repairs policy, which was a failing. The operative’s notes of this visit states that a roofing contractor needed to attend to inspect the issue. It is unclear whether works to the bedroom wall were completed at this stage.
16. The landlord did not arrange for the roofing contractor to attend following the October 2023 visit. In its stage 1 response, the landlord said it had only raised repairs for the internal damage, not for the roof leak. This was a further failing by the landlord to respond to the repairs in accordance with its repairs policy. The failing resulted in lengthy delays in the leak being inspected and repaired. Further, it appears that the landlord only raised a job for the roofing contractor to attend after the resident raised her complaint, which was unreasonable. The roofing contractor attended on 8 May 2024 and documented that it had carried out roof repairs.
17. On 23 May 2024, the resident emailed the landlord and said roof repairs had been carried out, but it had not rectified the crack in the bedroom wall. In a further email on 9 July 2024, the resident again raised that the landlord had not scheduled an appointment to repair the wall.
18. In its stage 2 response, the landlord identified failings regarding its handling of the resident’s reports of a leak. However, it did not refer specifically to when it would repair the internal damage to the wall, which it ought to have done. On 15 August 2024, the resident contacted the landlord and said she had been waiting for over a year for the issue to be resolved.
19. The landlord arranged a repairs appointment which took place on 21 October 2024. The operative noted that another trade was required to repair the plasterboard and paint the wall. However, there is no indication that the landlord scheduled these repairs and the issue remains ongoing. This indicates a significant delay in the landlord resolving the internal damage and is a further failing.
20. While the evidence indicates that a roofing contractor fixed the roof, the resident’s correspondence with the landlord in October 2024, after the stage 2 response, reflects that a further inspection of the roof is required. It is unclear whether the May 2024 repair resulted in a temporary fix or whether the roof leak had been ongoing since this visit.
21. The failings identified in this report amount to maladministration by the landlord. Where there are failings by a landlord, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider suitable remedies in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes.
22. The resident experienced distress and inconvenience due to the landlord’s handling of the repairs. She said that trying to resolve the issue had caused her stress, which resulted in her being unwell. It is clear that the resident also spent a significant amount of time chasing the landlord about the outstanding repairs.
23. At stage 2, the landlord appropriately identified failings in its handling of the roof repairs and made efforts to put things right by offering £400 compensation for unnecessary delays and poor communication. However, the amount of compensation offered is insufficient given the ongoing delays in the repairs being completed.
24. We have made an order below for the landlord to pay additional compensation to remedy the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident. The amount of compensation ordered is in accordance with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for financial redress for failures that had a significant impact on the resident. We have made a further order the landlord to address the outstanding repairs.

The landlord’s complaint handling

25. The landlord’s complaints policy states it will respond to stage 1 complaints within 10 days of them being acknowledged and it will acknowledge escalation requests within 5 working days and provide stage 2 responses within a further 20 working days.
26. No failing has been identified regarding the landlord’s response to the stage 1 response.
27. The resident initially escalated the complaint on 23 April 2024 however, the landlord did not acknowledge this within 5 working days. The landlord issued the stage 2 response on 30 July 2024, which was 48 days in excess of the 20-working day timeframe set out in the complaints policy.
28. The evidence reflects that the resident incurred time and trouble chasing the landlord to escalate her complaint. The landlord acknowledged this failing and offered the resident £100 compensation in recognition of this failing.  The amount offered was reasonable to redress the failing identified.
29. The resident raised a further complaint, and the landlord issued a second stage 1 response. The complaint was about the landlord’s handling of the repairs and the scheduled repairs appointments. The landlord declined to escalate this complaint and stated that the 30 July 2024 stage 2 was its final complaint response.
30. The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code states that landlords must not refuse to escalate the complaint through all stages of the complaints procedure unless it has valid reasons to do so. Given that the landlord had logged the second complaint and responded at stage 1, it ought to have escalated the complaint as per the resident’s request, particularly given the repairs remained ongoing. This was a complaint handling failing. We have made an order below for the landlord to pay additional compensation in recognition of the distress and inconvenience caused due to its complaint handling.

Determination

31. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration regarding the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of roof repairs and damage to a bedroom wall.
32. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure regarding the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

33. Within 4 weeks, the landlord must:
    1. apologise to the resident in writing for the failings identified in this report.
    2. pay the resident a total of £1,050 compensation. The amount must be paid directly to the resident rather than credited to her rent account. The amount is made up as:
       1. £500 already offered by the landlord in its stage 2 response.
       2. £500 for handling of the resident’s reports of roof repairs and damage to a bedroom wall.
       3. £50 for complaint handling.
    3. Arrange for a contractor to undertake an inspection of the roof to identify any required repairs. The landlord should then write to the resident and the Ombudsman setting out an action plan with dates for repairs to the roof (if required) and the bedroom wall.
34. The landlord must provide evidence of compliance with the orders to the Ombudsman within the timeframe specified.