Golding Homes Limited (202231888)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202231888

Golding Homes Limited

7 November 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

The resident’s complaint is about the landlord’s handling of her reports of damp, mould, and cold interior temperatures.
We have also considered the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Background

The property is a 2-bedroom flat on the first floor of a block with a ground floor entrance. The landlord is a housing association. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord and has lived in the property since 2018. She has reported a number of disabilities and chronic conditions including spine issues and chronic fatigue. She also had surgery in late 2023.
Around December 2021 the resident reported mould on her furniture and the contents at the bottom of her wardrobes. The landlord added her property to its damp and mould programme in early February 2022.
The landlord carried out a damp and mould inspection on 8 June 2022 which found that:
1. Both ventilation fans in the kitchen and bathroom were underperforming as the resident did not routinely run them due to the noise they produced.
2. The landlord adjusted them to improve their flow rates and advised the resident to keep them on ‘low normal speed’ at all times, using the ‘boost’ function when cooking or showering.
3. No further work was needed and other ventilation via trickle vents and doors was adequate.
The resident again reported persistent mould and the landlord did a second damp and mould inspection on 27 October 2022. It sampled a number of surfaces and found no signs of significant damp. It concluded condensation was the key factor causing mould. It recommended doing a further thermal survey and providing advice to the resident on managing ventilation.
The landlord’s contractor carried out a thermal survey in early January 2023. The thermal images on the report appeared to show cold anomalies around the front door, bedroom window and sections of the cladding at the front of the property. The thermal images on this report did not have a scale to show the temperature readings, relying on a colour gradient to show temperature variation on the external walls.
The resident meanwhile bought moisture traps to hang up inside her wardrobes. On some occasions the liquid inside the moisture traps froze which the resident later shared with the landlord as evidence of the low interior temperatures.
On 19 February 2023 the resident made a complaint about the lack of action taken to resolve the ongoing damp and mould issues. She explained the landlord had not given her an update since doing the thermal survey.
Around mid-March 2023 the landlord apologised for the delay in updating the resident and offered her a mould wash. It said it would provide a more thorough update on the thermal survey by 16 March 2023. It issued a stage 1 complaint response on 14 March 2023 to say its damp and mould team would contact her by 17 March 2023 to discuss an action plan with the resident. It said it would also discuss the matter of compensation at that time and asked the resident to have receipts and photographs of any damaged items ready.
The complaints team checked in with the resident on 22 March 2023 who said she had received no contact from the damp and mould team.
Meanwhile the landlord sent the developer a copy of the thermal report which it said at the time showed insulation issues. It asked the developer if it was willing to treat it as a latent defect. It also internally discussed the thermal images and considered removing part of the wall surface to do an on-site check of the insulation.
From April to July 2023 the resident sent multiple emails to the landlord asking for updates, citing the thermal survey, which she said showed the property as having little to no insulation. She also stated wind and draughts were entering via cavities and gaps around the doors and windows, contributing to the damp and mould.
The landlord replied around 24 July 2023 to say it would attend the property again in early August and agree on an action plan with her by 11 August 2023. The resident explained she was experiencing ‘extreme cold’ in the winter and had to wear coats and boots indoors. She repeated her belief that the walls were not insulated as they should be.
The landlord carried out a joint damp and mould inspection of the property with the developer on 4 August 2023. This inspection found that:
1. The extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom were normally turned off by the resident unless when cooking or showering as they were loud when operating. The landlord considered installing larger fans more suited to the size of the property but noted they would create more noise.
2. The resident kept the bathroom door open at all times which the landlord believed to be a contributing factor to high internal humidity.
3. The radiators in the bedrooms were poorly located.
4. The larger bedroom was full of wardrobes which were up against the walls. There was a draught coming from the window and mould on the external wall and the ceiling.
5. A downpipe on the right-hand side of the flank wall had come loose.
6. Moisture readings at the front wall and window were normal.
The landlord’s surveyor recommended the following works, among others:
1. Fitting new constant inline extractor fans in the loft.
2. Relocating the radiators in the bedrooms.
3. Fixing the rainwater downpipe that had come loose.
4. Excavating the ground floor below the front window and backfilling with gravel to prevent splashes breaching the damp proof coursing.
5. Adjusting seals in the bedroom windows and front door.
6. Adding insulation to some service ducts to prevent draughts.
7. A mould wash in the larger bedroom.
The landlord explained to the resident on the same day of the visit that it would revert to her with an action plan. It later agreed with the developer that there were no issues with the building quality and the developer did not need to deal with any latent defects. It sent an action plan to the resident on 11 August 2023 to say it would:
1. Conduct a mould wash to the larger bedroom and re-paint all the walls with anti-mould paint.
2. Adjust a few windows and the front door.
3. Add insulation to service ducts to prevent draughts.
The mould wash was completed on 10 August 2023.
The resident explained that while she was happy for the works to go ahead, she would like to landlord to conduct another survey during the winter months to test the temperature of the external walls in the bedrooms.
On 12 September 2023 the resident emailed to express further dissatisfaction. She explained that apart from the mould wash, the landlord had not attended for the other repairs that she was expecting.
The landlord replied on 14 September 2023 to say it would arrange for adjustments to the windows and door, however, its surveyor had provided feedback that there was no issue with the insulation. It said it could offer installation of environmental sensors into her home to better monitor temperature and humidity levels.
The landlord offered £50 to the resident on 18 September 2023 for late response as it had previously said it would update her on 23 August 2023. The resident accepted this but said she continued to believe there were issues with the insulation. She asked the landlord to proceed with installing sensors and the remaining repairs (door and window adjustments) in the week commencing 23 October 2023 as she was having surgery in late September.
The landlord’s records showed that the resident asked for a complaint escalation around 21 September 2023. It wrote again to the resident on 4 October 2023 to say it would arrange the following works and if she would indicate her availability:
1. Repaint the walls and ceilings in the larger bedroom with anti-mould paint.
2. Adjust front door and window in the smaller bedroom.
3. Insulate the access duct within the bathroom and hallway.
4. Excavate below the window on the ground floor front elevation.
5. Rejoin the downpipe that had come loose.
The resident told the landlord she could not move the wardrobes and furniture in her larger bedroom due to her surgery and she would contact the landlord again in 2024 to arrange this when she had sufficiently recovered. She asked the landlord to proceed with other works. She continued to refer to the thermal report that showed insufficient insulation and asked for further investigation.
She also questioned why her moisture traps were still collecting water and stated she has had to replace them every 3 to 4 weeks at her own cost. She was also paying money towards dry cleaning items that had turned mouldy. The landlord offered explained that all moisture traps would still collect humidity from the surroundings. The resident asked for compensation of £1,500.
On 1 November 2023 the contractor confirmed that all works on the schedule had been completed except the bedroom treatment.
The landlord issued a stage 2 complaint response on 3 November 2023, summarised as follows:
1. Its previous inspections had found that the resident didn’t always heat her home in the colder months although the gas central heating was available.
2. The resident had not always turned on the fans or kept the bathroom door shut, meaning that the moist air would travel around the home.
3. The resident had put furniture against the walls causing poor ventilation and condensation issues.
4. It had adjusted the extractor fans to reduce noise levels and the resident should keep them on. It would not go ahead with installing new fans as larger fans would be noisier.
5. It had completed a mould wash on 10 August 2023 and in November 2023 it had completed other works including window and door adjustments and excavation before the front of the property.
6. It acknowledged it did not always keep the resident updated with progress and apologised for long periods of time when it did not follow up on actions, specifically from January to August 2023 after the thermal survey was done. It explained it was experiencing a high caseload of damp and mould cases.
7. It offered £725 in compensation (broken down as: £600 for distress and inconvenience caused by delays in progressing repairs, and £125 for delays in complaint responses although the resident had agreed on an extension).
8. It committed to following up with the anomalies as shown in the thermal survey report of January 2023. It would do further thermal surveys on different days in November to assess the insulation.
9. It would contact the resident again by 30 November 2023 to arrange a date convenient for her to treat the bedroom with anti-mould paint and fitting a passive vent to the right hand flank wall in January 2024.
10. It proposed installing ‘smart’ environmental sensors at her home to capture temperature and humidity readings to identify any issues.

Events after the completion of the internal complaints procedure

The landlord conducted some thermal readings in November 2023 which showed uniform temperatures over external walls, indicating no significant issues with the insulation. It asked its contractor, who had done the previous thermal survey (in January 2023), to provide the original thermal images and the corresponding scale to indicate what temperature ranges it was detecting. The contractor was unable to provide this information. Having discussed internally how to interpret the differences in findings, the landlord decided there was no other action to take except drill a cavity in the wall to look at the inside.
The resident chased several times during this time asking for updates on the sensors and follow-up on investigating the cold during winter months. The landlord wrote to the resident on 8 December 2023 to say it would fit sensors and proposed to drill a hole into a protrusion on the wall at the front of the property to check the insulation on 13 December 2023. It said it would ‘immediately make good’ the drilled holes.
The landlord conducted the borescope inspection in December 2023 and drilled into the front external wall. The results were inconclusive. It installed sensors on 5 January 2024 and asked the resident to install an app on her phone so she had access to the environmental data. The landlord treated the walls and ceiling of the larger bedroom on 11 January 2024 with anti-mould paint.
The resident wrote on 15 January 2024 to say the holes made during the borescope inspection were not made good in the way she expected. Meanwhile the resident kept reporting cold temperatures and chasing for a response on the insulation issue as she disagreed with the landlord’s findings.
The landlord did not repeat a thermal survey. It conducted a damp survey again on 8 May 2024. This survey found that:
1. There were no signs of damp and concluded that all readings of moisture were low.
2. From the borescope check on the front protrusion, ‘while it could not 100% rule out the possibility of missing insulation in other areas of the walls, it was very unlikely’. It concluded that the insulation was likely ‘appropriate’.
3. It noted there were storage boxes and items kept on the radiators during the visit and this might block the convection flow.
4. The main contributing factors to mould were the large volume of belongings owned by the resident and blocking of the radiators in the bedrooms.
5. It recommended checking the radiators especially the one in the smaller bedroom which seemed undersized and might need replacement.
6. It also recommended providing advice to the resident on the heating system and ventilation, as well as doing another additional survey during colder months such as October or November.
The landlord was in correspondence with the resident throughout July 2024. It offered to refit the radiators. The resident repeated that she was still experiencing cold in the winter months and dampness, and that there were holes in the walls from the borescope. She remained dissatisfied that the landlord had not re-surveyed during the coldest months. She agreed for the radiators to be refitted but expressed doubt that this would help with the issue. She also asked for the landlord’s survey report from 8 May 2024. The landlord said it was ‘finalising’ the report and hoped to retrieve the plans for the building to confirm what insulation it had.
The landlord arranged for a heating contractor and a decorator to attend on 7 August 2024. The holes in the wall were fixed on 7 August 2024. After discussion with the resident it did a power flush for the radiators on 12 August 2024. The resident confirmed afterwards that the radiators were ‘working fine for the first time in years’.
The resident was in touch with the landlord again in March 2025 to report cold. The landlord’s environmental sensors were triggered although the records are unclear what was the nature of the alerts. The landlord internally discussed checking in with the resident and arranging a joint inspection although records do not show if the joint inspection took place.
The landlord sent the survey report dated 8 May 2024 to the resident on 14 April 2025. This was the first time the report was shared with the resident. She disagreed with the findings that the ventilation was the main cause of the dampness and mould, but confirmed that since the repainting there had been no damp issues. She also confirmed although it was still cold in the flat the radiators were working better.
The resident has explained to us that she felt the landlord’s offer of compensation did not adequately reflect the loss of her wardrobes and the costs of her dry-cleaning and purchasing moisture traps. She said while there had been no further damp and mould issues since the bedroom treatment, the flat was still very cold due to draughts and lack of insulation in the walls.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

This investigation will focus on events starting from December 2021 to April 2025, that is, from the point when the resident reported mould in the property to the point when the landlord shared its latest damp and mould survey report with the resident. These events are directly linked to the subject matters in the resident’s complaint.
The resident has raised concerns that the landlord’s delays in responding to her reports of damp and mould have caused or contributed to her physical and mental health symptoms. While we acknowledge the situation must be distressing for the resident, we are not able to determine the cause of her physical or mental health symptoms. This type of claim is better suited to a personal injury claim with the courts. The Ombudsman can, however, consider if the resident was likely to have been caused distress and inconvenience by the landlord’s actions or omissions.

Relevant policies and guidelines

Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 the landlord has an obligation to keep in repair the structure and the exterior of the property (which includes walls, ceilings, doors and windows). It must also keep in repair and proper working order the installations for space heating (which includes radiators). The tenancy agreement confirms this.
The landlord’s damp and mould policy states it would ensure the process of reporting an issue of damp and mould is straightforward and easily accessible for residents. It stated it would investigate and diagnose the cause of damp and mould and deliver effective solutions. It undertook to provide regular communications with residents at key stages including initial contact, follow-up after initial inspection, proposed remediation works and post-completion.
The Ombudsman’s Spotlight Report on damp and mould (October 2021) highlights that landlords should take a proactive approach and ensure their responses to damp and mould reports are timely and reflect the urgency of the issue. Landlords should identify complex cases which require specialist diagnoses as early as possible and take appropriate action. It also states that a landlord should clearly and regularly communicate with residents on what actions it has taken, and its strategy for managing the damp and mould situation, including interim support such as providing dehumidifiers. Throughout the lifetime of the case including any post-inspections and post-repair monitoring, a landlord should review what advice and support it can provide to residents on managing the damp and mould.
The landlord’s repairs responsibilities guidance states it would conduct emergency repairs within 24 hours, urgent repairs in 5 working days and routine repairs within 28 working days.
The landlord’s complaints policy provides for a two-stage complaints procedure. At stage 1, it should acknowledge the complaint within 5 working days and then respond to the complaint within 10 working days; at stage 2 (the final stage) it should respond within 20 working days. If the landlord requires more time at stage 2 it should contact the resident to explain why and the extension should not exceed 20 working days. These timeframes mirror those set out in the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, which member landlords are expected to adhere to.
The landlord’s compensation guidance states that it would consider offering compensation for service failings taking into account our remedies guidance.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp, mould and cold

The damp and mould issues and the cold indoor temperatures are two separate issues that should have been investigated and handled separately, although they are also interlinked in the sense that heating and insulation were factors to consider when diagnosing the cause of damp and mould. However, the coldness could have been due to a number of causes that were not related to the wall insulation.
A key recurring topic in the discussion between the landlord and the resident over the course of these events (lasting from January 2023 to April 2025) was how to interpret the thermal report from January 2023. The resident firmly believed that this report was evidence that there was a lack of insulation in the walls, especially in the front wall of the property. She believed this must be the reason why she was experiencing cold temperatures in the flat.
The landlord initially interpreted the images in the same way and tried to get the developer to investigate further. It did some more investigation in August 2023 and took more thermal readings and bore into the front wall to obtain a sample in November 2023. After this, it formed the view that there was unlikely to be a significant problem with the insulation. However it was unable to offer a satisfactory or detailed explanation to the resident why it changed its position on this issue. This has contributed to a breakdown of trust between the parties, as it gave the resident the impression that the landlord was avoiding the issue.
The landlord internally discussed that the previous thermal survey as of January 2023 had no scale for accurate or reliable interpretation. It also saw that more recent, repeated thermal readings in November 2023 had yielded different results. It could have put the repeated thermal readings from November 2023 into a formalised report and shared this with the resident to offer more reassurance, but there is no record it did so. Nor did it offer a more detailed explanation why it was unable to reliably interpret the January 2023 survey images.
Further, the resident had asked multiple times for a repeat survey in January 2024 when the weather and temperature conditions would be more similar to that in the January 2023 survey. The landlord’s surveyors also recommended several times that it should do a repeat survey in the colder months. The landlord missed an opportunity in the winter of 2024 to do this, which could have offered the resident reassurance that the insulation was adequate.
The landlord also missed opportunities to investigate the indoor temperature thoroughly. It did not take timely action to consider and follow up on other potential causes of cold, such as issues with the heating system. We acknowledge that this may partly have been because the resident’s complaint was focused on the thermal report from January 2023 and insulation in the walls. It was reasonable for the landlord to try to provide some clarity in that respect.
However the landlord should still have considered taking action to verify the resident’s reports of cold indoors temperatures. As early as August 2023, the landlord’s surveyor had identified the radiators were ‘poorly located’ and recommended relocation. The survey in May 2024 identified again that the radiators were not properly positioned and potentially too small for the flat. There was no work done in this respect until July 2024 when the landlord’s heating contractor reviewed this and identified the radiators were not working as intended.
There were also significant delays on other actions on multiple occasions. For example, the resident reported persistent mould on her furniture in December 2021 but there was no record of a damp and mould inspection until June 2022.
After the first damp and mould survey, the landlord offered a mould wash as early as March 2023 but records showed this did not happen until August 2023.
It was appropriate for the landlord to offer installing environmental sensors to verify the resident’s claims about experiencing ‘extreme cold’ at the flat. However there was significant delay between it first offering this to the resident as an option in September 2023 and then the installation in January 2024. It re-offered this several times in between in its complaint responses but did not take action.
There was also an issue with the survey report done in May 2024 not being shared with the resident. For some time after the report the landlord told the resident it was ‘finalising’ the report and would share it with her, but this was not done until April 2025, nearly a year afterwards. This again did not give the resident the reassurance that the landlord was properly handling the matter.
The landlord has acknowledged it did not act in a timely manner from January to August 2023 at stage 2. It offered the resident £600 for distress and inconvenience caused by delays in progressing damp and mould repairs. This was in line with the landlord’s compensation policy for more serious impacts of relatively long duration. We consider this partly mitigates the impact of distress and inconvenience caused to the resident through the delays in repairs and following up on survey recommendations.
However the landlord has not acknowledged or offered remedy for its failure to take reasonable action to investigate and resolve the resident’s reports of coldness. Therefore the remedy offered is in our view insufficient to reflect the full extent of the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident. This amounts to a service failing on the landlord’s part.
The resident reports that while the radiators have seen improvement and the dampness is no longer an issue, she is still experiencing cold and draughts around the flat. She has also contacted the landlord about replacing the dials on the radiators which the landlord does not appear to have responded to in the records seen. We have made a recommendation for the landlord to follow up on these issues below.
In addition, it does not appear that the landlord has followed up on the surveyor’s recommendations in relation to investigating potential issues with the insulation. At this stage, the available evidence does not indicate a clear issue with the insulation. However, the surveyor in May 2024 believed that further investigation was warranted. It is therefore ordered for the landlord to follow up on the surveyor’s recommendations. If the landlord decides not to complete some of the recommended works, the landlord should explain its reasons to the resident.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

The landlord has acknowledged a delay in providing complaint responses and offered £125 for the distress and inconvenience caused. It also previously offered £50 on 18 September 2023 as it had failed to update the resident on 23 August 2023 as promised.
While there were delays to the complaint responses (on each occasion for no more than two weeks) the impact to the resident was partly mitigated by the landlord’s correspondence and updates on actions in between complaint responses.
The £175 offered is in line with the landlord’s compensation policy. In our view it is reasonable and proportionate to the impact of distress, inconvenience, time and trouble caused to the resident by delays in providing complaint responses and updates.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there is service failure in relation to the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp, mould and cold.
In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of reasonable redress which in the Ombudsman’s opinion satisfactorily resolves the complaint about its complaint handling.

Orders

Within 28 days of this report, the landlord must:
1. Apologise in writing to the resident and the representative for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure the apology:
  1. is specific to the failures identified in this decision, meaningful and empathetic.
  2. has due regard to our apologies guidance.
2. Pay the resident £100 in compensation for its shortfalls in handling the boiler repairs.
3. Take steps to implement the surveyor’s recommendations from the May 2024 inspection relating to bedroom 2 and further investigating potential issues with the insulation. If the landlord decides not to complete some of the recommended works, the landlord should explain its reasons to the resident.
4. Arrange for a heat loss survey to be completed in the winter months (December 2025 to February 2026). Once completed, provide a copy of the survey report to the resident and this Service. If the surveyor recommends further works, the landlord should provide the resident with a schedule of works within 28 days of the survey report. If the landlord decides not to complete some of the recommended works, the landlord should explain its reasons to the resident.

Recommendations

The landlord is to:
1. Inspect the heating system including radiators and their dials to ensure these facilities are in good working order.
2. Pay the resident £175 in compensation (if not paid already) as offered prior to this investigation for its complaint handling.