Accent Housing Limited (202220348)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202220348

Accent Housing Limited

28 March 2024

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 damp and mould at the property:
   1. In the kitchen.
   2. In the porch.

Background

2. The resident is the assured tenant of the property 3-bedroom flat owned by the landlord. She has lived there since 2020 with her husband and 2 adult children.
3. Since the resident moved in, she has reported problems with damp and mould at the property, stating that it has had a serious impact on the health of herself and her family. They have suffered breathing difficulties and mental health issues.
4. The property has a porch which, at the time of these events, was unheated. In 2021, the resident complained of pervasive mould including in the kitchen and the porch. The landlord carried out works in June 2022. It inserted passive vents in several rooms and lined the porch with thermal boarding. The resident again reported damp and mould in the kitchen and porch in September 2022. A surveyor attended to inspect the property in October and November 2022. She continued to raise her concerns, and made a formal complaint in January 2023
5. In its stage 1 complaint response of 7 February 2023, the landlord said it would carry out works at the property to remedy any problems there. Among other works, it said it would thermally board external walls in the hall and insert passive air vents in several rooms. It would not carry out works in the porch as this was not a ‘liveable’ room and so did not need to be brought up to a habitable standard.
6. At the resident’s request, the landlord escalated the complaint to stage 2 on 27 February 2023. It carried out a further inspection on 31 March 2023 which found that the kitchen was damp. It provided a stage 2 complaint response on 11 April 2023, stating that it would carry out extensive damp washing throughout the property, install a new, more efficient extractor fan in the kitchen and install a radiator in the porch.
7. The resident was not satisfied with the landlord’s response to her concerns and asked this Service to investigate the landlord’s response to her reports of mould in the kitchen and porch.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

8. The resident has said that the condition of the property has had an impact on his family’s health.  However, this Service is unable to establish a causal link between reports of the health issues experienced by complainants and the actions of landlords. The resident may wish to seek legal advice about this, as a personal injury claim may be a more appropriate way of dealing with this aspect of her complaint. Nonetheless, we have considered the general distress and inconvenience which these events may have caused.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the kitchen

9. Landlords have a responsibility to ensure that their properties comply with the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS), introduced by the Housing Act 2004 (the Act). They must assess hazards within their properties. Mould is a potential hazard. HHSRS assessments are generally carried out by environmental health officers of local councils.
10. This Service’s spotlight report on damp and mould (published October 2021) says landlords should adopt a zero-tolerance approach to damp and mould.
11. The landlord provides information about its responses to damp and mould on its website. It says that, on receiving a report of damp and/or mould, it will discuss the issues with the resident and book a visit. It will inspect the property, carry out necessary repairs, treat mould with chemicals and improve ventilation. It will provide a timescale in which it will carry out any required works.
12. On receiving the resident’s report of damp and mould in the kitchen at the property in September 2022, the landlord arranged for a surveyor to attend within a week, which was good practice. However, the resident has not seen the report. The landlord has also not provided a copy to this Service for the purpose of this investigation.
13. The landlord was responsive to the resident’s further reports in October and November 2022 by attending to inspect the issue. However, the evidence does not indicate that any action was taken. The resident contacted it in December 2022 and January 2023 to ask for updates. It told her, in December 2022, that it was sorry that its response had “taken longer than it should”. The failure to respond sooner and to communicate proactively about delay were failures on the landlord’s part.
14. After receiving the stage 1 complaint response, the resident attended the landlord’s office on 27 February 2023 and said that the problems had not been solved. She said her family was suffering from ill-health and she wanted to escalate her complaint to stage 2. On 31 March 2023, the landlord arranged for a further survey. This survey report states that the kitchen had high damp meter readings (24.9%) and mould was germinating near the back door and low-level tiling nearby. It said it would replace the existing extractor fan with a humidity-controlled one and mould-wash all affected areas.
15. Despite the report not being provided, in its complaint response of 7 February 2023, the landlord stated that it had found damp and mould caused by condensation in various parts of the property. However, there is no record of it having inspected the kitchen or found mould there. This is a surprising omission particularly as the resident’s original complaint was of mould in the kitchen and that, in March 23, the landlord carried out another survey at the property and found that the kitchen was the dampest room in the property. As the resident reported damp and mould in the kitchen, it should, at least, have told her why this was not being addressed. This was, therefore, an inadequate response to her report of damp and mould.
16. The landlord also said it would carry out the mould-wash on 31 March, but the resident did not grant access to the operatives as she had made an appointment with the local council’s environmental health department to inspect the mould. This Service finds that any delay to the damp and mould treatment beyond this point was, therefore, not entirely due to the landlord’s actions.
17. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 17 April 2023, in which it confirmed that it would upgrade the extractor fan. It attended and mould-washed the kitchen on 9 May 2023. It has since replaced the extractor fan. On the evidence, given that the resident’s initial report of mould made in September 2022 was about mould in the kitchen, the landlord’s response to the issue was inadequate. Although there were a few inspections, it was not timely in dealing with the issue. It did not provide her with a timeframe for solving the issues and it did not address all her concerns as it says it would on its website.  Considering the recommendations of this Service’s spotlight report, which are based on the significant impact of damp and mould, it did not treat the matter with sufficient seriousness.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the porch

18. The HHSRS Operating Guidance issued by the government says that landlords have a duty to review “the extent and severity of the dampness and any mould growth in all rooms within the dwelling”. The Housing Act 1985 defines a “dwelling” as “any house, flat or other unit designed or adapted for living in”.
19. The resident reported damp and mould in the porch on several occasions. In June 2022, the landlord put thermal board up in the porch and replaced an airbrick to improve ventilation. This showed good intent on the part of the landlord and that it was trying to solve her problems.
20. In late September 2022, the resident told the landlord that the mould had returned. She said it was rising damp. The survey of October 2022 showed that this was not the case. She contacted it again on 1 December 2022 to say that many of the shoes, bags and coats the family kept in the porch had become mouldy and she wanted compensation. It told her that the porch was not a “liveable space”, and she should not keep clothing in there. It was meant only as a shelter for taking off outerwear before going in or out of the property.
21. The local council’s environmental health department carried out an inspection in early April 2023. It wrote to the landlord in on 11 April 2023 agreeing that the porch was “not used as an everyday life area where you would sit or sleep”. This indicates that the council’s environmental health department accepted the landlord’s position that the porch was not a “liveable area”. It was not, therefore, a room within the dwelling house and the landlord was not required to carry out works in the porch.
22. The landlord did later install a radiator in the porch. This, again, showed good will and a desire to solve the resident’s problems. However, it did not accept that it had a duty to do so, and it said it was not responsible for items kept there going mouldy. This approach was supported by the local council’s environmental health department, and nothing suggests it was unreasonable.

Determination

23. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the kitchen of the property.
24. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the porch at the property.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

25. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord must:
    1. Write to the resident and apologise for the failures identified in this report.
    2. Pay her £300 in recognition of the distress and inconvenience for the delay and communications failures found in this report.
26. This Service has seen no evidence that the landlord has assessed itself against the criteria set out in our spotlight report on damp and mould. Therefore, within 12 weeks, the landlord must:
    1. Either self-assess against the criteria set out in that report.
    2. Or, if it has done so, compare its handling of this case against this self-assessment and identify failures.
    3. Send its findings to this Service.