London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) (202232250)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202232250

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q)

25 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 residents 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

This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
1. Leaks into the residents’ home from the roof, and leaks into a flat below.
2. Damp and mould problems in the residents’ home.
3. The residents’ reports of pest problems.

Background and summary of events

The residents are tenants of the landlord. At the time of the complaint they lived in a top floor flat in a converted Victorian house. Their family comprises of two adults and three children. Both residents have been involved in the complaint process.
The landlord’s repair records show a report of a leak from the residents’ home into the downstairs flat in November 2021, and again in August 2022. They state that attempts were made to address the issue at both properties following the first report, and that it was an intermittent leak. Following the report in 2022 the landlord attended towards the end of October. The need for an asbestos check was identified, along with the need for repairs to the resident’s bathroom.
The repair records show a report of a leak from the communal roof area on 1 December 2022.
The landlord arranged a damp and mould survey of the residents’ home for 13 January 2023. The survey identified mould through the property, noting that “We have cleaned and disinfected all affected areas in the property, but there are a lot of mould underneath of the wallpapers in the rooms which needs attention.” It identified the problems were at least partly due to a range of repair issues with windows, damaged walls and ceilings, and a possible roof leak.
The residents raised a complaint with the landlord on 13 February 2023. They said that following rain at the start of January they had experienced “extreme damp” from the walls. The wallpaper had detached revealing mould underneath, and, while the landlord’s operatives had attended to clean the mould, they had not been able to proceed after finding the mould penetrated all the way into the wall.
The landlord responded to the complaint the next day. It said the damp issue had been “added as a task to the building surveyor.” It also provided a case reference number and said the case would be monitored by its “Healthy Homes team”. It did not give any further details or information.
The residents approached the Ombudsman for assistance in March 2023. They explained their ongoing concerns about leaks in their home, extensive damp and mould problems, and an issue with pests. We passed their concerns to the landlord and asked it to escalate their complaint.
The landlord sent its final complaint response in April 2023. It explained what it had been doing to address the leaks in the residents’ home, why it had not been able to resolve them yet, and what it planned to do. It clarified that there were two issues, a leak from the residents’ flat into the one below, and leaks from the residents’ roof. It explained the roof issue had been delayed by the need for asbestos inspections, for which it acknowledged there had been an avoidable delay. It explained that further inspections of the roof were required before deciding what action was needed. It explained that it had arranged for pest inspections and remedial work to address their report of rodent problems. It concluded by apologising for the residents having cause to complain, and offered them £200 compensation for its delays and the inconvenience caused. It referred them to the Ombudsman if they remained dissatisfied. It did not address the residents’ complaint about damp and mould.
The landlord’s records show that a range of internal repairs were completed in the residents’ home by September 2023. The residents have told us that little, if any work was done for the damp and mould. They also explained that work on the roof evolved into major works for the building and many of the adjoining ones, and was completed by December. They said this also resolved the leak into the flat below.
The evidence shows that towards the end of 2023 the residents started a legal disrepair claim against the landlord. As part of that claim an expert witness surveyed the property in December. Amongst the surveyor’s conclusions was a recommendation that the nature and extent of the work needed for the property meant the residents and family should be temporarily moved to different accommodation. The work was estimated to need 6 weeks. The residents have explained that the landlord subsequently offered them a permanent move to a new-build flat, which they accepted. They moved in March 2024. It is not apparent from the evidence if the disrepair claim continued, but the landlord has indicated it did not.

Assessment and findings

Leaks into the residents’ home from the roof, and leaks into a flat below

The landlord’s repair records show a history of leaks over several years from the resident’s home into the flat below. These seem to have been for a range of reasons, many of which centred on the resident’s bathroom as the source of the problem. In 2021 the records start to show references to the roof as a potential source of the leaks. Roof leaks were more frequently reported in 2022 and into 2023, particularly when raining. Rain water was noted to be entering the lower flat from the resident’s home. One note refers to the leak being contained, and there were no reports of leaks between February and August 2022. The records indicate action by the landlord to investigate and resolve the leaks, but it was sometimes hampered by the number of potential causes, their intermittent nature, and the need to access two separate properties.
In response to the resident’s escalated complaint in 2023 about the unresolved leaks the landlord explained in detail the actions it had taken or attempted since 2021. It acknowledged there had been delays raising some follow up work, particularly with an asbestos report originally requested in October 2022. The report had been cancelled in error, which was only discovered while investigating the resident’s escalated complaint. The landlord had re-raised the request and then passed the report to its roofing contractors in late April 2023.
The impact of this mistake was significant because the roof inspections and remedial work were delayed while waiting for the report, seemingly by at least six months. Later developments showed that the majority of the leaks, as well as the extensive damp and mould problems, were linked to the roof issues (the damp and mould issues are considered separately). It seems highly possible that if the asbestos report had been handled appropriately, and the resident’s first complaint (which had centred on internal damp caused by rain) investigated robustly, earlier resolution may have been possible.
In its final complaint response the landlord explained what actions it would be taking going forward to address the leaks. The evidence shows that further issues arose around the complexity of the work needed, and delays occurred due to availability of both staff and the resident. The independent survey in December 2023 confirms that extensive work on the roof was well underway at that point, and that the leak issues appeared to have been recently resolved. This resolution was clearly a lengthy period after the resident’s complaints at the start of the year, but the evidence indicates that the work needed was extensive and complex, and the time taken reflected that. Nothing in the evidence gives a clear indication there were steps the landlord could have taken in the period after the complaint to achieve a speedier outcome.
In its final complaint response the landlord acknowledged its initial delays with some of the leak inspections and repairs in the period before the resident’s complaint, and its poor handling of the asbestos report. It apologised, and offered the residents £200 compensation for its failings. However, the asbestos report appears to have been a critical element of the repairs process, and its cancellation significantly held up progress. The landlord was apologetic, but did not explain what it would learn from the mistake, or how it would ensure similar errors did not reoccur. It therefore did not consider the full range of remedies recommended in the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, many of which were important and relevant to the circumstances of its failings. The level of compensation offered went some way towards a reasonable remedy, but arguably was not wholly proportionate to the scale and impact of the mistake. Accordingly, the landlord did not fully resolve the complaint.

Damp and mould problems in the resident’s home

There is no mention of damp and mould issues in the landlord’s repair records, or other evidence showing the problem being reported to it. Nonetheless, the inspection in January 2023 identified that the problem was widespread and long running. The surveyors explained they had treated the surface areas in the property, but that that was an interim short-term fix which did not address the underlying causes, some of which appeared to be linked to the roof leaks and other repair issues. The survey report contained photos which clearly showed the wide extent of black mould in parts of the resident’s flat. It also specifically referred to the residents’ children having allergies and asthma, or skin rashes (symptoms which have sometimes been linked to serious damp and mould conditions, which is presumably why the report made note of them). Overall the report clearly shows serious damp and mould problems, and a potential for there to be health risks to the family.
The copy of the report provided for this investigation shows some repair jobs being raised in light of its observations. There are no other indications in the information provided by the landlord of any work or actions to address the report’s findings and observations.
The damp and mould problem was one of three main issues in the resident’s escalated complaint. The landlord addressed two of the issues, but not the damp and mould. There may have been a reason for that omission, but nothing in the evidence shows one. The residents brought their complaint back to the Ombudsman immediately after receiving the landlord’s final complaint response, and included the unresolved mould issue in their concerns. Accordingly, it is clear that that the matter was ongoing and had not been resolved, and the lack of reference to it in the landlord’s complaint response does not appear reasonable.
The survey done for the resident’s disrepair claim (almost a year after the first survey) found medium to high level damp readings throughout the property and in communal areas. It also found black mould in multiple areas of the property, and high damp readings and timber decay in the communal staircase. On this last issue the surveyor noted that: the problem would have been evident at the time of recent repair work presumably done by the landlord, there could be a risk of the stairs collapsing, and in his view “renders the property unfit for human habitation.” The similarities between the surveys at the start and end of 2023 suggests either no action by the landlord, or action which was ineffective.
All the available information shows the roof leak problems were likely the source of the extensive damp issues. As set out above, resolution of the roof appears to have been a complex process involving major works, and the time taken to resolve it in 2023 seems to have been largely unavoidable. Accordingly, the damp problem likely could not be fully resolved until the roof had been. Nonetheless, there were a range of potential interim measures available to the landlord which should have at least been considered, given the seriousness of the issues identified in the January report. These could have included further and more robust mould treatment, providing dehumidifiers, a temporary decant, interim repairs to the cracks, holes, and gaps identified in the report, or seeking further advice from external damp and mould specialists. There is no way to know if these or other short-term remedies might have been effective, or were possible, but the condition of the property and the time that was being taken to resolve the roof problem meant that interim measures should have been considered. There is no evidence that any were.
Following a special report about damp and mould by the Ombudsman in 2021 landlords were asked to assess their policies and procedures relating to damp and mould. The landlord conducted its own assessment in September 2022. The assessment sets out a wide range of proactive monitoring and remedial steps it takes to combat damp and mould problems in its properties, from the wider corporate scale down to the individual scale of its tenants in their homes. Nothing in the evidence seen for this complaint indicates the checks and balances the landlord described were effective in addressing the immediate impact on the residents and their family while the underlying source of the problem was resolved.
In response to the residents’ original complaint the landlord provided a case reference number for the damp and mould issue. It said it would monitor the case. This is one of the processes described in the landlord’s self-assessment. The information provided by the landlord linked to that case reference number shows no evidence of monitoring or other action.
Just as there are no records of the landlord taking any interim action to address the damp and mould after the January 2023 report, there are no specific records of the residents reporting further concerns or chasing the landlord about the matter. That is despite them corresponding frequently with the landlord about other repair issues, and the clearly serious issues identified by both surveys. It is possible that relevant records of the landlord’s actions and the resident’s correspondence on the issue exist but have simply not been provided. Nonetheless, based on the evidence seen here the landlord failed to take reasonable actions in response to the January report, failed to properly consider the issue in its response to the resident’s complaint, and failed to meet the objectives of its damp and mould self-assessment.
The residents have told this Service that they accepted the landlord’s offer of a permanent move, and that the new flat is an improvement on the old one. Based on the evidence, that move seems to have been at least partly influenced by the report prepared for the disrepair claim, which recommended at least a temporary decant, and also warned of a wider communal problem putting tenants at risk. The move was a positive outcome for the residents, but cannot reasonably be said to fully remedy the landlord’s failure to at least consider interim ways of reducing the impact from the damp and mould on the family, and its other poor service and failings.

The residents’ reports of pest problems

The residents have told this Service that they reported problems with rodents in their home to the landlord prior to their complaint. No records of them doing so have been seen in the evidence. They have explained they made their reports by phone, so could not provide evidence themselves. The absence of clear evidence means this investigation cannot assess how the landlord handled the matter prior to the complaint.
In its response to the residents’ complaint on the issue the landlord promptly arranged a series of pest control visits to their home. Reports have been seen for at least three visits, although the operative could not gain access to the resident’s home for the last one. Inspections and remedial work were done to both the residents’ flat and the communal areas. The reports confirmed the presence of rodents. The final visit in April 2023 notes a trace of activity, but no dead bodies or droppings, and no recent sightings by the residents.
The survey done on the property in December 2023 identified a significant rodent presence, which it linked to the property’s poor state of repair. The problem therefore clearly reoccurred. Nonetheless, at the time of the residents’ complaint in March 2023 the landlord took appropriate steps to arrange pest controllers, whose actions appear to have resolved the problem at the time.

Determination (decision)

In line with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of leaks into the residents’ home from the roof, and leaks into a flat below.
In line with paragraph 52 of the Scheme there was maladministration by the landlord in respect of damp and mould problems in the residents’ home.
In line with paragraph 52 of the Scheme there was no maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the residents’ reports of pest problems.

Reasons

The landlord’s handling of the roof repairs was significantly delayed by its mishandling of an asbestos survey report. The time taken to subsequently resolve the leaks was a reflection of the complexity and scale of the work required. The landlord acknowledged its initial service failure leak but did not fully remedy it.
There is no evidence of the landlord considering short-term methods to help the residents with the extensive damp and mould problems in their home while the leak repairs were ongoing.
The landlord’s response to the complaint about pests in the residents’ home was proportionate and relevant to the nature of the issue. The evidence shows that its efforts were successful, at least in the short term.

Orders

In light of the failings found in this investigation, the landlord is ordered to pay to the residents £1700 compensation. This is comprised of:
1. £1300 for its poor handling of the damp and mould in their home during the leak repairs
2. £200 for the delays caused by its poor handling of the asbestos survey required for the roof repairs.
3. This total amount is inclusive of the £200 already offered by the landlord in its complaint response.
Payment of this compensation must be made within 4 weeks of this report and evidence provided to this Service.
Within 8 weeks of the this report, the landlord is ordered to carry out a review at senior management level of its handling of the damp and mould issues in the residents’ home following the January 2023 survey report. In doing so, it must review what went wrong internally and identify learning and improvements to be made. The landlord must provide a copy of its report and findings to the Ombudsman. This order flows from an earlier one of a similar nature made to the landlord in 2023 following an investigation of its handling of repairs and other issues for a different tenant and household (case number 202204005). However, that investigation did not include issues of damp and mould failings as this one does.