Applications are open to join the next Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel – find out more Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel.

Warrington Housing Association Limited (202419571)

Back to Top

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202419571

Warrington Housing Association Limited

27 June 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 Antisocial Behaviour (ASB).

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. She lives in a semi-detached house.
  2. The resident reported incidents of ASB on a regular basis from 5 April 2023. The landlord kept a log of the incidents and referred some matters to the police, such as reports of drug use and drug dealing.
  3. The resident raised a complaint about the ASB issues on 7 February 2024. The landlord provided a stage 1 response on 19 February 2024. It said it dealt with all reports of ASB in line with its policies. It also said the most recent incident was dealt with by the police but could not provide further details.
  4. The resident continued to report incidents of ASB on a regular basis from 17 April 2024. The landlord continued to keep a log of the incidents, but did not respond or provide any updates to the resident.
  5. The resident then contacted this Service and told us the landlord had not responded to her complaints. We therefore contacted the landlord on 9 December 2024 and asked it to provide a response to her.
  6. The landlord provided a new stage 1 response on 23 December 2024. It stated that although the resident had provided lots of evidence, there was not enough evidence to take the case to court. It narrated several actions it had taken in response to the ASB reports and said it would take robust action if the perpetrator breached their tenancy agreement. It said it had failed to address some reports of ASB and offered £250 compensation.
  7. The resident said she was dissatisfied with the landlord’s decision the next day. She said her neighbour kept harassing and intimidating her and asked the landlord to evict them. She also reported more ongoing ASB.
  8. The landlord provided its final response on 3 January 2025. It reiterated the information in its stage 1 response and provided no further comment.
  9. The resident wants the landlord to evict the perpetrator of ASB to resolve her complaint.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. In this case, the resident had reported ASB issues from 5 April 2023. Following the landlord’s stage 1 response to her first complaint of 7 February 2024, there is no evidence she asked it to escalate that complaint. This is despite the decision including information about escalation and the timescales for doing so. Thus, her first complaint did not exhaust the landlord’s complaint procedure. For this reason, in accordance with our Scheme, we will not assess the events leading to this earlier complaint although we have referenced it for contextual purposes.
  2. The resident’s new complaint of December 2024 completed the landlord’s process. In assessing this complaint our investigation will focus on the landlord’s handling of reports of ASB from December 2023. We have limited it to this timescale as the Scheme provides that we may not consider complaints made more than 12 months after the issues occurring.
  3. Furthermore, any issues that arose following the landlord’s final response of 3 January 2025 have also not completed its complaints process. Consequently, this investigation’s assessment is limited to events that occurred up to the final complaint response. The resident may wish to consider making a new complaint to the landlord if she is dissatisfied with its handling of any current matters.

Reports of ASB

  1. According to the landlord’s ASB policy, it will keep complainants informed of developments in its investigations. It will make clear to all residents that they are responsible for their own behaviour, and the behaviour of all persons living or visiting their homes. It will also consider a full range of legal remedies including injunctions, criminal behaviour orders, acceptable behaviour contracts, possession proceedings, demotion of tenancies, mediation, and parenting orders.
  2. Following the landlord’s initial stage 1 response of 19 February 2024, the resident made a further report of ASB on 17 April 2024. She reported 12 incidents that had occurred between 19 March and 12 April 2024. This included children kicking a ball against her house and car and running over her front garden and driveway, and a child riding an electric scooter around the close.
  3. On 22 April 2024 the landlord forwarded the resident’s reports to the police. Three days later, it wrote to all residents on the estate warning that the use of electric scooters was illegal and that ball games could disturb other residents. Although it was reasonable for the landlord to write to all residents warning them of these behaviours, there is no evidence it responded to the resident directly to acknowledge her reports or provide an update.
  4. The resident reported further instances of ASB to the landlord on 15 and 16 May 2024. She reported 11 incidents of the same nature as her previous reports that had occurred between 17 April and 15 May 2024. She asked why she had not received any updates about her previous reports and wanted the landlord to take action about ongoing drug use and drug dealing at her neighbour’s property.
  5. On 20 May 2024 the landlord noted on its system that it needed to take action to contact the resident to interview her. It also said it needed to challenge the perpetrator and look into reporting them to social care and the police. We note previous historical reports of drug use and drug dealing by her neighbour had already been reported to and investigated by the police. It also said it needed to complete an inspection and look at issuing a warning. We note previous historical reports of drug use and drug dealing by her neighbour had already been reported to and investigated by the police. However, there is no evidence the landlord followed up with any of these actions on this occasion.
  6. The resident reported further incidents of ASB to the landlord on 24 June as well as 7, 13 and 20 August 2024. She asked what it was doing about the harassment and intimidation she was experiencing as she had not received any contact following any of her reports. There is no evidence it responded to or took any action on any of these reports.
  7. The resident therefore contacted this Service, and said the landlord had not responded to the complaints she had raised in April to August 2024. We note this information was not accurate, as she had not raised complaints but had reported incidents of ASB.
  8. In cases relating to ASB, it is not the role of this Service to determine whether ASB occurred or who was responsible. We can assess how a landlord has dealt with reports it has received, and assess whether it has followed its policy and if it acted reasonably. The landlord should deal with reports of ASB in line with its policy and would only consider matters through its complaint process if a resident expresses dissatisfaction with how it has dealt with the reports of ASB. It is clear it did not deal with the reports in line with its policy, which was a failure.
  9. Following intervention from this Service, the landlord completed an ASB action plan with the resident on 20 December 2024. This raises the question of whether it would have completed an ASB action plan without our contact. The ASB action plan logged that the resident was experiencing ongoing harassment and intimidation from her neighbour. The landlord committed to addressing the incidents with the perpetrator and to report to children’s services any further reports about drug and alcohol abuse.
  10. When the landlord provided its stage 1 response on 23 December 2024 it said it had reviewed the resident’s ASB reports over 4 years. It confirmed the police had previously interviewed the perpetrator but could not progress any action due to a lack of evidence. It also confirmed it had issued an acceptable behaviour contract and issued a formal warning for breach of tenancy. It had also conducted low level mediation. It said it would take robust action if the perpetrator breached their tenancy agreement. It acknowledged it had failed to address some reports of ASB and offered £250 compensation. It also said it had started further staff training in how to manage reports of ASB.
  11. It is our view the landlord dealt with the complaint in its stage 1 response effectively. It explained what actions it had taken, what it would do going forward and identified an area for service improvements. It also apologised and offered suitable redress.
  12. Prior to being contacted by us, the landlord failed to address some of the resident’s reports of ASB between April and August 2024. It took no action nor provided any update or response following these reports, which was inappropriate. Although it referred the reports in April 2024 to the police and sent a warning to all residents, it did not respond directly to her or provide an update. However, once the landlord reviewed all evidence and reports of ASB with the police, it was jointly decided there was no evidence of harassment or ASB. There was therefore minimal impact due to the landlord’s delays.
  13. The landlord’s final response of 3 January 2025 reiterated the same information in its stage 1 response. As there had been no significant incident requiring any further action by the landlord by this time, this further decision was also appropriate.
  14. Since then, the landlord met with the police on 10 April 2025 and reviewed all evidence of photos and videos provided by the resident. Both the landlord and police were in agreement that none of the evidence provided by the resident constituted either harassment or ASB, therefore no further action could be taken.
  15. For the reasons set out above, the Ombudsman considers the landlord has sufficiently addressed the matter in its stage 1 complaint response. The apology and offer of £250 compensation, along with further staff training in how to manage future reports of ASB, adequately resolved the resident’s complaint.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves its handling of the resident’s reports of ASB satisfactorily.

Recommendations

  1. We recommend the landlord pays the resident the compensation it had previously offered totalling £250 in recognition of the time, trouble, distress, and inconvenience caused by its failures to appropriately address reports of ASB (if it has not done so already). The finding of reasonable redress has been based on the landlord making this payment to the resident.