Ombudsman corner

By Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman

Last year we published our report into complaints relating to damp and mould. The report called for a more proactive, zero tolerance approach to tackling this issue. The increased media interest in damp and mould has been matched by an increase in disrepair claims.

It’s critical for complaint procedures to be accessible and responsive. Landlords need to ‘find their silences’ where complaints are not being raised but all indicators suggest there may be issues. It’s profoundly wrong for any resident to feel their best option is to resort to the courts or media. Effective complaint handling is preferable to increasing disrepair claims, which may take longer or leave the issue unresolved. It’s also important to remember the Ombudsman may order an independent inspection following an investigation and actions to resolve repair issues.

It remains the individual’s choice to pursue legal action, but the preaction protocol on housing conditions encourages the use of alternative dispute resolution. Yet we’ve seen the complaints process being closed once the protocol commences. This is a missed opportunity to use the complaints process to its fullest potential and resolve issues in a less adversarial way.

It’s my opinion that the protocol does not constitute proceedings. Our jurisdiction guidance for landlords has been revised to make this clear, and how complaint procedures and the protocol should work together is set out in this report. This should empower complaints teams to resolve issues, and we’ve also made representations to the Ministry of Justice to strengthen the protocol further to promote the use of the complaint procedure.

The effectiveness of the complaints process was just one aspect of the report. There’s a strong focus on culture, a theme of many of our reports, including our Complaint Handling Code, together with changes in behaviour and approach from being reactive to proactive, and from inferring blame to taking responsibility.

Amongst our other recommendations was for landlords to adopt a proactive approach to identifying issues in homes, informed by data, intelligence, and complaints, and consider a comprehensive and consolidated policy to support a consistent and transparent approach to diagnosis and subsequent actions.

Effective communication with residents is also essential and, from the evidence we saw, the tone hasn’t always been appropriate, particularly in the use of language such as ‘lifestyle’. I’d urge engagement with residents to review communication and literature, working together with them to codesign meaningful advice that shares responsibility and supports them at a distressing time.

“Effective communication with residents is also essential and, from the evidence we saw, the tone hasn’t always been appropriate, particularly in the use of language such as ‘lifestyle’”