Northern Irish housing association showed ‘apathy’ in dealing with ASB complaint, ombudsman finds

Clanmil Housing has been criticised by the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO) for displaying “apathy” when dealing with a complaint about antisocial behaviour (ASB) from one of its tenants.

The complainant - a private homeowner - raised a number of issues between August 2022 and March 2023, including that his neighbour had assaulted his partner resulting in injuries, told her to “go back to her own country” and threatened her with paramilitaries.

Further instances of reported ASB included the tenant blocking the complainant’s vehicle with her own as well as keeping five dogs described as “attack dogs”, which caused a noise nuisance and were kept in a “permanent structure” erected in the parking space of the neighbour’s home.

The watchdog found widespread maladministration within the Belfast-based landlord’s complaints procedures, including poor record‑keeping and communication.

Margaret Kelly, NIPSO, said Clanmil’s investigation into the complaints was “poor and lacking in rigour”, and that the landlord “should have addressed these elements at a much earlier stage of its complaints process.”

She added: “Overall, I was concerned to note the apparent apathy displayed by Clanmil Housing in investigating these matters.

“The complainant made a number of reports of ASB and raised a number of complaints over a protracted period of time without any proactive action by Clanmil Housing to try to resolve them. I find this concerning.”

Clanmil was considered to be in breach of its own ASB policy as it claimed that the “only report which met our threshold of anti-social behaviour was that of the alleged assault”. However, the ombudsman concluded that “many, if not all of the threats and dog barking ASB reports” met the criteria and warranted further investigation.

The landlord eventually took internal action against its tenant in line with its ASB policy after the police issued a caution following an investigation into the assault and threats.

It also apologised to the complainant repeatedly over the course of the complaint handling process and changed its pet policy to introduce a limit of two pets per household.

A spokesperson for Clanmil Housing said: “We have apologised to the complainant for our shortcomings in dealing with his original complaint.We value all feedback on our services and are committed to improving by learning from situations where we could have done better. 

“As a result of this complaint, we had already reviewed and revised our complaints, anti-social behaviour and pet policies. We have also implemented all the recommendations made by NIPSO in its report. Our aim is to provide homes for people to live well, and we are sorry that we fell short of this on this occasion.”