Watchdog advises sincere apologies to be delivered by a senior staff member and avoid language that is ‘passive, unclear or dismissive’
The Housing Ombudsman has stressed the importance of meaningful apologies issued by social landlords to tenants as it published details of cases where a landlord’s apology could’ve been stronger.
In its latest “learning from severe maladministration” report, the watchdog said these apologies must be timely, personal, sincere, empathetic and take responsibility and express regret.
Richard Blakeway, housing ombudsman, said: “Genuine apologies can be restorative. It makes the resident-landlord relationship stronger. It shows an open, healthy culture. It provides residents with dignity and respect. And it offers the landlord a moment for reflection.
“Given the imbalance of power with residents, saying sorry for mistakes is especially important for social landlords. Rebuilding trust matters when most residents will still live with the same landlord, regardless of its performance or any failings.”
It described how it ordered the chief executive of PA Housing to issue a timely apology to a resident after the landlord failed to deal with antisocial behaviour effectively.
This resulted in the resident sleeping on a sofa with her child as the landlord was slow to escalate the complaint.
In its learning statement, PA Housing reported it has created a new noise nuisance policy and moved from “generic and templated” responses to antisocial behaviour to an individual and tailored service.
In a case involving Bristol City Council, the landlord was ordered to give a verbal apology to a tenant after the ombudsman found it to have taken an “unsympathetic” approach to dealing with an antisocial behaviour complaint.
Although the council apologised for the inconvenience caused, the ombudsman deemed this insufficient to recognise the full impact of the failings.
In its learning statement, Bristol City Council said it has provided briefings to staff with case-based learning, strengthened its complaint handling processes and reviewed its antisocial behaviour model.
The ombudsman said that apologies should not be delivered as “we are doing it because the ombudsman told us to”, but rather as an “opportunity to repair the relationship with the resident.”
It also advised that empathetic apologies should use “active language” and avoid using language that is “passive, unclear or dismissive” such as “if”, “but”, “however”, and “any”.
Blakeway added: “Using our powers to facilitate a meaningful apology is an important aspect of our work. It can foster behaviour and culture change at little financial cost. Today, our service typically orders more than 4,000 apologies every year.
“An apology is a human way to acknowledge the pain organisational failings can cause. Complaints handled well can be restorative. Handled badly, and the complaints process compounds earlier service failings and further erodes trust.
“We know saying sorry isn’t always easy. Nor is it always enough. But we encourage social landlords not to shy away from it.”
Some steps landlords can take after an apology include correcting a mistake , reimbursement of a charge, revising a policy or procedure, training staff, financial compensation for loss, inconvenience, and/or distress.
The ombudsman emphasised that a relevant and senior member of staff should give an apology on behalf of the organisation, which applies when a complaint escalates to stage two and an apology is needed or ordered.
The resident can choose whether they receive the apology in writing or in person when they have experienced “significant harm” because “people find it easier to show and understand empathy and sincerity when they apologise in person” and to avoid misunderstandings.
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