Law should ‘drive practices away from a postcode lottery towards greater convergence’, says watchdog
Social landlords’ inconsistent approach to identifying emergency repairs could undermine the fair treatment of tenants required by Awaab’s Law, according to the Housing Ombudsman.
The watchdog’s latest Learning from Severe Maladministration report, published ahead of the implementation of Awaab’s Law in October, says that some landlord policies state unsafe doors or collapsed ceilings as emergencies whereas others do not.
The Ombudsman said “this suggests a lack of consistency and sometimes transparency over what are considered emergencies”.
In particular, landlords can be “unspecific” about how vulnerabilities or the household’s individual circumstances will change the prioritisation for repairs, according to the Ombudsman, who reported that some providers will only respond to statutory hazards if Environmental Health issues a notice.
The Ombudsman said: “This matters because there is a power imbalance, with most residents having limited choice over their landlord. So, it is unfair for neighbours living in similar properties with similar problems to experience different service levels.
“Awaab’s Law should drive practices away from a ‘postcode lottery’ towards greater convergence. So, we encourage landlords to consider what their complaints tell them about their classification of emergencies. How are they identified? Whether resident circumstances change prioritisation? And how they would prevent the service failings seen in this report.”
The report also pointed out that “no access” to the property was often used to justify closing a case, despite sometimes limited evidence that the landlord notified the resident it would be attending and policies typically stating entry will be forced in an emergency.
However, the Ombudsman said there is “higher” confidence for meeting emergency repair obligations than in other areas required by Awaab’s Law as landlords reported that nine out of 10 repairs are handled on time.
In one case presented in the report, housing association L&Q did not identify repairs to a leak and ceiling collapse as an emergency repair, leaving a resident without the use of their bathroom for six months.
After an initial complaint about a leak coming through the bathroom light, which the landlord said it resolved despite the issue ongoing, the ceiling in the resident’s home collapsed, causing a power cut and the electric shower to stop working.
According to the Ombudsman, the leak was stopped around seven months after the resident first reported it, and five months after the ceiling collapsed. During this time, the resident said the ongoing leak caused mould to spread, while worms were living in the ceiling.
L&Q said it has introduced a dedicated complex repairs and technical surveying team to improve responses to more challenging emergency repairs. The Ombudsman reported that it has also made “significant improvements” in its complaint handling, record keeping and compensation policies.
In a case where the landlord identified that an emergency repair was required but delayed its response, Brent Council failed to repair a leak, leaving five children in a home with a collapsed ceiling and a faulty boiler during winter.
Although the Ombudsman said the local authority attended promptly after the ceiling collapsed to clean up and reseal the bath, repairs to the ceiling were unable to be carried out due to sending the wrong tradesperson. The ceiling continued to deteriorate, causing further leaks, with incomplete records failing to keep the necessary people informed, which delayed action.
The council has said it is improving its repairs and out-of-hours services, including strengthening oversight of contractors, collaboratively monitoring complex cases, and identifying service failure trends. It has also reviewed its complaint handling, including its approach to case reviews, which will lead to evidence-led improvements to other areas of service delivery.
>>See also: We knew Awaab’s Law was coming’: My work as a damp, mould and condensation team leader at Yorkshire Housing
The Ombudsman also highlighted that although a repair itself may not be considered an emergency, landlords should take into account a household’s circumstances, which could influence a decision to prioritise action.
In one instance, housing association Clarion delayed repairing an adapted bathroom ceiling and tiles and associated leak in a bedroom, despite the disabilities of a resident child meaning more urgency was required.
The delay meant that the child was unable to use the adapted bathroom for a year.
A spokesperson from Clarion said: “We sincerely apologise to the resident for the delay experienced. Although the work required was correctly not classed as an emergency under our policy, we did take too long to resolve the routine repairs, and we accept that our communication and responsiveness in this case did not meet the standards the resident should rightly expect.
“Since this case we have improved the capabilities of our repairs tracking system, making recognising and adjusting for vulnerabilities a more streamlined process while also strengthening our ability to track and categorise repairs related to damp and mould to ensure appropriate prioritisation. In addition to this, we are working with an external provider to deliver neurodiversity training to all managers and customer facing staff.”
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