One in four ombudsman complaints not complied with in last quarter
More than a quarter of the Housing Ombudsman’s complaint-handling failure orders (CHFOs) were not complied with in the three months from October to December, a report has shown.
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The ombudsman’s quarterly complaint-handling failure order report showed that it issued 38 CHFOs to 28 different social landlords in the quarter, a drop from 45 in the previous three months.
The ombudsman said the purpose of complaint-handling failure orders is to ensure that a landlord’s complaint-handling process is “accessible, consistent and enables the timely progression of complaints for residents, as set out in our Complaint Handling Code”.
The orders should also help landlords identify where their complaints procedure may need to be strengthened in line with the code, it added.
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Out of the 38 orders, 10 orders, or 26.3 per cent, were not complied with.
These included an order each for A2Dominion, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Longhurst Group and for-profit provider Sage Housing. Meanwhile, Haringey Council did not comply with four orders issued by the ombudsman and Hexagon Housing did not comply with two.
Haringey is subject to a separate wider investigation by the ombudsman following concerns in its casework about leaks, damp and mould.
Out of the 38 CHFOs, 21 were issued to housing associations, 14 to local authorities and three to co-operatives.
The landlords that received the most orders this quarter were Haringey Council (four orders) and Hyde Housing (three).
This was followed (with two orders each) by Wandle Housing Association, Barking & Dagenham Council, Lewisham Council, A2Dominion and Hexagon Housing Association.
Out of the total 38 CHFOs, 23 were for Type 1 orders, which are those issued due to the landlord’s “unreasonable delays” in accepting or progressing a complaint through its process.
Twelve were Type 2 orders, which are issued due to “unreasonable delays” in providing the ombudsman with information.
The ombudsman issued a total of three Type 3 orders, which is where a landlord failed to comply with its membership obligations. This is the most it has issued since the orders were introduced.
The landlords receiving this type of order were Charnwood Borough Council, Argyle Street Housing Cooperative, and Haringey Council for failing to comply with the three orders to provide information to the ombudsman.
Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said: “I recognise the pressures that complaint-handling teams are under, yet it is disappointing for six landlords not to comply with these orders and three landlords to receive orders for failing to meet obligations under the scheme.
“During challenging times, complaints matter even more and should be used as a tool to effectively respond to the issues the organisation faces. Good complaint-handling should not be something marginalised because of other pressures.
“It is important for landlords who have received one of these orders to consider what steps they should take to strengthen their complaint-handling procedures. This includes ensuring the complaints team has the resources and co-operation within the organisation to get issues resolved, without the intervention of the ombudsman.”
In February, the ombudsman revealed that it is preparing to undertake more than 10,000 investigations in 2023-24.
This follows a “seismic increase” in severe maladministration findings issued since 2021-22 and a rise in demand after the coroner’s report into the death of Awaab Ishak.
Responses from non-compliant landlords
A2Dominion
A2Dominion was given two CHFOs, one for delays in providing the ombudsman with information and the other, for which it was non-compliant, for delays in accepting or progressing a complaint through its process.
Gary Blatcher, director of customer experience at A2Dominion, said: “We are disappointed with these results as we take complaints-handling very seriously.
“Overall, we have a strong track record when dealing with these matters, with 95 per cent of complaints resolved at the first stage and only one per cent escalated to the ombudsman.
“On the non-compliant order, we have responded in full and remain in close discussions with the ombudsman. We remain committed to delivering for all of our customers and have introduced new processes to better manage complaints within our target timeframes.”
Haringey Council
Haringey Council was issued four CHFOs, all of which it was non-compliant for. Three were for unreasonable delays in providing the ombudsman information and the other was for failing to comply with the other three orders.
Dana Carlin, cabinet member for housing services, private renters and planning at Haringey Council, said: “We are very sorry that we failed our residents in the cases identified by the ombudsman, and have fallen short on the high standards our tenants should expect and deserve.
“In each case, we did ultimately resolve the issues raised but should have done so much more quickly. We must do better and are committed to improving the situation as rapidly as we can.
“We brought our ALMO Homes for Haringey in-house on 1 June 2022 in order to improve standards and to bring housing services under direct control. We want all our residents to know that we are committed to improving our services and are in the process of reviewing our complaints-handling, including improving oversight, to ensure issues are resolved quickly and effectively for our residents.
“We are also putting in measures to ensure we listen to our tenants, work with them, and make sure they understand what is happening at every stage.
“As part of a series of actions to deliver significant improvements to our housing services, we have developed a housing improvement plan, which will be brought for approval to a meeting of our cabinet within weeks.
“We welcome the opportunity to work with the Housing Ombudsman, act on the lessons from the report and deliver improvements to the service that will minimise future repeated failures.”
Hexagon Housing Association
Hexagon Housing Association was issued two CHFOs for unreasonable delays in accepting or progressing a complaint through its process. The social landlord said it was non-compliant as it failed to comply with the target timescales.
Sheron Carter, chief executive of Hexagon, said: “Hexagon accepts that we did not respond as swiftly as we promised. The introduction of the Complaint Handling Code and the spotlight on the condition of social housing has had a profound impact on our management of complaints.
“We have responded by prioritising additional resource to appoint a dedicated complaint investigation team.
“The team are in post and currently undergoing induction training. We regret disappointing residents and anticipate the new team will strengthen our focus and enable us to deliver our customer service standard.
“We have partially resolved the issues raised in these cases and we are working to resolve the remainder at the earliest date.”
Longhurst Group
Longhurst Group was handed one CHFO for unreasonable delays in providing the ombudsman with information.
A Longhurst Group spokesperson said: “We acknowledge that there was a short delay in us providing information to the housing ombudsman, and this meant we missed the deadline given to us.
“We’ve since restructured and added resource to our complaints team and enhanced processes and systems to ensure we improve the customer experience and the way we handle complaints.”
Sage Housing
Sage Housing was non-compliant with a CHFO issued for delays in accepting or progressing a complaint through its process.
A spokesperson from the for-profit provider said: “We welcome the ombudsman’s finding as it has highlighted where we can improve our complaints investigation process.
“This failure order was a result of one complaint, which we were delayed responding to due to a lack of evidence provided by the customer. Our internal processes have been updated to ensure future compliance.”
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Sandwell Council was non-compliant with a CHFO given for unreasonable delays in providing information to the ombudsman.
A Sandwell Council spokesperson said: “We always take on board recommendations made by the ombudsman and do everything we can to deliver those recommendations in a timely manner.
“On this occasion we didn’t quite meet the required timescales and have used the learning from the case to prevent future breaches by implementing closer monitoring of outcomes and actions arising from these reports.”
If you are a landlord mentioned in this piece and would like to provide comment, please email Michael Lloyd and Sarah Williams.
michael.lloyd@oceanmedia.co.uk
sarah.williams@oceanmedia.co.uk
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