Manchester council has been ordered to pay more than £5,000 to a family who were housed in an 'uninhabitable home'. The Housing Ombudsman has made three findings of severe maladministration relating to how the property in Manchester was let in such a poor condition, resulting in 'significant distress and inconvenience' for the family with three young children.
Despite being aware of a rotten kitchen floor and damp in four rooms, the property in Wythenshawe was signed off as ready to let, the ombudsman said. When the family moved in, they complained about mould on the walls as plaster peeled off when trying to decorate the home.
Soon after moving in one of the children tripped in the unsafe garden path resulting in a cut lip, according to the Housing Ombudsman. The property was previously managed by Northwards, however, the housing provider is now run by council directly.
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According to the ombudsman, the housing provider failed to investigate the underlying cause of the damp and mould, demonstrating a disregard for the family's wellbeing and safety. In a report, the ombudsman said the landlord did not appropriately consider whether the property was fit for habitation and did not investigate these matters for several months when put on notice.
This lack of action resulted in the resident handing the keys for the property back to the housing provider and staying with relatives in an overcrowded house while issues were looked into, including a roof leak which took 67 weeks to fix. The family was not offered alternative accommodation by her landlord, according to the ombudsman.
And despite the resident pushing for repairs to be carried out over the next couple of months, there were still various issues including water coming up through the kitchen floor, damp and mould, and holes in the roof causing leaks to several rooms including the kitchen and bedrooms. A couple of months later the resident moved her children into the home to get them settled for school.
But a surveyors' report confirmed that much of the repairs remained outstanding, including flooring in the kitchen and bathroom which was of particular concern as the resident had a young child who was crawling, showing the landlord did not consider the ongoing impact on the family. It took ten months for the landlord to respond to the resident about re-letting and admit the home was not up to that standard, which is indicative of its poor communication throughout, the ombudsman said.
When the resident instructed a solicitor to take action, the housing provider used “legal proceedings” as a reason to not progress certain repairs, rather than resolve the matters, the report said. To compound some of these failings, the landlord took too long in setting up its rent adjustments due to the issues and at one point issued the resident with an heavy-handed arrears notice of £1,000, according to the ombudsman.
It took the resident nine attempts to get across her point about this issue needing to be addressed due to the uninhabitable nature of the home, causing her more distress. On top of the arrears notice, due to much of the work not being done by the landlord, the resident took it upon herself to do them.
She says this cost her thousands and, although her landlord was aware of the situation, it did not offer to reimburse her for this. Manchester council's chief executive was told to apologise in person to the resident who was awarded £5,000 for the distress and inconvenience caused to her.
The council was also ordered to calculate the costs of the works the resident had to undertake and reimburse her for those costs. The ombudsman ordered a detailed review to prevent future failure, including its handling of cases in which solicitors are involved, procedure for letting vacant properties and oversight of contractors.
The council says it has now carried out all repairs on the home and added additional insulation as requested by the resident. Manchester council has now brought Northwards in-house in a bid to drive further improvements.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “There were widespread, multiple and serious failings in this case and the landlord has to undertake significant learning to prevent similar future failure. The combined failings led to a young family being left essentially homeless due to an inhabitable home. The fact the home was unfit to live in before the family even moved is shocking, but the landlord then failed to make things right for the residents with the subsequent repairs needed.
“These failings included extensive delays, lack of competency in inspections, poor quality works and inadequate coordination and oversight. This caused serious adverse effect on the household. The landlord’s response was hindered by its treatment of the resident’s pre-action letter where instead of resolving the complaint it suspended repairs. We have been clear in our guidance on Pre-Action Protocol for Housing Condition Claims and service complaints that this should not be the case.
“On top of these failings, the complaint handling also let the landlord down. It took six months to provide a complaint response, denying the resident’s right to have her concerns heard, and failing to issue a response within the timeframe set out in its complaint procedure. There was also little evidence to show that the landlord learned from the outcomes of the case.”
The Ombudsman also found maladministration for the landlord’s record keeping, with failings in this area causing a cumulative impact on the resident who suffered additional time, delay, and distress and inconvenience as a result. In all cases of severe maladministration, the Ombudsman invites the landlord to provide a learning statement.
Manchester council said: "Our focus is delivering the best possible service for our residents and we must fully accept the Ombudsman's findings in this case. Our actions in managing this home on behalf of our tenant did not match the high standards we expect of our housing service.
"Our tenants should never feel that they have no other option other than to escalate repair issues to the Ombudsman and we have since visited the resident on a number of occasions to apologise in-person for the distress she has experienced, and we immediately engaged a chartered surveyor to undertake a comprehensive assessment of any outstanding issues at the home.
"We can confirm that following the development of a project plan in collaboration with the residents, all repairs have now been completed at the property, along with further insulation works requested by the tenant. We have also reimbursed the resident for costs incurred in tackling some of the issues at their home.
"In 2021, the Council approved the decision to bring Northwards Housing back in-house, which in large part was to improve standards and management of Council-owned social housing. We are already seeing tangible improvements under the guidance of a new leadership team, and we strive to avoid future failings of the kind the resident has experienced. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise again to them and their family."
