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0:05 AM, 5th July 2023, About 10 months ago 2
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A damning report by the Housing Ombudsman has exposed a ‘culture of apathy’ at the London Borough of Haringey, which has failed to address serious issues such as leaks, damp and mould in its properties.
The report, based on 32 individual investigations and six months of engagement with the landlord, found that Haringey had a lack of ownership, accountability and motivation when dealing with complaints from its tenants.
It also found that the landlord did not learn from its mistakes, did not show remorse or offer adequate resolutions, and did not comply with the Ombudsman’s orders.
The Ombudsman said that Haringey had a high rate of severe maladministration, mostly for major repairs, damp and mould and complaint handling.
The overall uphold rate for the cases investigated was 82%.
The Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway, said: “The findings in this report are stark, with failings across a range of areas which need prompt action.
“The landlord recognises the current approach is not working for residents, services or its teams, and that the whole organisation needs to change its approach.
“There was frequently a loss of focus on achieving the right outcome for residents.”
He added: “The senior leadership is to be commended for the focus it is bringing to improving housing management and starting to put in place the resources and structures to deliver change.
“We look forward to working with the landlord on these changes.
“This report also offers salient lessons for other landlords, particularly councils.”
One of the cases highlighted in the report involved a resident who was denied all services by the landlord for a year, after being accused of unacceptable behaviour.
The resident disputed the allegation, but the landlord could not provide any evidence to back it up.
Despite this, the landlord refused to carry out any repairs in the property.
The Ombudsman has issued a series of recommendations to Haringey, including:
The report comes after the Ombudsman published a damp and mould report in 2021, which featured Haringey as one of the worst performers in dealing with this issue.
The Ombudsman said that damp and mould can have serious impacts on the health and wellbeing of tenants and urged landlords to take swift and effective action to resolve it.
In a statement, the London Borough of Haringey said: “We recognise that residents in Haringey deserve the best possible housing services and that is why we brought the ALMO back in-house last summer, as it became clear that we were not managing or maintaining our homes as well as we should have been.
“We take the Ombudsman report very seriously and we are determined to learn from the findings to improve the services we provide to the residents of Haringey.”
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Extending lease on freehold owned by me?
Chris @ Possession Friend
9:21 AM, 5th July 2023, About 10 months ago
More Hypocrisy, from a Labour Council
Freda Blogs
10:11 AM, 5th July 2023, About 10 months ago
Wow, what a catalogue of failures. Can you imagine the fines and public outcry if that had been a private landlord with even a fraction of those failings?
No mention of any censure for them though. Just a few recommendations and some weasel words from the Authority “ We recognise that residents in Haringey deserve the best possible housing services… “ So why didn’t you provide them then? This story needs widespread publicity.
It’s one rule for social landlords and another for private landlords. Let’s ask Mr Gove for some ‘levelling up’ shall we?
Blatant discrimination and hypocrisy, so glad I’m selling up.