Birmingham City Council has apologised for failing on multiple occasions to take action over a housing disrepair claim when prompted by the resident and the local MP.
The Housing Ombudsman made a severe maladministration finding against the council after the local authority failed to act on a complaint involving damp in multiple rooms and rotten floorboards.
In the Ombudsman’s investigation, it was not evident that the council had made a reasonable attempt to investigate or address the resident’s initial reports of repair issues.
Birmingham City Council also failed to arrange a further inspection as promised in its communication to the local MP who had been approached by the resident.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: ‘The number of failings in this case regarding poor communication, failing to provide services, and failing to follow up on promised actions would have caused significant distress for the resident.
‘Every landlord has a duty to meet its repair obligations. Should it leave repairs incomplete, it should have a clear and robust policy in order to make structured and reasoned decisions not to carry out repairs.
‘In this case, it is not evident that the landlord has any such policies, or that any risk assessment took place when it decided to withdraw its services and leave the works incomplete.’
The Ombudsman ordered the council to pay £1,050 in compensation and review current procedures for record keeping.
The finding comes as the Ombudsman is conducting a wider investigation into the council, due to be published early next year. The latest annual review into complaints also found a higher than average maladministration rate for Birmingham City Council at 54%.
‘This decision reflects a wider pattern of poor performance by the landlord. This includes a high level of failure when dealing with resident concerns and recent orders made by us to progress cases in line with our complaint standards,’ Mr Blakeway added.
A spokesperson for the council said: ‘Birmingham City Council has apologised to the resident for not repairing their property to an acceptable standard and has agreed to pay them the compensation outlined in the report.
‘As a result of this case lessons have been learnt and these have been passed on to the contractors who carry out our housing repair service. The other recommendations in the report will be acted upon and our contractors have been made aware of the findings.’
