The housing ombudsman has made a finding of severe maladministration against Milton Keynes Council after its 'inappropriate' handling of a complaint by a disabled resident.
The mother and her son were forced to live with 'multiple repairs issues' for years, the investigation found.
The council was ordered to pay £5,500 compensation after repairs logs showed at least 120 jobs were raised for the household over four years.
But it was the complaint handling where the ombudsman found severe maladministration, with several problems hampering resolution of the issues.
The landlord did not express any empathy towards the resident or recognise the impact on her child given their vulnerabilities, the ombudsman found.
This was inappropriate, caused additional frustration and may have contributed to the resident’s accusation that she was being discriminated against by the landlord based on her disability.
As well as the compensation, the ombudsman ordered the landlord to apologise to the resident, carry out repairs and a damp and mould inspection and subsequent works arising.
Housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: 'A mother and her son, who both have disabilities, were not treated with the respect they deserved.
'Understandably, the family felt discriminated against because of the landlord’s poor communication, compounded by repeated failings on repairs.
'The landlord failed to respond within the timescales of the complaint handling code and its policies, did not address the key failings within the case and continues to show few signs of learning from these errors.
'Whilst we often see landlords without repairs logs, this case shows the importance of not only recording data but using it as intelligence to ask questions about where services may be going wrong.'
