Housing Ombudsman service ruled County Durham Based private landlord Believe Housing Ltd must pay £1500.00 to tenant for "severe maladministartion" after originally offering the tenant just £100.00...
Saturday 11th March 2023 07:03am
A County Durham private housing landlord has been ordered to pay significant damages to a tenant after reportedly failing to repair a tenant's bathroom ceiling, as well as failing to address concerns that parts of the property may have contained asbestos.
Believe Housing Ltd's head offices in Seaham County Durham
The tenants home "was in an unacceptable state of repair"
The Housing Ombudsman said Believe Housing Ltd who's head offices are based in nearby Seaham County Durham left the tenants property in an "unacceptable state of repair".
The landlord reportedly did not properly respond to reports of damp and mould in the County Durham property, or check for asbestos when they should.
Richard Blakeway acting on behalf of the Housing Ombudsman service said it was "unreasonable" the resident had to complain multiple times to get action.
"The landlord did not only leave the resident's bathroom in an unacceptable state of repair for approximately two years, but it excessively delayed in taking action to investigate the resident reports of damp and mould," he said.
Private housing landlord Believe Housing had also "not demonstrated that it gave adequate regard to the safety of the resident regarding its handling of asbestos",
Believe Housing reportedly told the tenant of the property that work would be carried out to assess the maters of the properties mould & damp issues, along with a planned "asbestos scrape" which had also not been done.
Despite reminders from the tenant to the landlord, the work was still not carried out and was only completed after thirteen months after the tenant had originally complained...
The Housing Ombudsman who then took over the complaint after the tenant exhausted the landlords official complaints process found the delay was "considerable" and that the landlord's communication was at times 'poor'.
Believe Housing offered the tenant just £100 pounds compensation
The private housing provider who claims to be "a charity" offered the tenant just £100 pounds in compensation
Mr Blakeway also ruled the landlord did not go far enough in offering just £100 compensation with the landlord even blaming the vast majority of the matters on 'the pandemic' , with the Ombudsman ordering Believe Housing to pay the resident £1,500.
Believe Housing Ltd claimed it had introduced a new complaints system, better aftercare and improvements to its communications since the incident.
"We're sorry that our service fell short of expectations on this occasion and have apologised to the customer for not resolving the issue sooner and for the stress it caused," they said.
Severe maladministartion
The ombudsman's ruling of "severe maladministration" against the County Durham landlord was made in October 2022, but publication of the ombudsman's report was reportedly 'delayed' to allow for both parties in the complaint to request review of the decision.
Believe Housing who manage around 15,000 homes across county durham is said to be facing increasing public concern over its management of housing stocks as well as similar failings being reported by many tenants of Teesside largest housing corporation Thirteen Housing Group, where its claimed that many tenants are now seeing service standards plummet, as profits for both housing giants rise significantly, with increasing calls for both landlords to be stripped of their rights to manage housing across the region, with their respective housing stocks brought back into Public ownership with the housing stocks put back into the control of their respective local councils.
The Housing Ombudsman currently has the powers to deal with complaints with housing providers who declare themselves as "social landlords", however Landlords such as Belieev Housing Ltd & nearby landlords Thirteen are being questioned on their so called "social" housing status with theirsocial housing status disputed amongst many legal profesionals, with claim the Ltd company status of private housing landlords such as Believe Housing Ltd & Thirteen Housing puts them legally on the definition of a private "for profit" corporation, with calls for the government to close the loophole that allows housing firms such as believe to rake in massive profits, yet pay minimal (if any) UK Corporation taxes using their businesses as so called "charities" depsite performing no charitable function.....
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