The Housing Ombudsman has published severe maladministration findings in two separate cases for PA Housing.
In the first case, in which PA left a disabled resident with damp growing in the bedroom, the Ombudsman’s investigation found:
- severe maladministration regarding PA’s handing of the repair and
- maladministration for how it handled a rehousing request.
In the second case, in which PA left the resident waiting 585 working days for a response to their complaint, the Ombudsman’s investigation found:
- severe maladministration for PA’s complaints handling and
- maladministration for its response to problems with the roof and balcony.
Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: “In both cases, we found similar issues to that of our previous severe maladministration finding published just four months ago. That is unacceptable. The landlord must learn lessons from these cases and we will be following up with the senior leadership to ensure it does so. Once again, an investigation reveals how a landlord has not responded effectively to a residents’ vulnerabilities. The cumulative lesson for the sector of these cases across several landlords is that it needs to get far better at recognising and responding appropriately to residents with vulnerabilities. The length of time the resident waited for a response in our other investigation showed a complete disregard for the resident and that it did not consider the complaint in line with the Ombudsman’s dispute resolution principles”.