A family has won a £20,000 award from south London council after blaming their “lifestyle” for long-standing damp problems that caused mold to grow in their baby's cot.
Lewisham Council failed to investigate the “root causes” of the problem and continued to insist that an annual mold wash was sufficient to deal with the problem, a Housing Ombudsman report published on Thursday revealed. Became. It's been eight years since an anonymous resident first reported the leak.
The walls of the living room and bathroom on the property were covered in mold, and mold was also found on the mattresses the family's children were sleeping on.
Letters from the children's schools said attendance plummeted from more than 90% to 70% in one year due to absences related to coughs, colds and infections.
The report added that the council did not demonstrate how the council supported the family while they dealt with recurring damp and mold problems. It was also criticized for not considering the health and well-being of families.
The case is one of three involving the council in which the Housing Ombudsman, which handles complaints about social landlords, found serious deficiencies in the response to damp and mold.
The Ombudsman ordered the council to pay a total of more than £40,000 to affected residents.
A tenant with asthma was left with severe mold in his home after the council stalled for six years to fix his windows. Meanwhile, the anonymous tenant had to live with his windows taped down.
The ombudsman said the council's response did not show the city acted with “urgency” to complete the repairs. Instead, the report said, the council appears to be delaying resolving the issue until a major works program is in place.
The residents were awarded £19,500 by the Ombudsman and the council's chief executive was told to write a letter of apology to them.
A third resident was awarded £1,700 in compensation from the city after the city failed to deal with the leak quickly. Due to council delays, an anonymous tenant's property was damaged by mold and one of the property's bedrooms became unusable.
In December 2023, Lewisham City Council referred itself to the Social Housing Regulator over concerns about the quality of its housing stock. The council manages over 13,500 homes. In October 2023, thousands of homes were returned to management from Lewisham Homes.
Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said the incident showed there was significant room for improvement in the way the council dealt with damp and mold issues.
“Awarding money at this level is unusual, reflecting the impact on residents and the long-term service disruptions they have experienced,” he said. It is vital that landlords learn lessons from these cases so that they can invest in services rather than making up for service failures. ”
Lewisham City Council said since acquiring Lewisham Homes last year, it had identified how the failures in the three incidents could have been prevented and improved its services.
A spokesperson said: “We have also embarked on a comprehensive review of our approach to handling complaints. We will publish the results of our review and share our action plan with residents.
“A full inventory review of our housing stock is underway to better understand the health of our housing stock in order to invest in areas where it is needed most. It has committed to investing £21m in equity.
“Alongside this, we are making major investments in modernizing our systems for managing and storing information. A new housing management system is currently being introduced, so we are using the data We are developing new ways to deliver better outcomes for our residents.”
