Damp repair delay failed tenant, housing secretary says

The housing ombudsman had found Livv Housing had delayed repairs

Michael Gove has written to a Merseyside housing association, which left a tenant "on the verge of a nervous breakdown", saying it had failed the resident.

The housing secretary said the tenant's mental health had been "severely impacted" by damp in his home.

He had complained about it to Livv Housing Group for four years.

The housing ombudsman earlier found the firm had delayed repairs to the property.

In July, Livv Housing Group, based in Prescot, was ordered to pay the tenant £3,000 in compensation.

The housing association has apologised and said it had made changes to how damp issues are reported.

In a letter to Livv Housing's chief executive, Mr Gove said the housing association failed to provide the level of service expected.

The ombudsman's report found when the resident first raised the damp problem, the landlord's records showed the job was cancelled the next day, saying it was raised in error.

The landlord said it attended to remove the existing plaster and damp proof the ceiling, but it was not clear whether it investigated the source of the leak at this time.

Michael Gove said a Livv Housing Group resident's mental health was severely impacted

Two months later, another report of damp was made at the home but a month later the job was cancelled due to it "no longer being needed".

The ombudsman said that over the next three and a half years there was evidence of eight repairs works being carried out to various aspects of the home.

After an inspection for rising damp was declared as "no access" by the landlord, there was no follow up with the resident to try and reschedule.

The ombudsman criticised the landlord's repair logs for lack of sufficient detail.

Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: "There was a deep lack of professionalism in the way this case was handled, and the heavy-handed behaviour of some staff after multiple failings by the landlord was inappropriate.

"The landlord failed to appropriately investigate and remedy the source of the leak for four years.

"This poor handling means other residents may have been affected, and therefore we recommended the landlord take action to investigate this further."

In his letter, Mr Gove said he had taken a personal interest in how Livv Housing Group continued to deliver its responsibilities to its residents.

Livv Housing Group said it had made a number of changes to its approach to dealing with damp, including developing a Damp Dashboard that uses data to identify hotspots and trends in cases being reported.

It said it had introduced new repairs management software and expanded its complaints team.

Chief Executive Leann Hearne added: "We are sorry for the distress this experience caused our customer and we fully recognise that a more holistic approach should have been taken to resolve the issues sooner."

She said the firm was "in the process of writing back to Mr Gove to assure him of our commitment to the implementation of a wide range of changes".