Problems with giant rats and raw sewage were among the more than 15,000 complaints made by UK housing association tenants in less than three years.
Figures obtained by the Sunday Mirror via Freedom of Information laws showed 15,179 complaints were made to the Housing Ombudsman about housing association repairs between January 2020 and November 2022. Almost a third of those complaints (4,749) concerned damp and mould, up 399 per cent from 475 in 2020 to 2,371 by last November.
The data comes amid concerns among parents in housing association homes for their children's health following the tragic case of Awaab Ishak. A coroner ruled last year that the boy, aged two, died from a respiratory condition caused by mould in his family’s housing association flat in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
A 119 per cent increase in complaints about all housing association repairs was recorded from 2,987 in 2020 to 6,539 in the first 11 months of 2022. The majority were made about London & Quadrant Housing Trust.
Shadow Levelling Up and Housing Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “It is scandalous that anybody in modern Britain is forced to live in a mouldy or damp home. The scale of the problem that these figures have revealed is shocking. There is a political consensus on the need for action.”
Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: “Complaint volumes continue to increase following the unprecedented surge last year and continued concerns over the quality of social housing will continue to drive complaints. In the scale of their operations, it is important for landlords not to lose sight of the individual impact of cases.”
The Government has said it will deliver Awaab’s Law, forcing social landlords to fix damp and mould within strict time limits.
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L&Q said it was spending nearly £3billion over 15 years to improve its homes. Boss Fiona Fletcher-Smith said the trust sought to learn from its mistakes and provide the best service it could.
Wilson Yellowe told the Sunday Mirror he has endured “nine years of complete hell” after sewage leaked onto his ground-floor balcony. The L&Q tenant, 59, said he got a bacterial infection after a pipe from a flat above burst in 2014 and faeces and urine flowed out.
L&Q has carried out repairs and paid compensation totalling £33,250 since 2017 for two claims – but on one occasion did not admit fault. The firm is arranging more work but former lorry driver Wilson said: “I’m furious. The pipe is still hanging off the wall. It’s an absolute disgrace.”
Mother-of-four Joanne Medcraft told the paper she has been living in a rat-infested house for more than three years and branded L&Q a “slum landlord” for failing to deal with the problem. The disabled 43-year-old heard rats in the walls as soon as she moved into the home in Romford, East London, in 2019.
She said in 2021, she put down traps and caught 11 rats in two weeks – with some measuring up to 16 inches. Joanne added: “L&Q sent pest control several times. At the end of the year there was this horrific smell. It was dead rats decaying inside the walls.”
She applied to change homes but claims she was kicked off the list after turning down a place that lacked suitable disabled parking. In an email last September, L&Q told her: “Repairs should have been managed more effectively and completed more swiftly."
An L&Q spokesperson told the Sunday Mirror: “These upsetting cases highlight times where we’ve been too slow to resolve issues satisfactorily. We are sorry we did not provide a good service on these occasions and are working with the residents to put things right.”
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “It’s good to see more tenants using the Housing Ombudsman. Our Social Housing Bill will drive up standards and bolster the regulator’s powers so landlords who fail to provide decent homes have nowhere to hide.”
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