A report conducted by the Housing Ombudsman Service states that Watford Community Housing (WCH) has breached anti-social behaviour (ASB) action responsibilities.
The report investigates whether housing associations are meeting their duties and, if not, highlights how they must improve.
The report said: “In case 202206589, WCH failed to agree an action plan with the resident, and therefore its communication was poor.
“The landlord’s inaction over an extended period prolonged the negative effect of the ASB on the resident and their daughter.
“It did not decide whether his reports reached its threshold for ASB for a number of months which led to unnecessary distress and inconvenience.
“In its learning from this case, the landlord says it has introduced additional mediation steps at the early stages of its ASB case-handling process, a new system of recordkeeping, and more touchpoints for residents throughout the process to make sure it is offering comprehensive support in areas such as mental health.”
A general comment from the Ombudsman’s report said: “Repeatedly, landlords fail to take action in line with their policies: no risk assessment, no action plan, limited communication.”
A spokesperson for WCH said: “We are very sorry to have let our customers down on this occasion. We accept that our handling of this complaint was not good enough and we regret the impact that this has had on the customer and their family. We have since supported them to move to a new and more suitable home.
“This matter was originally raised in 2020, and we have made significant improvements to the way that we handle concerns around ASB since then.
“We are fully committed to learning from the Housing Ombudsman’s findings. We have concluded a thorough review of all cases of this nature. As a result, we have introduced additional mediation steps at the early stages of our ASB case-handling process, a new system of record-keeping and more touchpoints for customers throughout the process to ensure that we are offering comprehensive support in areas such as mental health.
“We promote a positive complaint-handling culture across all teams and we now review all Stage 2 complaints with customers and members of our leadership team.”
0 Comments