News18.08.23by Grainne CuffeThe boss of an ALMO, which is due to close, has been ordered to apologise to a resident after staff ignored and made “inappropriate remarks” about a noise complaint.Bury Town Hall (picture: Alamy)SharelinesThe boss of an ALMO, which is due to close, has been ordered to apologise to a resident after staff ignored and made “inappropriate remarks” about a noise complaint #UKhousing The Housing Ombudsman told the chief executive of Six Town Housing, Bury Council’s ALMO, to apologise directly to the Manchester resident after her noise nuisance complaints were ignored or not acted on properly for nearly two years.
When staff did acknowledge the complaints, they made inappropriate remarks, including officers saying in internal correspondence that they “could not be bothered to add the resident’s calls to its system”, according to the ombudsman.
The watchdog found one case of severe maladministration for Six Town Housing’s handling of the resident’s reports of anti-social behaviour, and a separate case of maladministration for its handling of the resident’s complaints.
The ALMO was ordered to pay £1,100 in compensation to the resident.
The ruling comes just over two months after it was announced that Bury Council had decided take back control of the homes managed by Six Town Housing.
The ALMO, set up in 2005, manages 7,700 homes on behalf of the local authority. In the case, the ombudsman said that the resident should have been treated with respect and clearly communicated with “irrespective of officers’ views about her reports”.
However, its investigation found evidence that the ALMO chose not to respond to the resident and closed cases without contacting her.
The organisation also failed to take into consideration the detrimental impact of consistently failing to respond over a prolonged period, the ombudsman said.
Six Town Housing also did not manage the resident’s expectations by not clearly explaining to her which reports were considered to constitute anti-social behaviour and which ones were not, according to the ombudsman.
Six Town Housing was also ordered to review the resident’s current anti-social behaviour concerns and implement an action plan to address them.
The ombudsman also gave the ALMO six weeks to provide clear guidance to its staff about the importance of objective record-keeping and using professional language. Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said: “There is clear and repeated evidence of a lack of professionalism by the landlord in response to its resident’s requests for help.
“These failings were over a prolonged period and meant the landlord failed to follow its own ASB policy and procedure.
“The result was significant distress for its resident over a long period of time. This led the resident to understandably feel victimised by her landlord.”
He said the sector needs to respond to noise nuisance “far more effectively”.
“It is a significant driver of complaints after disrepair. I would encourage landlords to reconsider our Spotlight report on noise nuisance and develop action plans to deal with this, especially during summer when we know more reports are being made.
“This case also reflects once more the continued problems that landlords are having with their recording-keeping and the detrimental impact this can have on residents,” he said.
In a statement, Six Town Housing said the complaint has led to a review of its processes.
It said: “And we’re deeply sorry on this occasion our approach did not deliver the quality of service we would expect and that our internal processes didn’t highlight the issue sooner within the organisation.
“We are committed to learning from our mistakes, and in ensuring that errors do not reoccur. As such, we have completed a full review and ensured that systems and our staff are providing the best support, and positive outcomes to our customers including:
All staff have been reminded of their responsibilities in accurate record-keeping, this includes complaint-handling, and ensuring a customer-first approach
We have revised and refreshed our complaints-handling policy and this was launched on 1 April 2023 with training for staff where necessary
We have written to the tenant, apologising for our errors and have compensated her with £1,100
In addition, we have offered the tenant additional tenancy support should she wish to use this service and we continue to work with her to manage any anti-social behaviour
“As an organisation committed to continually improving, we appreciate the role of the Housing Ombudsman in highlighting areas for improvement.”
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