The Housing Ombudsman has launched investigations into Camden Council, Hackney Council and Hyde Group after casework showed all three landlords struggle with damp and mould, repairs, and complaint handling.
Special investigations are launched by the Ombudsman using paragraph 49 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme to see if issues it sees in its casework are indicative of wider failings within the landlord.
The reports will subsequently make recommendations that the Ombudsman will use to help drive service improvements and deliver effective social housing for residents.
The Housing Ombudsman said all three landlords have either high maladministration rates or increasing findings in these areas, including several findings of severe maladministration.
Hyde Group provided a statement to the Ombudsman, apologising for having let some of its customers down and saying it would be taking every complaint received extremely seriously.
“We’re looking forward to working with the Housing Ombudsman and welcome the opportunity to reflect on where we’ve got things wrong.
“We’ll also be able to demonstrate how we’ve changed, so that we’re listening to customers, and working with them to improve their services, by putting their needs first," the housing association said.
In a statement, Hackney Council apologised that at times the service it had provided residents had not met the standards it expected and that residents deserved.
It said: "Changes we have introduced over the last 18 months to the way we work is resulting in faster response times for completing repairs and tackling leaks as well as damp and mould.
“We have made a commitment to inspect reports of damp and mould within five days and to visit reports of leaks by the end of the next day.
"While we face many challenges including maintaining and repairing an ageing housing stock, our work towards fully achieving both of these targets is reflected by an improvement across all of our tenant satisfaction measures.
“However, we know we still have more to do."
