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10 April 2025
Housing for Women overhauls processes and safeguards after resident incorrectly told she owed over £10,000 in rentPrint
The Housing Ombudsman ordered an independent review of Housing for Women’s rent recovery practice following a significant failing in its approach to rent arrears and account management. Improvements made by the landlord include its record keeping, complaint handling and staff training.
The landlord incorrectly told a resident they owed over £10,000 in missed rent payments.
It changed the amount to £2,000 following a challenge from the resident and said it would be taking legal action.
Two days after Christmas, the resident received a notice seeking possession, a legal notice from the court to be evicted from their home. The resident came to the Ombudsman for help when the landlord did not respond to a complaint made to it.
The resident described the landlord’s actions as leaving them “struggling to cope.” The landlord ignored evidence to show the resident had in fact made the missing payments and requests to access their online rent portal. Instead, it continued to take legal action which further affected the resident’s mental health.
The Ombudsman can order a landlord to review its practices where it believes other residents may be affected by a failing in its service provision or process.
We also used our powers to investigate a complaint without a final response, after attempts to engage with the landlord were ignored and the landlord did not comply with a notice of complaint handling failure.
Since the review, the landlord has put in place new processes, safeguards, and staff training to improve the way it manages arrears and complaint handling. The landlord has now revised its complaints procedure to comply with the Complaint Handling Code and adopt a more empathetic approach.
The Ombudsman’s Spotlight report on attitudes, rights and respect cited the tone of communication with residents as a major factor that can affect the service the resident receives. Throughout contact with the resident, the landlord’s tone was dismissive and unsympathetic of the resident’s lived experiences. Nor was there evidence that the landlord offered support or reassurance and ignored requests to supply information.
The landlord said multiple failings were down to a single staff member that was being performance managed at this time, eventually leading to dismissal. The landlord also set out that lack of senior management oversight and understanding by finance teams of the rent process played a part in its service failure.
Housing for Women wider order report (PDF)
Rent and service charges fact sheet
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “Throughout this case the landlord took an adversarial and heavy-handed stance towards the resident, despite her regularly expressing the impact of legal threats were having on her well-being.
“There can be an inherent imbalance of power between resident and landlord, and this case exemplifies it, very nearly leading to a family being unfairly evicted.
“Landlords have to do their job and residents have obligations to fulfil too, but the landlord’s handing was fundamentally flawed, and the complaint is littered with missed opportunities to reflect with a dismissive attitude, including of the Ombudsman, from the outset.
“Even were its actions right, landlords should consider how to adopt the right tone given the life-changing impact that eviction could have.
“I know many landlords would take an empathetic, person-centred approach, and others should learn from this experience. I also welcome the extensive changes the landlord has made to its record keeping and practice against the Complaint Handling Code following this review.
“As rent charges are made for the new financial year, this case shows the importance of regular reviews of rent arrears management. It also highlights the need for landlord staff to put themselves in the place of a resident, show empathy and provide support when working with a resident in arrears, or at risk of losing their home. This has never been more important given the current cost of living challenges and demand for affordable housing.
“We hope landlords can take learning from this to assess if their current procedures provide the right support to its residents and have adapted to financial pressures affecting the sector.”
In all cases where the Ombudsman issues a wider order, it provides the landlord an opportunity to share a learning statement.
Housing for Women learning statement
Following a severe maladministration order related to our failure to manage a tenants rent account and respond to the resident’s subsequent complaint. An internal review was completed, and the following issues were identified:
- we did not take int account the resident’s vulnerability
- there was no senior management oversight of the case
- we repeatedly failed to the resident’s complaints
To ensure that this doesn’t happen in the future we have put in placed the following policies, procedures, and processes.
- developed and implemented a new complaints policy and procedure that meets the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code
- developed and implemented a new compensation policy that gives staff clear guidance on when compensation should be offered
- introduced new response templates for compliant responses, ensuring that staff have clear guidance on how a compliant should be responded to
- ensured all staff have received training on the complaints policies and processes
- introduced reporting and monitoring of all complaints ensuring that there is senior management and Board oversight of complaints, and these are being responded to within the Ombudsman’s published timescales
- updated our rent arrears procedure to ensure it covers vulnerable residents and implemented additional steps within the procedure when managing arrears where we know the resident has a vulnerability – our procedure has also been updated to ensure that the Head of Housing & Customer Service must approve the serving of a Notice of Seeking Possession before it is served
- our Head of Housing & Customer Service and Head of Finance meet on a quarterly basis to ensure that rent payments have been posted to the correct account
We are confident that the lessons learnt from this case have made our policies and processes more robust and ensured we have introduced effective monitoring of complaints and arrears management, ensuring that our approach to complaint handling and arrears management is robust and puts the customer first.
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Ombudsman sets out 4 tests of good communication to help landlords ‘avoid inadvertently stigmatising residents and rebuild trust’
24 April 2025
Ombudsman sets out 4 tests of good communication to help landlords ‘avoid inadvertently stigmatising residents and rebuild trust’Print
The Housing Ombudsman has released its monthly ‘learning from severe maladministration’ report, focusing on communications. The report forms part of its series relating to Awaab’s Law, helping landlords prepare for the new legislation in October.
The report identifies 4 key ingredients for effective communication which were absent in the cases examined:
- timely
- transparent
- tailored
- tone
Poor communication compounded what were already serious failings in responding to complaints about damp and mould. In one case, a landlord failed to act despite over 10 contacts from a resident and then prolonged the complaints process by 19 months. In another case, a resident for whom English is not her first language was left in damp and mould for 4 years with ongoing issues due to the language barrier, including the landlord not taking into account her health needs.
In a third case a resident struggled to get the landlord to respond to her complaints, with the landlord’s communication lacking empathy and internally referring to “this person” and bemoaning the number of requests for action.
The communication failings were present in both the service areas as well as complaints handling, and include poor internal communication and engagement with contractors and managing agents.
While the four Ts of good communication are lessons drawn from cases relating to damp and mould because of the proximity of Awaab’s Law, they could apply to all complaint categories.
Communications can often be a test of culture for an organisation, and this report from the Ombudsman comes a few months after a report from the G15 group of landlords found that residents reported the most common source of stigma was interactions with landlords, cited by 43% of respondents.
The landlords mentioned in this report are:
- Estuary Housing
- Islington Council
- Lambeth Council
- L&Q
- Notting Hill Gensis
- Redbridge Council
- West Northamptonshire Council
Learning from severe maladministration report (PDF)
Learning from severe maladministration report – April 2025
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “I have witnessed the raw emotions of residents who have experienced poor communication. Poor communication is the most common concern I have heard expressed by residents at public events.
“What can appear to be technical failings make residents feel unheard, dismissed and stigmatised.
“Communication reflects the landlord’s culture and values. We know some landlords communicate well and most people working in social housing are committed and compassionate, but we also know communication failings can create a perception of the landlord being uncaring. Getting communication right will avoid inadvertently stigmatising residents and rebuild trust.
“With Awaab’s Law 6 months away, confident communication will be essential. Central to effective communication under Awaab’s Law is the anticipated written statement. This is an additional step compared to what many landlords presently do. We’re yet to see the final specifics, but last year’s consultation outlined a minimum standard and the 6 specifics proposed by the government were sensible.
“But landlords also need to think about their communication either side of the written statement.
“At its heart, poor communications during the complaints process can compound failings by a service area. Instead of providing an opportunity to regain the confidence of the resident that the landlord is listening and what it is doing to put things right, it can further undermine trust between resident and landlord.
“Given most residents will remain with the landlord, that is unsustainable, which is why I would urge complaints teams and the Member Responsible for Complaints to focus on what we see as the four Ts of good communication by their organisation.”
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