Housing association fined after blind Yeovil resident forced to live in mouldy property
The resident, who has not been identified, lived in the accommodation for three years
Last updated 2nd Sep 2023
A housing association has been fined nearly £4,600 after it allowed a blind Yeovil resident with a heart condition to live in a mouldy property for three years.
Abri Housing, which is based in Eastleigh in Hampshire, serves as landlord to numerous social rent or affordable rent properties across Somerset, including a number in Yeovil.
The resident – who has not been identified – complained to the Housing Ombudsman after Abri failed to deal with a damp and mould problem in her property for years and repeatedly carried out the same inadequate repairs.
Abri – which was formed by the merger of Yarlington and two other housing associations – has apologised to the resident, who has since moved to another of its properties.
The ombudsman exists to investigate allegations of “maladministration” and “service failure” in the public sector – in other words, instances in which it is claimed housing associations and related bodies have not fully carried out their legal duties to taxpayers.
The Yeovil resident, who has a heart condition and is registered lind, lived in the property with her guide dog and her adult sons, one of whom acts as her carer.
She began living in a three-bedroom semi-detached Abri house in late-2017, with her tenancy agreement stating that her housing association would treat any reports of “severe dampness” within 30 days of it being reported.
Her property was inspected on November 29, 2018, during which time the landlord notes there wrere damp and mould issues in the main bedroom, with one wall in particular being “very damp/ wet to touch”
A doctor at the time surmised that the resident’s son had developed a bad chest as a result of a fungal infection caused by the mould.
On December 19, 2018, the resident told her landlord that the extraction unit in the kitchen wasn’t working, with a “damp smell” emanating from the room.
The landlord actioned a replacement extraction unit and mould treatment, which was completed on January 29, 2019 – with new extraction units and fans being fitted in the bathroom and kitchen respectively on April 30.
The property was further inspected on March 25, 2019, which noted the damp problems in the bedroom and kitchen were persisting, leading to a visit by a damp contractor on May 20.
This contractor recommended that a positive input ventilation unit (PIV) needed to be installed to remove moisture-laden air from the property – but this unit was not immediately installed.
A further inspection was carried out on July 29, 2019, which found “mould spores all around the exterior walls and rake of ceiling”, with anti-mould paint being applied to all surfaces on September 3.
Despite this, further inspections in January 2020 and January 2021 noted “extreme dampness and mould issues”, leading the resident to lodge a formal complaint against Abri’s handling of the issue.
In her complaint, she said the mould situation was “getting severely out of hand”, to the extent that she had been forced to throw away all her soft furnishings.
She said the ordeal had left her “so down, dirty and completely demoralised”, and added she had been sleeping downstairs “for the most part of the year” due to the mould and the smell.
A surveyor visited the property on February 9, 2021, finding “widespread condensation and mould” and recommending that a PIV be installed – nearly two years after this solution had first been offered.
Anti-fungal wash was applied to the property in mid-March 2021, but the landlord argued that further work to remove mould could not be carried out until the PIV had been installed.
Plasterboad was installed in two of the bedrooms on March 31, 2021, with two large mould-ridden wardrobes being removed from the property in early-April.
The landlord offered £1,000 to replace items which had been damaged by mould within the property (as well as £400 to replace the bed and mattress), and internal doors were altered to allow air from the PIV to circulate more properly.
Abri finally responded to the residents’ complaint in late-April 2021, apologising for the delays and recognising thaty “the issue should have been fixed sooner”.
An occupational therapist visited the property on May 26, 2021 and found numerous issues with the house, including a lack of level access at both entrances, insufficient lighting in the kitchen and new controls needed on the shower – in addition to the damp issue in the bedrooms.
The therapist advised that the issues were so extreme that the family should be supported to “find a property of a similar size in the local area”.
The resident’s complaint was escalated in mid-July 2021, with subsequent surveys and visits being carried out in early-August.
During one of these visits, the resident complained that the work carried out on her property to date had not been satisfactory – including unsuitable shower controls and bath taps, and a bath fan being installed in the kitchen which blew in cold air.
Following further visits in November, the resident complained to the ombudsman and indicated her wish to move, alleging that the landlord was “colluding” with the surveyor to cover up the black mould issue.
The resident told the ombudsman that she had been prescribed sleeping tablets since she could not sleep in her bedroom, that her son had developd a “chronic skin condition” from exposure to the mould (necessitating him being put on steroids by his GP) and that she felt “she would die” if she remained in the property.
Housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway has ordered the landlord to pay £4,588 in compensation, which took in account rent paid during this period, as well as implementing a damp and mould strategy and improving its record keeping.
He said: “Various fundamental issues with Abri’s repairs service are on show in these cases, including extensive delays, haphazard record keeping, inadequate actions despite expert advice and poor communication.
“Particularly concerning is that one resident has vulnerabilities, and these were not considered or treated with appropriate urgency to put things right.
“The volume of casework coming to us where residents are presenting with health concerns as a result of their living conditions should be a wake-up call to all landlords that this cannot be treated with anything except the urgency it deserves.
“I welcome the landlord’s learning from this case and actions it has taken to strengthen its approach on damp and mould.”
Abri Housing has formally apologised for the distress caused to the resident, and said it would be implementing all the ombudsman’s recommendations.
A spokesman said: “We are very sorry for the distress and inconvenience experienced by our customer in this case. Our response to completing work in an acceptable timescale, and the handling of the complaints, was not good enough.
“We acknowledged this at the time with the customers and have subsequently accepted the ombudsman’s determinations. We have carried out all orders and recommendations made.
“In the two years since this case, we have overhauled our approach, processes and policies regarding damp and mould. This includes putting a robust quality assurance team in place.
“We’ve also trained and empowered our colleagues to recognise and address the signs of damp and mould by working with our customers.
“We have apologised to our customer for the time it took to fully resolve the issue and the impact this had on them.
“We have taken action to address the root cause of the problem and a recent independent survey confirms that the property is now free of mould. We have also met our customer’s request to move to another property.”