PSOW Individual Decisions

Mrs A complained that Merthyr Valleys Homes (‘the Housing Association’) failed to respond to her repeated concerns over several months about outstanding repairs to her 90-year-old mother’s property. She said that the Housing Association only inspected the property after her MP became involved. The Ombudsman decided that the Housing Association had not followed its repairs policy in terms of how long it took to inspect the property and carry out the repairs. She also decided that it had not followed its complaints policy because it had not identified Mrs A’s repeated concerns, or correspondence from her MP, as a formal complaint. The Ombudsman decided to settle the complaint without an investigation. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Housing Association’s agreement within 1 month, to apologise to Mrs A that she had to contact the Ombudsman and that her concerns were not dealt with as a complaint, and to provide a Stage 2 response to the complaint, remedying any issues identified.

Mr X, a tenant of Merthyr Valleys Homes (“the Housing Association”) complained about ongoing anti-social behaviour and harassment from neighbours and issues in relation to flooding from storm drains. Mr X said that the Housing Association responded to his complaint which had been referred by the Ombudsman in January 2022. The Ombudsman found that the Housing Association had not provided a formal response to Mr X’s complaint that had been referred, but had responded to a subsequent complaint made by Mr X about similar issues. The correspondence appeared to address the complaint and provide explanations for the actions taken. The Housing Association had provided Mr X with support to resolve the issues with the storm drain. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Housing Association’s agreement to provide Mr X with a written apology for failing to respond to his complaint(which was previously referred by the Ombudsman on 24 January 2022), within20 working days. The Ombudsman’s view was that this action, together with the steps already taken, was reasonable to settle Mr X’s complaint.

Ms X complained about a noise nuisance at a neighbouring property owned by the Association, and that the Association had not fully responded to her complaint. The Ombudsman was concerned that Ms X had not received a formal response to her complaint and that she had been inconvenienced by the organisation’s actions. He decided to settle the complaint without an investigation. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Association’s agreement to provide Ms X with a formal response in relation to her complaint, which had already been actioned by the time his enquiries were concluded.