PSOW Individual Decisions

Miss X complained that United Welsh Housing Association failed to resolve repairs in her home. The Ombudsman found that Miss X complained to the Association in April 2025, however, it failed to issue a complaint response to Miss X. She said this caused uncertainty and frustration for Miss X. The Ombudsman decided to settle the complaint without an investigation. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Association’s agreement to, within 2 weeks, apologise and explain the delay, issue a stage 2 complaint response, and offer £100 redress for the delay and for her time and trouble in making a complaint to the Ombudsman.

Miss T complained that UnitedWelsh Housing Association had failed to respond to her request for a double radiator in her wet room. The Ombudsman decided that the Association had failed to communicate effectively with Miss T and her advocate. She said this had caused uncertainty and frustration for Miss T. The Ombudsman decided to settle the complaint without an investigation. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Association’s agreement to, within 2 weeks, provide Miss T with a written apology for failing to respond to her advocates emails and to respond to her request for a double radiator.

Ms C complained that United Welsh Housing Association had failed to act on reports of Anti-Social Behaviour and had not communicated effectively with her regarding her concerns. The Ombudsman decided that the Housing Association’s decisions about what action to take were properly made but there was a lack of clarity in the communication with Ms C that caused confusion and uncertainty. The Ombudsman decided to settle the complaint without an investigation. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Housing Association’s agreement to write to Ms C within two weeks to apologise for continuing to contact her by telephone after agreeing to contact her by email, and seek her consent to share noise recording with the Council.

Mr X complained that United Welsh HousingAssociation had failed to resolve maintenance issues in his ex-partner’s property. The Ombudsman found that although the Association had responded to Mr X’s complaint, it had failed to fully respond to all of Mr X’s concerns. The Ombudsman said this caused confusion and inconvenience for Mr X. The Ombudsman decided to settle the complaint without an investigation. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Association’s agreement to provide Mr X with a written apology and an explanation as to how the complaint had been overlooked and to provide Mr X with a stage 2 complaint response within 3 weeks.

Miss A complained that United Welsh Housing Association failed to carry out necessary repairs to her home or provide a response to her complaint, which she made to it in April 2024. The Ombudsman found that the Housing Association had undertaken some repairs but there were delays in those works being carried out. It had not taken any steps to investigate or address the concerns in relation to the front door to Miss A’s flat. Further, the Housing Association had not provided a formal response to Miss A’s complaint. The Ombudsman said that this had caused frustration and uncertainty. She decided to settle the complaint without an investigation. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Housing Association’s agreement to, within 2 weeks, provide Miss A with an apology for its failure to address the issues with the front door, to provide a formal complaint response and offer a payment of £100 redress for Miss A’s time and trouble in bringing her complaint to the Ombudsman.

Miss X complained that United Welsh Housing Association had failed to change her soffits and it had failed to respond to concerns she raised in July 2023. The Ombudsman concluded that the Association had failed to escalate Miss X’s complaint in line with its complaints process. She said this caused frustration and uncertainty to Miss X. She decided to settle the complaint without an investigation. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Association’s agreement to, within 4 weeks, issue a stage 2 response to address the outstanding repairs to Miss X’s home. The response will provide a timeline of the planned work and when the required works will be completed. The Association also agreed to apologise to Miss X for the service failure and oversight in logging the complaint and offer a redress payment of £100 in recognition of the time and trouble taken by Miss X complaining to the Ombudsman.

Ms A complained that United Welsh Housing Association (“the Housing Association”) had not responded to a complaint she had made to it about damp at her property. She complained that the damp in her home had been worsening and her attempts to get the Housing Association to rectify the issues had been ignored. The Ombudsman found that whilst the Housing Association had since replied to Ms A’s complaint, it had not provided enough information to Ms A regarding the steps that were to be taken to resolve the repairs and the estimated timeframe for the repairs to be completed within, taking into account that some of the timeframes were out of the Housing Association’s control. The Ombudsman contacted the Housing Association and in resolution of Ms A’s complaint it agreed to, within 20 working days write to Ms A to provide a further response addressing these issues. The Ombudsman considered this to be an appropriate resolution and did not investigate.

Mr F complained that United Welsh Housing Association failed to resolve his concerns about tenants non-compliance with the Housing Association’s dog policy. The Ombudsman decided that the Housing Association had failed to escalate Mr F’s complaint in line with its corporate complaints process. She said that this caused frustration and uncertainty to Mr F. She decided to settle the complaint without an investigation. The Ombudsman sought and gained the Housing Association’s agreement to apologise to Mr F, provide an explanation for the failure, offer him redress of £125, issue a complaint response within 4 weeks and to arrange relevant staff training.

Ms L complained that United Welsh Housing Association had failed to respond to concerns she made in March 2022 regarding a drainage issue in her property. The Ombudsman concluded that the Association failed to actin accordance with its statutory complaints procedure and said that this caused frustration to Ms L. As an alternative to an investigation, the Ombudsman sought and gained the Association’s agreement to apologise to Ms L and offer her a financial payment of £50. The Association also agreed, within 30 working days, to provide Ms L with a formal complaint response which includes an update on the investigation into the drainage issue.

Mrs X complained that United Welsh Housing Association (“the Association”) failed to undertake repairs to her unsafe garden for 3 years. She also complained about incorrect information provided to her regarding the existence of a disclaimer and a disagreement over responsibility for the garden repairs. Finally, Mrs X complained about a missed opportunity to move home due to the health and safety issues with her garden. The Ombudsman decided that the Council should provide Mrs X with a further written response (within 3 weeks), to offer an apology and an explanation for the delay in undertaking remedial works. The Council will also offer a revised redress payment of £250 the that delay. It will also offer assistance to Mrs X with any future Homeswapper Mutual Exchanges to include expediting the property inspection. The Ombudsman considered this to be an appropriate resolution to the complaint instead of conducting an investigation.

Ms X complained that her neighbour, who is a tenant of UWHA, has displayed antisocial behaviour and has made threats of violence toward her.  Ms X says she feels like a prisoner in her own home. UWHA has agreed to the following: The Neighbourhood Officer will arrange a face-to-face visit to Ms X to discuss her concerns further and work out how UWHA can provide her with further support.  Following this, UWHA has agreed to provide Ms X with a further written response (detailing its actions to date and any agreed action).  It will do this within 20 working days of the visit. The Ombudsman considered this to be an appropriate resolution to the complaint.