The Housing Ombudsman has launched a special investigation into London’s Lewisham Council following a “high maladministration rate”, including a “significant number of severe maladministration findings, and some compliance issues”.

The landlord’s maladministration rate for the last 12 months stands at 85% and the ombudsman has issued 16 severe maladministration findings. The maladministration rate for leaks, damp and mould sits at 90%.

The ombudsman also issued a wider order to the landlord in November 2023 regarding leaks, damp and mould but it said it has not yet received evidence of compliance with all parts of the order.

Given these circumstances, the ombudsman said it will conduct a further investigation to establish if these complaints are indicative of wider failure within the landlord.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “Complaints are an essential tool for landlords to learn and improve and can help landlords navigate challenging periods.

“For several months we have been concerned at the repeated failings we have seen in the landlord’s complaints, particularly involving property conditions. We have given the landlord the opportunity to address some of these issues through our orders and will now progress to a further investigation. 

“This will involve engaging with the landlord and its residents about some of the issues we have seen.

“Decent, safe and secure social housing has never been more important and the learning from this report will help the landlord to improve the experiences of residents.”

The Housing Ombudsman has a range of powers to address repeated service failure, improving resident experiences and reducing the need to complain. These powers can tackle issues within the complaints of an individual landlord or landlords, as well as the wider sector. 

The ombudsman said it will share these findings with the Regulator of Social Housing as part of its work under the statutory Memorandum of Understanding.

Lewisham Council issued a statement saying: “We welcome this investigation as we continue to work to improve our services for residents. Our Housing Service has been going through big changes and we know it is in need of improvement. 

“We referred ourselves to the Regulator of Social Housing for a potential breach of its consumer standards in December 2023, and we intend to be open and transparent with both Regulator and Ombudsman until we satisfy their requirements.We have already made progress in some areas, though we still have a long way to go.”