The watchdog will examine its high maladministration rate to determine whether complaints are indicative of wider failure
The Housing Ombudsman will conduct a special investigation into complaint-handling at South London-based Wandle Housing Association due to concerns over its high maladministration rate.
The 7,000-home housing association’s maladministration rate is 89%, which the Ombudsman says is “comparatively high for the size of the landlord”.
The maladministration rate represents the percentage of complaints where the Housing Ombudsman finds a housing provider at fault for delaying or failing to take necessary action.
The purpose of special investigations under paragraph 49 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme is to conduct further investigations beyond an individual complaint and determine if there is evidence pointing to a broader systemic failure.
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During the process, the Ombudsman will engage with Wandle staff and residents to understand the issues facing the organisation and provide recommendations to help avoid future failings.
The investigation will also consider if the landlord is compliant in practice with the Ombudsman’s complaint handling code.
The complaint handling code, which became statutory on 1 April this year, sets out best practice for social landlords to effectively handle complaints, the stages a process should have, timescales to provide a response and what information must be provided in a complaint response.
Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, said: “We are seeing a high maladministration rate with this landlord, which is of cause for concern.”
He said that the Ombudsman will engage with Wandle after the investigation to discuss its learning recommendations and publish these in a report highlighting any issues it has identified in the cases investigated.
Blakeway added: “Developing this report in a collaborative way with the landlord ensures the recommendations we make can be taken forwards positively, and we will continue to work with the landlord after the publication of the report to help ensure these are implemented and drive actions.”
Anne Waterhouse, chief executive at Wandle, said: “We recognise that our complaint handling hasn’t been what our residents deserve and are committed to putting this right – as we’ve demonstrated in our recent complaint handling report, and residents annual report.”
Waterhouse said that Wandle has established a project group to look at some of the causes of its poor performance in complaint handling.
She added: “We want to learn and improve from complaints, and look forward to working with our customers and the Ombudsman to show them what we’ve started to put in place, recent changes and improvements, and listen to their ideas about where we can do more to deliver consistently good outcomes for our customers.”
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