A council tenant has been awarded £1,000 in compensation after the bitter stench from untreated damp in his kitchen left him unable to cook for months.
The Leeds resident had waited two years for the city council to make repairs and alterations to his flat, which was badly affected by water damage, the Housing Ombudsman said.
A damning report by the regulator found “severe” failings and that the tenant had suffered “unnecessary trouble, frustration and distress.”
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Leeds City Council has apologised, saying its repairs service was badly affected by Covid-19-related delays at the time.
The report detailed how council contractors had attended the flat in October 2020 after a water leak and identified several jobs to be carried out.
However, it was not until September 2021, after the tenant had repeatedly escalated a complaint, that most of the necessary repairs to address the damp were completed.
He had first raised issues with the home in 2019, the report said.
On multiple occasions contractors visited the home, but only to survey the property before leaving again.
In the meantime, the kitchen walls were so wet that tiles began to peel off, the Ombudsman said.
The report said: “The resident had described failed repairs, and a smell so bad that he had been unable to cook and eat in the kitchen for some time.
“He recalled that the landlord kept attending to ‘check everything’, then would not come back for several months, then would attend and do the same thing again.”
The Ombudsman said that had works been carried out when they were first identified in the autumn of 2020, “eight months of unpleasant living conditions could reasonably have been avoided”.
It added: “Further, the resident was caused unnecessary time, trouble, frustration and distress by the numerous attendances at the property and need to chase the matter with the landlord over a prolonged period.”
The housing regulator also found failings in the council’s complaint handling, ruling that its response was inadequate and there were “missed opportunities” to learn from mistakes.
It also said that while the local authority had blamed Covid-19 for delays to repairs, this “did not account for the very long delays and seemingly poor management”.
It ordered the council to pay £1,000 in compensation, offer a written apology and to carry out further inspections of the property to ensure it is well ventilated and free of damp and mould.
In a statement, Leeds City Council said: “We have apologised to the customer for the delay in completing the outstanding repairs and the time taken to resolve the complaint.
“We welcome feedback from our customers to help us improve the service that we offer. On this occasion, the service that we offered fell below the standard that our customers should expect.”
The council said several changes had been made to its housing service following the case.
This included the creation of a specialist damp and mould team, which allows such issues to be recorded and responded to more quickly.
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