A pregnant mother who was left without heating for an entire winter will receive £2,000 compensation from Southwark Council.
The Housing Ombudsman Service, which ordered the payment following a scathing report, said the council has lacked “empathy”.
It also found the council guilty of “severe maladministration” in handling her complaints and that it did not properly address her heating issues.
The Ombudsman’s ruling comes alongside a second case – where a family was left in damp and mouldy conditions – and will see the council pay over £7,500 compensation.
Southwark Council has apologised “unreservedly for the distress caused” and vowed to change its ways.
The Ombudsman wrote: “The landlord’s delays in handling the complaint meant the resident was left without heating for six months in the coldest period of the year.
“The landlord’s complaint responses were delayed, did not address the concerns of the resident, did not follow its own complaint policy and were issued without any apology or empathy.”
During this time, the council tenant was forced to spend money on portable heaters. Meanwhile, she says she watched her son become “very ill” and suffer “severe colds”.
The Ombudsman’s report shows how, between October 2020 and March 2021, the resident’s heating and hot water barely functioned.
Her block’s communal heating system constantly failed during this period but Southwark Council did not take “a co-ordinated approach” to solving her apartment’s individual problems.
When the council did offer the resident compensation, it offered just £320 which the Ombudsman said was “too low and delayed”.
Southwark Council has been ordered to pay compensation of £2,001 – and to review its processes.
A Southwark Council spokesperson said: “As soon as the Ombudsman raised these with us, we made immediate changes to our processes to try to prevent such failures happening again.”
These changes included establishing a dedicated damp and mould team, ensuring repairs are resolved before moving families into new flats, and reviewing complaints handling processes.
Southwark Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Victor Chamberlain said: “Southwark Labour has presided over a disgraceful collapse of the council’s repairs service. These failings are putting lives at risk and we should not have to rely on the Housing Ombudsman to step in, yet again, to put things right.
“The repairs service needs a complete overhaul and new investment. Everyone in Southwark deserves safe, good quality housing but Labour is failing to provide it.”
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Council ordered to pay family suffering “extreme overcrowding” £2,000 compensation