Resident told to 'wash her children in kitchen sink’ - East Sussex housing association criticised for homes blighted by mould, noise and leaks

Southern Housing, which manages a large number of properties in the county, was also criticised by the Housing Ombudsman for its ‘lack of ownership’ in its complaints handling procedure and for failing to deal with noise nuisance cases quickly enough.

The association offers more than 77,000 rented and shared ownership homes across the south east and in towns such as Hastings, Battle and Bexhill.

The report covered events that took place between October 2018 and September 2023.

In one of the cases highlighted in the report, a resident faced lengthy delays in dealing with a leaking waste pipe, which resulted in environmental health issuing an improvement notice.

And in another case, the report said Southern Housing had failed to take appropriate action following a risk assessment made after a resident was wielding a machete and threatening to set fire to the building.

The report said: “We found significant and detrimental delays in the landlord’s handling of noise nuisance cases, and further evidence of its failure to manage risk appropriately.

“In one case, the landlord failed to respond appropriately to the resident’s noise reports, failed to carry out a risk assessment or consider what steps it could take to reduce household noise. It failed to consider the impact of noise on the resident despite the resident explaining the detriment to his health and wellbeing over several years.”

The report also highlighted a case of damp and mould where the resident was told to just wash her children ‘in the kitchen sink’ to avoid the leak in the bathroom ceiling the resident complained about. Southern Housing was criticised for showing a ‘lack of empathy’.

The Housing Ombudsman’s report decided on 77 cases, making 184 findings, with a maladministration rate of 79 and 300 orders to rectify issues for affected residents.

Optivo and Southern Housing Group merged to form Southern Housing in December 2022.

Hastings Borough Council’s Labour group leader Cllr Margi O’Callaghan said: “Too many Southern Housing tenants have been left in squalid accommodation, infested with black mould and damp, while others have been decanted from one temporary home to another with no clear date on when they can return to their homes.

“As councillors we have seen first hand the impact of the ‘lack of ownership’ in the Southern Housing complaints culture and are acting on behalf of the many tenants left suffering severe anxiety and multiple health problems as they battle Southern Housing to get resolutions that a decent landlord would deal with efficiently and effectively.”

A statement from Southern Housing said: “We’re truly sorry to all residents who’ve experienced service failures, including the residents that this report shows we let down. Throughout this investigation process, we’ve worked proactively and collaboratively with the Ombudsman and his team, and we welcome the learning from this report.

“Since the merger we’ve introduced a number of changes, including a customer service training programme for all colleagues and we’re introducing improvements in repairs and maintenance. We’ll complete the integration of our systems by April 2025 enabling us to realise further merger benefits and deliver services to a consistently higher standard.

“We’ll use the report together with our long-standing commitment to resident governance to drive further improvements. We’re unique amongst large landlords in having four resident places on our board. In addition, more than 100 residents are involved in our resident governance and scrutiny structure and many more participate informally. This has made a huge difference to how we operate including changing the way we manage damp and mould. We’re confident that our commitment to listening to residents and co-creating service improvements will enable us to achieve the standard of services residents tell us they want.”