Havering Council breached complaint law after delays in handling a resident's parking concerns, a new report has revealed. 

The council was one of several landlords named in the Housing Ombudsman's latest complaint handling report for failing to deal with a complaint in line with statutory guidance. 

The housing service found that a resident faced "delays" and "contradictory and confusing information" from Havering Council when he complained about insufficient parking spaces at his flat block.

The resident reported that the spaces near his flat were not safe, parking on the road was not possible due to the large number of houses in the area - and that his neighbours were getting "hostile about parking".

Despite the complaint first being raised in April 2022, it was not escalated to the second stage of Havering Council's complaint process until June 2022.

By February 2023, the resident had reported the complaint to the Housing Ombudsman for investigation - meanwhile the parking issue was still "ongoing", with the resident fearing that tension between his neighbours could "escalate".

Havering was ordered to pay the resident £150 compensation for the "time and inconvenience caused" by its complaint handling and "maladministration". 

However, in May this year, the council was handed a Complaint Handling Failure Order (CHFO) - a last resort for when a landlord has failed to act in response to the ombudsman's intervention - for not providing evidence they had paid the sum within a "reasonable amount of time".

The authority then failed to comply with this order, forcing "further action to remedy the situation for the resident", according to the Housing Ombudsman. 

In the quarterly complaint handling report, head of the Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: "CHFOs are issued rarely and may signal wider concerns – these warnings must be heeded to avoid unnecessary detriment to residents.

"Landlords must also apply lessons from complaints to prevent them, as well as using complaints to test its culture.

"Without tackling the root causes of complaints, trust in landlords will be eroded, with communities and the economy adversely impacted."

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The report details that, although the initial deadline within the CHFO was not met, Havering Council has now engaged with the ombudsman and provided evidence it has since complied with the orders.

A spokesperson for Havering Council told the Recorder that it was marked as failing to comply with the Complaint Handling Code due to its inability to produce an annual report in time.

They added that the ombudsman has now extended the deadline for this until the end of January 2025, and that it has "no reflection on the services received by residents".

The spokesperson said: "We have recently reviewed our corporate complaints procedure and improving customer service remains one of our top priorities.

"We also recently launched a customer services survey so residents can provide feedback directly."