Decision Report 201404841

Summary

Mrs C and her family had experienced problems of serious anti-social behaviour from a neighbour who was also a tenant of the same housing association. She complained to us that the association had unreasonably failed over a period of years to take appropriate action, had unreasonably failed to help her with an offer of transfer to another house, and had unreasonably required her to pay rent arrears before agreeing to a mutual house exchange.

Following our investigation, we found that although Mrs C told us that complaints had been made by others to the association about the family of the neighbour who was the subject of her complaint over the course of several years, she had not complained to the association until 2014 about this. The evidence confirmed that the association had dealt with her complaints about anti-social behaviour reasonably and within the relevant policy. Further, when we looked at the association's handling of Mrs C's request to them to move, and her application for mutual exchange, although she complained that she had been required to pay rent up to when she moved out, this complied with their policy. Furthermore, Mrs C's complaint that the association had not offered her a payment plan to pay off her arrears rather than demand these were paid before the mutual exchange could be agreed was not unreasonable as this again was a matter of policy. We recognised that the situation had been stressful for Mrs C and that the move was something she felt she had to pursue. However, in their handling of the matter, we found that the housing association had acted correctly.