Summary
Miss C complained about the way that the housing association handled her application to transfer to another property. She also complained that the association failed to take appropriate action in response to her reports of mice in her home.
We found that the association had reasonably followed their allocations policy and had used their discretion appropriately, taking into account the demand for available housing. We did not uphold this part of Miss C's complaint.
Regarding the mice in Miss C's property, we found that the association had liaised with the council's environmental health team to resolve the infestation, and that they had taken repair action to fill gaps as requested. We considered that they had responded reasonably, and we did not uphold this part of Miss C's complaint. However, we found that the association had misinterpreted advice that was given to them by the council's environmental health team, which influenced policy changes to remove the need for a case by case assessment of habitability in cases of mouse infestation. We, therefore, recommended that they revisit these changes to ensure that they are appropriate.
Recommendations
What we said should change to put things right in future: Any report of mouse infestation should be individually assessed to ensure the property remains habitable whilst the problem is addressed.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201709104 as a PDF (12.17 KB) Updated: December 2, 2018