High Court bailiffs marched into the Stratford head office of housing association London & Quadrant (L&Q) last month to recover unpaid compensation, in what campaigners hailed as a rare victory against a culture of unaccountability among big landlords.
The case involved a leaseholder, Dean Kennedy, who complained of serious antisocial behaviour (ASB) from a neighbour.
He said L&Q ignored his pleas for action, leaving him fearing for his safety.
Under its regulatory obligations, a social landlord like L&Q must take complaints of antisocial behaviour seriously and take appropriate action to protect residents.
In this case, the Housing Ombudsman found maladministration: despite receiving 334 noise recordings from the resident as early as February 2020, L&Q did not open an antisocial behaviour case until 1 September 2021, far outside its own policy of acting within three working days.
The Ombudsman also criticised poor record-keeping, misleading communication, and a failure to follow through on promised actions.
With support from the Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC), a tenants’ rights advocacy group, and after L&Q had failed to respond to a petition organised by Mr Kennedy and his neighbours, the Housing Ombudsman ordered L&Q to pay him £800 in compensation.
However, the money never arrived.
Kennedy, a tenant of L&Q living in Buckinghamshire, then pursued further compensation through the government's Money Claim Online court system.
L&Q failed to attend the hearing and so lost by default, yet still did not pay.
Mr Kennedy told SHAC: “My mental health seriously deteriorated. I had a breakdown when the neighbour was banging on my door. I barricaded myself in and had to call 999. I was a wreck.
“It was terrifying. It has taken months of therapy and medication to get back on an even keel. I still can’t believe how dismissive L&Q was. They agreed that there was a problem, but didn’t take any steps at all to address it.”
After months of phone calls and emails went unanswered, Mr Kennedy sent in bailiffs.
The first attempt to recover the debt was unsuccessful, as the bailiffs failed to gain entry to L&Q’s head office.
However, when he instructed the High Court Bailiff Service, adding £1,800 in costs to L&Q’s bill, officers arrived at the Stratford HQ on 4 August with a writ of control.
Only then did the landlord transfer the money, with the final settlement “significantly higher” than the Ombudsman’s award, according to SHAC.
With many Newham residents living in homes run by L&Q and other large housing associations, campaigners say the Stratford enforcement action should serve as a warning about what residents are up against when landlords ignore their legal duties.
SHAC argued the case shows a wider problem: “SHAC is aware that we have a real and acute problem with housing associations believing that they are unaccountable and untouchable when it comes to tenants and residents trying to enforce their rights, whether this is in relation to antisocial behaviour, disrepairs, or overpaid service charges.
"The enforcement gap undermines all the regulatory and statutory measures that are supposed to balance the rights of tenants and residents against those of landlords.”
L&Q has apologised for how the case was handled.
Commenting on the situation, Charlie Culshaw, L&Q's director of housing management, told Local Government Lawyer: “We take all concerns about anti-social behaviour very seriously, and we are making a number of improvements to our anti-social behaviour service.
"We apologise for the delay in awarding compensation to this resident.”
L&Q oversees well over 105,000 homes across London and the South East, many of them within Newham, through developments like Beam Park and The Forge, where it offers both London Living Rent and shared-ownership options.