Complaints about poor cleaning in a council block of flats have resulted in compensation being awarded by the Housing Ombudsman.
A leaseholder, Phil Shaw, first raised concerns about the standard of cleaning in communal areas of the block in Craven Vale in November 2023.
Mr Shaw, a professional costume designer, pays service charges to Brighton and Hove City Council and the bill includes the cost of cleaning the communal areas.
The ombudsman awarded £100 compensation because of the council’s response to Mr Shaw’s concerns and the handling of the complaint process.
Mr Shaw wants improvements to the communal cleaning service and a refund of cleaning charges.
The ombudsman’s report said that, while the council listed Mr Shaw’s concerns and inspected the communal areas, it failed to provide a cleaning schedule despite repeated requests.
Mr Shaw complained that the cleaner only swept and mopped the floor. They did not clean the windows, walls and ledges and the standard of cleaning did not meet proper expectations.
When escalating the complaint in May 2024, after a council inspector said that the cleaning was acceptable, Mr Shaw provided evidence of missed or ineffective cleaning.
When referring the case to the ombudsman after the council said that the cleaning was satisfactory a second time, Mr Shaw’s evidence included images of cobwebs and further evidence that windows, walls and ledges were missed.
The ombudsman said: “The landlord did not consider the resident’s escalation request at the earliest opportunity and failed to acknowledge or put this right although it responded appropriately at stage one and put right the confusion between its complaints and leasehold dispute processes.”
Labour councillor Gill Williams, the council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “We understand the resident’s concerns and welcome the report which recognised that we investigated the issues raised and took action including inspections, extra cleaning and ongoing monitoring.
“While the overall satisfaction with our estates service is increasing, we’ve reflected on the lessons learned and are continuing to improve the service we provide to residents.”
Mr Shaw is not the only resident in his block to have been awarded compensation over communal area cleaning.
In April last year, another neighbour – who has asked not to be identified because of other outstanding complaints – was awarded £500 compensation over how the council dealt with cleaning complaints.
It followed complaints from the neighbour in 2023 about faeces in the communal area and cleaners skipping the block of flats in question.
The council’s tenant satisfaction measures for 2025-26 showed that matters had improved, with 71 per cent of tenants “satisfied” with cleaning in communal areas, up from 66 per cent for 2024-25.
Well, you can see why there are so many libraries and other services closing.
Realistically, you would have thought do the job properly and stop fighting when you know you’ve done something wrong.
Wasting further public money on staff’s wages because the amount of time they are using to defend the undefendable.
Do the job correctly in the first place.
I wonder how long it takes for Gill Williams and the team to learn, as it seems, I believe, four years that this issue for this particular area has been coming up. That’s a very long time to be studying and learning how to deal with a cleaning issue.
I would have thought that was a basic thing to learn how to clean.
I wonder if this failure to learn by the council is all due to the area holding the council accountable for their failings and the council is weaponizing services against their tenants and residents.
It is not going to look good as the BHCC’s housing service is about to be inspected by the Regulator of Social Housing.
Why would the council waste our money fighting this instead of just sorting the cleaning out at the first complaint?! The cleaners would have had a cleaning schedule. If they were in breach of it by skimping bits, THEY should be the ones paying the compensation!
I am sure this stunning council performance will encourage everyone in Queens Park Ward to vote Labour Steve Gladwin in the by-election coming up, lol!
Yes, I’m pretty sure that will encourage everyone to vote for the controlling party that’s allowing this to happen under their watch time and time again. lol
Another waste of council tax payers money
I am a leaseholder in a tower block , Hatton House on an east London estate run by East End Homes and experience similar issues of poor cleaning to the communal areas, with little or no response to complaints. Having to go to the ombudsman to deal with such basic matters just shows the lack of accountability of public housing providers.well done to the individual in the article for pursuing the matter.it is unfortunate the council felt the need to put a positive spin on the outcome , rather than dealing with the poor cleaning in the first place.
One scarcely knows where to begin.
A resident pays the Council a service charge for cleaning. He observes that rather less cleaning appears to be taking place than one might reasonably associate with the word. He asks, repeatedly, for the cleaning schedule. The Council cannot apparently produce it. He supplies photographs of cobwebs and neglected windows, walls and ledges. The Council inspects matters and, not once but twice, concludes that everything is satisfactory.
Eventually the Housing Ombudsman becomes involved and compensation is awarded. And this is not even the first resident in the block to receive compensation over complaints about the communal cleaning.
One is particularly taken with Councillor Williams’s assurance that the Council has “reflected on the lessons learned”.
Brighton & Hove City Council appears to possess an almost inexhaustible appetite for lessons. One merely wonders at what point it intends to progress to the examination.
There is, of course, a serious point beneath the cobwebs. When a resident pays for a service, raises a perfectly intelligible concern and produces evidence to support it, good public administration surely requires rather more than insisting that everything is fine until an Ombudsman suggests otherwise.
Indeed, one might humbly suggest that the cheapest complaints procedure remains the one our grandmothers understood perfectly well:
do the job properly in the first place.
Still, 71 per cent of tenants are now satisfied with communal cleaning, up from 66 per cent.
How reassuring.
One has always found, however, that when discussing cleanliness, it is the other 29 per cent to whom one should probably pay rather close attention.
A cobweb ignored is merely dust. A complaint ignored is governance.
My council/landlord Arun District Council hasn’t EVER cleaned the communal hallway of our flats
We pay a service charge but the council say it doesn’t include cleaning so me & another neighbour have to do it ourselves
I have asked many times who do we send the bill to for our electric to hoover the hallway, it’s our time effort & energy to clean the windows & dust the cobwebs away but they don’t care
Even their own workmen & contractors leave a mess & we’re expected to clean it up