A woman repeatedly collapsed in a “horrendously hot” home in Prestwich after her landlord failed to fix faulty heating, a watchdog has found.

The Housing Ombudsman Service, which investigates complaints against landlords, found Onward Homes had committed “severe maladministration” after a tenant collapsed several times due to a broken heating system.

It said the vulnerable occupant’s heating was left on full and would not turn off during the summer months. The heat caused her to collapse several times in her home – only to be found by her son.

After one collapse, the woman said she had burnt her knee on the radiator and injured her back and hip, and that her doctor had referred her to a physiotherapist.

The landlord regularly appointed the wrong contractors to the job and therefore no contractors turned up to remedy the situation.

The situation went on for four months, in which the tenant, who has a progressive neurological condition which affects her speech and movement, was left in a home that made her feel unwell and physically sick.

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When the correct contractor did attend the home, nine days after the initial report, it applied a temporary fix.

Over the proceeding months, the resident reported the same issue on multiple occasions and the landlord continued to send the wrong contractor to fix the issue.

The resident told the Ombudsman the flat was “horrendously hot”, and the door handles were hot to touch.

A formal complaint was not raised, but an apology letter and £50 goodwill gesture from the landlord was sent, which she declined.

The resident chased this a couple of days later and an operative attended on the same day. However, they replaced melted radiator valve cover but did not sort the heating issues.

The Housing Ombudsman ordered the landlord to apologise to the resident, pay £1,000 in compensation and ensure that it is fully up to date with the residents’ recorded vulnerabilities.

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In its learning from the case, the landlord says it has improved its communication with residents, placed additional checks into the process on repeat repairs and doing more to support vulnerable residents.

The road name of the home in Prestwich has not been published.

Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said: “The landlord clearly learnt no lessons from previous attempts to fix the issue.

"Time and time again it wasted the resident’s time and caused her more distress, including her collapsing from the problem on several occasions.

“The resident’s vulnerability was well known and whilst the landlord sometimes responded within the right timescales for the problem, it did not do enough to resolve it.

"When undertaking repairs, landlords must assure themselves that the root cause has also been fixed, and follow this up with the resident.

“There were also several instances in this report that shine a light on how better record keeping could have helped the landlord in making this right."

In response, an Onward Homes spokesperson said: "We are very sorry for the difficulties our resident has experienced in this case.

"We have apologised to our resident and have fully complied with the Ombudsman’s order.

"Several lessons have been highlighted. Given the period of time between the events and findings, improvements are now already in place, we have identified further opportunities to learn from this case:

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"We will put in place additional checks where a customer contacts us repeatedly on the same issue, we are speaking with them directly to understand how to make things right.

"We are doing even more to respond to and support customers who are, or who may be, vulnerable and ensure we give them a timely and appropriate response.

"Changes have been made to improve our communication with customers at every stage of a complaint, so we can be sure we have addressed all of their concerns and can make fair and timely offers of compensation.

"We welcome the opportunity to learn from the judgement in this case and have used it to continue to improve the service we give to our customers."