Regulator Found Guilty Of Maladministration

A watchdog has told the social housing regulator to apologise for its predecessor’s handling of a complaint from a tenant management organisation.  The parliamentary and health service ombudsman found maladministration in the way the Tenant Services Authority communicated with a TMO which was unhappy about its handling of a complaint.  As a result, the new regulator, the HCA has pledged to remind front line staff about appropriate directing of individual and group complaints to other organisations. The ombudsman told Pat Ritchie, chief executive of the HCA, to write to John Challinor, company secretary of Bacup & Stacksteads TMO, within four weeks to apologise for ‘injustice caused’.  The TMO, which managed 960 homes in Rossendale, Lancashire, complained that the TSA failed to properly investigate its claim that Trans-Pennine Housing, now part of Together Housing Group, had engaged in ‘corporate bullying’ of the TMO. This related to a decision in February 2010 to stop funding for the TMO.  Read more on Inside Housing.