Harrow Council

The Housing Ombudsman investigates complaints about social landlords. When it finds a landlord got things wrong, it makes a finding of "maladministration" — or "severe maladministration" for the most serious failings.

The 2024-25 performance report. The Ombudsman's landlord report for Harrow covers the 14 cases it decided between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 — a small set.^[1] Of the 28 findings it counted towards its maladministration rate, it upheld 22 — a rate of 78.6%, which the report rounds to 79%, against a national rate of 71% and 77% for landlords of a similar size and type.^[1] Because it rests on 22 findings across just 14 cases, the percentage is best read next to those small numbers.^[1] Under the Ombudsman's definition, the 22 was 1 severe maladministration finding and 21 of maladministration or service failure.^[1]

What the findings were. The severe finding — the most serious category — concerned the condition of a resident's home, and the condition of people's homes was the largest failure area overall, upheld in 75% of the 12 findings counted there; complaints handling was next, and leaks, damp and mould were the recurring repair theme.^[1] Across the year the Ombudsman made 50 orders and 6 complaint handling failure orders, and the council complied with 48 of the 50 within three months; its headline compensation figure — ordered and recommended together — was £7,694.^[1]

A case the Ombudsman highlighted. In an August 2025 report on learning from severe maladministration, the Ombudsman recorded that the council "failed to fix multiple windows for 3 years, including one in a baby's bedroom. This is despite identifying it was broken before the resident moved in."^[10] In the decision behind that case, determined in October 2024, it found severe maladministration over the windows, further maladministration over roof repairs and complaint handling, and ordered £1,700 in compensation alongside an apology and other remedies.^[11]

“London Borough of Harrow (202344547) failed to fix multiple windows for 3 years, including one in a baby's bedroom. This is despite identifying it was broken before the resident moved in.”^[10]

Housing Ombudsman Service, Learning from severe maladministration (August 2025) (13 August 2025, 202344547)

What the council has said and done. In its published learning from that case, the council said it had reviewed its service — introducing an app-based survey form that records repair descriptions, safety risks and household vulnerabilities, commissioning a full stock condition survey, and engaging external help to map its repairs processes.^[10] Its own restated figures also show the maladministration rate falling from 93% in 2023-24, across 7 decided cases, to this year's rate across 14 — both small caseloads on which a rate can swing sharply.^[1]

“London Borough of Harrow (202344547) failed to fix multiple windows for 3 years, including one in a baby's bedroom. This is despite identifying it was broken before the resident moved in.”^[10]

Housing Ombudsman Service, Learning from severe maladministration (August 2025) (13 August 2025, 202344547)

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is the government body that checks social landlords meet required standards for safe, decent homes. Since 2024 it has been inspecting social landlords and giving each a consumer grade from C1 (the strongest) to C4.

A regulatory notice — since resolved. In April 2023 the RSH published a regulatory notice — a formal finding of a breach — against the London Borough of Harrow, concluding it had breached part 1.2 of its Home Standard, the standard covering health and safety in tenants' homes, with the potential for serious detriment to tenants.^[7] It found that around 3,500 of the council's homes had no current electrical condition report, that some water safety risk assessments were missing, and that the council lacked an effective system to meet its statutory health and safety duties; the council agreed a plan with the regulator.^[7]

The notice has since been withdrawn. On 27 August 2025, gov.uk recorded the notice as withdrawn, the regulator recording that the issues behind it had been resolved and no statutory enforcement action taken.^[7] In its residents' annual report the council said the notice was lifted at the end of August 2025, and reported completing water safety checks for 99.7% of the homes needing them — a figure the regulator's official statistics also record — and around 99% of its electrical checks, the electrical figure being the council's own.^[4]

What a resolved notice means for your home. The notice was about safety compliance across the council's stock as a whole, not the state of any one home. Its resolution does not decide anything about disrepair in an individual home: if yours has damp, mould, a leak or an unfixed repair, your rights are separate and still apply.^[7]

No consumer grade. The regulator has not published a consumer grade (C1 to C4) for Harrow: the withdrawn April 2023 notice carried no grading, and no inspection judgement has been published.^[5] The absence of a grade is not in itself a mark for or against the council — the regulator is working through social landlords over several years, and many have not yet been inspected.^[5]

Whatever a landlord's track record, its legal duties are the same.

Repairs. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Harrow Council must keep the structure and exterior of your home in repair — the roof, walls, windows and doors — and keep the installations for heating, hot water, gas, electricity, water and sanitation in proper working order. This applies to almost every council tenancy and cannot be signed away in a tenancy agreement.

Fitness for human habitation. Under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 (section 9A of the 1985 Act), your home must also be fit to live in — free from serious hazards, including damp and mould that could harm your health.

Awaab's Law. Awaab's Law now sets legally binding timescales for social landlords, including councils, to investigate hazards such as damp and mould and make homes safe — the disrepair page sets them out.^[12]

Harrow's own published repair timescales. The council sorts repairs into priorities and publishes target times to attend — the disrepair page lists them.^[15]

Where to report and complain. Report a repair through the council's repairs pages on harrow.gov.uk, and make a housing complaint through its two-stage complaints process.^[16][17]