Ombudsman’s Severe Maladministration Finding Leads to Eviction Not Protection

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By Rachel

I have lived in my home for over 24 years. It is the only home I have known as an adult. I raised my son there, invested my own money and labour into maintaining it, and built my healthcare, support network, and community around it.

Today, I am facing possession proceedings and homelessness — not because I breached my tenancy or failed to pay rent, but because Peaks & Plains Housing Trust has refused to make my home safe to live in.

For around 18 months, I have been unable to reside in my home due to excessive humidity, and the corresponding damp and mould. These conditions pose a serious medical risk to me because I live with multiple chronic illnesses, but they would endanger any tenant. That is precisely why Awaab’s Law exists.

Despite this, Peaks & Plains Housing Trust continues to charge full rent on a property I cannot safely occupy. I have not been offered suitable temporary accommodation or a rent abatement. To protect my health, I have been forced to fund my own temporary accommodation at significant personal cost while still paying rent on my home.

A Long History of Ignored Disrepair

I first raised concerns about damp many years ago. By 2007, problems were already evident. Over time, repairs were logged, partially completed, abandoned, or endlessly delayed.

In 2021, the Housing Ombudsman issued its first determination in my case, finding service failure in how Peaks & Plains Housing Trust handled reports of damp. The landlord responded by warning me about alleged “vexatious behaviour”.

By 2022, I experienced a pungent musty smell in my home. Inspections commissioned by Peaks & Plains Housing Trust confirmed high internal humidity, water ingress, and the need for remedial works. Yet jobs were repeatedly logged and left unfinished. Oversight fell to me. By late 2023, conditions had deteriorated significantly.

In January 2025, the Housing Ombudsman issued a further determination, this time finding severe maladministration. It described systemic failures: poor coordination, abandoned repairs, lack of ownership, and disregard for my health vulnerabilities. The findings were later upheld on review. As of January 2026, the underlying hazards remain unresolved.

Health Harm, Not Theoretical Risk

My health deteriorated sharply during this period. I live with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and pain, Irritable Bowel Syndrome affecting continence, neurocardiogenic syncope, complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Primary Biliary Cholangitis (a rare autoimmune liver disease).

Independent environmental testing identified elevated mould spores in my home. Clinical testing indicated my body was overloaded by mycotoxins, consistent with prolonged exposure to damp environments. When I left the property, my symptoms improved. When I returned, they worsened. My family, visiting friends, and even my dog were affected.

The prolonged displacement and uncertainty have also had a serious impact on my mental health, compounding the effects on my physical conditions.

Despite the provision of medical evidence, Peaks & Plains Housing Trust failed to carry out a meaningful risk assessment, failed to make reasonable adjustments, and failed to offer temporary accommodation. These failures were explicitly criticised by the Housing Ombudsman.

Severe Maladministration — Then Eviction

In any functioning system, the Ombudsman’s findings should have led to urgent repairs and support to help me return home safely.

Instead, Peaks & Plains Housing Trust threatened Judicial Review. When this process was abandoned, they issued a Section 8 Notice Seeking Possession and commenced possession proceedings instead of complying with Ombudsman orders. The hazards remain. The medical risk remains. Yet I am now being asked to defend my right to remain a tenant, despite no breach of tenancy on my part.

In my defence and counterclaim, I argue that the possession claim is retaliatory, seeks to avoid mandatory repairs, breaches the tenancy, and amounts to disability discrimination and a failure to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.

Locked Out of Support

Throughout this process, I sought help from local authority services. I also engaged my MP, Shelter, my local doctor, and the Housing Ombudsman. Despite these multiple bodies highlighting the risks and urging action, Peaks & Plains Housing Trust has refused to engage meaningfully, and Cheshire East Council departments have often deferred to the landlord’s account.

As a result, I have been unable to access meaningful homelessness or safeguarding support. I am treated as though I am choosing not to live in my home, rather than being unable to do so safely. I am trapped between systems: too “housed” to qualify for help, yet too ill to return home.

Why This Matters

I am now 18 months displaced, medically vulnerable, financially exhausted, and in live possession proceedings. I have spent two Christmases alone in temporary accommodation. I have been living out of a suitcase without access to most of my belongings. I have lost my ability to study for the final year of my degree, my stability, and my sense of safety.

This is not just my story. It exposes a fundamental enforcement gap in social housing regulation. A Housing Ombudsman finding, even one of severe maladministration, carries no automatic protection if a landlord refuses to comply. Possession proceedings can be used to remove the problem instead of fixing it. Tenants can win on paper and still lose their homes, their health, and their futures.

I am speaking out because I have the evidence to show how this happens, step by step. Many tenants do not survive the process long enough to document it.

SHAC’s Campaign on Damp, Mould and Disrepairs

SHAC has repeatedly lobbied government to close the enforcement gap that has rendered Awaab’s Law effectively useless. As government continues to close its ears to those living in conditions of damp and mould, we will strengthen our voice and that of our members to highlight the continued danger to life that such conditions pose.

We need a government (and political representation) concerned with all aspects of the housing emergency, not one that blithely answers ‘build, baby, build’ to every appeal for action. Please join us (free here) to strengthen our power.

4 March 2026

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