An Ealing Council tenant whose living room ceiling collapsed while his family was at home has won a Housing Ombudsman ruling after the council failed to treat the incident as an emergency and properly assess the risk to the household.
The resident reported the collapse to the council on 4 December 2023. Although a surveyor attended the following day, the Housing Ombudsman said: “Overall, the landlord did not act in line with its policies and obligations. It failed to ensure that the ceiling was made safe within 4 hours of the report being received.
“It did not correctly identify the repairs as an emergency or evidence that it considered whether temporary accommodation was needed given the reported presence of young children in the property.”
The ceiling was repaired nine days after the collapse.
The resident formally complained to the council on 5 February 2024, saying his family had been left living in dangerous conditions and that a request for temporary accommodation while repairs were carried out had been refused. After receiving the council’s final complaint response in March 2024, he referred the case to the Housing Ombudsman on 27 June 2024, saying he believed his family’s lives had been put at risk and that no-one had been held responsible.
In a decision published on 12 February 2026, the Ombudsman found maladministration by Ealing Council in its handling of the collapsed ceiling and service failure in its complaint handling. However, it did not find the council was responsible for the ceiling collapsing, saying there was no evidence it had been made aware of specific structural safety concerns before the incident.
The council had originally offered the resident £205 in compensation. However, the Ombudsman said the offer did not reflect “the impact on, or distress and inconvenience caused to the family from the level of risk they were exposed to” and ordered the council to increase the payment to £375.
An Ealing Council spokesperson told EALING.NEWS: “We acknowledge the Housing Ombudsman’s findings in this case and take them seriously.
“We are very sorry the resident experienced these challenges and have apologised to them and have complied with the ombudsman’s orders, including providing compensation.
“We are committed to learning from this case, which includes strengthening how we respond to urgent repair issues, ensuring risks are assessed appropriately and improving the consistency and timeliness of our complaint handling.
“We are making improvements to ensure residents receive a responsive and transparent service and that lessons from complaints lead to real changes in how we deliver housing services.”
