An elderly public housing tenant whose home was damaged by sewage overflows will be fully compensated by the New South Wales government after it disposed of her personal belongings without her consent and failed to properly support her insurance claim.
The NSW Ombudsman on Friday published its report after an investigation in which it found Homes NSW acted unreasonably in how it handled the tenant’s contaminated belongings and “failed to provide full and accurate information to the insurer”.
The woman, whose name and suburb were not made public, had lived in the unit for more than 15 years. She reported three successive sewage overflows within three months, which saw raw sewage enter the property.
After the third incident she was relocated, but her belongings remained in the contaminated unit for two months before being boxed up and moved to a vacant property.
The furniture, household items, and family heirlooms were not cleaned nor returned to her, despite Homes NSW telling her “she would be actively involved in the decision to keep or dispose of any items”.
She was later told “she would be adequately compensated” through an insurance claim, according to the report. When the claim was lodged, the insurer denied liability and offered a small “goodwill” payment.
The report found Homes NSW’s failure to provide the insurer with “full and accurate information” which contributed to the rejection of the claim.
The ombudsman’s recommendations included an apology and full compensation “in accordance with her itemised compensation claim”. It also recommended an additional payment for “the distress and suffering she experienced while trying to resolve her claim over more than five years”.
Homes NSW has accepted all of the recommendations and will implement them by next month, according to the report.
The senior deputy ombudsman for complaints and investigations, Kate Anderson, said the findings and recommendations come after identifying “inadequate policies and procedures in place”.
“There were several points where there was inadequate communication to her about … what next steps were going to follow and then those steps were ultimately not followed,” she said.
Anderson said the case demonstrated the importance of ensuring agencies were able to “listen to their complainants”, particularly when they should “have engaged with this particular individual to reach a conclusion on this complaint far earlier”.
“This individual actually had very good record of the possessions that she had and the respective value of them, which ultimately was not taken into consideration,” she said.
“At all points, people should be treated with courtesy and respect and the situation that materialised here really demonstrated that ultimately by the time it had come to us, the tenant had been trying to resolve it herself with Home NSW for a number of years and hadn’t been able to get an effective resolution.”
A spokesperson for Homes NSW said it “sincerely apologises to the tenant affected” and acknowledged “the distress, inconvenience and impact the situation has had on them”.
Homes NSW has since introduced “a number of changes to how we deliver maintenance and repairs with the aim of improved tenant satisfaction, including establishing an in-house call centre to manage repair requests”, the spokesperson said.
