A Norfolk-based housing association has been ordered to improve after cases of "severe maladministration" where people's concerns over damp, mould and leaks were not dealt with properly.
Local government secretary Michael Gove has written to Clarion Housing, based at Broadland Business Park, saying he is "deeply concerned" after the findings of the Housing Ombudsman.
The watchdog ordered Clarion to pay £10,800 in compensation to households after it made four findings of severe maladministration across three cases.
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Those cases were not in Norfolk, but the association, the second-largest in the country, has about 6,000 properties in the county.
In the first case, Clarion failed to fix leaks which had been reported by the tenant for five years.
In the second case, the ombudsman found two counts of severe maladministration in how it responded to a damp and mould complaint.
In the third case, the landlord did not take all necessary steps to investigate and resolve damp and mould issues.
The findings followed criticism from the ombudsman last year. The watchdog found severe maladministration following the death of a Clarion resident who took his own life following long-running mental health issues.
The ombudsman said Clarion's lack of consideration of their vulnerability, when handling his noise complaints, meant they had suffered for nine months.
The string of findings prompted Mr Gove to write to Clarion Housing's chief executive Clare Miller saying he wanted to see improvements.
He said: "The ombudsman’s report identifies delays, poor communication, ineffective action, and a failure to identify the core issues raised by your residents.
"I reiterate that I remain deeply concerned."
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A Clarion spokesperson said: "We have apologised sincerely to the residents in these three cases, for the shortcomings in the service we have provided them, and have gone to lengths to consider what we can learn to continuously improve.
"These cases pre-date our new leaks, condensation, damp and mould strategy which seeks to ensure reports are dealt with promptly and sensitively and focuses on how we can support households while we work to identify and fix the root cause.
"We have also hired 100 additional members of staff to help tackle the problem.
"We have also made changes to allow us to step in quickly, following any failure to respond to a defect by a contractor or developer, rectify the issue ourselves and levy costs against the party responsible."
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