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Southwark Council (202003266)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202003266

Southwark Council

9 March 2021


Our approach

The Housing Ombudsman’s approach to investigating and determining complaints is to decide what is fair in all the circumstances of the case. This is set out in the Housing Act 1996 and the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). The Ombudsman considers the evidence and looks to see if there has been any ‘maladministration’, for example whether the landlord has failed to keep to the law, followed proper procedure, followed good practice or behaved in a reasonable and competent manner.

Both the resident and the landlord have submitted information to the Ombudsman and this has been carefully considered. Their accounts of what has happened are summarised below. This report is not an exhaustive description of all the events that have occurred in relation to this case, but an outline of the key issues as a background to the investigation’s findings.

The complaint

  1. The complaint concerns the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s heating system.

Background and summary of events

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord and the property is a three-bedroom maisonette.
  2. The complaint was raised and handled by both the resident and her daughter. For clarity, this report will refer to both the resident and her daughter as “the resident”.

Summary of events

  1. As per the landlord’s records, on 15 October 2019, the resident contacted the landlord to report the following issues:
  1. leak from kitchen radiator or heating pipe
  2. noisy bathroom radiator
  3. leak from sink cold lever tap
  4. faulty double socket in one of the bedrooms.
  1. The resident contacted the landlord again to report that there was no heating from the communal boiler, and that multiple radiators were leaking on 29 and 30 October 2019, 11 and 26 November 2019, and 10 and 18 December 2019.The landlord raised work orders at the time of every call, and it attended an appointment concerning the faulty heating system on 11 December 2019.
  2. On 15 January 2020, the resident emailed the landlord to express her dissatisfaction with the lack of heating over the past months. The resident advised that moving forward she would be withholding rent until the heating was fixed. The landlord replied to this on the same day to advise that it had raised a new work order, and that its contractor would contact the resident within two working days to book an appointment.
  3. The landlord attended further appointments regarding the heating system on 4, 6 and 7 February 2020 and 11 March 2020; however, no further information was provided to this Service as to what works were done or completed.
  4. On 22 March 2020, the resident emailed the landlord to lodge a formal complaint on the following grounds:
  1. There were four areas (two bedrooms, the kitchen and bathroom) in the property that were without heat.
  2. Mould started developing in the bathroom due to the lack of heating and a extractor fans. The resident advised this would impact her wellbeing because she had underlying health issues.
  3. One of the bedrooms was damaged due to the leaking radiator.
  4. The landlord’s contractor attended the property to remove the leaking radiators but was yet to return to replace them.
  1. On 2 April 2020, the landlord issued a complaint acknowledgement, advised it would consider offering compensation for the inconvenience caused by the delays, and referred the matter to its contractor. Subsequently, the landlord supplied the resident with oil radiators, to use as a temporary heating source, on 3 April 2020.
  2. On 16 April 2020, the landlord issued its stage one complaint response:
  1. The landlord acknowledged and apologised for the delays.
  2. The landlord advised that it had taken the necessary steps to improve its service levels and ensure these types of delays are avoided in the future.
  3. It confirmed it had supplied oil–filled heaters for the resident to use while it was determining the scope of works and when they would be carried out.
  4. It confirmed that the kitchen radiator was removed on 21 October 2019, one of the bedroom radiators was removed on 30 October 2019, the second bedroom radiator stopped working in November 2019, and the bathroom radiator was removed on 7 February 2020.
  5. The landlord offered monetary compensation of £150 for the partial loss of heating over the period between October 2019 to April 2020, when it provided the resident with oil heaters.
  1. The resident approached this Service reporting that she was unhappy with the landlord’s response to her reports of a defective heating system, level of compensation offered by the landlord in the stage one complaint response, and the fact that she had not heard from the landlord since April 2020, this Service wrote to both the landlord and resident on 29 July 2020. As a result, the landlord escalated the resident’s complaint to the second stage of its complaints procedure on the same day.
  2. The landlord’s records show that between 3 July 2020 and 14 August 2020 it contacted the resident in an attempt to book appointments for the necessary remedial works to be carried out; however, the resident informed it that she was taking legal action due to the ongoing issues and that she would not discuss the matter further due to this. Furthermore, internal landlord communication confirmed that the landlord tried to gain access to the property to carry out the repairs, but the resident refused, which led to the landlord closing the work orders.
  3. The landlord’s internal communication logs show further appointments were arranged between 14 August 2020 and 18 September 2020. The landlord confirmed that certain visits could not go ahead due to the resident refusing access or because she asked to reschedule. During the same period of time the landlord tried to determine whether a block shutdown was needed, and if the work could be completed in one visit, as the resident had asked to limit the number of visits to reduce the risk of Covid-19 exposure. The landlord was aware that the resident had underlying health issues.
  4. On 18 September 2020, the landlord issued a stage two complaint response addressing the following points:
  1. In respect of the resident’s complaint raised on 24 March 2020, the landlord advised that it instructed its contractors to carry out the necessary remedial works, but they advised that this would not be done because they had to arrange a block shutdown, which was not possible due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Because it had been informed that the necessary remedial works could not be carried out at that time, the landlord supplied alternative heating in the form of oil radiators; however, it continued to seek the works to be carried out as soon as possible, and deemed the situation “a service critical issue”. At that time the landlord acknowledged and apologised for its failure, took action to ensure this does not happen again, and provided compensation of £150.
  2. The landlord advised it had tried to ensure the remedial works were completed before the weather worsened; however, it was informed that in order to do so it had to “ensure the safety of all residents from Covid-19 by having contractors tested prior to entering the house”. The landlord explained that, due to the nature and amount of its contractors’ work, it could not facilitate this.
  3. The landlord also addressed the matter regarding the lack of access to the property. It explained it would not offer any compensation for the appointments or periods of time that could not gain access to the property.
  4. The landlord advised that it attended an appointment booked in for 11 September 2020, but it could not gain access to the property, and had supporting evidence of this. The landlord confirmed this was rescheduled for 16 September 2020, although this did not go ahead either, due to lack of access to the property. This appointment was then rescheduled for 18 September 2020 when it was found “that the wall that a radiator needs to be hung onto needs to be secured, so the work could not be completed”.
  5. As a final resolution, the landlord committed to carry out the outstanding repairs and then carry out an inspection of the property to remedy any damages caused by the defective radiators. Furthermore, the landlord increased its offer of compensation to £150 for the inconveniences caused and £190 for loss of amenity over the period of 19 weeks. When calculating this the landlord excluded the lockdown period, the three weeks that represented the timeframe in which it was supposed to carry out the repairs in, and the period after lockdown when it tried to remedy the defects but could not do so due to lack of access to the property.

Assessment and Findings

The landlord’s repairs guide

  1. In its repairs guide the landlord divides repairs into three categories, based on urgency as per below:
  1. Emergency repairs – in instances where the repair poses a risk to health and safety, the structure of the property or it “results in the property being insecure” the landlord will attend within 24 hours.
  2. Urgent repairs – in instances where a repair is not considered an emergency but it still causes a serious nuisance then the landlord will attend within three working days.
  3. Non urgent – these are considered routine repairs and will be attended within 20 working days unless the repair is part of a planned major work.
  1. The landlord’s repairs guide categorises total or partial loss of heating or hot water between 1 October to 31 March as an emergency repair, under the legal right to repair.

The landlord’s compensation policy

  1. For delays in delivering a service the landlord’s compensation policy states that it would offer compensation as per below:
  1. Low impact – compensation of up to £250 per annum or £5 per week is offered to acknowledge the failure to perform but the resident did not suffer significant inconvenience or distress.
  2. Medium impact – compensation of up to £500 per annum or £10 per week is offered in cases where there was “repeated failure” by the landlord to “address the shortcoming”.
  3. Major impact – compensation of £1000 per annum or £20 per week is offered in instances where there was “delay with injury to health” or “a persistent failure over a protracted time or an unacceptable number of attempts to resolve and address the complaint”.
  1. Additionally, the landlord may consider payments for time and trouble which vary between £50 and £250. The amount is decided based on the amount of time it took to “deal with the problem and the complaint itself”, “time and effort required from the complainant”, “any specific difficulty experienced by the complainant in dealing with the council”, “the degree of inadequacy” in the landlord’s communication, “whether there has been an element of willful action” on behalf of the landlord that “resulted in poor management of the complaint” and minor costs incurred by the resident when dealing with the complaint such as post, travel or telephone costs.

The landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s heating system

  1. The information provided to this Service shows that the resident contacted the landlord on 15 October 2019 to report several issues with the heating system. The resident contacted the landlord again on 29 and 30 October 2019, 11 and 26 November 2019 and, 10 and 18 December 2019 to report that there was no heating from the communal boiler and multiple radiators were leaking. The landlord’s records show that it raised work orders for these to be looked into at the time of every contact; however, it only attended the property on 11 December 2019. In its stage two complaint response, the landlord advised that the works should have been carried out within three weeks. However, using the Right to Repair Scheme as an indicator of response timeframes, total or partial loss of heating or hot water between 1 October and 31 March should aim for a response time of one day. The landlord clearly exceeded that timeframe. In the circumstances of such heating problems over the winter period that delay was a failing by the landlord.
  2. The resident emailed the landlord on 15 January 2020 to advise she would be withholding rent payments until the heating was fixed. The landlord replied on the same day to confirm that it had raised a new work order and that its contractor would contact her within two working days to arrange an appointment. The information provided to this Service showed that appointments were attended on 4, 6 and 7 February 2020 and 11 March 2020; however, the heating was not restored, which led to the resident lodging a formal complaint on 22 March 2020. The landlord acknowledged the complaint on 2 April 2020 and supplied the resident with an alternative heating method, in the form of oil radiators, on 3 April 2020. In respect of the above, it is evident that the landlord, despite attending the property on a number of occasions, failed to restore the heating supply. The landlord’s decision to provide an alternative heating method was reasonable; however, it should have been done as soon as the resident reported the issues after it became apparent that a speedy resolution was not available. Doing so would have prevented the resident from going through the winter period without a reliable heating source in multiple parts of her home.
  3. The landlord investigated the resident’s complaint, but it could not proceed with arranging appointments for the necessary works to be carried out between April and June 2020, due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which was outside of its control. Records show that the landlord attempted to arrange appointments and gain access to the property for repairs to be carried out between 3 July 2020 and 14 August 2020; however, it could not do so because the resident advised that she was taking legal action against it and refused to discuss the matter further. The landlord escalated the resident’s complaint to the second stage of its complaints procedure on 29 July 2020. Between 14 August 2020 and 18 September 2020, the landlord’s records show that it tried to arrange further appointments, determine whether the works required a block shutdown, and if it could comply with the resident’s request to complete the works in one visit in order to limit the risk of Covid-19 exposure. Taking the above into consideration, it is evident that the landlord tried to put things right for the resident; however, it could not do so for reasons outside of its control.
  4. On 18 September 2020 the landlord attended the property and found that further works were required (a wall that held one of the radiators needed securing) and issued its final complaint response. As a final resolution, the landlord acknowledged its mistakes and apologised, committed to carry out the outstanding works, and, once this was done, to conduct an inspection to identify any damages caused by the defective radiators so that it could remedy these as well. The landlord also offered compensation for a total of £340 which was in line with its compensation policy as:
  1. £150 for the inconvenience caused; this complied with the landlord’s compensation policy regarding payments for time and trouble that vary between £50 and £250.
  2. £190 were allocated for delays, at £10 per week which corresponds to the landlord’s compensation policy regarding payments for service delays at a medium level.
  1. Overall while the landlord failed to comply with its repairs guide and response timeframes initially, it made reasonable efforts to remedy its mistake, put things right for the resident, and provide a reasonable outcome. Furthermore, it is noted that the landlord advised that it took the necessary steps to improve its service levels and ensure these types of delays are avoided in the future.

Determination (decision)

In accordance with paragraph 55 (b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord made an offer of redress prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint satisfactorily.