Haringey Council (202005594)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202005594

Haringey Council

5 February 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 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 level of compensation offered by the landlord, in response to her request for compensation for the impact of ASB on her health, wellbeing, and life.

Jurisdiction

  1. What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. For the reasons set out below, this complaint is not one the Ombudsman can investigate.
  3. In October 2019 the resident sent the landlord an “impact statement” setting out the ways in which ASB by a neighbour had affected her over the previous five years. The ASB had ended in August 2019 with the eviction of the perpetrator. Another of the resident’s neighbours had been the main victim of the ASB, and had received a substantial amount of compensation from the landlord in light of it. The resident explained to the landlord that she had also been personally affected by the ASB, and had assisted and supported the main victim, and other neighbours, with matters related to it. She felt that the landlord’s failures to resolve the ASB over the multi-year period, and its poor communication with her and others, had impacted on her health and wellbeing. She asked the landlord to compensate her for the “stress, the affect the antisocial behaviour has had on my health, being forced out of my home to seek refuge, along with the time I have spent over the past five years to get resolution.”
  4. In a follow up to the landlord in November 2019, the resident acknowledged that it had offered her £260 compensation. She said that that amount was not acceptable, as it did not account for “the disturbance causing sleepless nights, having to seek medication by my GP of sleeping pills, being forced out of my home to seek refuge, or for the delays…and time and trouble in pursuing information and updates on progress.”
  5. Paragraphs 39(d) and 39 (e) of the Scheme set out timeframes for which the Ombudsman will investigate complaints. These timeframes, generally, require complaints to be made to a landlord within six months of the issues complained about arising, or to the Ombudsman within 12 months of exhausting the landlord’s complaints process. Almost all of the issues raised by the resident with the landlord in October 2019 significantly exceed these timeframes. Because of that, as the Ombudsman could not investigate the historic issues underlying the resident’s complaint to the landlord, he also could not meaningfully investigate the landlord’s responses to the complaint.
  6. However, even if the age of the issues complaint was not a barrier, paragraph 39(i) of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which “concern matters where the Ombudsman considers it quicker, fairer, more reasonable or more effective to seek a remedy through the courts, a designated person, other tribunal or procedure”.
  7. The resident’s claim for compensation from the landlord, overall, is based on the impact she believes the long running ASB had on her health and life. Unfortunately, the Housing Ombudsman Service is not able to investigate complaints about personal injury or damage to health, nor is it able to award compensation for such claims. The courts are best placed to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing, and are also best placed to call on witnesses and experts, consider historical evidence, and make legally binding findings. Because of that, in line with paragraph 39(i) this complaint is not one the Ombudsman will investigate.