Citizen Housing (202105621)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202105621

Citizen Housing

8 December 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

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports about:
1. The heating in her property not working.
2. Damp and mould in her property.

Background and summary of events

Policies and procedures

The landlord’s website confirms that emergency repairs, including the complete loss of heating, will be attended to within 24 hours. It does not specify how long non-emergency repairs will take to complete.
Section six of the landlord’s complaints policy confirms that discretionary compensation is not a substitute for a claim on home insurance, which is the resident’s responsibility to purchase in order to insure their personal belongings.
The landlord’s “compensation payments matrix” document confirms a compensation payment of £10 for failing to carry out a repair and a maximum payment of £200 for inconvenience resulting from a service failure. It further confirms a compensation payment of £3 per day for the running of temporary heaters (from the fourth consecutive day onwards). There is no loss of heating for a resident who has been provided with temporary heaters.
As per the landlord’s complaints policy, when a resident makes a complaint, it will assess the actions to be taken and inform the resident. If it needs more time, it will keep the resident updated.

Background and summary of events

The resident is a tenant of the landlord.
On 11 January 2021, the resident reported that the panel heaters were not working in the bedrooms in her property. The landlord attended on 28 January 2021 and identified that two panel heaters needed to be replaced.
On 3 February 2021, the landlord attended the resident’s property to replace the panel heaters but identified that there was mould on the walls behind the panel heaters which required treating first. The following day, it provided temporary heaters to the resident.
On 9 February 2021, the landlord attended the property and completed a mould treatment of the affected areas. The resident raised concerns to the operative that the mould was not as a result of condensation and the operative requested an inspection of the property.
On 10 February 2021, the landlord’s Surveyor carried out an inspection of the property. The Surveyor identified a possible repair to the downpipe and requested a CCTV drain survey to confirm this. They also picked up a medium damp reading in the areas where the mould had been treated but assessed that the reading was inaccurate, as the surfaces still had moisture from the wash the previous day.
On 11 February 2021, the landlord received a compensation request from the resident for additional heating costs from using the temporary heaters it had supplied her with. It considered this to be the resident’s stage one complaint.
On 18 February 2021, new panel heaters were installed in the resident’s property. Following this, the landlord contacted the resident to explain that her compensation claim remained open, however, it was currently on hold pending further inspections and repairs. The landlord subsequently provided several similar updates to the resident during March.
On 11 March 2021, the CCTV drain survey was carried out. This found there to be two open joints and a displaced joint in the drainage system. Various repairs were recommended. Following this, the landlord spoke to the resident to discuss the drain survey’s findings. The resident felt that the landlord was responsible for her damaged carpets as it did not act sooner. The landlord explained the process for such claims.
On 6 April 2021, a contractor issued its damp and mould report, following an inspection of the property on 25 March 2021. This found that the living room and bedrooms were suffering from a condensation and mould problem, and recommended air vents and extractor fans be installed to improve the quality of ventilation within the property. The building was also having insulation added at the time of the survey, which would help in keeping the property warm and reduce the risk of condensation forming.
On 14 April 2021, the landlord issued its stage one complaint response to the resident, which is summarised as follows:
1. It did not consider itself liable for the damp and mould in the property, as it was due to condensation, which it was not liable to compensate for. It had attended and completed a mould treatment, arranged a damp inspection and had assessed “all possible avenues to be certain” that the mould was due to condensation.
2. It offered the resident £54 in discretionary compensation towards the cost of running the temporary heaters it had provided. It highlighted that it would not usually provide temporary heating unless there had been a total failure of the heating system. This had been calculated at £3 per day from the fourth consecutive day, covering the period from 28 January 2021 to 18 February 2021.
3. As it had provided the temporary heaters, there was no loss of heating, therefore it could not compensate for this in addition to the cost of running the temporary heaters.
On 4 May 2021, the resident submitted her final stage complaint to the landlord, which is summarised as follows:
1. She was unhappy with the offer of £54 compensation, as she had been without sufficient heating for three weeks with two small children, one of whom had asthma and cerebral palsy. During this time it was snowing and extremely cold.
2. Her bedroom walls were “constantly wet due to the condensation throughout” the property, and carpet which had recently been laid was also “soaking”. There was also evidence of water being absorbed into the external brickwork.
3. She had repeatedly replaced furniture damaged by the mould. Her home contents insurance would not cover the cost of the damage, as it was an “existing problem”, which she felt the landlord was responsible for maintaining. Although she recognised that the landlord would be installing more air vents in the property, she did not think this would help.
On 19 May 2021, the resident called the landlord to follow up on her complaint, as she felt that she should be compensated for her damaged personal possessions, and her son had been “struggling as a result of damp in the property”. She had also been told to expect a response within ten days.
On 25 May 2021, the landlord explained to the resident that it was awaiting the completion of outstanding repairs. As the resident reported further issues, it would inspect the property again. The landlord subsequently inspected the property on 27 May 2021. It found improvements in the air quality in the property. It did identify high moisture readings in corner of the second bedroom, which it assessed was due to condensation.
On 7 June 2021, the landlord issued its final stage complaint response to the resident, which is summarised as follows:
1. It was satisfied that it had “taken every possible measure to trace and rectify the damp and mould issues in her property”. This included insulating the cavity walls, replacing the fans in the property and installing new heaters in the bedrooms. Furthermore, it had carried out a damp and mould survey, and a drain survey, with the recommended work to be completed.
2. It offered the resident an additional £40 compensation, comprising of the following:
  1. £10 compensation for failing to carry out a check of the plasterwork in the property following a repair in 2017. It had scheduled this work for 14 June 2021.
  2. £10 compensation for failing to complete the work recommended by the contractor following the damp and mould survey of her property on 25 March 2021. This work was completed on 3 June 2021.
  3. £10 compensation for failing to complete the work recommended by the contractor following the drain survey on 11 March 2021. It had scheduled this work for 21 June 2021.
  4. £10 compensation for it having provided “incorrect information on the response time for [her] review” during an earlier telephone conversation.
3. In respect to the damage to the resident’s personal possessions, it suggested purchasing home contents insurance.
The resident subsequently referred her complaint to this Service, as she was unhappy with the level of compensation offered by the landlord. She said she was seeking compensation for all the items she had to dispose of that were damaged by mould.

Assessment and findings

The resident has raised concerns over the effect of the damp and mould on her and her children’s health and wellbeing. This Service does not dispute the resident’s comments regarding this matter, but we are unable to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing or to award damages for these. This is because we do not have the authority to do so in the way that a court or insurer might. However, we have considered the general distress and inconvenience which the situation has caused the resident.
Under the terms of the resident’s tenancy agreement, the landlord is obliged to keep the structure and exterior of the property, and the installations provided for heating, in good repair. This includes an obligation to stop any rising or penetrating damp. The landlord also has a responsibility under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), introduced by The Housing Act 2004, to assess hazards and risks within its rented properties. Damp and mould growth are a potential hazard and therefore the landlord is required to consider whether any damp and mould problems in its properties amount to a hazard and require remedying.
Following the resident’s reports that the panel heaters were not working in the bedrooms on 11 January 2021, the landlord carried out an inspection on 28 January 2021 and found that the panel heaters needed to be replaced. Temporary heaters were subsequently provided to the resident on 4 February 2021. Therefore, the resident was without any source of heating in the bedrooms for 24 days.
While the landlord does not specify the target time for non-emergency repairs, the length of time taken to inspect the property and provide temporary heaters was unsatisfactory. This is because a lack of heating in the bedrooms during winter is highly likely to have had a significant impact on the living conditions in the property, and the resident has young children diagnosed with asthma and cerebral palsy. It is also common practice amongst social housing landlords to attend to a partial loss of heating during the winter months between one and five days. Therefore, there was a service failure in relation to the landlord’s handling of the initial report about the partial loss of heating in the property.
When the landlord subsequently attended to install the new panel heaters on 3 February 2021, it found mould behind the heaters. As a result, it scheduled work to treat the mould. This was appropriate action for the landlord to take, to ensure there were no hazards from mould growth in the property. The mould treatment was carried out within five working days, which was a reasonable timeframe.
As the resident disputed condensation to be the cause of the damp and mould, the landlord’s Surveyor carried out an inspection of the property the following day. While they did not find clear evidence of rising or penetrating damp, they requested a drain survey and a damp survey to be completed, to ensure all possible sources of rising and penetrating damp had been identified.
The drain survey was completed on 11 March 2021, which recommended repairs to the drainage system, but these repairs were not completed until 21 June 2021. The landlord has offered £10 compensation for its failure to complete the recommended repairs, which is in line with its compensation policy and is proportionate to the detriment experienced by the resident as a result of the delayed repairs. No evidence has been provided to show that the outstanding drain repairs contributed towards damp and mould in the property, and the landlord’s records confirm that the drainage defects were in a different area to the location of the mould growth.
The damp and mould survey was completed on 25 March 2021. This found that the living room and bedrooms were suffering from condensation, and recommended air vents and extractor fans be installed to improve the ventilation within the property. When deciding on how best to proceed with cases of damp and mould, it is reasonable for the landlord to rely on the conclusions of its appropriately qualified staff and contractors. In this case, both the damp specialist and the landlord’s surveyor had concluded that the damp and mould issues experienced in the property were a result of condensation. Therefore, it was reasonable for the landlord to conclude that the mould was being caused by condensation.
It took the landlord just under two months to complete the works recommended by the damp specialist. In its final complaint response, the landlord recognised that there had been a delay in completing these works and offered £10 compensation to the resident for this. This was in line with its compensation policy, and was a reasonable offer in the circumstances.
The landlord has not agreed to compensate the resident for damage to her belongings and has advised the resident to claim on her contents insurance for this. This was reasonable in the circumstances. This is because landlords would normally only be expected to compensate tenants for damage to their belongings due to mould in instances where the problem resulted from a failure to repair, such as a failure to remedy a water leak, and there is no suggestion that this was the case.
In its final stage complaint response the landlord offered the resident £10 compensation for providing incorrect advice over the telephone regarding its complaint response timescales. This was reasonable action for the landlord to take, as it offered compensation which was in accordance with its compensation policy. Overall, the landlord kept the resident adequately updated on the progress of her compensation claim and formal complaint.

Determination (decision)

In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in relation to its handling of the resident’s reports about the heating not working.
In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in relation to its handling of the resident’s reports about damp and mould.

Reasons

The landlord failed to attend to the initial report of a partial loss of heating within a reasonable timescale given the time of year the breakdown occurred and the household’s vulnerabilities.
The landlord has evidenced that it acted on the reports of damp and mould by carrying out inspections of the property, arranging for a drain survey and a damp survey, and completing works that had been recommended. The landlord was entitled to rely on the advice it had received and conclude that the mould was being caused by condensation. It was not obliged to compensate the resident for her belongings damaged by mould.

Orders and recommendations

The Ombudsman orders the landlord to pay the resident £100 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by its failure to attend to the initial report of a heating breakdown in a timely manner. This is in addition to the compensation offered in the landlord’s complaint responses and should be paid within four weeks of the date of this report.
The Ombudsman recommends that the landlord reviews its policy on repair target timescales taking into account the findings of this investigation, and makes changes to ensure that urgent repairs are correctly identified as such and attended to within appropriate timescales. It should consider doing this within eight weeks of the date of this report.