Kingston upon Thames Council (202012378)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202012378

Kingston upon Thames Council

10 February 2022

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. This complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of her neighbour leaving rubbish, outside their front door, in the communal area of her block.

Background and summary of events

2. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord which is a local authority. The property is a maisonette within a four-storey block comprising a total of 14 self-contained 2 storey maisonettes.
3. The issue of the resident’s neighbour leaving rubbish outside their front door has been one that has been on-going for some time and this service has previously investigated a complaint made by the resident regarding the landlord’s response to the same issue (case reference 202000973).
4. In its final response to this complaint, the landlord made reference to matters dating back to 2020, however this investigation will not consider matters that were addressed in case 202000973. Therefore, this investigation will commence from when the resident reported on 15 January 2021 that her neighbour was again leaving rubbish, outside their front door, in the communal area.
5. On 15 January 2021 the resident emailed the landlord to report that her neighbour had left rubbish in the communal area outside their front door. The landlord responded to resident the same day advising that her email and photos had been forward to her Estate Manager, the issue was being investigated, there was no timeframe for a decision or action but it would contact her once it had received an update.
6. On 17, 24 and 27 January 2021, the resident emailed the landlord to make a Stage One complaint stating that the Estate manager was refusing to do anything about rubbish left by her neighbour. On each occasion the landlord replied advising that it was not refusing to address the issue, that her neighbour would be contacted soon, that it could provide no further information due to data protection regulations (GDPR) and that it would not be raising a stage one complaint as it had advised what action it was going to take and had explained why no more details could be provided.
7. On 30 January 2021 the resident contacted this service stating that the landlord had refused to log her complaint, following which, on 8 February 2021, the landlord issued its Stage one response. The landlord noted that the resident wanted to know whether it had acted on her report regarding her neighbour leaving rubbish outside their flat but that for privacy reasons it could not disclose the specific nature of action taken against another resident. The landlord did not uphold the resident’s complaint and asked that she notify it of any further incidents of rubbish being left outside the flat in question.
8. On 9 February 2021, the resident emailed the landlord to escalate her complaint. The resident said that it was ‘‘totally ridiculous’’ for the landlord to refuse to tell her if it had contacted her neighbour. The resident said that she had no way of knowing whether her neighbour was continuing to leave the rubbish outside because they had not been contacted by the Estate Manager, or they had been contacted and were ignoring them.
9. On 12 February 2021, the landlord undertook an inspection of the resident’s block. The inspection reported that all fire exits /means of escape/ walkways were clear and free from obstruction and that there were no residents’ items in the communal area.
10. The landlord issued its Stage two and final response on 25 February 2021. The landlord said that it had reviewed its actions, going back to 2020, following reports and photos provided by the resident showing items left in the communal area by her neighbour. The landlord:
    1. Acknowledged that the actions taken so far had been inadequate and had failed to improve the problem or change the behaviour of her neighbour, for which it apologised.
    2. Said that, as a result of the resident’s complaint, it was seeking formal legal advice as to what actions it might take to improve the situation and stop the recurring problem of items being left in the communal hallway by the resident’s neighbour.
    3. Said that it anticipated a response from its legal team by 22 March 2021 and once that had been received it would agree a plan of action by 26 April 2021.
    4. Offered the resident a goodwill payment of £30 as compensation for her time and trouble taken in making the complaint.
    5. Said that it would share the learning from this complaint with its staff; specifically any legal advice about the options available to the landlord to enforce the terms of the tenancy or lease with regard to residents leaving items in a communal area. The landlord confirmed that the briefing to staff would be completed by 30 April 2021.
11. On 1 April 2021, the resident’s neighbour was contacted by landlord’s legal team.
12. On 13 April 2021, the landlord undertook a further inspection of the resident’s block. The inspection again reported that all fire exits /means of escape/ walkways were clear and free from obstruction and that there were no residents’ items in the communal area.

Assessment and findings

13. In determining whether there has been service failure or maladministration we consider both the events that initially prompted a complaint and the landlord’s response to those events. The extent to which a landlord has recognised any shortcomings and the appropriateness of any steps taken to offer redress can be as relevant as the original mistake or service failure.
14. The landlord’ Complaints Procedure describes an Initial Contact Resolution, where issues are straightforward and where the landlord is able to offer an on-the-spot apology, explanation or other action to resolve the dissatisfaction within 5 working days. If the landlord is unable to resolve the complaint during the Initial Contact Resolution period, there is a two stage formal complaints process, for which the landlord is to provide its response within 15 working days at both Stage one and Stage two.
15. The landlord’s initial response to the resident’s report, of 15 January 2021, that her neighbour had again left rubbish outside their door was appropriate. The landlord took her concerns seriously, responded to her the same day and advising that her concerns had been passed to her Estate Manager to action. It said it would contact her with an update when it had one, although no timescale was given.
16. The resident contacted the landlord a further three times over the next eight working days. Each time the landlord responded saying that it was dealing with the matter.
17. Following contact with this service, the landlord logged a formal complaint and issued its Stage one response on 8 February 2021, within approximately three weeks of the resident’s initial report on 15 January 2021. The landlord’s response was vague and did not explain what action it had taken, stating that it could not give the resident any further information due to GDPR. The landlord has not provided this service with any evidence of what actions it was taking at the time. However, an inspection did take place on 12 February 2021 and reported that there were no residents’ items in the communal area.
18. Whilst the landlord failed to provide a comprehensive response to the resident’s complaint at Stage one, that was not the case at Stage two. In response to the resident’s escalation request the landlord not only reviewed its response to the resident’s most recent report but also the actions it had taken since 2020 in respect of her neighbour leaving rubbish in the communal area.
19. The landlord acknowledged that its response had been inadequate and that it had failed to improve the problem or change the behaviour of her neighbour, for which it apologised. At this point the landlord also explained that it was seeking legal advice about what action it might be able to take with regards to her neighbour and provided the resident with a timescale as to when it expected to both receive that advice and when it expected to have an action plan agreed.
20. The landlord also offered the resident a goodwill payment of £30 as compensation for her time and trouble in making the complaint and said that it would seek to share learning from the complaint, with regards to enforcement action, with its staff. Again, the landlord provided the resident with a timescale for this confirming that this would be completed by 30 April 2021.
21. In correspondence with this service, the landlord has advised that since the Spring of 2021 it has conducted a programme of weekly monitoring and the issues reported have not recurred. The landlord has acknowledged to this service that this suggests that this action could have been started earlier and that this preventative action should have been accompanied by more deterrence and enforcement at an earlier stage.
22. When considering how a landlord has responded to a complaint, the Ombudsman considers not just what has gone wrong, but also what the landlord has done to put things right in response to a complaint. This includes the steps the landlord has taken to address the shortcoming and prevent a reoccurrence, as well as any compensation offered. In response to the resident’s complaint, the landlord has taken appropriate steps to acknowledge and apologise for its shortcomings and offered appropriate compensation. The landlord also indicated what it had learned from the complaint referring to sharing learning with regards to enforcement action with its staff. In doing so, the landlord has offered appropriate redress to resolve the complaint and acted in accordance with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles:
    1. Be fair
    2. Put things right
    3. Learn from outcomes
23. It is noted that the resident said that she did not feel the level of compensation offered by the landlord was proportionate to the issues she had experienced, given the number of years that this issue has been going on for, and that the landlord should have offered her more than £30 compensation. However, whilst in its response to this complaint the landlord considered how it had responded historically to the resident’s reports, this investigation has only considered its response between the resident’s report of 15 January 2021 and the landlord’s final response of 25 February 2021, just over one month later, and as such the £30 compensation offered was reasonable.

Determination (decision)

24. In accordance with paragraph 55(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was reasonable redress by the landlord in respect of its response to the resident’s reports of her neighbour leaving rubbish in the communal area of her block.

Reasons

25. Whilst there were initial shortcomings by the landlord in response to the resident’s report of 15 January 2021, the landlord’s acknowledgement and apology, the £30 compensation offered and the actions it agreed to take in its Stage two response on 25 February 2021, provided the resident with reasonable redress for those shortcomings.