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Rochdale Boroughwide Housing Limited (202107363)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202107363

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing Limited

4 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. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s:
    1. request for a refund of his service charges.
    2. concerns about cleaning in communal areas of his building.

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. After carefully considering all the evidence, in accordance with paragraph 39(g) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the following aspect of the complaint is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to consider.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s request for a refund of his service charges.

  1. Paragraph 39(g) of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which “concern the level of rent or service charge or the amount of the rent or service charge increase”. Complaints that relate to the level, reasonableness, or liability to pay rent or service charges are within the jurisdiction of the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) and the resident may wish to seek independent legal advice in relation to how to proceed with bringing a case to the tribunal.

 

Background and summary of events

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord and his property is a flat within a block of flats.
  2. The resident first enquired with the landlord on 6 April 2021 about the schedule of work for communal areas of the block. On 4 June 2021, he raised a complaint to the landlord about the standard of cleaning, saying that the communal areas had not been cleaned in over four weeks. The resident said that this had resulted in the tenants of the block carrying out cleaning themselves. He informed the landlord that he would be invoicing the landlord for his work in carrying out the cleaning and he wanted it to refund the maintenance charge from his rent and issue a refund for charges already paid.
  3. The landlord issued its stage one complaint response to the resident on 8 June 2021. In this, it confirmed that the cleaning staff were to clean the block weekly on alternating Mondays and Tuesdays and its records showed that this had not been missed other than on bank holidays. The landlord confirmed that it had spoken to its cleaning staff, who had assured the landlord that they had attended. The landlord advised the resident that it had asked the cleaning staff to take photographs on each attendance and that it would be carrying out spot checks of the area.
  4. The landlord acknowledged that the resident had since raised concerns about keeping the communal areas and facilities corona virus free. It confirmed that these items were included in its cleaning schedule but it could not guarantee that communal areas remained free from corona virus. The landlord said that tenants were expected to take appropriate precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.
  5. The resident escalated his complaint by email later on 8 June 2021. In this, he alleged that the cleaning staff were falsifying evidence of their attendance and said that he had witnesses to the block not being cleaned for weeks.
  6. The landlord provided its final response to the resident’s complaint on 10 June 2021. It reiterated that its records showed that the cleaning staff had attended as specified by the rota, and the staff had assured it of this. The landlord repeated the measures it stated in its stage one response to ensure that cleaning was carried out; that photographs were taken after each attendance by its staff and that it would carry out spot checks.
  7. The landlord informed the resident that it had no agreement with him to carry out cleaning services and no basis upon which he could charge them for this. It acknowledged a request from the resident on 8 June 2021 for information relating to service charges and asked him to clarify the aspects which he wanted information about. The landlord advised it would provide this to him once the resident clarified this.
  8. The landlord’s records on 9 July 2021 noted that it was due to carry out a site visit with the resident present on 13 July 2021.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

  1. The landlord’s tenancy agreement with the resident confirms that the landlord is responsible for maintaining and repairing any shared and communal areas, subject to the resident paying a service charge.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about cleaning in communal areas.

  1. It must be first clarified that it is not the Ombudsman’s role to assess the standard of cleaning work, or the amount charged for such works. Instead, this Service considers whether the landlord has followed a fair process in considering the resident’s concerns about service standards. As mentioned above, this Service is unable to consider the reasonableness or liability of a service charge for the provision of communal cleaning as these issues can be considered by the First Tier Tribunal.
  2. When a dispute arises over the standard of a service provided by the landlord, it would be expected to make reasonable attempts to investigate and address any errors identified following this investigation. In this case, the landlord spoke with its cleaning staff and reviewed its cleaning logs for evidence of their attendance. This was a reasonable way for it to satisfy itself that staff had carried out cleaning appropriately. In the investigation of the complaint, it may have been useful for the landlord to carry out an inspection of the block to assess first-hand whether cleaning had taken place and whether it was of a reasonable standard. However, given that the resident had informed the landlord that tenants carried out their own cleaning of the communal areas, this may not have been useful as the areas may have appeared to be clean but this would not show who had cleaned them.
  3. Given that there was a dispute over whether or not cleaning staff had attended the block to carry out cleaning, it was reasonable for the landlord to request additional proof from its staff, by way of photographs to show they had attended. This was a reasonable response to the resident’s concerns that staff had falsified records. The landlord’s proposal to carry out spot checks was also a reasonable method to gain additional reassurance that staff attended to clean the block.
  4. It is noted that the landlord engaged with the resident by arranging a site visit with him on 13 July 2021. This demonstrated that it continued to engage with him to address his concerns about the standard of the communal cleaning and was a reasonable response.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its response to the resident’s concerns about the standard of communal cleaning.

Reasons

  1. The landlord made reasonable efforts to investigate the resident’s reports and it put appropriate measures in place to ensure that ongoing communal cleaning was carried out correctly.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord should ensure that it continues carry out regular spot checks of the block to monitor the communal cleaning. It should also continue to engage with the resident to ensure that communal cleaning is carried out to a satisfactory standard.