Birmingham City Council (202102644)
REPORT
COMPLAINT 202102644
Birmingham City Council
17 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 handling of the resident’s reports about:
a. repairs to the flooring to the bathroom, kitchen and hallway landing
b. the related complaint.
Background and summary of events
Background
2. The resident is a secure tenant of a local authority and the tenancy started on 27 April 2009. The property is described as a two–bedroom house.
3. The tenancy agreement obliges the landlord to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the home and that when repairs are reported an agreed appointment will be arranged.
4. The landlords repair policy has three categories of repair – emergency , urgent and routine. Emergency repairs are to be resolved within two hours of the report to its repairs partner, urgent repairs resolved within a maximum of seven days and routine repairs resolved within 30 days.
5. The repairs policy states that the tenant is responsible for all internal decoration and the property should be kept in reasonable decorative repair. If the landlord or its agents cause damage to the decoration of the property, the resident is entitled to have those affected areas redecorated.
6. The complaint’s procedure recognises that the landlord does not always get things right and it is committed to improving its service. It operates a three-stage procedure, with complaints immediately resolved at the first stage, within 15 working days by the department responsible for the service delivery at the second stage and within 20 working days by an independent officer for those escalated to the review stage.
7. The landlord has a compensation policy sets out the circumstances in which compensation payments will be made and its aim is to ensure consistency in its decision making.
Summary of events
8. The landlords repair records show that it:
a. raised a routine repair order on 7 October 2020 to repair the kitchen floor tiles which was completed on 28 October 2020
b. raised a routine repair order on 16 November 2020 to check the floors to the bathroom, kitchen, hall, landing and stairs which is showing as completed on 7 December 2020.
9. The resident made a complaint by email on 22 November 2020 that when repairs were carried out on 28 October 2020, a water leak occurred which caused damage to the living room and kitchen ceiling which required replastering.
10. The landlord’s contractor accepted its operative had ‘nicked’ the pipe and agreed to carry out remedial decorative works to stain block and paint the affected areas starting on 26 November 2020.
11. The landlord responded to the complaint on 25 November 2020 advising the resident that its contractor had agreed to remedy the damage to the living room and kitchen ceiling. The first visit to stain block and paint was arranged for 26 November 2020, further works would follow and it apologised for the inconvenience to the resident.
12. The resident emailed the landlord on 1 December 2020 advising that its contractors had caused damage to the kitchen and bathroom floor and requested that they return to rectify the damage.
13. On the same day (1 December 2020), she escalated her complaint to the landlord requesting clarification of the work to be carried out to her home, that she was unhappy with the delay in completing the decorative work and with the conduct and professionalism of the decorator who had attended as he had not worn a mask or gloves in line with the Covid 19 regulations. In addition, she requested compensation for the delay in completing the decorations to the living room.
14. The landlord forwarded the complaint to its contractor on the same day (1 December 2020). It requested clarification on the work carried out by its operative at the residents home on 26 November 2020 and the work to be carried out by its decorator on 4 and 5 December 2020.
15. The resident contacted the landlord on 14 December 2020 requesting an update on the repairs to the bathroom and kitchen flooring.
16. The landlord visited the resident’s home with its contractor on 17 December 2020 and its records noted that:
a. the flooring to the kitchen and bathroom had lifted
b. further plastering repairs were required to sand down the stairwell to prevent it standing proud
c. the left window in the lounge and the gaskets required overhauling.
17. In response to the landlord’s query of 1 December 2020, the contractor advised on 18 December 2020 that following the visit to the resident’s home on the previous day (17 December 2020) a significant amount of work was required. Consequently, a meeting with the sub-contractors would take place the following week and it had advised the resident that the work would commence in the New Year.
18. The landlord responded to the resident on 18 December 2020 at the final stage of the complaints procedure and reiterated the information supplied by its contractor on the same day (18 December 2020) that a significant amount of work was required to her home and apologised for the inconvenience caused.
19. The resident emailed the landlord on 22 December 2020 advising that its contractors had not attended to undertake measurements for the kitchen and to remedy the floor in the bathroom.
20. Between January and March 2021, the resident chased the landlord regarding the completion of the follow-on work to the flooring in the bathroom and kitchen. The landlord has advised this Service that the repairs identified in its visit on 17 December 2020 have been completed but this is disputed by the resident.
21. After the complaint process, this Service has seen that the resident raised further concerns about repairs to the roof, guttering and graffiti to the landlord and that its repair records show that further repairs are required to the living room floor that are not subject to this complaint. In addition, a complaint was made to the landlord on 4 March 2021 about the delay in completing and rectifying the flooring work to the bathroom and kitchen.
22. The resident escalated her complaint to this Service advising that she remained dissatisfied as the repairs had not been undertaken to level the kitchen and bathroom floor.
Assessment and findings
23. The resident reported to the landlord that repairs were required to the kitchen floor tiles and repairs were carried out on 28 October 2020. After the repair, the resident contacted the landlord following damage to the living room and kitchen ceiling while the works were being carried out. On receiving the residents’ report, the landlord sought to establish what had taken place and its contractor confirmed that as the damage was caused by its operative it would as a good will gesture undertake the remedial decorative work to the living room and kitchen ceiling. Its agreement to remedy the work was in accordance with the repair policy as the damage was caused to the resident’s decoration by the actions of its contractor.
24. The repair policy sets out that the customer should be informed when repairs will be carried out. The landlords’ initial complaint response provided certainty to the resident that its contractor had taken responsibility for the damage and when the repairs would take place.
25. The resident reported further concerns at the beginning of December about the delay in getting the decoration work completed, the conduct and professionalism of the contractors and requested compensation for the inconvenience she had experienced. As the resident had raised further concerns, it was reasonable for the landlord to request an explanation from its contractors before responding to the resident’s complaint.
26. However, when its contractor did not address the specific issues that the resident raised, there is no evidence that the landlord took any action to obtain this information or assess the severity of the operatives’ action even though they concerned adherence to the national public health and safety measures.
27. A routine repair to check the flooring to the kitchen, bathroom and hallway was raised on 16 November 2020 and closed on 7 December 2020. The resident chased the landlord on 14 December 2020 for an update on the flooring repairs. This Service has not seen any information about what the landlord conveyed to the resident during its communication, therefore it not clear whether this was the reason for the inspection that took place on 17 December 2020.
28. Following the inspection to the resident’s home significant repairs was identified by its officer and its contractor. However, once the repairs were identified the landlord has failed to show any evidence of how it monitored the progress of the repairs to the kitchen and bathroom floor. Its repair policy state that routine repairs should be resolved within 30 days however its repair records show that the repairs to the kitchen and bathroom floors were outstanding until at least March 2021 which exceeds its published repair timescales and is an unacceptable delay.
29. There is a lack of documentary evidence to explain what work was actually carried out to remedy the defects to the kitchen and bathroom floor, therefore the landlord has been unable to demonstrate that it has completed all the necessary repairs to the required standard. Additionally, the resident remains dissatisfied with the work carried out and has made a further formal complaint to the landlord, who when asked was unable to provide its response to the resident’s complaint of March 2021.
30. In summary, the resident experienced an unacceptable delay in getting the repairs completed to the kitchen and bathroom floor following the landlord’s inspection in December 2020.
Complaint handling
31. The landlord’s initial response to the resident’s complaint, was within its published complaint handling time frame and during its investigation it appropriately requested information from its contractors before responding to the residents’ concerns.
32. The repairs policy advises that when a repair is raised the resident should be provided with an agreed appointment date. The final complaint response advises the resident that the repairs will take place in the New Year but does not provide a date when the work will be carried out. This does not provide the resident with any certainty about when the repair will be completed.
33. The complaint responses were not detailed, did not address the issues complained about and did not provide the resident with a comprehensive response to the issues she had raised. In addition, the final complaint response lacked clarity as it did not advise that the landlord had agreed to undertake works to the kitchen and bathroom floor and the timescale in which the works would be concluded.
34. The complaints procedure stipulates that at the final stage the review will be conducted by an independent officer. The complaint responses to the resident were sent by the same officer and no evidence has been provided that an independent officer was involved in the complaint investigation or the response that was sent to the resident. This failure meant that the landlord missed an opportunity to review the residents’ concerns at a more senior level and to provide a proper escalated complaint response to the resident despite being aware of her concerns.
35. The resident requested compensation for the inconvenience she experienced in the delay to the decoration of her home and for the flooring repairs to take place. There is no evidence that the landlord assessed whether a compensation award was appropriate under its compensation procedure. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance recommends awards of between £250 to £700 for considerable service failure or maladministration where the landlord has not taken responsibility for its contracted services or where residents have had to repeatedly chase responses.
36. When the landlord issued its final complaint response it incorrectly advised the resident to contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to escalate her complaint rather providing her with the contact details of this Service.
37. In summary, the landlord did not provide a proper response to the residents’ concerns and did not assess whether compensation was appropriate in light of the delays she had experienced.
Determination (decision)
38. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman’s scheme, there has been maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the residents reports about the outstanding repairs to the flooring to the bathroom, kitchen and hallway landing.
39. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman’s scheme, there has been maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the related complaint.
Reasons
40. The landlord failed to complete the repairs to remedy the defects in the resident’s home, monitor the progress of the works, keep proper records and communicate effectively with the resident to resolve the repairs in line with its repair standards.
41. The landlord failed to properly investigate the residents’ concerns, advise what it had found and provide a proper complaint outcome in line with its own complaints processes.
Orders
42. The landlord to write to the resident to:
a. apologise for the service failures identified in this report
b. arrange to reinspect the kitchen, bathroom and landing floor to the residents home, provide a report of its findings, to be shared with the resident setting out how it proposes to rectify any outstanding repairs.
c. Provide a response to the complaint made in March 2021 unless it has already done so.
43. The landlord to pay the resident compensation £500, made up of
a. pay compensation of £250 for the delay in completing the outstanding repairs and in recognition of the distress and inconvenience caused.
b. pay compensation of £250 for the complaint handling failures.
c. consider paying further compensation if there are any outstanding repairs to the floors in the resident’s home.
44. The landlord to review its staff and contractors training needs and carry out training to ensure compliance with the Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code and with its own complaint procedures to ensure that complaint responses contain the correct escalation details.
45. The landlord should confirm compliance with these orders to this Service within four weeks of the date of this report.