North Kesteven District Council (202016829)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202016829

North Kesteven District Council

31 May 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 handling of the resident’s concerns about her storage heaters.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord. There are recorded vulnerabilities in respect to the tenant; the resident has physical and mental health issues.
  2. The resident initially raised concerns regarding her heating system which she said was faulty and had caused her health problems in particular it had caused her lungs to deteriorate. The tenant made complaints to the landlord as she wanted her heating system to be fixed. It is unclear from the evidence provided what date the resident made her first complaint; however the landlord sent an acknowledgement of the resident’s complaint on 26 March 2021.
  3. The resident provided a letter from a third-party source (an energy supplier), who she had been speaking to whilst the landlord’s engineer was at her property on 24 March 2021. In the letter the energy supplier confirmed that the engineer had stated that the storage heaters needed updating. It also stated the engineer advised the resident to put the heaters on between 12am and 6am at the lowest output setting to get the most from her heaters. Also, that the information would be passed onto the landlord as the outcome of the job report. The third-party energy supplier advised the resident on how to get the best out of her heating system.
  4. The landlord decided not to uphold the stage one complaint on 13 April 2021. The landlord’s position was that following an inspection of the resident’s storage heater on 24 March 2021, the heaters were found to be working satisfactorily. During this inspection the engineer reported that the heater control was set on both maximum input and output settings which would not normally provide a slow release of heat during the day. The landlord therefore concluded that the heating system was in full working order and offered to show the resident how to use it in the most effective way. The landlord had reported that the resident refused this offer.
  5. The resident believes that the heaters were broken and so wanted to escalate her complaint to stage two. The resident was refused the opportunity to do this as the landlord stage 1 response was the final response. The landlord’s usual custom is to replace the heaters once they are 30 years old, which in the resident’s case will not be scheduled until 2032. On 4 May 2021, the landlord confirmed its final position to the resident that the storage heating system was not faulty and would not be repaired or replaced. The landlord felt that compensation was unnecessary as they found no wrongdoing on its part.
  6. The resident referred her complaint to this Service as she remained dissatisfied and felt that the landlord failed to repair a faulty heating system and compensate her for the damages.
  7. Since setting out its final position the landlord has visited the property and sent its engineers to the property on at least two further occasion and it is still the opinion of the landlord that there is no fault with the heaters.

Assessment and findings

  1. The resident said that she thought she saw smoke coming from the heaters in January 2020 and has supplied this Service with pictures. These pictures show that the heaters appear to be old and suffering from a fair amount of rust. Whilst they do appear to be suffering from wear and tear this is not enough to reasonably conclude that the heaters are faulty.
  2. The resident provided a letter from a third-party energy supplier where they confirm hearing the landlord’s engineer’s saying that the heaters need updating. The landlord has provided no evidence of having received any such reports from its engineer. On the contrary its report from its engineer said that the input and output setting were both set to the maximum and this this would not normally supply a slow release of heat throughout the day. This resonates with the second part of the energy supplier’s letter where it stated the engineer advised the resident how to get the maximum heat benefit from the heaters.
  3. Whilst there is some disagreement about exactly what was said all parties agree that the engineer gave the resident instructions on how to use the heaters. The engineer’s instructions suggest the heaters were working at the point that he inspected them therefore giving the resident advice on how to maximise her use of the heaters is a reasonable response in the circumstances.
  4. Since the complaint came to this Service the landlord has been to the property to inspect the heaters and has not found any fault with them. The landlord has also tried to explain how best to use the heaters and it says that unless the heaters are broken there is noting that it can fix.
  5. The landlord’s actions demonstrate that it has taken reasonable measures to try to address the resident’s concerns and help her to make best use of the heaters. It has continued to do so after the complaint was referred to this Service to resolve the issues. Therefore, the actions taken by the landlord have been appropriate.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s concerns about her storage heaters.