Nottingham City Homes Registered Provider Limited (202212049)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202212049

Nottingham City Homes Registered Provider Limited

31 January 2023

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:
   1. The landlord’s handling of repair work to the communal front door.
   2. The landlord’s handling of repair work to the resident’s letterbox.

Background

2. The resident is an assured tenant. The property is an apartment in a block of flats. The resident has told the landlord she has previously been the victim of domestic violence.
3. The landlord advised this Service the resident first notified it of the broken communal door in February 2022, at which stage it raised the issue as an emergency. It also advised this service that in June 2022, the resident notified it that her letterbox was broken. None of the records provided by the landlord show clearly when these two issues were raised. The resident raised a complaint about delays repairing the letterbox and the communal door at the end of June 2022. The landlord has provided its stage one complaint response at the end of June 2022. It advised this Service it assessed the door and letterbox in June 2022, where it fixed the letterbox but could not fix the door due to extensive damage.
4. In July 2022, the resident escalated her complaint, and said that the communal door was still broke. The landlord provided its final response in August 2022. It stated the communal door was attended on 29 June 2022, and that due to the extent of damage the communal door could not be effectively repaired during that visit. It acknowledged it took longer than anticipated to find a part for the letterbox due to it being bespoke and that this issue was fixed on 29 June 2022. The landlord offered £50 compensation and apologised for the delays. The landlord advised this Service the communal door was fixed on 8 September 2022.
5. The resident brought her complaint to this Service because she was dissatisfied with the landlord’s handling of the repairs. She sought further compensation from the landlord, and for a more reliable resolution to the broken door.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

6. As per the tenancy agreement, the landlord is responsible for keeping the shared areas of the neighbourhood, clean and well maintained. For the purposes of this investigation, that obligation is taken to mean communal areas.
7. The landlord’s responsive repairs policy, states that emergency repairs should be attended and made safe within four hours and completed within three days. Out–of–hours repairs are attended and made safe within four hours and priority appointed repairs are attended on appointment and completed within thirty working days.

Repairs to the communal door

8. The resident has recently said to this Service that there have been incidents of antisocial behaviour in the common areas, which she attributes to the door issue. This investigation centres on events leading up to and including the end of the landlord’s complaint investigations. Any more recent issues, including ones that might be related to the substance of this report, must be reported to the landlord and dealt with accordingly. Recent issues are not part of this investigation.
9. As part of this investigation the landlord was asked to provide records, correspondence, and any other evidence relevant to the resident’s complaint. Only limited information was received, which did not include significant items such as repair or maintenance logs. Only limited evidence of communication with the resident has been seen. Nonetheless, in this particular case, the investigation has been able to reach a determination based on the information to hand. However, the omissions indicate poor record keeping by the landlord in that it was not able to provide basic repair and communication evidence when asked.
10. Based on the information provided by the landlord, it took approximately four months to assess the communal door (February 2022 to June), which it advised this Service was originally raised as an emergency. This was unreasonable because the landlord’s responsive repairs policy states that emergencies will be attended to within four hours and fixed within twenty-four hours. The landlord has explained that the door was fixed in September 2022. That was around seven months after it says the matter was reported, which, if correct, was a significant delay and service failure. The resident has advised this Service the door was still broken in November 2022. Nothing in the information provided by the landlord indicates that the door problems are one single repair issue which has not been resolved, or if it is instead a series of repairs wherein the door is repaired and breaks again. Regardless, the landlord is obliged to keep reliable records so that it knows itself what the problem is, and what it has done to resolve it.  The onus is on the landlord to provide evidence that the door was fixed in September 2022, which it has not provided. Accordingly, we cannot know if the door has now been fixed.
11. While the landlord did make steps to try and put things right by apologising and offering £50 compensation, it did not take into consideration how long it took to visit and assess the communal door, and how long it was broken for. It also did not take into consideration the stress, inconvenience, time and trouble for the resident, especially in light of the added concerns she had explained to the landlord about the potential security implications. The compensation was disproportionately low in that regard, and not in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance.

Repairs to the letterbox

12. In this case, it is not disputed that the letterbox was broken and that it has been fixed but how long the repairs took. Based on the information from both the resident and the landlord, it took seven days to assess and fix the letterbox. This was reasonable, as the landlord’s responsive repairs policy states that it will fix priority appointed repairs within thirty working days.

Determination

13. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the repair to the communal door and offer of compensation.
14. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the repair to the resident’s letterbox.

Orders

15. In light of the inconvenience, frustration and distress caused to the resident, the unexplained door repair delays, and its poor record keeping, the landlord is ordered to pay the resident a total of £350.
16. This amount is inclusive of the £50 already offered by the landlord. Payment must be made within four weeks of this report, and evidence provided to this Service.
17. Also, within four weeks of this report, the landlord must provide evidence that the communal door is now in a properly repaired and operational state.
18. Within six weeks of this report the landlord must provide a report explaining how it intends to learn from this complaint and improve its record keeping processes and practices, with the aim of being able to provide on request clear records of its repair actions and decisions.