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Southwark Council (202206071)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202206071

Southwark Council

26 October 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:
    1. The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of outstanding mould and window repairs within his property, and the level of compensation offered by it for this.
    2. The landlord’s complaint handling, and the level of compensation offered by it for this.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord of a flat. On 1 February 2022, it made an appointment for 1 March 2022 to attend his property and treat a mould problem in one of his bedrooms. The landlord did not attend this until 17 March 2022, however, at which point the mould was treated. It then further attended the resident’s property on 24 March 2022 to fix a window handle. This was repaired, but the landlord subsequently found another fault with the window. It attended again, on 7 April 2022, in relation to the window but, as no replacement parts were available, it arranged another appointment. The outstanding work on the window was completed by the landlord on 6 May 2022, after it repeatedly left messages with its contractor to book the appointment.
  2. The resident made a stage one complaint to the landlord on 8 February 2022 about its failure to book the mould appointment and subsequently attend this, as well as it having not responded to any of his communications. He wanted an update, advised that the mould was getting worse, and that this was affecting his and his family’s health. There is no evidence that resident then received a stage one complaint response, and his final stage complaint of 4 March 2022 was escalated by the landlord on 18 March 2022, when it told him that it aimed to respond within 25 working days, and the final stage complaint response was issued on 27 April 2022. In that response, it accepted that it had missed the mould appointment and apologised to him for this.
  3. The landlord also accepted that the mould treatment date had breached its target timescale. It confirmed that an appointment had been made for 6 May 2022 to repair the outstanding issues with the window. This appointment was subsequently kept, and the window was repaired on that day. The landlord therefore awarded the resident £100 compensation, including £50 for the missed appointment that it had explained was the maximum available for this under its compensation policy to his local councillor, and £50 for his time and trouble, and it upheld his complaint.
  4. The resident nevertheless complained to this Service that he was unhappy with the landlord’s response and the amount of compensation that it had offered, as this was not an accurate reflection of his suffering, including from him taking time off work for its missed appointments and his family’s ill-health. He wanted it to complete the outstanding work that he reported was preventing a number of his windows from closing, improve its communication with him, increase its compensation offer, and apologise to him for any failings.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. Although the resident has asked for an increase in the compensation award from the landlord due to reasons including his loss of earnings and his family’s ill-health, this Service does not have the authority to investigate this. We also cannot investigate his reports of the effect of the mould and broken windows on his and his family’s health. This is because under the Scheme this Service, unlike the courts or an insurer, is unable to determine legal liability for loss of earnings or ill-health, or calculate or award damages for these, because we do not have the authority or expertise to do so.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of outstanding mould and window repairs within his property, and the level of compensation offered by it for this

  1. The landlord did not dispute that it failed to attend the original appointment to treat the mould at the resident’s property on 1 March 2022. It additionally accepted that, although it did attend this on 17 March 2022, this had been outside of the timeframe agreed with him, and so it apologised to him for this. The landlord also awarded the resident £50 compensation for the missed appointment, which it explained was the maximum that it could award for a single missed appointment under its compensation policy. The alternative would had been to award the resident £5 per week compensation, as per its compensation policy, for the two weeks that it had taken for it to attend his property, and this would have then only totalled £10 compensation.
  2. The amount of compensation that the landlord offered for the missed appointment was therefore in line with its compensation policy, and the most that it could have awarded him for this under the policy. The amount is also in accordance with this Service’s revised remedies guidance, which recommends compensation of £50 to £100 for such failings that did not significantly affect the outcome for him, but may have caused a delay in getting matters resolved. This was therefore proportionate to recognise the missed appointment by the landlord.
  3. The landlord additionally awarded the resident another £50 compensation for his time and trouble, from which its compensation policy recommends that it award to recognise the extent of the inconvenience that he experienced to get a resolution to his problem. This was reasonable because he had experienced a not very excessive impact from the delay of 12 working days from 1 to 17 March 2022 for the mould to be treated. This is also in line with this Service’s revised remedies guidance’s above recommendation for £50 to £100 where the impact on the resident is minimal, of short duration, and did not affect the overall outcome him.
  4. The landlord additionally repeatedly left messages with its contractor to book an appointment to attend the resident’s property in relation to his window. While this did not remove its repair responsibility towards him in relation to his window, it showed that it repeatedly tried to put things right by contacting its contractor frequently to book the necessary appointment for this.
  5. In relation to the broken window, the landlord did attend the appointment on 24 March 2022 as arranged with the resident, and it did fix the window handle as intended. The fact that there was then found to be another issue with the window, which required subsequent appointments to resolve from 7 April 2022, was not something that was within its control, nor was the lack of available parts for this, and it did fix the issue once the replacement parts were available on 6 May 2022. Therefore, there was no failure by the landlord in this regard, with there being no evidence that it failed to respond to the resident’s reports of outstanding window repairs preventing these from closing during the course of this complaint, which it has instead been recommended to respond to below.
  6. However, the landlord should have supplied the resident with its liability insurance details in order for him to make both a loss of income claim, and an ill-health claim, given that he had reported these issues to it that he had attributed to its handling of his repair reports but that were outside of its compensation policy. Therefore, it has been recommended below to provide him with its liability insurance details to enable him to do so. Although this oversight the landlord did not overshadow its other attempts to address his repairs complaint, and so it offered him redress prior to this investigation which resolved this complaint satisfactorily, which it has been recommended to re-offer to him below.

The landlord’s complaint handling, and the level of compensation offered by it for this

  1. There is no evidence that the landlord provided the resident with a stage one complaint response to his complaint of 8 February 2022, which was permitted by its complaints policy. It was obliged by this Service’s complaint handling code, however, to ensure that his complaint must only be escalated to stage two once a stage one investigation has been completed, and at his request. There is nevertheless no evidence that the landlord carried out a stage one complaint investigation or, if so, what the findings were.
  2. The landlord then received an escalation request from the resident on 4 March 2022, and issued its final stage complaint response on 27 April 2022, which was 36 working days later. It had advised him on 18 March 2022 that it would respond within 25 working days of that date, and so its response was one working day later than this timescale. This Service’s complaint handling code, however, states that the landlord must respond to the resident’s stage two complaint within 20 working days of the complaint being escalated, exceptionally extending this by a further ten days with an explanation to him and a good reason. This means that its final stage complaint response was 16 working days late, as no such explanation or good reason were provided.
  3. Ultimately, the above lack of a stage one complaint response and complaint handling delays by the landlord did not affect the outcome of the resident’s complaint, which was upheld by it and led to it awarding him a proportionate level of compensation to also recognise these failings on its part. This is because its compensation policy’s recommendation of compensation from £50 for any time and trouble that he experienced from its complaint handling failings was already awarded to him by it.
  4. Therefore, the landlord offered the resident redress prior to this investigation which additionally resolved this complaint satisfactorily. Due to this, it was reasonable for it not to have awarded him any further compensation for its poor complaint handling, although it has been recommended below to review its relevant staff training needs and record keeping processes.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Scheme, the landlord has offered redress to the resident prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint satisfactorily in relation to:
    1. The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of outstanding mould and window repairs within his property, and the level of compensation offered by it for this.
    2. The landlord’s complaint handling, and the level of compensation offered by it for this.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord:
    1. Re-offer the resident the £100 compensation that it previously awarded him, if he has not received this already.
    2. Contact the resident to respond to his reports of outstanding window works at his property preventing these from closing.
    3. Review its staff’s training needs in relation to their application of its policies and procedures on responsive repairs appointments and timescales, and this Service’s complaint handling code at https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/landlords-info/complaint-handling-code/.
    4. Review its record keeping processes to ensure that full and accurate records of each stage of its residents’ complaints and its complaint responses are kept and are easily accessible.
    5. Provide the resident with its liability insurance details, to allow him to make a claim for loss of earnings and the effect of mould and outstanding window repairs on his health and the health of his family.