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Newham Council (202208929)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202208929

Newham Council

27 February 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 the landlord’s handling of ongoing leaks in the resident’s home.

Background

  1. The resident is a leaseholder. The property is a first–floor flat with one other flat above it.
  2. The information provided does not show when the resident reported the first leak in her property. However, an engineer visited the property in May 2022 to attend to a leak from the bathroom ceiling. It was determined the leak was from a pipe in the hallway floor in the flat above. The leak had been isolated by this point.
  3. In July 2022, the resident raised a complaint. A copy of the complaint has not been provided. The landlord responded in July 2022. It explained it had investigated the resident’s concerns about how long it was taking to deal with the leaks (it is not apparent from the evidence provided how many leaks had been reported at that point). It highlighted an asbestos issue with the ceiling where the leaks were happening and the asbestos works were due to be completed by 3 August 2022. At the end of July 2022, the resident escalated her complaint after experiencing what she said was a third leak coming from her kitchen ceiling. She explained she had raised this as an emergency but no one had visited.
  4. The landlord gave its final response at the end of August 2022, explaining that access to the neighbour’s property (where the leak was suspected to be coming from) had been limited which had caused the delays. It offered £350 compensation. Due to a further three leaks in September 2022, the resident requested a stage three escalation but she had exhausted the landlord’s complaints procedure and it referred her to this Service.
  5. In November 2022, the landlord carried out a CCTV investigation of the building’s exterior pipes to look for cracks, after the flat above was ruled out as the source of the leaks after May 2022. The results of this are unknown.
  6. The resident brought her complaint to this Service because the leaks are an ongoing issue. She sought a resolution, and further compensation.

Assessment and findings

  1. The Ombudsman is not able to comment on the technical appropriateness of the landlord’s efforts to identify the source of this problem, as the Service does not have the relevant professional expertise. The focus of this investigation is on the reasonableness of the landlord’s actions, based on the relevant polices, guidance and good practice available.
  2. When the resident made her stage one complaint on 14 July 2022, the first leak had already been raised as an emergency and the cause identified and isolated in May 2022. A second leak had been reported on 04 July 2022, in which an inspection happened the following day after the pipe had already been isolated by the gas company. In its stage one response the landlord explained to the resident what it had done in investigating the leaks up to that point. When the resident escalated her complaint to the landlord on 29 July 2022, she reported a third leak. The landlord acknowledged the escalation and stated it would respond by 25 August 2022. The landlord visited on 29 July 2022, but could not get access to the flat above. Nonetheless, in its final response on 25 August 2022, it acknowledged that the lack of access to the flat above was not the resident’s fault. It offered compensation based on this and explained why it could not force entry to the flat.
  3. Due to the apparently intermittent and uncertain nature of the leaks, there are no defined timescales in which the landlord would have been expected to resolve this matter. Put simply, the landlord cannot usually resolve a repair issue within its standard timeframes if the cause is not known, and there are factors outside its control, such as access to another property. A landlord would, however, be expected to take proportionate and appropriate steps to try and resolve the issue as quickly as possible, while communicating with tenants to manage their expectations.
  4. In this case, the records show the landlord considered the resident’s reports thoroughly, and took numerous steps to try to resolve the ongoing leaks. This is shown by its repeated investigations, as well as its actions such as attending within its repair timescales each time a leak was reported, making multiple attempts to gain access to the flat above, keeping the resident updated about its actions in its stage one and stage two responses and undertaking a CCTV test of the outside pipes in November 2022 after two more leaks were reported in September. It then inspected the resident’s property on 2 November 2022, where it concluded those most recent leaks were not coming from the flat above.
  5. Overall, leaks into a home can sometimes be challenging to identify and fix, but there is no disputing how frustrating and inconvenient the ongoing problem will have been for the resident. Nonetheless, nothing in the evidence indicates that the inability to identify and resolve the problem is due to any specific lack of action by the landlord. The landlord clearly appreciated the impact on the resident and seriousness of the issue, as shown by its compensation for delays outside its control, and by its continued investigations and responses to further leaks after its final complaint response. The landlord is recommended to continue working with the resident to find the ultimate cause or causes of the problem and bring the issue to a satisfactory conclusion.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of the complaint.