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Hammersmith and Fulham Council (202213931)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202213931

Hammersmith and Fulham Council

8 March 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. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s front doorframe.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord. On 6 August 2021, she reported to the landlord that, since the replacement of her front door, her door did not align correctly with the doorframe which made it extremely difficult to lock.
  2. There were several visits by the landlord between 17 August 2021 and 8 March 2022 to the property which did not result in the doorframe being repaired. The resident raised a stage one complaint on 26 April 2022 as she was unhappy with the lack of progress with the repair. She highlighted that the misalignment of the door and doorframe prevented the deadlock being used on the door and allowed draughts to enter the property. The landlord’s stage one complaint response on 28 April 2022 apologised to the resident for the delay and offered her £150 compensation.
  3. The resident escalated her complaint to the final stage on 20 July 2022 as she was unhappy that the repair was not completed on the previous day’s appointment. She relayed that she was informed that the doorframe did not require replacement, contradicting what she had previously been told. The resident said that the operatives had “tampered” with the door to make it seem as if the doorframe replacement was unnecessary, but the door still would not shut properly. The landlord issued its final stage complaint response to her on 4 August 2021 to confirm that it agreed that the doorframe required replacement. The landlord increased its compensation offer to £250 and said the repair would be completed on 19 August 2022.
  4. The resident emailed the landlord on 4 August 2022 to say that she had been informed that only measurements would be taken on 19 August 2022. The landlord’s records on 7 September 2022 noted that the door was measured but no follow-on works were arranged.
  5. The resident informed this Service on 28 October 2022 that she continued to be dissatisfied as the doorframe repair was still incomplete and she had been locked out of the property in the early hours due to the misaligned door. The landlord informed this Service, on 20 January 2023, that it had since surveyed the resident’s front doorframe and agreed with her to carry out a repair to the section of the doorframe that was faulty. The Ombudsman understands that the landlord has since completed the repair and the landlord increased its total offer of compensation to £950. The resident informed this Service that she considers that the door is still out of alignment.

Assessment and findings

  1. The landlord’s tenancy agreement with the resident confirms that it is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the structure and exterior of the property; this includes the front external door. Its repairs and maintenance handbook provides for five priorities for repairs, with target completion timeframes from between 2 hours for a priority one repair to 20 working days for a priority five repair.
  2. The resident reported the issue of her front door not aligning with the doorframe on 6 August 2021 to the landlord. It should therefore have completed the repair by 3 September 2021 at the latest to be in accordance with its lowest priority target timeframe, specified above. There has been an unreasonably excessive delay of approximately 17 months and this is a significant failure by the landlord to complete a routine repair within a reasonable time.
  3. The Ombudsman would expect a routine repair to be completed within four weeks; this is based on the standard across the industry. It is sometimes reasonable for repairs to take longer than this when they are particularly complex. In such cases it would be reasonable for a repair to require more than one inspection to confirm the best approach. Where this is the case, the landlord would be expected to keep the resident informed of progress, explain why there was a delay, and provide accurate timescales for completion.
  4. There is no evidence of the landlord managing the resident’s expectations. It confirmed on 9 November 2021 that a new doorframe was required and then after several appointments, it said that only a repair was required on 28 June 2022. The landlord’s final stage complaint response subsequently agreed that a new doorframe was required, however, after two further visits, it said that this was not the case, before inspecting the doorframe on 18 January 2023 where it reached an agreement with the resident to carry out a repair rather than a replacement. This inconsistency in approaching the repair was unreasonable and would have caused uncertainty and frustration for the resident.
  5. There was no evidence that the replacement of the resident’s doorframe was particularly complex. However, there was an excessive number of appointments in the course of the repair.
    1. The doorframe was inspected on 17 August 2021.
    2. The work was not completed on an appointment on 7 September 2021.
    3. An appointment on 19 October 2021 was incomplete due to the landlord not gaining access.
    4. A visit by the landlord on 9 November 2021 confirmed that a new doorframe was required.
    5. An appointment took place on 5 January 2022 and the repair was not completed.
    6. The repair was not completed during an appointment on 8 March 2022 as the attending operative said it was a two-person job.
    7. A further appointment on 22 April 2022 was cancelled due to staff illness. There is evidence that the landlord attempted to inform the resident by telephone, but there was no note of an email or voicemail message being provided to her.
    8. On 28 June 2022, the landlord attended but the repair was not completed.
    9. On 1 August 2022, the landlord attended to assess the door and frame.
    10. The landlord attended again on 19 August 2022 to measure the door.
  6. The excessive number of appointments without resolution of the repair caused inconvenience and distress to the resident, as during this time the door could not be fully locked, or did lock and would not open presenting a concern over security and safety. Furthermore, the landlord was aware from 30 September 2021 that the misalignment of the door allowed draughts to enter the property and the delayed repair caused further inconvenience to the resident by impacting her ability to maintain the warmth in the property. In addition, the misalignment of the door caused the resident to be locked outside of the property on two occasions on 17 July 2022 and 11 October 2022 with her child who had a health vulnerability, leading to further distress.
  7. Therefore, the landlord delayed unreasonably in completing the repair, did not manage the resident’s expectations, and did not prioritise the repair in consideration of the vulnerabilities of the household, of which it was aware of from at least 17 July 2022. To recognise the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident over the extended time from 6 August 2021 to 18 January 2023, compensation should be paid to her.
  8. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance, available to view online, provides for awards of £600 to £1,000 where there has been a significant failure by the landlord leading to a significant impact on the resident over a long period of time. The landlord’s revised offer of £950 was in accordance with this guidance and proportionately recognises the length of the delay and the detriment experienced by the resident; it will therefore be ordered to pay this to the resident.
  9. As the resident has continued to express dissatisfaction with the standard of the doorframe repair, the landlord will be ordered to carry out a post-work inspection of the repair to establish whether the standard of the work was satisfactory or whether a replacement is necessary.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of repairs to the resident’s front doorframe.

Orders

  1. Within four weeks, the landlord should:
    1. Pay the resident £950 compensation, inclusive of its earlier offers.
    2. Carry out a post-work inspection of the doorframe repair and complete any further works or consider replacement if appropriate.
    3. Review its procedures for the management of repairs and confirm to the Ombudsman what steps it will take to ensure that repairs will be completed in accordance with its published timeframes.
    4. Provide evidence to the Ombudsman that it has complied with the above orders.