Longhurst Group Limited (202121508)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202121508

Longhurst Group Limited

17 May 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

This complaint is about the way the landlord handled the resident’s reports of a leaking hot water cylinder.
This investigation has also considered the landlord’s record keeping.

Background

The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. The tenancy started on 27 November 2006. The property is a one-bed flat. The landlord is aware that the resident lives with a chronic illness which affects his digestive system.

Policies and Procedures

The tenancy agreement says the landlord is responsible for maintaining the water heating equipment, as well as the internal flooring. The resident is responsible for reporting any disrepair and providing access for repairs to take place.
The landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy sets out two categories of responsive repairs – emergency repairs and appointed repairs. The policy says:
1. Emergency repairs must be attended and made safe within 24 hours.
2. Appointed repairs must be completed within 21 days for general repairs, or ten days for heating repairs.
3. Plumbing leaks and problems with water heaters will be categorised as an emergency repair.
4. Some repairs may be prioritised if the resident is disabled or vulnerable.
5. If contractors fail to keep an appointment, the resident will be offered an alternative appointment to suit them. The contractor is required to give at least 24 hours’ notice of a cancelled appointment.
The landlord has a two-stage complaints process. Stage one responses must be given within ten working days, and stage two responses must be given within 20 working days of an escalation request.
The landlord’s compensation procedure says:
1. It will consider awarding compensation when there has been a service failure.
2. It will reimburse reasonable costs which have been incurred due to the service failure.
3. Payments will be calculated as follows:
  1. Compensation of £50 to £250 will be awarded when a service failure has resulted in some impact on the resident.
  2. Compensation of £250 to £700 will be paid when there has been considerable service failure or maladministration, but no permanent impact on the resident.
  3. Compensation of £700 and above will be paid when there has been severe maladministration with a long term impact on the resident.
4. Increased electrical costs such as the cost of running temporary heaters or dehumidifiers will be considered. The landlord will not consider payments for the cost of kettles and water heating.
5. Further payments as a goodwill gesture are discretionary.
6. If items are damaged, the landlord will not make compensation payments for something which could not be predicted, which arose through normal wear and tear, or which the resident did not report to the landlord. The resident should make a contents insurance claim in those circumstances.

Summary of events

On 10 March 2021, the resident told the landlord that his hot water cylinder was leaking. The landlord said it raised the repair with its contractor at the time, but it has no records of the original inspection or what was found, as its contract with that contractor has now ended. The resident said the contractor inspected the cylinder and diagnosed a pinhole leak. The date of that inspection is unclear based on the evidence available.
On 15 April 2021, the resident reported the leaking cylinder again. The landlord’s repair and communication logs say it logged the repair as an appointed ten-day repair with one of its gas engineers.
On 26 April 2021, the landlord’s contractor attended the property. The worksheet said that the water supply to the cylinder was switched off, and the cylinder had a pinhole leak. It said a repair did not go ahead as a different trade was required. The landlord then raised a new repair with its contractors. The landlord has provided date-stamped photos which show another contractor attended that day, but it has not provided any worksheets with details of any inspection. Its records also show it logged the repair as both an appointed 21-day repair and due to be completed within three months.
On 28 April 2021, the resident contacted the landlord. He said the boiler was still leaking and had damaged the flooring. He said he wanted the landlord to pay for the cost of replacing the flooring, and to compensate for the delays as he had mental health issues and had been without hot water for months. The landlord said the resident would have to make a claim for the damage to the flooring under his contents insurance, and that the contractors would contact him to arrange an appointment to repair the cylinder. The resident said he wanted to make a complaint. The landlord has provided no records of that complaint being logged, or of the resident indicating he did not wish to pursue the complaint after speaking to the landlord. The landlord chased up the repair appointment that day.
On 29 April 2021, the landlord’s repairs team sent an internal message that both a plumber and an electrician would be needed for the works, and that the contractors would contact the resident to arrange a suitable appointment.
On 9 June 2021, the resident made a complaint to the landlord. He said the hot water cylinder had been leaking since March 2021. He said the initial contractors attended and diagnosed a pinhole leak but carried out no repairs, and the new contractors never contacted him to arrange an appointment.
On 16 June 2021, the landlord made an internal note that it had booked a two-man repair for 6 July 2021, and that the resident was aware of this.
On 22 June 2021, the landlord issued its stage one response to the complaint. It said it accepted there was a service failure, and that the contractor had arranged an appointment for 6 July 2021 to complete the repair. It offered £100 compensation for the service failure – £50 as an apology, and £50 as a goodwill gesture.
On 6 July 2021, the contractor attended the property. Its report says the works did not go ahead as a new cylinder was needed. The report said when the new cylinder arrived the landlord should book a new appointment for a full day with a plumber and electrician.
On 24 August 2021, the contractor attended the property again. The worksheet says they stayed for around half an hour but did not carry out the repair as more time was required. The landlord has not provided details of how long the appointment had been booked for or why more time was required.
On 25 August 2021, the resident asked to escalate his complaint to stage two. He said the delays in carrying out the repair had caused damp and water damage. He said the contractor had attended on 24 August 2021 and removed a part from the cylinder, but that another engineer attended later and said what the previous engineer had done was incorrect.
On 7 September 2021, the resident emailed the landlord. He said he wanted between £300 and £400 in compensation. He said this was to cover the time taken to sort the issue out, as well as being without hot water. He said he needed hot water because of his medical condition.
On 10 September 2021, the landlord completed the cylinder replacement. The landlord emailed the resident on receipt of the contractors’ photos and asked if the cylinder replacement had gone ahead as planned. The resident told the landlord that the cylinder replacement had gone ahead, but that the engineer had told him the clock on the boiler did not work, which prevented timed use of hot water. The resident reported he had only gotten 30 minutes of hot water a day with the previous water heater. The worksheet showed that the Economy 7 clock needed to be replaced, but that a new job would have to be logged for that.
On 13 September 2021, the contractor went to the property. The worksheet says they reset the timer and showed the resident how to use it.
On 14 September 2021, the resident told the landlord he could only get a small amount of hot water. He said he had incurred higher than usual heating costs as a result of the boiler not working correctly, and wanted compensation of £500 for that and £500 for living with damp and mould for between six and seven years.
On 16 September 2021, the contractor attended the property and adjusted the water cylinder settings to allow seven hours of hot water.
On 22 September 2021, the landlord issued its stage two complaint response. It said:
1. Following the escalation request, it contacted the contractors and asked them to escalate the repair. The cylinder was replaced on 10 September 2021. There was then an issue with the amount of hot water being produced, which was resolved on 16 September 2021.
2. It accepted there was a major service failure as it took six months for the repair to be carried out. It apologised for the delay.
3. Delays were caused by the work being passed from the original contractor to the new contractor. Since the new contractor had the job, there were eight booked appointments, three of which were cancelled when they should not have been. It accepted the repair should have been carried out as a priority because of the lack of hot water in the property.
4. It could not comment on the other issues raised in the escalation request as they were not part of the original complaint. The original complaint related solely to the leaking water cylinder.
5. It offered £350 compensation for the delays in relation to the water cylinder and said it had referred the resident’s reports of mould and damaged storage heaters, which did not form part of the original complaint, to the relevant teams to be reviewed.
On 23 September 2021, the resident emailed the landlord. He said he would accept the £350 compensation offered for delays in the repairs on the understanding he would make subsequent compensation claims for damp and mould. He said he would not go to the Ombudsman if relevant investigations and adequate repair and renewal were carried out in the following days and weeks.
On 20 December 2021, the resident contacted the Ombudsman. He said he was dissatisfied with the landlord’s stage two response because:
1. He had concerns about the water quality. He said he had developed rashes and been ill, which he believed was caused by the coliform levels in the water. He did not believe the water was safe to use.
2. There was damp and mould in the property.
3. The kitchen and bathroom were not being updated.
4. There were long delays in the cylinder repair.
5. There was poor communication from the landlord.
On 22 January 2022, the resident contacted the Ombudsman again. He said:
1. He had reported issues with the water cylinder prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the landlord had only started repairing it in 2021.
2. The compensation offered was for inconvenience, but it did not cover his health costs. He wanted to be compensated for the damage to his health.
3. The contractors made errors in the cylinder installation such as ordering the wrong parts or not getting the wiring right. He said the old heating system was left outside for him to clear, which cost him £50.
4. There had been issues with the heating upgrades, so he had been spending money on a heater which did not switch off but gave no heat. He said he wanted £50 per week as compensation for living in a mostly cold apartment.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

Paragraph 42(a) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme) says the Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which have not yet exhausted the landlord’s internal complaints process. When referring his complaint to the Ombudsman, the resident raised issues including years of damp and mould, issues with the shared garden, concerns about water quality, helping his neighbours with their housing repair issues, and problems with the storage heaters in the property. Those complaints had not gone through the landlord’s internal complaints process at the time this complaint was referred to the Ombudsman. As such, those complaints will not be considered as part of this investigation.
The resident has also referred to the impact that delays in repairing the water cylinder had on his health. The Ombudsman is unable to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, any impact on health or wellbeing. Personal injury claims must, ultimately, be decided by the courts, as they can consider medical evidence and make legally binding findings. However, the Ombudsman will consider the general distress and inconvenience the situation may have caused the resident.

Delays in repairing the water cylinder

The resident told the Ombudsman that there had been issues with the water cylinder since before the Covid-19 pandemic started, but that the landlord only started carrying out repairs in 2021. The Ombudsman has seen no evidence from either the resident or the landlord to show that the resident had reported a leak from the water cylinder before 10 March 2021. In the absence of any evidence of a report before that date, the Ombudsman will only consider delays after the resident reported the leak on 10 March 2021.
When the resident reported the leak, the landlord categorised the repair as a 21-day appointed repair. It has acknowledged that this was not in line with its repairs policy, and that it should have been logged as a priority repair due to the lack of hot water in the property. The resident has confirmed that the landlord’s initial contractors attended and inspected the water cylinder. He said they identified a pinhole leak in the cylinder, but did not carry out any repairs. The landlord has not retained any records of when the contractors attended or what the results of the inspection were.
The landlord took no further action regarding the repair until the resident called it on 15 April 2021 to report that the water cylinder was still leaking, and it was damaging the floor below. This was more than a month after the resident reported the leak. The landlord then arranged for a gas engineer to attend, despite the landlord being aware that it was an electric water cylinder rather than a gas appliance. The gas engineer passed the repair back to the landlord’s repairs team as a plumber was required, not a gas engineer.
When the repair was passed to the landlord’s new contractor on 26 April 2021, it was again incorrectly booked in as an appointed repair rather than an emergency repair. The landlord also recorded the repair deadline as 25 July 2021, which was three months after the repair was passed to the contractor. This was neither in line with the landlord’s repairs policy nor appropriate in the circumstances. The photos provided by the landlord indicate that the second contractor was initially unable to gain access, but was able to do so later that day. However, as the landlord has provided no worksheets from that visit, it is unclear what inspections, if any, took place.
When speaking to the resident on 28 April 2021, the landlord told the resident it would not repair the damaged flooring, and that he would need to make a claim on his contents insurance. Under the terms of the tenancy agreement, the landlord is responsible for maintaining the water heating system and the internal floors. The resident reported that the flooring had been damaged as a result of a leak in the water heating system. As such, the Ombudsman would have expected the landlord to arrange for an inspection of the flooring to assess any damage, and whether any damage was caused by the leak, rather than advising the resident to make a claim on his own contents insurance. It did not do so, and so has therefore not acted appropriately.
The landlord did not arrange a further repair appointment after 26 April 2021 until the resident made a complaint about the delays. The contractor attended on 6 July 2021, but could not carry out the works as a new cylinder was required. There was a further appointment on 24 August 2021, during which the contractors attended for half an hour and then left without carrying out the repair as more time was needed. The cylinder was not replaced until 10 September 2021, which was six months after the issue was first reported. The landlord was aware that the resident had no hot water during that time. Further repairs related to the timer then had to be carried out as the resident only had limited hot water after the landlord replaced the cylinder.
The Ombudsman’s Spotlight Report on repairs sets out the expectations the Ombudsman has for landlords where repairs are concerned. The report says landlords should keep clear, accurate, and easily accessible records of residents’ reports of disrepair and the landlord’s responses, including details of appointments, any inspections, any work carried out, and completion dates. Landlords should also monitor the progress of any reported repairs and comply with the repair timescales set out in their policies as far as possible. When it is not possible to comply with the timescales set out in its policies, a landlord should communicate the reason for the delay with its resident.
The landlord has acknowledged that there were serious failings in this case, and has taken steps to try to put things right. It has apologised, carried out the repair, and offered £350 compensation. However, it has not acknowledged any failings regarding the flooring, which it was aware of since 28 April 2021, and it has kept no records of any appointments with, or inspections by, its initial contractors. The Ombudsman also does not consider that the compensation offered is sufficient redress for the resident having to live without hot water for six months. The resident has advised that he had to use the kettle to wash, and that as a result of his medical condition he needs ready access to warm water. This would have caused significant distress and inconvenience to the resident.
The Ombudsman’s published remedies guidance recommends compensation of £100 to £600 where there has been a service failure which adversely affected a resident, and compensation of £600 to £1,000 where a failing had a significant impact on the resident. In this case, the resident was left without reliable hot water from March 2021 until September 2021. The delays were the result of inaction on the part of the landlord, as well as an absence of any processes for monitoring the performance of its contractors or arranging an effective handover of work from one contractor to another. The Ombudsman considers there has been maladministration, and that a more appropriate level of compensation would be £800, given the impact being without hot water for six months had on the resident.

Determination (decision)

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there has been maladministration by the landlord in the way it handled the resident’s reports of the leaking water cylinder.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there has been a service failure by the landlord with regard to its record keeping.

Reasons

There were unreasonable delays in the landlord carrying out the repairs to the hot water cylinder. The landlord categorised the repair as an appointed repair rather than an urgent repair, which was not in line with its policy. There were then further delays caused by the landlord’s contractors and a failure on the landlord’s part to monitor the repair timescales. This left the resident without hot water for six months. While the landlord has acknowledged its failings and taken steps to put things right, the steps it has taken are insufficient as it has not acknowledged any failings with regard to the damaged floor and has offered inadequate compensation for the level of distress and inconvenience the delays caused the resident.
The landlord has kept no records of any action or inspection by its original contractor. It has referred to communication with the resident for which it has provided no call notes, and has provided no inspection notes from the second contractor visit on 26 April 2021. It has also not shown that it holds records of whether the resident’s initial mention of a complaint on 28 April 2021 was either not pursued by the resident or not actioned by the landlord.

Orders

Within four weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
1. Pay the resident £800 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by its failings in handling the reports of a leaking hot water cylinder. This is inclusive of the £350 previously offered.
2. Carry out an inspection of the damaged flooring under the water cylinder and explain to the resident what repairs, if any, it intends to carry out. It should also include a timescale for any repairs to be carried out, and its reasoning if it determines no repairs are necessary.
Within six weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to carry out a review of its repairs processes to ensure that:
1. Repairs are being correctly prioritised.
2. A change in contractors does not delay repairs being carried out.
3. Repair timescales are actively monitored when the repair is sent to a contractor, with processes in place to escalate or reassign the repair if the contractor does not carry out inspections or repairs within a reasonable timeframe.
The landlord is to reply to this Service to provide evidence of compliance with these orders within the timescales set out above.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the landlord reviews its record keeping practices to ensure that all records of inspections and repairs are available following a change of contractor.
It is recommended that the landlord reviews any additional costs incurred by the resident as a result of the delays in the cylinder repairs, for example additional energy costs or the cost of removing refuse left behind by its contractors, with a view to reimbursing those losses.
The landlord should reply to this Service within four weeks of the date of this report to confirm its intentions in regard to the above recommendations.