Sanctuary Housing Association (202213241)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202213241

Sanctuary Housing Association 

12 April 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 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 the resident’s reports about:
    1. The safety of his communal back garden’s surfaces and fencing.
    2. Its garden maintenance of trees and hedges.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord of a ground floor flat in a block with a communal garden.
  2. On 23 March 2022, the landlord’s surveyor reported outstanding repairs to the concrete surfaces of the resident’s communal back garden, for which a work order was raised by it. The resident then raised a stage one complaint with it on 4 May 2022, in which he expressed concerns that the garden had been unsafe to use for several years. He advised that the concrete was “badly broken and uneven”, which posed a significant health and safety risk, together with the metal spikes there.
  3. The resident also reported that the trees and hedges in this and neighbouring gardens needed trimming, as they were overhanging and blocking sunlight from entering. In addition, he advised that one of the garden fences was leaning and almost falling over.
  4. The landlord therefore initially responded to the resident’s stage one complaint on 19 May 2022 by stating that it had forwarded and discussed his garden safety and maintenance concerns with its estates operations manager, who had apologised for the time taken and inconvenience caused by the outstanding garden works. It explained that it was working to resolve this, was due to hold further meetings to do so, and had received and was reviewing the tree survey for the area, for which tree works were scheduled for the end of August 2022, after the bird nesting season when these could not be completed. The landlord also agreed to obtain another update and completion timescale for the garden works, and to respond to the resident by 2 June 2022.
  5. However, the resident escalated his complaint to the final stage of the landlord’s complaints procedure on 19 May 2022, as he said that it had not addressed his concerns, and that he wanted assurances that it would cut back his communal garden’s hedges, trees and shrubs. He additionally sought a date from it for its scheduled tree works, and for the garden to be maintained from the service charges that he paid it for this, as well as for the trip hazard from the garden’s uneven and broken concrete surfaces to be fixed and made safe. The resident sought to escalate the complaint again on 6 and 10 June 2022, as he had not received another response from the landlord, which agreed to this and with his garden fence and surface concerns on 15 and 21 June 2022.
  6. Following its visit to the property at the beginning of July 2022, the landlord issued its final stage complaint response on 12 July 2022. It apologised for the inconvenience caused and noted that several works had been identified. The landlord advised that hedges would be trimmed as part of regular garden maintenance visits, and minor tree repairs from a survey in March 2022 would be done in September 2022. It also advised that it would approach a neighbouring landlord for permission to cut back the trees in their property, and consider the urgency of the garden fence and resurfacing works.
  7. Moreover, the landlord offered the resident a goodwill gesture of £100 in total. This was broken down into £50 for the fact that he had to raise a complaint in the first place for the works to be completed, and another £50 in recognition of his time and trouble from its complaints handling and its delay in escalating his complaint.
  8. The resident declined the goodwill gesture, as he felt that the landlord was not doing what it should in order to resolve the matter, but was charging him for garden maintenance that he felt that he was not receiving. He confirmed that he wanted the hedges and branches to be cut back, and for it to provide a date for when the garden’s surfaces would be levelled and made safe.
  9. The landlord subsequently confirmed that it had cut back the garden hedges three times by July 2022, had all of the overhanging trees cut back on 28 July 2022, and had all of the fencing work completed on 22 February 2023. The resident also confirmed on 28 February 2023 that new fencing had been put up and the trees had been cut back towards the boundary.
  10. Additionally, the landlord confirmed that it had made the uneven garden area’s potholes and damaged drainage cover safe on 3 September 2020 and 4 January and 7 April 2022. It reported that it did so with works including to remove damaged concrete and cordon off the area with cones and tape, and that works to edge and fill in the uneven garden surfaces were scheduled for 11 April 2023.
  11. The resident nevertheless complained to this Service about trees being left to grow very tall leaving his communal back garden very dark, with one tree still leaning “dramatically” towards the building. He added that he was dissatisfied with the length of time that the landlord was taking to make the garden surfaces safe, and that it had declined to carry out this and the other works that it had completed to the garden for at least five years, until he had contacted us.

Assessment and findings

Policies and Procedures

  1. The landlord’s tenancy handbook states that the resident is required to pay a service charge for its communal garden maintenance services. Its repairs and maintenance procedure states that appointed repairs are to be completed within 28 days. The landlord’s compensation guidance states that payments of up to £50 may be made for instances in which there was service failure where there was a low impact on the resident, and of up to £400 where there was a high impact.

The safety of the resident’s communal back garden’s surfaces and fencing

  1. The resident’s dissatisfaction with his communal back garden’s uneven and broken concrete surfaces being an unsafe trip hazard, which he complained about together with the condition of a fence there on 4 May 2022, was not disputed by the landlord. Its surveyor instead reported outstanding repairs to this on 23 March 2022, for which it raised a work order, and it agreed with his concerns about this and the poor condition of the back garden fence on 21 June 2022. It was therefore appropriate that the landlord confirmed that it had carried out works, on 3 September 2020 and 4 January and 7 April 2022, to make safe the garden’s potholes and a damaged drainage cover.
  2. The landlord reported that it also made safe the resident’s communal back garden surfaces by removing broken concrete, and cordoning this off with cones and tape, on the above dates. Although this was an appropriate temporary fix, it was unreasonable for it to leave portions of the garden’s surfaces with outstanding repairs that were cordoned off for a significant period of time. This is especially given that the landlord’s surveyor and the resident reported this from 23 March and 4 May 2022 onwards, that its final stage complaint response of 12 July 2022 advised that the urgency of the repair would be considered, and that it only scheduled works to edge and fill in the uneven surfaces on 11 April 2023.
  3. As the landlord’s repairs and maintenance procedure required appointed repairs to have been completed within 28 days, it should have aimed to have done so by 20 April and 1 June 2022 instead of nearly one year later on 11 April 2023. While it is understandable that quotes and advanced planning were needed for the work to begin in the garden, it is unclear why there was a delay of almost one year for these works to begin. Additionally, during this period, there is a lack of evidence of communication with the resident regarding the progress of these works, which was inappropriate. It is important to keep the resident informed as this helps to manage expectations, in order to provide good service delivery, and to avoid frustration and a negative impact on the landlord tenant relationship.
  4. With regard to the outstanding repairs to the resident’s communal back garden fence, the landlord should also have aimed to have completed these within 28 days of his report of 4 May 2022 about this, i.e. by 1 June 2022, instead of over nine-and-a-half months later on 22 February 2023. It ought to have required quotes from its contractors for this within a reasonable time, been aware as to whether they were able to do so, and provided regular updates to the resident on its progress until the works were completed in a timely manner. However, there is no evidence that the landlord did so, which was unsuitable particularly given the resident’s health and safety concerns about the fence.
  5. It was therefore reasonable that the landlord apologised to the resident for the time that he had taken to report and complain about the outstanding surface and fence repairs, and the inconvenience that these had caused him. It also offered him £50 compensation for the fact that he had to complain to get the works completed, as well as £50 for its poor complaint handling. However, this was at a rate recommended by the landlord’s compensation guidance for a low impact on the resident, and no compensation was considered the potential impact on him of the health and safety hazards that he reported as being present, or for the significant period of time that they remained outstanding.
  6. This was inappropriate, given the resident’s health and safety concerns and the fact that the surface and fence repairs were outstanding for around at least a year and nine-and-a-half months, respectively, which suggested that the impact of these on him was more likely to be high. This is additionally because the outstanding repairs would have meant that he would have lost the full use of his communal back garden for a significant period of time, for which the landlord’s tenancy handbook obliged him to pay it service charges to maintain.
  7. It would therefore have been more reasonable for the landlord to have offered the resident additional compensation in recognition of this, at the rate recommended by its compensation guidance for a high impact on him. This Service’s remedies guidance also suggests compensation from £100 for instances in which there was a failure that adversely affected the resident.
  8. The landlord has therefore been ordered below to pay the resident £400 total compensation, as recommended by its compensation guidance for a high impact on him. This is broken down into £200 for the delay in making safe the broken communal back garden surfaces, £100 for the delay in fixing the broken fence there, and the £100 already offered to him by it, if he has not received this already. The landlord has additionally been ordered below to review its staff’s training needs with regard to progressing and communicating with residents about outstanding long-term works, in order to ensure that these are done promptly and regularly in every case.

The landlord’s garden maintenance of trees and hedges

  1. Following the resident’s complaint from 4 May 2022 that the trees and hedges in his communal back garden, and in neighbouring gardens, needed trimming, the landlord should have inspected this and provided him with a timeframe for the works to be completed, which he requested from it again from 19 May 2022 onwards.
  2. The landlord’s stage one and final stage complaint responses of 19 May and 12 July 2022 therefore appropriately advised the resident that the hedges would be trimmed as part of regular garden maintenance visits. This was reasonable as this was the purpose of such visits, and it would usually have been unreasonable for it to have done so outside of such visits, unless the overgrown hedges posed a potential health and safety hazard or risk of damage. The fact that the landlord confirmed that it had cut back the garden hedges three times by July 2022 further meant that it had shown that it was providing this service regularly and promptly, which was suitable.
  3. However, it would also have been appropriate for the landlord to have advised the resident of the timetable of its regular garden maintenance visits, so that he knew when the next visit could be expected, and could confirm that this service that he was being charged for under its tenancy handbook was being provided. This would additionally have helped to manage his expectations, particularly as he had requested this information from it. The landlord has therefore been recommended below to contact the resident to provide him with a timetable of its regular garden maintenance visits.
  4. With regard to the resident’s reports of overhanging trees from 4 May 2022 onwards, the landlord confirmed that it had appropriately arranged for a survey to be carried out for this in March 2022, for all of the overhanging trees to be cut back on 28 July 2022, and for minor repairs to be completed in September 2022. He also confirmed on 28 February 2023 that the trees had been cut back towards the boundary, which was reasonable and demonstrated that it had taken action for this as promptly as possible, following its inspection and after the bird nesting season when these could not be completed.
  5. While the resident additionally reports that trees are being left to grow very tall leaving his communal back garden very dark, with one tree still leaning “dramatically” towards the building, there is no evidence that works that the landlord is obliged to carry out for the trees are outstanding. This is as a result of the above inspection and works that it has already completed for the trees, and the lack of specific requirements for it to take further action for these from its tenancy handbook and repairs and maintenance procedure. It is nevertheless of concern that the resident still considers this to be an outstanding issue that is affecting him, and so the landlord has been recommended below to contact him to respond to this.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s reports about the safety of his communal back garden’s surfaces and fencing.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its garden maintenance of trees and hedges.

Orders and recommendation

  1. The landlord is ordered to:
    1. Pay the resident £400 total compensation within four weeks, which is broken down into:
      1. £100 already offered for its complaint handling failures, and for him having to raise a complaint to get repairs completed, if he has not received this already.
      2. £200 for the delay in repairing the unsafe communal back garden surfaces.
      3. £100 for the delay in repairing the communal back garden fence.
    2. Review its staff’s training needs with regard to progressing and communicating with residents about outstanding long-term works, in order to ensure that these are done promptly and regularly in every case.
  2. It is recommended that the landlord contact the resident to provide him with a timetable for its regular garden maintenance visits, and to respond to his report of trees still growing too tall and leaning towards his building.
  3. The landlord shall contact this Service within four weeks to confirm that it has complied with the above orders, and whether it will follow the above recommendation.