Stonewater Limited (202216644)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202216644

Stonewater Limited

20 July 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:
   1. Response to the resident’s concerns about the actions of a third party, and;
   2. The associated complaint handling.

Background

2. The resident lives in a flat, and is an assured tenant of the landlord. The resident has been in dialogue with the landlord since approximately 2018 regarding the actions of a private homeowner (PO) on a neighbouring street. The actions related primarily to development works which have affected the resident’s street, including the unpermitted removal of a communal fence within a carpark area which belonged to the landlord.
3. On 15 June 2022, the resident contacted the landlord as a PO had applied for planning permission to carry out work at the rear of his garden. The resident explained that the PO, in 2018, had knocked down a communal fence between his garden and a communal car park, and was concerned that he was going to do it again and that she was worried about the impact this would have on her and her neighbours.
4. On 24 August 2022, the resident logged a formal complaint with the landlord as she was dissatisfied with the lack of communication from the landlord regarding the issue with the PO. The landlord provided a stage one response on 15 September 2022, where it confirmed:
   1. It had visited the PO and confirmed that he could not use the car parking area to access his back garden and had also emailed and written to the PO to confirm this.
   2. It had submitted a rejection to the planning application via the local authority’s portal system.
   3. It had installed a secondary boundary fence.
   4. It acknowledged that the resident may have found it difficult to contact the landlord and that it was due to an increase in demand for its services.
   5. Apologised to the resident and offered a £50 voucher as a gesture of goodwill, in recognition of the difficulties she had experienced with contacting the landlord.
5. The resident escalated her complaint on 16 September 2022 as she remained dissatisfied with the response. She said that she felt unsupported by the landlord and felt she should be able to contact someone in cases of an emergency.
6. The landlord provided its stage two response on 24 October 2022 where it:
   1. Apologised for the delays that the resident had experienced and that it did not acknowledge the frustration and lack of support she felt.
   2. Explained what to do if the resident had an emergency and who to contact.
   3. Confirmed that the objections raised by the landlord to the planning application were detailed and submitted in a timely fashion.
   4. That the installation of a second fence should hopefully resolve the issues faced.
7. The resident contacted this Service on 18 November 2022 as she remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response. The resident explained that in order to resolve her complaint she is seeking an apology from the landlord and financial compensation.
8. In February 2023, the landlord informed the Ombudsman that it conducted a review of the resident’s complaint and had identified some issues with the way in which it handled the resident’s concerns. The landlord explained that it had not provided the level of service it strives to provide and offered the resident a total of £550 compensation (£200 in relation to the handling of the resident’s concerns about the actions of the PO, and £350 in relation to complaint handling).

Assessment and findings

9. The Ombudsman’s role is to determine complaints by reference to what is fair in all the circumstances and decide if the landlord is responsible for maladministration or service failure.
10. When investigating a complaint, the Ombudsman applies its dispute resolution principles. These are high level good practice guidance developed from the Ombudsman’s experience of resolving disputes, for use by everyone involved in the complaints process. There are only three principles driving effective dispute resolution:
    1. Be fair – treat people fairly and follow fair processes.
    2. put things right, and.
    3. learn from outcomes.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the actions of a third party.

11. The landlord says that it received a request from the PO seeking permission to use the communal car park to access their garden on 20 May 2022 and refused the request on 23 May 2022. This Service has not been provided with a copy of the communication.
12. The resident contacted the landlord on 1 June 2022 and said that the PO had been trespassing via the communal car park area. On 15 June 2022, the resident informed the landlord that the PO had submitted a planning request and wanted it to submit a rejection due to the previous issues in 2018. The landlord’s internal records show that a task was appropriately set and the landlord submitted objections to the planning application on 27 June 2022, however it failed to update the resident.
13. The landlord has provided this Service with a chronology of events which documented the steps it took when responding to the resident’s concerns, which included seeking legal advice on it’s position, checking Land Registry documents to confirm ownership of fence, carrying out a survey of the area and raising an order for a secondary fence to be erected at the boundary line. Although this Service has not been provided with copies of the communications which confirm the steps it took, there is no dispute between the landlord or tenant about whether it did or did not take any action. The resident has said on multiple occasions that her main concern was a lack of communication.
14. Whilst the steps the landlord took were reasonable and show that it was taking the resident’s concerns seriously, it failed to communicate the action it had taken to the resident. This amounts to maladministration and would attract a level of compensation as the resident was left feeling frustrated that the landlord was not taking the issues seriously.
15. Within the landlord’s final response it appropriately acknowledged that the resident had experienced an unnecessary delay, and whilst it apologised, it did not offer any compensation.
16. The landlord’s compensation policy, dated December 2019, states that goodwill payments can be paid on a discretionary basis, but does not give any amounts. In line with this Service’s guidance on remedies when there has been maladministration which has adversely effected the resident payments of over £100 are recommended.
17. Whilst the landlord initially offered a £50 shopping voucher at stage one of the process, it did not attempt to put things right in its final response. This Service acknowledges the review that the landlord undertook in February 2023, and that it offered the resident £200 redress, which is in line with this Services remedies guidance. However, the landlord should have made this offer of redress as part of its initial internal complaints procedure, rather than following on from contact with the Ombudsman. As such, a finding of maladministration is applicable.

The landlord’s complaint handling.

18. The landlord’s complaint policy shows that it operates a two stage complaint process. It confirms that both stage one and stage two complaints will be acknowledged within two working days and responded to within 10 working days.
19. Following communication with the landlord on 24 August 2022, the resident asked the landlord to log her dissatisfaction as a formal complaint. The landlord contacted the resident on 1 September 2022 to seek clarification on the resident’s complaint and acknowledged the complaint on 2 September 2022 confirming that it would respond by 15 September 2022. Although the acknowledgement was outside of the policy timescale, the delay was not significant.
20. The landlord appropriately responded by the deadline, and gave appropriate details of how to escalate the complaint to stage two if she remained dissatisfied. The information provided by the landlord shows that it received a phone call from the resident on 16 September 2022 to escalate her complaint, but due to an internal error, the complaint was not acknowledged correctly.
21. It was not until 14 October 2022, which was 28 working days after the resident’s initial request, that the landlord formally acknowledged the resident’s stage two escalation and said it would respond by 28 October 2022. This was an unreasonable delay and would have left the resident feeling further frustrated as a result of the landlord’s lack of communication. Therefore, this Service has made a finding of maladministration, and will attract a level of compensation.
22. Again this Service acknowledges the £350 offer of compensation the landlord made as part of its review in February 2023, which is in line with this Services guidance, but as it was not made as part of the initial internal complaints process a finding of maladministration is applicable.

Determination

23. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the actions of a third party
24. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

25. The Ombudsman orders that the landlord make a payment of £550 which it offered as part of its review in February 2023, within 28 days of the date of this report, if it has not already done so.