Peabody Trust (202108866)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202108866

Catalyst Housing Group Ltd

22 April 2022

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 regarding the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of excessive heat in the property due to a faulty radiator.

Background

2. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, which is a housing association. The property is a flat in a communal building which is part of a retirement complex. The resident’s daughter raised the complaint on her behalf. For the purpose of clarity, both the resident and her daughter are referred to as “the resident” within the report.
3. The resident experienced an issue with a fault with the radiators in the building, which caused some of them to be stuck at switched on. On 9 June 2021, the resident complained to the landlord as follows:
   1. She was unhappy that the landlord did not treat the repair as an emergency.
   2. There has been an ongoing issue of drug use at the building which had not been properly addressed by the landlord.
   3. The hand sanitiser unit at the building had not been operational for months.
4. The landlord’s response to the complaint was as follows:
   1. It received a report of an issue with the radiator on 9 June 2021. It raised a work order with its repairs team, who attended on 10 June 2021. It recognised that the building was “uncomfortably warm”. All but two radiators in the building were turned off on 10 June 2021, with the remaining two radiators being turned off the next day. It was satisfied that it took all necessary steps to ensure the resident was comfortable following the issue with the radiator and ensure that the temperature in the property was sufficient. The landlord obtained permission before visiting.
   2. In order to prevent a similar situation occurring, it would be installing thermometers on each floor of the building to monitor the temperature.
   3. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, the landlord has had to change its working practices, with weekly welfare checks being undertaken via telephone call. As a result of changes in lockdown restrictions, weekly welfare checks would now take place twice a week, along with a weekly health and safety check.
   4. It had reviewed the action taken by its staff members relating to antisocial behaviour (ASB) and had asked it ASB team to write to all residents in the building.
   5. When it was informed that the hand sanitiser unit was not working, a stand-alone bottle was provided. It had also encouraged its staff members and residents to carry their own bottles of hand sanitiser.
5. In referring her complaint to this Service, the resident stated that the outstanding matters for her is that it took two days for the landlord to complete repairs to the radiators which resulted in two hospital stays because of the effect of the heat on the resident’s health. As a resolution to the complaint, she requested to be compensated for the increased heating costs as the radiators has been ‘left on since winter”.

Assessment and findings

Relevant policies and procedures.

6. The landlord categorises it repairs as “Emergency” (attend within four hours, make safe within 24 hours) and “routine” (offer the next available appointment to the tenant). Emergency repairs are defined by the landlord as a repair to “safeguard the wellbeing of customers, the structural stability and integrity of properties and/or the health and safety of people using the affected area”
7. The landlord operates a two-stage complaints process. When a complaint is received, the landlord will investigate and provide a formal stage one complaint response. If the complainant is dissatisfied with the response, they can request an escalation of the complaint to the next stage of the landlord’s process. The landlord will then undertake a review of the complaint and provide a stage two response. This will be the landlord’s final response to the complaint.
8. The policy does not describe specific timescales for responding to complaints but does state that it operates in line with the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (published on our website). The code expects landlords to respond at the first stage of their internal complaint process within ten to 20 working days of receiving the complaint, and to respond at the second stage of the complaint process within 20 working days of the resident asking for the complaint to be escalated.

Scope of investigation

9. An internal landlord email sent on 21 June 2021 described a telephone call with the resident’s daughter, who informed it that the resident had been admitted to hospital as a “direct result” of the heat in her property caused by the faulty radiator.
10. The Ombudsman does not doubt these comments, but this Service is unable to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. Matters of personal injury or damage to health, their investigation and compensation, are not part of the complaints process, and are more appropriately addressed by way of the courts as a personal injury claim.
11. This is in line with paragraph 39(i) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, which states that “The Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion concern matters where the Ombudsman considers it quicker, fairer, more reasonable, or more effective to seek a remedy through the courts, a designated person, other tribunal or procedure”. Nonetheless, consideration has been given to the general distress and inconvenience which the situation may have caused the resident and how the landlord responded.

How the landlord responded to the resident’s reports of excessive heat in the property due to a faulty radiator

12. The evidence provided to this Service indicates that issue was first reported to the landlord on 9 June 2021. The report of the health and safety inspection undertaken on 10 June 2021 described the visit to the resident’s property. The report notes that the radiators in the property had been turned off, but the radiator in the hallway outside the property was one of the two that were unable to be turned off until the following day. The report described the main entrance to the building as “very hot” and went on to describe the general temperatures in the building as follows:
    1. “The site is generally warm upon entry, but this is not consistent throughout the floors. Some areas are warmer, where noted radiators are due to be fixed”
13. The contractor wrote to the landlord on 11 June 2021 to inform it that it had found four damaged heads and two stuck pins after inspecting all the radiators. The contractor isolated the radiators whose temperature could not be regulated and ordered replacement parts. The landlord also arranged to have thermometers installed on each of the floor in the building to allow it to monitor and log the temperature
14. Overall, the landlord has acted appropriately to the issue. It responded in line with its policies and procedures by attending the building within 24 hours and raising follow-on work to replace the faulty parts identify by its contractor.
15. The landlord visited the resident in her property to check on her wellbeing and to monitor the temperature. It offered advice to lower the temperature while work was ongoing to fully resolve the issue and stated that would follow up on her request to have the radiator covers removed to allow them to be cleaned.
16. The resident wrote to the landlord and requested an escalation of the complaint on the grounds that the landlord had not addressed all of the elements of her complaint and the stage one response included “untrue statements”. The landlord replied on 24 June 2021 to confirm that the complaint had been escalated sent a stage two complaint response was sent to resident on 9 July 2021.
17. The resident has requested compensation in recognition of the length of time the heating was set to on and the increase in heating costs this had caused. Although not addressed in her original complaint or in the request to escalate the complaint, the resident referenced this issue in an email sent to the landlord on 7 July 2021. In this email, the resident stated that the heating had been left on since the winter months and this only became apparent on 9 June 2021.
18. An internal landlord email sent on 17 June 2021 stated that it had received no reports relating to the radiators until 9 June 2021. The email also noted that the radiators were manually operated, and that it had written to residents with advice to remain hydrated, open windows and use fans during hot weather.
19. As no evidence has been provided which showed that this issue was raised by the resident during the complaint process, it was reasonable that the landlord did not consider compensation for an increase in energy usage caused by the faulty radiators.
20. However, it would be appropriate for the landlord to write to the resident and request her to provide it with any evidence she had for additional expenses (such as bills which show an increase in energy usage from a similar timeframe) and then consider if it would be appropriate to offer compensation based on what evidence it received.

Determination

21. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of how it responded to the resident’s reports of excessive heat in the property due to a faulty radiator.

Recommendations

22. It is recommended that the landlord write to the resident and request any evidence of expenses accrued by the resident as a result of the faulty radiators. Upon receipt of the evidence, it should determine whether it would be appropriate to offer compensation then write back to the resident to inform her of its decision.