Home Group Limited (202008075)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202008075

Home Group Limited

1 June 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

The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the condition of her neighbour’s garden and foxes gaining access into her garden.

Background

The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, which is a housing association. The property is a house.
Since 2020 the resident has experienced ongoing issues with the condition of her neighbour’s garden, which has resulted in overhanging tress and pests gaining access to her garden and causing damage. The resident had also experienced issues with noise nuisance from other residents holding parties and was dissatisfied with the condition of a window in her property.
On 11 August 2022, the resident contacted this Service to state her dissatisfaction with how the landlord had handled these issues. This Service passed on the resident concerns to the landlord on 12 August 2022. The landlord called the resident on 26 August 2022 to discuss the elements of her complaint, which were described by the landlord as:
1. There being parties on the estate every week playing loud music, the resident was not sure which households the noise nuisance was coming from. She had reported the matter to the local authority, but it was unable to take any action.
2. A window in the property was recently replaced which was extremely difficult to open.
3. Her neighbour’s garden was in a very poor condition. This had resulted in foxes gaining access to her garden and causing damage. The resident also requested that the trees that were overhanging into her garden were cut back.
4. She had received a poor level of service from the landlord when she raised these issues with it.
The landlord sent a stage one complaint response to the resident on 2 September 2022, a stage two complaint response on 8 November 2022 and a follow-up to its stage two response on 24 November 2022. In its responses, the landlord:
1. Explained that it had sent a letter to all its residents to inform them that noise nuisance was not acceptable and a breach of the tenancy agreement. The landlord noted that during a follow-up telephone call with the resident it had explained how to report any further instances of noise nuisance. It also understood that since the letters were sent, the resident had not experienced any noise nuisance.
2. Confirmed that it had received an out-of-hours call from the resident on 17 July 2022 to report that her window had jammed. A routine repair was raised, and the window was inspected on 19 August 2022. An appointment was arranged for 23 August 2022, where it was determined further work was required. This was completed on 30 August 2022. The landlord noted that it took seven weeks from the when the matter was first reported for the work to be completed and explained that its current timescale for a routine repair was 12 weeks. It also apologised for the length of time it took for the matter to be resolved and the inconvenience caused to the resident in having to chase up the issue.
3. Stated that it first received a report from the resident about the condition of the neighbour’s garden in September 2020. The landlord inspected the garden in October 2020. It agreed that its condition was not acceptable and that it would work with the neighbour in order to rectify the matter. The landlord had experienced difficulties in making contact with the neighbour and had contacted outside agencies to provide support to the neighbour in managing their garden. Upon receipt of the resident’s complaint, the landlord took the decision to cut back the overhanging trees. The landlord explain that it had encountered further issues in gaining access to the neighbour’s property to commence the work and it thanked the resident for allowing access from her garden to start the cutting back of the trees on 14 November 2022. It informed the resident that its housing manager would keep the resident updated on the progress of the work.
4. Explained that an inspection in October 2020 of the estate had found evidence of foxes. However, an inspection on 17 November 2022 had found no evidence the foxes were entering the resident’s garden from the neighbour’s garden. The landlord explained that the estate had numerous greenspaces and bushes that could be the location of fox dens and that dens had several different entry and exit points. It confirmed that it had asked the local authority to contact the resident to discuss the issue further and that it would work with the local authority to identify the location of the fox den. The landlord then noted that while the pest control of foxes is not normally its responsibility to manage, it apologised for not informing the resident of this policy sooner and contacting the local authority to report the issue.
5. Offered he resident £315 compensation, which it broke down as:
  1. £55 for the disruption caused to the resident due to the time taken to repair the window.
  2. £55 for the time and effort taken by the resident in requesting updates on the status of the window repair.
  3. £75 for the delays in providing complaint responses and the inconvenience caused to the resident in having to contact this Service to open a complaint.
  4. £75 for the time and effort taken by the resident in pursuing the condition of her neighbour’s garden.
  5. £55 for the time it took for the landlord to address the issues of foxes entering the resident’s garden.
In referring the case to this Service, the resident stated that the outstanding issue of the complaint was that she was still concerned with the condition of the neighbour’s garden and whether the landlord was properly engaging with her neighbour in order to fully resolve the matter.

Assessment and findings

Relevant policies and procedures.

Section 3 of the tenancy agreement sets out the tenant’s obligations. Section 3.3 states that the tenant agrees “to keep the Premises in good repair and condition”.
The landlord’s complaints policy states that it will consider offering a complainant discretionary compensation in circumstances where it had accepted mistakes have been made and the complainant had not received the expected level of service.

How the landlord responded to her reports of the condition of her neighbour’s garden and foxes gaining access into her garden.

Once the resident had informed the landlord of her concerns relating to noise nuisance, the condition of the window and the condition of her neighbour’s garden; the landlord had a duty to respond to the matter in line with the obligations set out in the tenancy agreement and its published policies and procedures. The landlord has recognised that there were failures in how it responded to these issues. It has accepted that there were delays and poor communication during the window repair and that it should have explained the responsibilities it had for pest control to the resident in a more timely manner. Therefore, it was appropriate for the landlord to apologise to the resident, offer compensation and explain what steps it had taken to improve its service. This position is also in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes.
The landlord acted fairly in acknowledging its mistakes and apologising to the resident. It looked to put things right by working with the local authority to locate the source of the foxes and offering £315 compensation. It looked to learn from its mistakes by appointing a single point-of-contact to keep the resident updated on the progress of the work to the neighbour’s garden and the foxes.
It was appropriate, and in line with the guidance set out in its complaints policy detailed above, for the landlord to compensate the resident for its admitted service failures and the inconvenience that this had caused. The Ombudsman’s own remedies guidance (which is available on our website) recommends a payment of £100 to £600 in cases of considerable service failure or maladministration. This includes distress and inconvenience, time and trouble, disappointment, loss of confidence, and delays in getting matters resolved. Therefore, the landlord’s overall compensation payment of £325 in recognition of the delays in its service, the poor communication the resident received, and the inconvenience caused to the resident in having to raise a complaint to get these matters resolved was reasonable in the circumstances. The measures taken by the landlord to redress what went wrong were proportionate to the impact that its failures had on the resident.
The resident has highlighted concerns as to whether the landlord had been properly engaging with the neighbour over the condition of her garden. As part of the evidence, it provided for this case, the landlord sent correspondence between it and the neighbour between September 2020 and November 2022. It also provides copies of work orders and inspections relating to the neighbour’s garden. The Ombudsman is unable to share detailed information on other residents’ properties or circumstances, as we cannot share other residents’ personal information without their consent. However, based on the information we have seen, we are satisfied that the landlord has been taking reasonable steps to address the condition of the garden to ensure the neighbour is in compliance with the relevant clauses of the tenancy agreement.
During a telephone conversation with this Service on 11 August 2022, the resident described herself as disabled and gave information on her medical conditions. When providing evidence for this case, the landlord stated that it had no vulnerabilities recorded for the resident. Therefore, it is recommended that the landlord contact the resident to ensure its records are up to date in regard to her medical conditions and that any vulnerabilities are correctly flagged on its system.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord made a reasonable offer of redress in respect of its response to the resident’s concerns about the condition of her neighbour’s garden and foxes gaining access into her.

Recommendations

As the finding of reasonable redress was made on the basis of the landlord’s offer of £315 compensation, it is recommended that the landlord now pays this to the resident if it has not done so already.
It is further recommended that the landlord contact the resident to ensure its records are up to date in regard to her medical conditions and that any vulnerabilities are correctly flagged on its system.
The landlord should review actions it can take to minimise the presence of the foxes by ensuring other resident’s are disposing of rubbish correctly, the grounds are maintained efficiently, and gardens which are overgrown are managed.
The landlord should complete the maintenance works on the neighbour’s garden. If unable to complete the works within four weeks, the landlord shall provide a reasonable timeframe of when the works will be completed and the reasons for this delay to the resident.
The landlord should consider a complaint around the delay in completing the work to the garden since November 2022 and the housing manager failing to provide an update to the resident, consider whether compensation is due to the resident for the inconvenience caused.