Clarion Housing Association Limited (202127553)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202127553

Clarion Housing Association Limited

03 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

  1. The complaint concerns the landlord’s response to the resident about:
    1. The cleaning of the communal areas.
    2. The rent and service charges increase.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of a flat in a communal building with shared walkways, stairways and landings.
  2. The landlord’s cleaning contractor services the communal areas. The residents pay a service charge, a portion of which covers the communal cleaning.
  3. The resident made previous reports in August 2020 and October 2021 about the communal gardens requiring attention, the standard of cleaning to the communal areas, and the frequency of the cleaning taking place. The landlord followed these up with the relevant team and confirmed it would address this.
  4. On 15 February 2022, the landlord wrote to the resident to inform her of its intention to increase the rent and service charges. The resident contacted the landlord on 25 February 2022 to say she did not agree with the new amount, as the standard of cleaning was not acceptable and did not justify such an increase. The landlord responded on 4 March 2022 that the query had been passed on. The resident chased a response on 9 March 2022, and as she did not receive a response, contacted this Service on 16 March 2022. The resident said that she had not received any substantial responses from the landlord, just a letter asking her to be patient. She was disputing the cleaning element of the service charge increase and does not want to pay this. She said that she was unhappy with the standard and frequency of cleaning taking place. The Ombudsman passed the details to the landlord which raised a stage one complaint on 16 March 2022.
  5. The landlord issued its stage one response on 12 April 2022. It apologised for the delay in responding to the resident.  It explained the calculations for the rent and service charge increase and listed the other services covered by the service charges. It said it was unable to introduce the increase gradually but signposted the resident to a team to see if they could offer financial advice. It said that the last cleaning inspection was on 18 March 2022 and this was found to be acceptable. The landlord did not uphold the complaint and deemed the increase in service charges to be reasonable.
  6. The resident was unhappy with the response and requested an escalation of the complaint on 20 April 2022. The landlord conducted a joint inspection, with the resident present, on 20 May 2022 where the communal cleaning was deemed overall acceptable, although some issues were identified and the landlord raised the frequency of the cleaning from fortnightly to weekly. It issued its final response on 1 June 2022 where it apologised for the delay in responding and offered £100 compensation, comprising £50 for the response being delayed and £50 for the resident having to chase responses from the landlord. It said that the resident’s complaint escalation request had not been logged correctly and steps would be taken to avoid this happening again.
  7. The resident brought her complaint to this Service on 1 October 2022 as she remains dissatisfied with the standard of cleaning of the communal areas and does not want to pay the increased service charge.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The Housing Ombudsman’s approach to investigating complaints is set out in the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). Under Paragraph 42(e) of the Scheme, the Ombudsman will not investigate matters relating to the level of rent or service charges, or the increases of these. The appropriate body that has jurisdiction to consider such complaints is the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber – Residential Property), who the resident has the option to contact. The Ombudsman can assess whether the landlord has followed proper procedure, followed good practice, and behaved reasonably, taking account of all the circumstances of the case.

The landlord’s response to the resident about the cleaning of the communal areas

  1. The landlord has an obligation under its Neighbourhood Management Policy to ensure communal areas including stairs, hallways, passages and lifts are well maintained, therefore it is reasonable that the resident would expect cleaning of the communal areas to be completed regularly and to an adequate standard. The landlord responded to the resident’s concerns by conducting a joint inspection with her and identified some issues with blown plasterwork, grime, cobwebs and condensation. The landlord arranged for a contractor to repair the plasterwork, and increased the frequency of cleaning visits from fortnightly to weekly as a result of this. The landlord has supplied the Ombudsman with cleaning logs which shows it carried out inspections and monitoring of the communal service.
  2. The above demonstrates that the landlord responded to the resident’s concerns about the cleaning in an appropriate way, and in line with what the Ombudsman would expect to see. It took appropriate action by carrying out a first-hand inspection of the resident’s concerns, took appropriate steps to address identified issues, and made adjustments in its service.

The landlord’s response to the resident about the rent and service charges increase.

  1. The tenancy agreement between the parties states that the service charge is variable and the landlord must notify the resident of any increases in service charge 28 days in advance. The tenancy agreement also enables the landlord to increase the net rent by serving a notice on the resident proposing the new net rent. The evidence shows that the landlord notified the resident of the increase in rent in line with its obligations, and therefore communicated this in an appropriate way.
  2. The resident had to chase responses and it is reasonable for the resident to expect the landlord to issue a response to her query in a timely fashion, without the need for her to chase. The landlord acknowledged the delay and apologised for this in its stage one reply.
  3. In the landlord’s stage one reply it fully explained the calculations for the increases and said that it deemed the increased amount to be reasonable. It also said that the rent increase was in line with inflation. It explained that it would be unable to introduce the increase gradually but signposted the resident to a team for financial advice.
  4. When the resident remained dissatisfied with the response she escalated her complaint. There was a delay in the landlord responding to this request, with the resident requesting the escalation on 20 April 2022, a joint site inspection being completed on 20 May 2022, and the final response being issued 1 June 2022. The landlord acknowledged and apologised for this, offered £100 compensation, and said that as this was due to the escalation request not being logged correctly it had sent a reminder to all staff to avoid this happening again.
  5. In the Ombudsman’s opinion, while there were some delays responding to the resident, the landlord’s handling of the rent and service charges increase was in line with its obligations, and it provided appropriate acknowledgement and redress for any issues with its response to the resident. This leads this Service to find no maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the rent and service charges increase.
  6. If the resident remains dissatisfied with the level of rent and service charge she is required to pay, only a legal procedure (the Tribunal) can offer a definitive and legally binding decision on the appropriate level and amount, as explained above.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its response to the resident about the cleaning of the communal areas.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its response to the resident about the rent and service charges increase.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord pay the resident £100 compensation offered previously if it has not already done so.