Clarion Housing Association Limited (202210164)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202210164

Clarion Housing Association Limited

14 December 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 response to the request for an allocated disabled parking space.

Background

2. The resident has lived in the property as an assured tenant since March 2020. The resident has a blue badge parking permit issued by the local authority.
3. The property is in a block of flats. The landlord provides onsite parking, including spaces marked as parking for blue badge permit holders. The landlord has a contract with a parking enforcement company to manage misuse of parking spaces.
4. On 23 May 2022, the resident asked the landlord for an allocated parking space. He said spaces allocated for blue badge holders were being misused, and no action was being taken by the parking enforcement company.
5. On 8 July 2022, the resident complained that he had not received a response to his request for an allocated parking space. In its first complaint response on 12 September 2022, the landlord said individual blue badge parking spaces were not provided. Instead, there were 7 spaces allocated for blue badge holders. It said it would repaint the parking spaces to make them more visible and would send a letter to all residents reminding them about parking rules. It apologised for the delay in responding and offered £150 compensation for the delays and the resident having to chase updates.
6. The resident escalated his complaint on 21 September 2022. He said residents without a blue badge used parking spaces allocated to blue badge holders. He said the parking enforcement company did not act when vehicles parked without a permit. The resident repeated his request for an allocated parking space.
7. In its final response on 31 October 2022, the landlord said it was satisfied that enforcement action was taking place when vehicles parked incorrectly. It said planned work to repaint spaces on 1 October 2022 had not taken place because vehicles had not vacated the parking spaces. It said it had written to all residents and had re-arranged the work for 14 November 2022. It said there were sufficient blue badge spaces on a first come first serve basis and it would not be allocating a space to the resident.

Assessment and findings

8. The occupancy agreement between the landlord and resident sets out the landlord’s responsibilities and its obligations to the resident.
9. A copy of the occupancy agreement dated 11 March 2020, has been provided to this Service by the landlord. The occupancy agreement says that the resident agrees that he will not park without a valid permit. The agreement also says the landlord will work to reduce irresponsible parking. It says it may appoint a company to operate a parking scheme to ensure the effective control of parking spaces.
10. This Service has noted that there is no reference in the occupancy agreement to the allocation of individual parking spaces. Because of this, it is this Service’s view that the landlord does not have a general obligation to provide an allocated parking space to individual residents.
11. The Regulator of Social Housing Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard 2017 says landlords will demonstrate they understand the different needs of residents, including in relation to equality and additional support needs. Under the Equality Act 2010, a landlord has a duty to make reasonable adjustments for residents with a protected characteristic. This includes people with a disability.
12. This Service has noted that the resident was awarded a blue badge parking permit by the local authority in recognition of his disability. In its final response on 31 October 2022, the landlord said it made provision for blue badge holders by allocating 7 parking spaces. These were marked for use by authorised blue badge holders only. This is not disputed by the resident.
13. This Service has found that by providing spaces marked for the sole use of blue badge permit holders, the landlord has considered its responsibilities to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010. It has also demonstrated that it understands the different needs of residents as required by the Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard 2017. Because of this, the landlord has met its obligation to the resident and there is no need to provide an individual allocated parking space.
14. In its final response, the landlord said that it would repaint the spaces to make parking restrictions clearer and it would write to all residents to remind them of the parking rules. It is the view of this Service that these actions by the landlord were a reasonable response to the resident’s complaint.
15. In his complaint, the resident said that the landlord had not taken enforcement action against residents who parked in blue badge spaces without authorisation. In its final response, the landlord said it notified the parking enforcement company which vehicles were permitted to park in blue badge spaces. It said vehicles parked in those spaces without a blue badge would be issued with a parking ticket. The landlord said between 28 February 2021 and 13 October 2022, 661 parking tickets had been issued on the estate where the resident lives for a variety of parking violations. In an internal email dated 6 September 2023, seen by this Service, the landlord said it had issued 35 penalties in 2021, 68 in 2022, and 22 so far in 2023 to vehicles parked in blue badge spaces without a blue badge at the resident’s block of flats. Based on the evidence provided, this Service finds that the landlord carried out appropriate enforcement action.
16. This Service has found that the landlord acted reasonably when it refused an individual parking space. This is because the landlord was not under a general obligation to provide an allocated space, and it considered its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and the Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard 2017. In addition, the offer to repaint the parking spaces and write to all residents to remind them of the parking rules was reasonable in the circumstances. There is also evidence that the landlord took appropriate enforcement action. Because of this, this Service has found that there was no maladministration. However, the recent photographs the resident has provided indicate that there are issues in the car park that the landlord could take steps to try to address. I have therefore made recommendations to the landlord for further action to improve resident awareness and behaviour in the car park.
17. This Service has noted that there were delays in responding to the resident’s emails, phone calls, and the original complaint. The landlord acknowledged this in its first response and offered £150 compensation. This was reasonable in the circumstances.

Determination

18. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of its decision not to allocate a parking space.

Recommendations

19. It is recommended that the landlord writes to all residents to:

1. Remind them of the parking restrictions and the expectation with regard to displaying their blue badge.
2. Explain how important the use of blue badge holder bays are to disabled residents
3. Outline the potential enforcement action of misuse of the disabled bays.
4. Inform them that if they are a blue badge holder and have not already contacted the landlord about this, they should do so, to allow the landlord to consider if there are enough disabled parking spaces for all residents that require them.

20. It is recommended that the landlord provides the resident with an update on space 383 with regard to removing the disabled parking logo and drop bollard from this bay.
21. It is recommended that the landlord arranges for its housing officer to inspect the car park next time they visit the site and consider the option of leaving warning notices on vehicles that are not following the parking restrictions.
22. It is recommended that the landlord completes a review of the disabled bays in the car park to ensure that spaces reserved for blue badge holders are clearly designated with both road markings and a vertical sign.