Abri Group Limited (202230217)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202230217

Abri Group Limited

5 March 2024

Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of damp and mould in the resident’s property.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

2. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, and throughout our process, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
3. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is no longer within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

4. The resident has been an assured tenant of the landlord since March 2010 and has reported damp and mould in the property since 2017.
5. In October 2022 the resident made a complaint to the landlord about the length of time it had taken to address the damp and mould. The landlord provided a stage 1 response the following month. The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 in December 2022 and the landlord provided its final response on 1 June 2023. The following day the resident escalated her complaint to this Service.
6. In January 2024 the landlord made a legal claim for an injunction to gain access to the resident’s property to carry out repair works to address the damp and mould. In response to this, in February 2024, the resident’s solicitor notified the court that the resident was contesting the claim and counter-claiming against the landlord for damages for the disrepair and personal injury caused by the disrepair. Within the evidence submitted to the Court, the resident has referred to the damp and mould as being the source of the disrepair.

Reasons

7. Paragraph 53(a) of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may determine the investigation of a complaint immediately if satisfied that the complaint is no longer within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
8. When the resident escalated her complaint to this Service in June 2023, it fell within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman to consider and was duly progressed for investigation. Following a period of collecting evidence and waiting for the case to be allocated to an Adjudicator, the investigation began in February 2024.
9. However, as the resident has recently made a claim against the landlord in respect of the disrepair, namely the damp and mould, this matter will no longer be considered by the Ombudsman. This is in accordance with paragraph 42(e) of the Scheme, which says the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which concern matters that are the subject of court proceedings, where the resident has the opportunity to raise the subject matter of the complaint as part of those proceedings.
10. While the landlord initiated the legal proceedings, the resident has chosen to submit a counter-claim, as part of which she will have the opportunity to raise her concerns about the conditions within the property, the landlord’s repairs service, and the impact of this on her. As the court will be considering those matters in due course, there is no benefit to the Ombudsman also investigating the same issues.
11. Therefore, in accordance with paragraph 53(a) of the Scheme, the complaint about the landlord’s handling of damp and mould in the resident’s property is no longer within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman, and will not be investigated further.