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A2Dominion Housing Group Limited (202127034)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202127034

A2Dominion Housing Group Limited

12 September 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 about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of damp and mould.

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident has made reports to the landlord since April 2018 about her windows contributing to damp and mould in her property. The Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that the Ombudsman will not consider complaints which were not made within a reasonable period after the events occurring; this would normally be within six months of the issue arising.
  2. As the resident’s complaint was made on 10 September 2021, usually events from March 2021 onwards would be considered, this being six months prior to the formal complaint being made. Discretion has been exercised in this investigation to consider events from November 2020 onwards because the resident raised her concerns about the damp and mould in property on 11 November 2020, so it is appropriate for the Ombudsman to consider the steps that were taken, given there was a 10 month period following this when no further reports were made.

Background

  1. The resident is the tenant of the landlord.
  2. On 11 November 2020, the resident reported to the landlord that all her double-glazed windows had condensation between the glass panes, which she attributed to the development of mould and damp in her property. Two appointments on 26 November and 21 December 2020 were unsuccessful as access could not be gained to the property. The landlord attended on 8 February 2021 and replaced three window panes, noting that three further panes needed replacement. The operative’s report noted that a surveyor’s inspection was needed.
  3. After reporting mould in the property to the landlord on 1 September 2021, the resident raised a stage one complaint with it on 10 September 2021 in which she said that she had experienced a problem with mould since first moving into the property. She relayed that the landlord had attended on a number of occasions in the past but had not remedied the mould problem, which required the replacement of the windows. The landlord’s stage one complaint response on 9 December 2021 noted that, since her complaint, it had attended to carry out a mould wash and a surveyor had inspected the property. It also noted that a follow up appointment due for 29 November 2021 was unsuccessful. It offered £185 compensation for the time taken and the inconvenience caused to her by the ongoing work.
  4. The resident subsequently escalated her complaint with the landlord and it issued a final response on 17 February 2022. In this, it said that the cause of the damp and mould was still undetermined. The landlord relayed that it had inspected her windows in January 2022 and found that all needed replacement. It suggested that the cause of the damp and mould was due to the windows being currently unopenable and therefore preventing ventilation of the property. The landlord confirmed it would be replacing all the windows and then carry out further investigation into the damp and mould. It offered her an additional £115 compensation for the time taken and its communication.
  5. The resident informed this Service on 3 May 2022 that the replacement windows had still yet to be installed and the damp and mould in the property persisted. On 27 June 2022, the landlord advised the Ombudsman that it was still to replace the windows and had since increased its total offer of compensation to the resident to £700.

Assessment and findings

  1. The tenancy agreement between the landlord and the resident confirmed that it was responsible for the repair and maintenance of the structure of the property; this includes the walls, ceilings and windows. It was also responsible for the repair and maintenance of any installations it had provided for supplying water, power and sanitation.
  2. When the resident reported to the landlord on 11 November 2020 that she was experiencing damp and mould because of the windows, it was appropriate for it to arrange an appointment as it was responsible for these repairs. The appointment for 26 November 2020 was within a reasonable timeframe for a non-emergency repair. This appointment and a subsequent appointment for 21 December 2020 were not attended due to being unable to gain access.
  3. The landlord eventually attended the property on 8 February 2021 where it replaced three window panes and found that three further panes required replacement. Its operative’s notes suggested that an inspection was required, but there is no evidence that the landlord carried out any further inspection of the property or completed work to the windows between this appointment and the resident reporting the issue again on 1 September 2021. It did, however, make an appointment to carry out a mould wash on 23 August 2021 which was refused by the resident. This was an unreasonable delay by the landlord; given that its own operative recommended an inspection, it was a failure on its part that it did not do so.
  4. After the resident raised her stage one complaint on 10 September 2021 the landlord responded promptly by arranging appointments to carry out a mould wash at the property. While the resident expressed dissatisfaction that the windows would not be assessed until after the mould washes had been completed, it was reasonable for the landlord to carry out the mould treatment as a priority, given that she had expressed concerns over her and her family’s health when reporting the damp and mould to the landlord. There were delays from the first mould treatment on 14 September 2021 and the completion of the work on 17 December 2021 due to not being able to gain access for one appointment and no adult being present during the second appointment. This delay cannot be attributed to the landlord as it was the resident’s responsibility to ensure that access was provided for work to be carried out.
  5. The windows were inspected by the landlord on 15 December 2021 and it found that a specialist opinion was required which led to an inspection of the windows sometime in January 2022. The opinion of the specialist was that all the windows required replacement. This was relayed to the resident in the landlord’s final complaint response on 17 February 2022. This response also stated that it could not provide a date for when the new windows would be fitted and that it presently could not confirm the exact cause of the damp and mould in the property. The landlord acknowledged that the matter had taken too long to rectify and that its communication could have been better. It offered the resident a total of £300 compensation in recognition of this. Since the final response, the landlord wrote to the resident again on 27 June 2022 to offer £700 compensation.
  6. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance provides for awards of compensation between £250 and £700 when there has been a considerable failure, such as a failure over a considerable period to time in act in accordance with policy – for example, to address repairs. There was an unreasonable delay between 8 February 2021, when the landlord noted that an inspection may be appropriate, and 1 September 2021 when the resident chased up repairs to her windows to tackle the damp and mould in the property. There was a further excessive delay between January 2022, when it was determined that the windows required replacement, and 27 June 2022, when it offered an updated amount of compensation to the resident. This was a delay in total of approximately 12 months when there was no evidence of the landlord keeping the resident updated with progress.
  7. Therefore, the landlord’s updated offer of £700 compensation was broadly in accordance with this Service’s remedies guidance which reasonably and proportionately recognised the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident by its delay. It is noted, however, that the new windows had not yet been installed at the time of the increased offer, with no set date for doing so and no definitive reason found for the damp and mould.
  8. The Ombudsman’s dispute resolution principles are to be fair, put things right, and to learn from outcomes. The compensation offered, while broadly in accordance with this Service’s guidance, did not alone ‘put right’ the failings in this case. The landlord, since 11 November 2020, did not carry out a specialist damp inspection and did not provide the resident with a clear timeframe for the installation of the windows. Therefore, there was no clear end to the likely distress and inconvenience experienced by the resident because of the reported damp and mould in the property. Furthermore, it did not demonstrate that it had ‘learnt from outcomes’ as there was no evidence of any communication with the resident to manage her expectations of when the windows and the damp and mould would be resolved. Considering the significant delay it exhibited in the management of the damp and mould, the landlord should write to the resident to confirm exactly when the windows will be replaced and provide a precise schedule of work to remedy the issues. Further compensation should then be considered from June 2022 until the windows are replaced.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its response to the resident’s reports of damp and mould.

Order

  1. Within 28 days, the landlord should:
    1. Write to the resident to detail when the windows will be installed, explain why this has taken so long and provide a detailed plan for how it will tackle the recurrent damp and mould reported in the property.
    2. Offer further compensation to cover the delay from June 2022 until the windows are replaced.

Recommendation

  1. The landlord should:
    1. Pay the resident the amount of £700 compensation it offered her in its revised final response, if it has not done so already.