Clarion Housing Association Limited (202227434)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202227434

Clarion Housing Association Limited

22 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 resident’s reports of a leak within her property and the compensation amount offered.

Background

2. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. She resides alone in a 2 bed, 4th floor flat. The resident has informed this service that she is elderly and has several medical conditions.
3. On 22 August 2022 the resident reported a leak inside a cupboard containing the water heater, she informed the landlord that she didn’t know exactly where the leak was coming from, but it was getting progressively worse, and she could see a mark on the ceiling. At the time of the call the landlord logged the repair as an emergency and flagged the resident as vulnerable.
4. From the evidence available to this Service, we are unable to definitively say what date the landlord attended, however, the resident informs us that this was ‘early’ September 2022. The landlord was unable to repair the leak during this visit and again during a subsequent visit on 13 September 2022.
5. Due to the ill health of a family member the resident had to go away on 23 September 2022, she was anxious about the leak getting worse so made arrangements with the landlord to turn off the water supply. When she returned on 10 October 2022, the water was reinstated and the resident contacted the landlord immediately to try and arrange the repair, she was told that she would receive an update within 24 hours which didn’t happen.
6. Approximately four weeks later, on 4 November 2022 the resident complained to the landlord about the delays. She stated that she felt ‘let down’ and that the situation was causing her anxiety. She informed the landlord of her existing health conditions and advised that she was often required to travel to Devon to care for her grandchild given her son’s illness.
7. The landlord attended on 11 November 2022 to assess the leak, after receiving no further update the resident chased again on 16 November 2022.
8. In the landlord’s stage 1 response on 17 November 2022, it acknowledged that a service failure had occurred. It went on to explain that the delay had been due to the unique configuration of the pipe work which had resulted in difficulty finding an appropriate contractor. In recognition of this service failure the landlord offered £200 compensation. The resident did not feel this appropriate and requested escalation to stage 2.
9. Despite informing the landlord of the dates she would be unavailable, the resident received an appointment for 7 December 2022. As a result, she changed her travel plans accordingly and waited in to allow access, this appointment was then re-arranged by the landlord for the following day. The landlord states that the resident was not available for this appointment which she disputes.
10. The resident was unavailable between 12 December 2022 – 10 January 2023, upon her return an appointment was made for 19 January 2023 with the help of the site caretaker. The leak was repaired during this appointment.
11. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 31 January 2023 in which it upheld the compensation offered at stage 1. In addition, the landlord went on to address subsequent complaints about damp, mould and flying mites by arranging for follow on inspections. The landlord explained that it would not compensate for stress or anxiety, nor would it compensate for carpets, instead it appropriately directed the resident to the relevant insurance providers.
12. The resident contacted the Ombudsman in February 2023 stating that she was unhappy with length of time it had taken to resolve the leak and the compensation amount offered. The resident is seeking an apology from the landlord and higher compensation.

Assessment and findings

13. The landlord’s repair policy defines an emergency repair as one that presents an immediate danger to the resident, the public or the property or would jeopardise the health, safety or security of the resident. If a repair is categorised as an emergency, attendance should be within 24 hours in order to make safe or carry out a temporary repair. The landlord’s repair logs show that this was categorised as an emergency, therefore, by not attending until ‘early’ September it failed to follow its own policy and procedure or take into consideration the resident’s vulnerabilities.
14. Almost twelve weeks elapsed between the resident’s initial report and a suitable contractor assessing the leak on 11 November 2022. While it is not unreasonable that unforeseen challenges can occur, this was a significant amount of time. It is reasonable to conclude that this delay would have caused detriment to the resident and potentially avoidable damage to the property.
15. From the evidence seen by this Service the resident was repeatedly told that someone would contact her within ’24 hours’ but this did not happen. The poor communication demonstrated by the landlord caused further frustration and inconvenience to the resident.
16. The landlord’s compensation policy states that it recognises that on occasions mistakes will occur, when this happens it will say sorry and work with the resident and contractors to put things right. In some situations, it may be appropriate to offer compensation where a resident has incurred out of pocket expenses or unnecessary inconvenience. The policy expands on this by detailing 3 brackets of awards:
    1. service failure.
    2. considerable failure.
    3. significant failure.
17. The compensation amount offered by the landlord at stage 1 was in recognition of the inconvenience caused, the resident’s vulnerabilities, time and trouble and the landlord’s failure to follow policy. This award was in line with the landlord’s compensation policy for a service failure. The compensation amount was upheld during the stage 2 review, despite a further 2 months passing without the issue being resolved.
18. The Ombudsman acknowledges that the resident’s personal circumstances required her to travel to visit her son, which amounted to 18 working days, accounting for the Christmas period where the resident was unavailable. Despite this, the landlord was made aware of these dates and missed the opportunity to resolve the matter within a reasonable timeframe.
19. Overall, it took 86 working days for the landlord to rectify the leak, taking into account the time the resident was unavailable, this was an unacceptable delay despite the mitigating factors. The landlord did acknowledge a failure and made attempts to put things right by offering compensation, this amount would have been reasonable had it not taken a further 2 months for the leak to be repaired. In addition, as a result of the delay the landlord confirmed that the property was now damp in several areas due to the humidity in the flat which has impacted the resident further.

Determination

20. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s report of a leak within her property.

Orders and recommendations

21. Within four weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Write to the resident and apologise for the failure identified in its handling of the leak.
    2. Pay the resident compensation totalling £500, reduced by any amount already paid in recognition of the distress and inconvenience caused by the delays to the repair. Compensation should be paid directly to the resident, and not offset against any arrears.