Newlon Housing Trust (202301134)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202301134

Newlon Housing Trust

14 June 2024

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

The complaint is about:
1. The landlord’s handling of the reports of emergency repairs due to lack of heating and hot water at the property.
2. The landlord’s handling of a complaint about an out of hours call to its repairs service.

Background

The resident holds an assured tenancy with the landlord. The landlord has confirmed that the resident’s records show that vulnerabilities are recorded on its systems for her.
On 6 December 2022 the resident contacted the landlord and reported that she had no heating and hot water. The contractor attended on 7 December 2022 and completed the appropriate repair.
On 17 January 2023 the landlord attended the resident’s property and carried out an annual gas service. A gas leak was identified and the resident’s gas supply was capped.
On 18 January 2023 the resident contacted the landlord and reported no heating and hot water. The landlord emailed its contractor and confirmed that it had approved a quote for a new boiler to be installed and asked it to contact the resident and book this in.
On 19 January 2023 the resident contacted the landlord for an update as she had been without hot water for 24 hours and the contractor had not attended. On the same day, an order was raised for the contractor to attend and try to remedy the issue.
On 23 January 2023 the landlord emailed its contractor. The landlord said that the tenant was vulnerable and had no heating or hot water since last week after the engineer capped the gas. It said that it had left 3 temporary heaters and that the immersion system would provide hot water. It asked the contractor to attend urgently as the 3 heaters were not enough to heat the large house.
On 23 January 2023, the contractor attended carried out a survey for the boiler replacement. On 24 January 2023 the boiler was replaced.
On 26 January 2023 the resident raised a stage 1 complaint. The resident said that she had a disabled person at home and was unhappy with the landlord’s response to repairs. The resident said that she was dissatisfied with the way in which her calls were handled by the out of hours repairs team and that she still had no hot water.
On 26 January 2023 the landlord raised a repair as the resident was unable to turn off the heating and the water was only lukewarm.
On 7 February 2023 the resident emailed the landlord and said that her disabled child had missed a week of school due to being ill and that this was as a result of the cold house.
On 14 February 2023 the landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response. The landlord said:
1. It does provide an enhanced priority service for vulnerable residents and repairs are attended to within 24 hours.
2. Its repair records were unclear and could only see that 2 repairs were attended to on its systems, but the contractor’s systems logged that the repairs were completed.
3. As the phone call had been dealt with outside of the landlord’s standard hours of 8am until 5pm, it concluded that the call had been dealt with by its contractor and had passed on the details to the staff who manage the contract. It would feedback any outcome to the resident.
On 17 February 2023 the resident escalated her complaint. The resident said that she was not happy that her complaint had been passed to the contractor, as ultimately the landlord should be responsible for the contractor’s conduct. She further explained that she was dissatisfied that the landlord did not operate the out of hours repair service and should be open past 5pm.
On 20 March 2023 the landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response. The landlord said that:
1. The stage 1 complaint investigation correctly identified and addressed the resident’s complaint.
2. It did have an emergency provision and that it apologised if the stage 1 response caused confusion.
3. The issues had been raised with the contractor and additional training would be given to staff where applicable.
On 29 June 2023 the resident contacted the Ombudsman. The resident said that the landlord had not always attended within 24 hours and that a repair reported at night should be considered an emergency. In order to resolve her complaint, the resident wanted compensation for the delays.
Following the Ombudsman’s contact, in September 2023 the landlord conducted a review of the way it handled the resident’s complaint. On 19 September 2023 the landlord wrote to resident and said that:
1. It was unable to listen to the phone calls made in January 2023, as they were only kept for 30 days.
2. The resident’s complaint had not been adequately investigated at stage 1.
3. If a resident is vulnerable, the contractor was expected to attend within 24 hours if there was a total loss of heating and hot water during October to May.
4. It offered a £25 shopping voucher.
On 2 November 2023 the landlord wrote to the resident and said that it had been unable to confirm whether the resident was supplied with temporary heating and therefore, further reviewed the compensation and offered an additional £45.

Assessment and findings

The Ombudsman’s approach.

The Ombudsman’s role is to determine complaints by reference to what is fair in all the circumstances and decide if the landlord is responsible for maladministration or service failure.
When investigating a complaint, the Ombudsman applies its dispute resolution principles. These are high level good practice guidance developed from the Ombudsman’s experience of resolving disputes, for use by everyone involved in the complaints process. There are only three principles driving effective dispute resolution:
1. Be fair – treat people fairly and follow fair processes.
2. Put things right, and
3. Learn from outcomes.
The Ombudsman must first consider whether a failing on the part of the landlord occurred and, if so, whether this led to any adverse effect or detriment to the resident. If it is found that a failing did lead to an adverse effect, the investigation will then consider whether the landlord has taken enough action to ‘put things right’ and ‘learn from outcomes’.

Scope of investigation.

As part of her complaint, the resident has said that her child’s health was affected by the lack of heating and hot water, which resulted in the child having to take time off school. The Ombudsman acknowledges that the resident reported this to the landlord and this situation would have been distressing for her and her family. However, it is outside the Service’s remit to establish whether there was a direct link between the landlord’s actions or inaction and the specific health conditions of the resident’s child. Matters of liability for damage to health are better suited to a court or liability insurance process to determine. This is in line with 42f of the Scheme which says the Ombudsman may not consider matters where the Ombudsman considers it quicker, fairer, more reasonable, or more effective to seek a remedy through the courts, other tribunal or procedure. The Ombudsman has considered any distress and inconvenience the resident and her family experienced as a result of errors by the landlord as well as the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about her family’s health.

Policies and procedures.

The landlord’s vulnerability policy, dated 2021, states that the term vulnerable covers a fairly wide spectrum of residents and services should be tailored appropriately to meet their needs, as one size does not fit all. It further confirms that those with serious physical disabilities are eligible for priority heating and hot water repairs.
Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 places a legal duty on landlords to make full, effective and lasting repairs once it is given notice of disrepair. They must keep in repair and working order, the installations for the supply of gas and electricity, water and sanitation and space heating and heating water. The resident’s tenancy agreement and the landlord’s repair policy also reflect these obligations.
The landlord’s repair policy further states that where there is a vulnerability flag on its in-house system, an enhanced repairs service should be provided. This includes heating repairs, which it aims to complete within 24 hours. It says that any repairs occurring outside of office hours should be reported by the resident directly to the out of hours contractors. The contractor should then advise the landlord by 10 a.m. the next day of what works were completed and what needs to happen next.
The landlord’s complaint policy states that it operates a 2-stage process, where stage 1 complaint will be acknowledged within 5 working days and responded to within 10 working days. Stage 2 complaints will be acknowledged within 2 working days and responded to within 20 working days.
The landlord’s compensation policy states that if there has been a loss of amenity, such as heating and hot water, compensation will be paid after 24 hours at a rate of £30 per week for a 4-bedroom house and an extra £10 – £15 for vulnerable residents. An exception is where a new boiler is required, this would only be paid if this takes more than 7 days.
It also pays compensation for distress and inconvenience at different rates, dependant on impact.

The landlord’s handling of the reports of emergency repairs due to lack of heating and hot water at the property.

The resident says that she is dissatisfied that the landlord does not operate an emergency repair response throughout the night and should attend sooner than 24 hours.
The landlord has confirmed that as the resident has vulnerable members within her property, she is eligible for an enhanced repairs service. This means that when the resident reports that she has no heating or hot water, landlord will attend her property within 24 hours of it being reported.
The Ombudsman acknowledges that when issues arise affecting heating and hot water throughout the night, it can cause distress to residents within the property. Also having to wait until the morning for an operative to attend, can cause additional inconvenience. However, it is reasonable for the landlord to operate its out of hours service in this way, providing there is a clear and effective process in passing information between the contractor and landlord.
When the Ombudsman is investigating a complaint of any category, the Service asks the landlord to provide full and comprehensive records to evidence what has happened. The Ombudsman asks the landlord to provide information such as copies of repair logs, contractor worksheets, copies of phone logs and any other relevant correspondence.
It is of concern that the landlord has not been able to provide full repair records to this investigation, including its gas safety inspections and records relating to the gas being turned off, which would evidence its position as detailed within its complaint responses. As the landlord has not been able to evidence this, it has not shown that it followed the correct process as set out in its complaint responses.
The Ombudsman’s spotlight report on knowledge and information management states that “good knowledge and information management is crucial to any organisation’s ability to perform and achieve its mission.
The evidence provided does suggest that the resident was without a working boiler following the annual gas safety check, on 17 January 2023. The evidence further suggests that the resident was left with 3 temporary heaters and was informed that she should use her immersion heater for hot water. The landlord has said that a new boiler was fitted on 24 January 2023. Based on this information, the resident was without a boiler for 7 days. The Ombudsman acknowledges that this would have caused the resident and her family inconvenience, however the landlord acted reasonably by providing her with temporary heating and hot water. A new boiler was also fitted within a small timeframe, meaning the impact on the resident was limited. It can take time to arrange a new boiler and this would not typically be carried out within the 24 hour timeframe for emergency repairs. An inspection should be carried out within 24 hours with temporary heaters and hot water provided within this timeframe if the boiler cannot be repaired, but the new boiler could be fitted at a later date
However, the evidence does suggest that the decision to replace the boiler was not effectively communicated to the resident. The resident contacted the landlord on both 18 and 19 January 2023 to report issues with her heating and hot water and internal emails were sent to the contractor asking it to attend and remedy. As the resident was eligible for an enhanced repairs service, it would have been reasonable for her to assume that the contractor would attend within 24 hours. The landlord should have informed the resident that it could not take any further action until a new boiler was fitted and that it could provide further heaters if required. There is no evidence to show that this happened, and this was a failing. The lack of information caused the resident unnecessary frustration and distress as the evidence suggests that she did not know what was happening after her gas supply had been capped.
In relation to the failure identified, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether the redress offered by the landlord put things right and resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances. In considering this the Ombudsman takes into account whether the landlord’s offer of redress was in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: Be Fair, Put Things Right and Learn from Outcomes as well as our own guidance on remedies (published on our website).
The landlord’s compensation policy states that it will up to £250 for service failures that had a short duration. In line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance, which can be found on the website, where there has been a failure which adversely affected the resident and the landlord has made no attempt to put things right, payments of over £100 are appropriate.
The landlord offered the resident a £45 compensation as part of its review in September 2023, as it could not identify that it had provided temporary heater. Whilst it is positive that the landlord has attempted to put things right for the resident, it should have made the full offer of redress as part of its internal complaints procedure rather than afterwards.
Additionally, the landlord failed to acknowledge that it failed to communicate effectively and caused the resident unnecessary distress and inconvenience. The resident informed the landlord that she had vulnerable members within her household and it should have taken steps to fully respond to the resident with the steps it was taking and offer further support, if necessary. In recognition of this, the landlord is ordered to pay the resident £200 compensation for distress and inconvenience, this is in addition to the £45 it offered in September 2023.

The landlord’s handling of the complaint about an out of hours call to its repairs service

As part of the stage 1 complaint, the resident explained that she was dissatisfied with the way her phone call was handled by a staff member when she rang to report an issue with her heating and hot water in the middle of the night. The resident said that she was given different information by different call handlers and felt that the staff did not take into account her individual circumstances, namely that her child was disabled.
The Ombudsman is unable to determine whether the conduct of the staff on the out of hours call was reasonable because we have not been provided with a recording of the phone call. However, we can determine whether the landlord took appropriate steps to address the resident’s complaint and if its investigation was fair.
When the resident made a complaint about staff conduct, the Ombudsman would expect to see evidence that the landlord obtained all relevant information from its internal systems and spoke to the staff involved to assist with forming a detailed and thorough response.
In this case, the landlord employs a contractor to handle its out of hours calls. There is evidence to show that the investigating complaint officer contacted the relevant departments to make enquires and correctly identified that it should either check the recording of the calls or contact the resident to address her concerns. There is no evidence to show that these actions were completed and the landlord wrote to the resident and detailed the out of hours service functions and that it had passed on her concerns to the contractor. Although the landlord was entitled to pass on the resident’s concerns, there is no evidence to show that it monitored this or provided the resident with any feedback.
It was not until the Ombudsman contacted the landlord that it reviewed the way in which the resident’s complaint had been investigated. The landlord identified that the relevant phone calls had been deleted, and that her complaint had not been adequately investigated. In order to put things right, it offered a £25 shopping voucher.
The landlord’s compensation policy states that it will pay compensation for unquantifiable costs of up to £250 for service failures that are of a short duration and may not have significantly affected the overall outcome on for the complainant. It further states that sometimes there are aggravating factors which also need to be taken into considerations. Based on this, the landlord’s offer was not fair or proportionate in the circumstances.
In line with the Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies, as referenced above, the landlord is ordered to pay the resident £175 compensation. This is in addition to the £25 voucher the landlord offered previously, which should also be provided to the resident if this has not already been done.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in relation the handling of the reports of emergency repairs due to lack of heating and hot water at the property.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in relation the landlord’s complaint handling about an out of hours call to its repairs service.

Orders

The landlord is ordered to write to the resident and apologise for the failures identified within this report within 4 weeks of the date of the determination.
The landlord is ordered to pay the resident a total of £345 made up of:
1. £70 offered in September 2023.
2. £200 compensation in relation to the failures identified with reports of no heating and hot water.
3. £175 compensation in relation to the complaint handling failings.

Recommendations

It is also recommended that the landlord review its record keeping practices in relation to inspections and repairs, including in light of the findings of this report and the Ombudsman’s spotlight report on knowledge and information management.
It is also recommended that the landlord review its systems to ensure any information is up to date and matches that of its contractors.