London Borough of Hillingdon (202226669)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202226669

London Borough of Hillingdon

24 September 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

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of reports of issues with the communal security gate.

Background

  1. The resident holds a secure tenancy. The property is a 2-bed maisonette.
  2. On 22 September 2022, the resident informed the landlord that the communal security gate was very noisy and not closing properly. The resident contacted the landlord around 5 times between 1 December 2022 and 6 February 2023. He reported intermittent issues with the gate slamming and not closing properly.
  3. The resident made a complaint to the landlord on 6 February 2023. He said the issues with the communal gate were still ongoing and no one had contacted him or visited the property to explain what was going to be done to resolve the issues. He said his property and belongings were vulnerable.
  4. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint on 6 February 2023 and issued its stage 1 complaint response on 13 February 2023. It said:
    1. That its officers met with the resident to agree on a solution to the issue.
    2. The short-term solution was to minimise the use of the gate by disconnecting fob entry access.
    3. A long-term solution was for a new soft closer to be ordered as the current closer was constantly being damaged.
    4. It had already ordered the new soft closer and once the part arrived the repair would be scheduled as urgent.
    5. Following completion of the repair, it would reintroduce fob readers so all residents would have their access restored.
    6. It said while it awaited delivery of the new soft closer, its contractors had continued to attend any call outs and repaired the existing gate.
  5. The resident escalated his complaint on 6 March 2023. He said the communal security gate was still not closing and his safety and belongings were at risk. He said he had not received any communication from the landlord and he wanted a permanent solution.
  6. The landlord provided a stage 2 complaint response on 7 March 2023 It said:
    1. It understood the resident’s annoyance at the gate slamming shut and his concerns about the gate being unsecured when it was not fully closed.
    2. It explained that the issue was caused by the soft closer not working properly.
    3. To address these issues, it replaced the soft closer on the gate and the fob access reader was left disabled to minimise the gate use to egress only.
    4. Following the completion of these work and in response to further complaints about the gate not shutting properly, its contractors returned to the property and confirmed that the gate operated as it should ‘9 out of 10 times’.
    5. On the rare occasions that the gate did not close properly this was due to external influences and unnatural occasions such as holding the gate for prolonged periods, which resulted in the occasional stop short action.
    6. On these occasions where the soft closer was affected and it stopped short of closing the gate, it did not think it was unreasonable for residents to close doors and gates after use to ensure they were kept secure.
    7. It was satisfied that the gate was functioning correctly when it was used under normal circumstance. It had supporting video evidence provided by its contractors who attended the property.
    8. It said no further works were required, however if the soft closer malfunctioned or if the noise returned the resident should report these issues to its repairs team.
  7. The resident contacted this Service as he felt the landlord had not done enough to resolve the issues with communal security gate. He said he was still experiencing intermittent issues with the gate slamming and not shutting properly and was unhappy about having to manually pull the gate shut himself. The complaint became one this Service could investigate on 24 January 2024.

Scope of the investigation

  1. The resident stated that he has experienced issues with the communal security gate since 2021. Under Paragraph 42(c) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, we may not consider complaints that were not brought to the attention of the landlord as a formal complaint within a reasonable period. At the time the resident raised his formal complaint, for which the landlord issued its final response before 1 April 2024, the Scheme referred to the ‘reasonable period’ as being within 6 months. Therefore, whilst the historical incidents provide contextual background to the current complaint, this assessment focuses on events from 22 September 2022 to 7 March 2023 when the landlord issued its stage 2 response.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states:
    1. That it is responsible for the repair and maintenance of communal metal gates.
    2. It would priorities every responsive repair depending on its urgency and allocate a target for the maximum time the repair should take. It would try to complete the repair more quickly than the maximum timescale.
    3. The target timescales it applies are emergency 4 hours, urgent 1 working day, routine 20 working days and minor works (these are larger jobs that require more planning) 90 working days.
    4. A repair may require more than one visit because the job might be larger than anticipated or parts need to be ordered. In such situations, the resident would be informed of the reasons why the job cannot be completed and another appointment will be arranged.

The landlords handling of reports of issues with the communal security gate.

  1. The landlord met with the resident on 5 and 26 January 2023. There are no details in the landlord’s records of what was discussed during these meetings or the agreed actions. From the landlord’s repair logs, it is not clear what parts were ordered, what repairs were completed and what actions were agreed or communicated to the resident. The Ombudsman expects landlords to maintain a robust record of contacts and repairs. This is because clear, accurate, and easily accessible records provide an audit trail and enhance landlords’ ability to identify and respond to problems when they arise. This Service will be making a recommendation with regards to record keeping at the end of this report.
  2. The resident contacted the landlord about the gate not closing properly on 22 September 2022. The landlord attended the same day and found no issues with the gate. The resident made at least 8 reports of the gate not closing properly between 24 November 2022 and 26 January 2023. The landlord installed a new gate closer on 1 December 2022 and ordered new parts on 23 December 2022. Each time the landlord attended within its response time frame of 20 days for routine repairs. Furthermore, as this was a planned repair where parts had to be ordered before the repairs could be completed. According to its repairs policy it had 90 working days to complete the repairs.
  3. The landlord’s records show that it attended on 21 February 2023, installed another new closer and noted everything was working correctly. It completed this repair within 60 working days. This was reasonable and in line with its planned repairs timeframe.
  4. The landlord suggested in its stage 1 complaint response, that replacing the soft closer would be a permanent way to resolve the issues the resident experienced with the gate slamming and not closing properly. In its stage 2 complaint response it stated that after completing repair works to the gate, the resident raised a further complaint to say the gate was still not closing properly. To remedy this its contractors attended and confirmed that the gate operated as it should ‘9 out of 10 times’.
  5. This Service notes that the landlord took steps to resolve the issues with the gate. However, it is of some concern that after the landlord changed the soft closer twice, and repaired other faulty parts of the gate the issues with the gate slamming and not closing properly were still ongoing. This means that it did not provide a permanent solution to the issues like it said it would do in its stage 1 response. This failure to permanently solve the issues with the gate slamming and not closing properly would have caused the resident unnecessary distress and inconvenience.
  6. The landlord’s actions did not permanently resolve the issues with the gate. For this reason, this Service finds there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of issues with the communal gate. This Service will be making an order below for the landlord to inspect the communal security gate and report to this Service what plans it intends to put in place to permanently resolve the issues with the gate slamming and not closing properly. This Service will also be making an order below for compensation for distress and inconvenience in line with this Service remedies guidance.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of the residents reports of issues with the communal gate.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Write to the resident to apologise for the service failures identified in this report.
    2. Inspect the communal gate and inform the resident and this Service what plans it intends to put in place to permanently resolve the issues with the gate slamming and not closing properly.
    3. Pay the resident compensation of £150 for distress and inconvenience.

 Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord reviews the Ombudsman’s spotlight report on knowledge and information when reviewing its record keeping procedures. This sets out the benefits of good record keeping and provides recommendations for landlords.