Hyde Housing Association Limited (202303045)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202303045

Hyde Housing Association Limited

21 August 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

This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of:
1. Outstanding repairs in the property, including to the front door.
2. Damp and mould in the resident’s property.

Background

The resident holds an assured tenancy. The resident has told the Ombudsman that she has a child under the age of 16 and her mother, who is considered vulnerable, living in the property.
The resident contacted the landlord on 20 March 2024 to inform it that her door required replacement as it was not secure. She also reported on 4 April 2024 the presence of mould in her property. Following these reports, the resident contacted the Ombudsman on 24 April 2023 to raise a new complaint about her landlord. She said she had been chasing the landlord about outstanding repairs for over 10 years. She said her front door had disintegrated, her bathroom was falling apart, the intercom for her building did not work, and that damp and mould was present in the property. The Ombudsman advised her to raise a complaint with her landlord which she subsequently did on 9 May 2023. In this she told the landlord she had been chasing the landlord since 2019 for a door replacement, and that the damp and mould had also been ongoing for a significant period of time
The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 23 May 2023. It upheld the resident’s complaint awarding £200 compensation consisting of £100 for the delays completing the repairs, and £100 for distress and inconvenience of mould in the property. It also said it had communicated with the fire safety team who had visited, inspected and agreed to replace the front door. It said the bathroom had been damaged following a roof leak, and that it had failed to follow-up appointments to perform any remedial works. It also said it had arranged for a mould wash to be performed on 21 May 2023 and that it would inspect cracks in the ceilings and floors on 23 May 2023.
The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 of the complaints process on 6 December 2023. She said that the landlord had failed to complete the outstanding repairs and that the compensation the landlord had offered at stage 1 of the complaints process had not been paid. She said the mould remained an issue and that the landlord’s mould washes had not eradicated the issue.
The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint on 22 December 2023. It again upheld her complaint increasing its compensation to £400 overall. It apologised that it had failed to replace the door in May 2023 as it had previously committed. It also said it had attempted a mould wash in June 2023 but had been unable to access the property. The landlord said that it had now arranged for a new mould wash on 5 January 2024 and a surveyor to come and inspect on 9 January 2024. It said it would replace the front door by the end of January 2024.
The resident contacted the Ombudsman on 27 February 2024 to ask us to consider her complaint. She said the repairs had still not been completed with the door continuing to deteriorate and the damp and mould ongoing. She said the landlord had failed to attend the appointments it had raised, and it had failed to communicate openly about this with her. To resolve her complaint, she said she would like the landlord to pay her compensation for its incompetence. The landlord later informed the Ombudsman that it had completed the renewal of the front door in March 2024.

Assessment and findings

The scope of this investigation

The resident has reported that she had been chasing a door replacement, as well as reporting damp and mould for several years. Paragraph 42c of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which ‘were not brought to the attention of the member as a formal complaint within a reasonable period which would normally be within 12 months of the matters arising’. The Ombudsman has therefore not considered the historical reports as part of its investigation, although these have been noted for context.

The landlord’s handling of reports of outstanding repairs, including to the front door

The landlord’s repair policy has several different timescales for completing repair works. For emergency repairs it says it will attend to these within 4 hours and make safe within 24 hours. For routine repairs it will aim to complete works within 20 working days. The landlord also has major repairs for which it does not give a specific timescale for completion but says it will undertake as per its stock investment procedure.
When the resident raised her complaint to the landlord, she mentioned that her door was still waiting to be replaced, that she had cracks in her ceilings and floors, that her bathroom needed repairs following the leak the landlord had resolved in October 2022 and that the intercom in her building was not functioning. In March 2024, the resident told the Ombudsman that there are some repairs in the property which have still not been completed.
The landlord attended on 23 May 2023 to perform remedial works and to renew the tiles and sealant around the bath. On 26 June 2023, it plastered ceilings and walls in the bathroom, painted the hallway and renewed floor tiles in the resident’s bathroom. It also noted in this time that it had performed several mould washes across the property as a whole. For these repairs to the bathroom, it does appear that the landlord responded in a broadly reasonable timeframe. However, the plastering and renewing of flooring tiles did take place outside of the timescales specified in the landlord’s repairs policy.
It was noted by an operative on 27 May 2023 that the kitchen counter had ‘rotting wood that needs replacing’. It does not appear from the landlord’s records that the kitchen counter was replaced. The landlord visited the property in August 2023 to raise several works to both the resident’s kitchen and bathroom. There is also a follow-up work order from 11 September 2023 where it resealed around the worktop in the kitchen. However, it is unclear if this was a follow-up to the operative’s earlier comments. The landlord also took a significant amount of time, over 3 months, to complete this follow-on work. The landlord’s failure to properly document the works necessary, as well as the time taken to begin any remedial works represents a failure in service from the landlord. It remains unclear if all of the necessary repairs to the bathroom and the resident’s kitchen, especially those raised on 30 August 2023 have actually been completed. The landlord in its correspondence did not make any mention of repairs to the intercom system.
The main repair that the resident was chasing was the replacement of her front door. The landlord’s fire safety team undertook an inspection on 18 May 2023 where it was noted that the door had ‘extensive damage… inside and outside’. The contractors notes also recommended that a ‘new door was required’. The landlord eventually replaced the front door in March 2024. This was 10 months since being made aware of the need for a replacement door.
This represented a significant delay from the landlord and a serious failure to handle a repair which likely had a serious impact on the resident. The resident said she felt the door had disintegrated and no longer kept her safe. It has also been implied by the landlord that this was a known cause of damp and mould within the property. In its May 2023 stage 1 complaint response, the landlord said it would aim to contact the resident to arrange a replacement due to the urgent need to do so. It failed to contact the resident or arrange a replacement following this. In its stage 2 complaint response, the landlord said it would replace the door by the end of January 2024. It again failed to deliver on this commitment.
The landlord’s handling of the reports of outstanding repairs represented maladministration. It is unclear if all of the repairs have been completed whilst the repairs the landlord did complete were often delivered significantly outside of the timescales specified in its policy. The landlord failed to fulfil its commitments, and this caused the resident significant distress and inconvenience.
The landlord offered the resident £200 for delays in completing the repairs. Given the level of distress and inconvenience caused to the resident by the landlord’s delays over an extended period this is not a proportionate offer of compensation. The landlord should therefore pay the resident £600 for failing to complete the repairs in a reasonable timeframe.

The landlord’s handling of reports of damp and mould in the resident’s property

The landlord’s damp and mould policy outlines several stages it will go through when dealing with a resident’s reports of damp and mould. These are as follows:
1. The surveyor should attend and undertake the inspection in accordance with its Pre and Post Inspections Procedure.
2. The surveyor will fill out the damp and condensation survey proforma when attending a property.
3. Photos should be taken of affected areas and an assessment made as to the cause of the damp/mould. If the damp/mould is caused by minor deterioration of the property, the necessary responsive repairs or stock investment works should be arranged.
4. Once the repairs have been completed, the surveyor should update and close the case.
5. The surveyor will attend the property, undertake an inspection and complete a Damp and Condensation survey. This is a post-work survey.
The earliest evidence available to the Ombudsman demonstrates that the landlord was put on notice about the damp and mould from at least April 2023. In the resident’s last contact with the Ombudsman, she mentioned that the damp and mould problem was still ongoing, over a year after this was first reported.
In response to the resident’s reports, the landlord performed mould washes throughout the property in May and June 2023. It also attempted to perform a second mould wash in February 2024 which the resident declined. The landlord has now also replaced the front door which it had indicated as a cause of the damp and mould.
Nevertheless, the landlord’s handling of the reports of damp and mould was ultimately poor. It failed to undertake any of the steps it sets out in its damp and mould policy or to perform a survey of the property as a whole to determine the cause, or causes, of damp and mould. Whilst the door’s condition may have been a contributing factor, the landlord should have undertaken a survey of the whole property and got an expert opinion on a full diagnosis. It should then have performed the necessary repairs in line with its repairs policy. The landlord has provided no evidence that it has determined a cause for the damp and mould. To complete multiple mould washes without also ensuring the root cause for any damp and mould has been eradicated does not represent an appropriate response to the reports.
The resident mentioned that her belongings have been damaged as a result of the damp and mould. The landlord should therefore provide the resident with the details of its insurer and advise her on how she can make a claim to its insurer for these damages. It is unreasonable that there is no evidence that it did so.
The landlord’s response to the reports of damp and mould therefore represented maladministration. It failed to undertake the steps it said it would as part of its damp and mould policy, failed to determine a cause of the damp and mould and did not adequately resolve the situation. Given the landlord’s failure to manage the presence of damp and mould effectively even after it acknowledged errors through the complaints process, its compensation offer of £200 for distress and inconvenience is not sufficient.
The landlord should pay the resident £600 for its failure to fairly and reasonably handle the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the property. The landlord also needs to complete a survey of the property and provide the resident with a plan of action for eradicating the ongoing issue.
The Ombudsman has determined several cases over recent months and found similar record-keeping failings, particularly in regard to repairs. Service improvement orders have been made as part of those determinations, including to self-assess against the Ombudsman’s Spotlight Report on Knowledge and Information Management, and similar orders will therefore not be repeated here.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of outstanding repairs, including to the front door.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the property.

Orders

It is ordered that within 4 weeks of the date of this letter, the landlord:
1. Pays the resident £1,200 (inclusive of its previous offer of £400), consisting of:
  1. £600 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its failures in handling of the outstanding repairs, including to the front door;
  2. £600 for the distress and inconvenience caused by the failures in its handling of damp and mould reports.
2. Apologises to the resident in writing for the failings identified in this report.
3. Arrange a damp and mould survey of the property. Within 2 weeks of this being completed, a copy of this survey should be provided to the Ombudsman and the resident along with a schedule of works for any necessary repairs identified to stop damp and mould growth.
4. Contacts the resident to identify what, if any, repairs remain outstanding separate to the damp and mould. Any works identified should be raised in the timescales specified by the landlord’s repairs policy.
5. Provides the resident with the details of its insurer and how to make an insurance claim for any of her personal belongings which have been damaged as a result of damp and mould in the property.
The landlord must reply to this Service with evidence of compliance with these orders within the timescales set out above.