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A2Dominion Housing Group Limited (202300662)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202300662

A2Dominion Housing Group Limited

30 May 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 a faulty boiler and a carbon monoxide detector past its expiry date.
  2. The Ombudsman has also considered the associated complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy with the landlord. The resident shares the property with his partner and 3 children. The resident’s partner has health issues which the landlord is aware of.
  2. In 2016, the resident reported problems with the boiler multiple times and submitted several complaints about the issue both to the landlord and its contractor. He said the landlord and its contractor kept passing the buck as to who was responsible for repairing the boiler and for restoring heating and hot water to the property. He informed the landlord that his partner was undergoing chemotherapy. His 3 children were having to stay with their grandparents due to the problems with the boiler.
  3. The resident made several reports that the boiler was faulty in 2020. He made further reports of problems with the boiler in 2021.
  4. On 5 June 2022, the resident reported that he had no heating or hot water, and that the boiler was making a noise. On 7 June 2022 the landlord’s contractor fitted parts and replaced the fan membrane, cleaned and flushed the main heat exchanger and re-pressurised the expansion vessel. On 12 June 2022 the contractor attended again as the resident had reported that he again had no heating or hot water. On 14 June 2022 the contractor fitted new parts however the trap needed to be replaced.
  5. On 15 June 2022, the resident submitted a complaint about the issues he had had with the boiler since winter 2015. He said numerous repairs had been carried out, but the boiler continued to develop faults and sounded as if it was going to explode on a regular basis. He said he and his family were never guaranteed a hot bath or shower as they never knew whether there would be sufficient hot water. The landlord had told him it would not replace the boiler until it had reached the end of its lifespan. He said he had incurred £2000 of extra water charges due to the boiler leaking. He said that the carbon monoxide detector was 4 years past its expiry date. One of the contractors visiting the property had provided him with a new carbon monoxide detector.
  6. The landlord responded to the resident’s complaint on 16 June 2022. It said:
    1. It could only investigate matters within the previous 6 months therefore it could not investigate any historic repairs outside of this timeframe.
    2. The landlord said that the repairs to the resident’s boiler would be completed by 20 June 2022.
    3. It could not replace the boiler as it was still within its time limit for repairing.
    4. It had only recently become a legal requirement for social landlords to provide carbon monoxide detectors. Its contractors were installing or replacing the carbon monoxide detectors on service visits to its properties.
    5. It apologised for the sub-standard service the resident had received and offered him £79 compensation.
  7. On 28 June 2022, the resident requested that the landlord escalate his complaint to stage 2 of its procedure. He said the fact that the boiler had not worked properly since 2015 was the reason for his complaint. He had lived with a faulty boiler for 7 years. The boiler had started making noises again and he had had to switch it off. He would have to call the landlord’s contractors out again and take further time off work.
  8. The landlord’s contractor attended on 30 June 2022 as the resident reported he had no heating or hot water again. Following this visit the landlord asked its contractor to send out a supervising engineer to review the condition and operation of the boiler and identify measures to improve its reliability. On 8 July 2022, the supervising engineer reported that the boiler was within its lifespan and was working correctly. He advised that changes were needed to the condensate pipework and waste trap. These changes were made on 25 July 2022.
  9. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 19 August 2022. It said:
    1. It had asked its contractor to replace the boiler under its planned works programme for the current year.
    2. It offered the resident additional compensation of £100 for the further stress and inconvenience caused and £50 for the delay in responding to his stage 2 complaint.
  10. On 7 September 2022, the landlord installed a new boiler.
  11. The resident complained to the Ombudsman. He said the landlord had failed to correctly repair the boiler and had failed to reimburse him for his increased water bills.

Assessment

Scope of investigation

  1. As noted above, the resident made repeated complaints about the faulty boiler in 2016. Paragraph 42(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion were brought to the Ombudsman’s attention more than 12 months after they exhausted the landlord’s complaints procedure. The resident complained to the Ombudsman in June 2023, therefore the complaints the resident made to the landlord about the boiler prior to his complaint of 15 June 2022, are outside the scope of this investigation and noted in the background for context only. However, it is understood that this was a longstanding issue, and the landlord was expected to take this into account in its response to the resident’s more recent reports of problems with the boiler.

Policies and Procedures

  1. Under the resident’s tenancy agreement, the landlord is responsible for keeping in good repair and proper working order installations provided for space heating and water heating.
  2. The landlord’s responsive repairs policy states that it will complete emergency repairs within 24 hours. The policy states that it will complete routine repairs within 20 working days. The landlord’s planned works policy states the replacement of items such as boilers will be planned several years ahead.
  3. The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Regulations 2022, state that social landlords must ensure a carbon monoxide alarm is equipped in any room used as living accommodation which contains a fixed combustion appliance (excluding gas cookers). These regulations came into force on 1 October 2022.
  4. The landlord’s complaints procedure states that a complaint must be made within 6 months of the issue happening.
  5. The landlord’s complaints process has 2 stages. At stage 1, a response will be provided within 10 working days. At stage 2, a response will be provided within 20 working days. If an extension of time is needed at either stage, the procedure states that the landlord will agree an extension of time with the resident.
  6. The Ombudsman’s complaint handling code (the Code), published on our website, sets out the Ombudsman’s expectations for landlords’ complaint handling. The Code states that landlords must address all points raised in the complaint and provide clear reasons for any decisions, referencing the relevant policy, law, and good practice where appropriate.

The landlord’s handling of reports of a faulty boiler

  1. The landlord’s records show that its contractors attended the resident’s property 8 times between 5 June 2022 and 8 July 2022 to carry out repairs to the boiler. Its records show that despite the contractors clearing blockages and replacing parts, the issues with the boiler continued to occur. The Ombudsman’s Spotlight Report on Heating and Hot Water highlights the significant impact a lack of heating and hot water can have on households, particularly where, as in the resident’s case, there are health concerns or young children. The landlord acted appropriately in acknowledging the distress and inconvenience the multiple attempts to repair the boiler will have caused the resident.
  2. It was reasonable for the landlord to bring the planned replacement of the boiler forward. The landlord is not obliged to replace boilers which can be repaired, however it acted appropriately in agreeing to replace the boiler given the multiple problems the resident had reported over the years. The landlord was entitled to schedule the replacement to take place during the current financial year as part of its major works programme as a means of managing its limited resources effectively and efficiently. This was in line with its planned works policy which says works such as the replacement of a boiler will be scheduled in advance rather than being completed in line with the timescales for routine repairs.
  3. The landlord was correct to advise the resident that at the time of his stage 1 complaint of 15 June 2022, it did not have an obligation to provide carbon monoxide detectors to its residents. This is because the regulations relating to the provision of carbon monoxide detectors did not apply to social housing landlords until October 2022. Its contractor acted appropriately in providing the resident with a new carbon monoxide detector when they visited the property in June 2022.
  4. The landlord offered the resident £179 compensation for its errors in its handling of the resident’s reports of a faulty boiler. This offer is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance (published on our website) which sets out the Ombudsman’s approach to compensation. The remedies guidance states that in cases where there was a failure by the landlord which adversely affected the resident, £100-£600 should be offered. Therefore, the landlord does not need to do anything further in this regard, as its offer is in line with what the Ombudsman would have awarded had the landlord not already made an offer and it is appropriate redress for the landlord’s errors in this case.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

  1. The landlord responded to the resident’s stage 1 complaint in line with its published timescales. The resident escalated his complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaints process on 28 June 2022. The landlord did not issue its stage 2 complaint response until 19 August 2022, over 15 days outside of its timescales for responding to stage 2 complaint. This delay will have caused the resident time, trouble, and inconvenience as he was kept waiting for a response to his stage 2 complaint for longer than he should have been. It was appropriate that the landlord acknowledged and apologised for this delay and offered the resident £50 compensation for this, which was a reasonable amount under the circumstances.
  2. In his stage 1 complaint of 15 June 2022, the resident said the faulty boiler had cost him over £2000 in additional water charges. The Ombudsman’s complaint handling code, set out above, states that landlords must address all points raised in the complaint and provide clear reasons for any decisions. It is accepted that the landlord advised the resident that it could only investigate incidents within the previous 6 months. However, it should have responded to this aspect of the resident’s complaint. The Ombudsman has not seen evidence that the landlord took steps to establish whether any of these additional water charges related to the period it had agreed to investigate. It would have been reasonable for the landlord to ask the resident to provide evidence of increased water charges during the period it was investigating. The fact that it did not do so, may have given the resident the impression that the landlord was not listening to him or taking his concerns seriously.
  3. The landlord’s failure to respond to the resident’s concerns that the faulty boiler had led to additional water charges, amounts to service failure in its complaints handling. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance states that where service failure has been identified, £50-£100 compensation should be considered. The landlord is ordered to pay the resident an additional £100 compensation for its failure in its handling of the associated complaint. The landlord is also ordered to respond to the resident’s concern that the faults with his boiler led to an increase in water charges.
  4. The Ombudsman is not in a position to assess whether the landlord should pay anything towards the resident’s additional water charges at this stage because the landlord needs to provide a response to this first, before we can consider its response. Also, as above, there is not sufficient evidence currently to show how much of the extra water charges correspond to the period covered by this complaint. If the resident is unhappy once he has received the landlord’s response to his concerns about the water charges, he can raise a new complaint about this to the landlord. If he remains dissatisfied with the landlord’s final response to the new complaint, he may be able to refer the matter to the Ombudsman for investigation at that stage.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint about its handling of reports of a faulty boiler and a carbon monoxide detector past its expiry date, satisfactorily.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of the associated complaint. 

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. The landlord is ordered to do the following within 4 weeks of the date of this report, ensuring that the Ombudsman is provided with evidence of compliance by the same date:
    1. Pay the resident the £179 and the £50 compensation it offered him through its complaints process if it has not done so already.
    2. Pay the resident an additional £100 for its failures in its handling of the associated complaint.
    3. Respond in writing to the resident’s concerns that the faulty boiler led to increased water charges and make a decision on whether it will pay anything towards these charges. The landlord should clearly explain the reasons for its decision to the resident.