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Anchor Hanover Group (202231153)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202231153

Anchor Hanover Group

19 April 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 response to concerns about the standard of service provided by the location and area manager.

Background

  1. The resident is a leaseholder of the landlord and has lived in the 2-bedroom property since 2014.
  2. The lease dates from 1987 and states the landlord will employ a resident warden for the general supervision of the estate and to answer emergency calls during the night.
  3. The resident awoke to find she had no electricity or heating. The landlord has this date as 25 November 2022, the resident believes the date was in December. This report will use the date of 25 November for consistency. The resident called the location manager at approximately 8:10am and left him a voicemail. At approximately 8:40am the resident pulled her emergency pull cord as she had not heard back from the location manager. The call went through to the location manager, he attended and reset her electrics.
  4. The resident advised the Ombudsman her heating was not fixed, and she pulled her emergency cord again to raise this at approximately 9:10am. The landlord fixed the heating later that day. The landlord has records on 25 November 2022 at around 2:40pm the resident pulled her emergency cord to advise that her electrics tripped again, and her heating was not working, the landlord arranged for someone to attend.
  5. The resident described the location manager as no help, and that issues are not being addressed, everyone has problems with him and his lies. The resident said that no one consults with the residents and there is no communication with him. The resident also complained that the location manager did not check back in with her after he fixed her electrics.
  6. The area manager sent the stage 1 response, this did not uphold the resident’s complaint. The resident requested the landlord escalate her complaint and included issues around the impartiality of the area manager. While the final resolution letter did not uphold the resident’s complaint, it offered to conduct a survey to gather the residents’ views on both the location, and area manager, and the scheme. The senior manager offered to meet with the resident also.
  7. The resident was not happy the location and area manager were involved in the content, distribution, and collection of the survey and claims it was not impartial. The resident remains dissatisfied and brought her complaint to the Ombudsman.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident complained to the Ombudsman the location manager was abrupt when he attended her property, and he did not check if the repair had worked, which the resident advised the Ombudsman it did not. The resident also advised that the area manager had telephoned the resident on a day after the incident. The resident said the area manager was extremely rude and accused her of being a liar and a nuisance.
  2. The Ombudsman noted these did not form part of the resident’s initial complaint and has not seen documentation she raised these previously with the landlord. As these did not go through the landlord’s complaint process, in line with Paragraph 42a of the Scheme the Ombudsman cannot determine on these points.
  3. Paragraph 42a of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, are made prior to having exhausted a member’s complaints procedure.
  4. The resident shared her concerns with the Ombudsman about changes in the working hours of the location manager. Paragraph 42h of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, concern terms of employment or other personnel issues, or the ending of a service tenancy following the ending of a contract of employment. The Ombudsman is unable to address any employment complaints concerning the location or area manager.

The landlord’s response to concerns about the standard of service provided by the location and area manager.

  1. 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 3 principles driving effective dispute resolution:
  1. Be fair – treat people fairly and follow fair processes.
  2. Put things right.
  3. Learn from outcomes.
  1. 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’.
  2. In the resident’s handbook the landlord advises the location manager has 4 main roles, 2 are important for this case:
    1. Working with the resident. The location manager will let the residents know the hours they are available, emergency calls will be answered by either them or through the emergency pull cord.
    2. Looking after the location. The location manager is the first point of contact for repairs and information about planning works. They will deal with all building emergencies within their hours of work.
  3. The resident’s handbook outlines the area managers role. Principally this is to support a team of location managers and to deal with any complaints which cannot be resolved by them.
  4. The resident handbook advises how residents have access to an alarm system which they can use in an emergency. This allows residents to seek assistance whether the location manager is on duty or not.
  5. The resident tried to contact the location manager at approximately 8:10am on 25 November 2022 to report her electrics were not working. When she did not hear back the landlord advised she pulled her emergency cord at approximately 8:40am. The location manager attended and remedied the issue.
  6. The landlord has provided the Ombudsman with call logs for the emergency pull cord which show the resident pulled the emergency pull cord another 2 times on 25 November 2022 at 2:34pm for the electrics tripping and at 2:38pm for her boiler not working. The landlord sent an electrician to remedy the issues.
  7. While it would have been a seamless service if the location manager answered his mobile when the resident first called, it is understandable he may have been undertaking other tasks and the resident took the appropriate steps of using the pull cord. As such the resident had access to assistance, in line with the resident’s handbook. Also, in line with the handbook was that the location manager responded to the issue during his working hours. This was an appropriate and reasonable response from the landlord.
  8. In her complaint to the landlord the resident said that the location manager was no help, everyone had problems with him and his lies, he did not communicate, and there were issues which were not being addressed. The Ombudsman has not seen any evidence or examples of these comments, as such it would be hard for the landlord to investigate. The resident advised the Ombudsman that the location manager is supposed to work set hours, but she regularly sees him leaving before his official finishing time. The resident may choose to provide examples to the landlord of areas she believes the location manager is not fulfilling his duties for it to investigate.
  9. The resident stated she cannot trust the survey findings as the location and area manager devised, distributed, and collected it. The Ombudsman has seen the letter the landlord sent to the residents which documented the survey findings. These findings indicate although much of the feedback was positive, not all the comments were, and residents did remark where they were unhappy. It is worth noting the landlord provided this opportunity to report concerns with staff members, whether the residents took this up was their choice. It is reasonable for the landlord to use its staff to conduct surveys.
  10. The Ombudsman was pleased, in response to the survey findings the landlord committed to putting the location managers role profile on the notice board and the working hours on the office door and in its next newsletter. This would have formed a recommendation of this determination.
  11. The Ombudsman finds the landlord has reasonably and appropriately dealt with the resident’s concerns about the standard of service provided by the location and area manager. It took the complaint seriously and was thorough in its investigations. The landlord has shown positive complaint handling when it sought the opinions of other residents. The landlord has acted on the outcomes of the survey, for example changing the gardening contractors, illustrating its commitment to listening to and applying residents’ concerns.
  12. In accordance with the scheme the Ombudsman finds there was no maladministration from the landlord.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s response to concerns about the standard of service provided by the location and area manager.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord is to ensure the location manager’s role profile is clearly available for residents to see on the notice board.
  2. The landlord is to ensure the location manager’s working hours are clearly advertised for residents to see. Residents need to be made aware of any changes to these in a timely fashion.