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Axiom Housing Association Limited (202002115)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202002115

Axiom Housing Association Limited

14 January 2021


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 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 time taken by the landlord to activate the gas supply in the resident’s property at the beginning of the tenancy.

Background and summary of events

  1. The resident signed the tenancy for the property on 28 November 2019. The resident explained that he began to move his belongings into the property from this date, though there was a verbal agreement with the housing officer that the tenancy would commence on 2 December 2019.
  2. The resident said that upon signing up for the tenancy, on 28 November 2019, the landlord’s operatives came to uncap the gas. However, the meter system required a prepayment, so the operatives could not uncap the gas until a later date (2 December 2019). The landlord has not provided copies of its operative’s reports.
  3. The resident complained about the lack of heating and hot water for the first 4 days. In the resident’s complaint email of 17 March 2020, he said:

“arrangements had been made for (operative) but due to the meters being Smart Prepayment the engineer was unable to arrange a gas supply. (Operative), when contacted later that afternoon, couldn’t arrange for an engineer to attend until 2nd December”.

  1. The complaint was acknowledged on 17 March 2020. The landlord’s investigation records showed that:
    1. It understood the complaint to be about the issues getting gas working when the resident moved in and the time taken for the operative to complete the repair.
    2. The meter was “uncapped on 2 December 2019” and there was “no service failure here”.
  2. On 26 March 2020 the landlord issued a further acknowledgement of the complaint to the resident with a target time of 30 calendar days. On 9 April 2020 the landlord gave its final response which did not find service failure. The landlord held:
    1. An engineer attended on 28 November 2019 and found there was no credit on the meter so they could not uncap this; they advised the resident to arrange credit on the meter and rearrange this appointment.
  3. The resident confirmed that he was not satisfied with the landlord’s complaint response and was not interested in details of the operative’s actions. He explained that he complained about being charged rent for four days during which there was no heating or hot water, so he considered that the flat was not fit to move into.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

  1. Under the tenancy agreement (‘tenancy start date’):

“the tenancy begins on 28 November 2019 and will run until the first Sunday immediately following the tenancy start date. After this Sunday, the tenancy shall continue as a weekly tenancy from Monday to Sunday”.

  1. Under the tenancy agreement (‘our obligations’) under section 6.3 the landlord is responsible to keep in repair and working order the installation in the property for the supply of gas, space heating and heating water.
  2. Under the complaint policy, the landlord aims to contact the customer within two working days and “to notify the customer of our decision on their complaint, any action to be taken and the timescale for this within a maximum of one month”.
  3. Under the landlord’s voluntary ‘right to repair’ obligations the expected timescale for repairs where there is no heating or hot water between 31 October and 1 May is one day.
  4. Under the responsive repairs policy:
    1. Repairs are categorised according to their urgency, with a set response target time for each category including voids.
    2. Responsive repairs are split into 2 main categories:
      1. Emergency repairs – attend between 2 hours and 24 hours and make safe
      2. Appointed repairs – complete within 21 days
    3. Emergency repairs will be attended to as soon as possible and prioritised depending on the nature of the emergency.  All emergency repairs will be made safe within 24 hours.

Properties with no heating or hot water will be attended to and made safe within 24 hours, care and support properties and properties with vulnerable tenants with no heating or hot water will be attended within 2 hours and made safe within 4 hours.

Findings

  1. It is acknowledged that the resident referred to a discussion with the housing officer about the tenancy start date. However, the Ombudsman has not had sight of evidence that shows an amendment or alternative agreement to the tenancy agreement which was signed on 28 November 2019. For the purpose of this investigation, the resident and landlord are considered to have entered into a landlord and tenant relationship on 28 November 2019 and are liable for their respective obligations under the tenancy agreement terms.
  2. The landlord did not find a failing in the service it provided, however, the evidence shows that the property did not have a gas supply in the first four days of the tenancy. The landlord should have explained to the resident in advance that credit was required for the pre-payment meter before the tenancy commenced. There is no evidence that this took place.
  3. Upon adding credit to the meter, the resident said that the operative was “contacted later that afternoon”, on 28 November 2019, however they “couldn’t arrange for an engineer to attend until 2nd December”. The resident said that he made his own arrangement for heating in the property during this time and there is no evidence that the landlord offered alternative arrangements for heating (or hot water).
  4. Looking at the service standards, the landlord should have completed the gas installation within 24 hours, having initially failed to install this at the start of the tenancy. There is therefore a service failure by the landlord in the time taken to uncap the gas.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was a service failure by the landlord in respect of the time taken to activate the gas supply in the resident’s property.

Reasons

  1. It was unreasonable for the landlord not to have installed gas in the property at the start of the tenancy; it did not then complete this within a reasonable timescale and did not offer alternative arrangements to the resident whilst it was outstanding during the end of November to the start of December.

Orders

  1. Within four weeks of the date of this report:
    1. the landlord is ordered to pay the resident £100 in respect of the distress and inconvenience experienced by the resident as a result of the landlord’s delays in activating the gas supply at the property.