Birmingham City Council (202127395)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202127395

Birmingham City Council

31 March 2023

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 the resident about damaged door handles and its obligation to repair or replace them.

Background

2. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord at the property. At the time the complaint was made, the resident was pregnant and considered vulnerable.
3. On 20 January 2022, the resident reported to the landlord that she had issues with the internal door locks and latches to a bathroom, a bedroom, and a toilet.  On 25 January 2022, the landlord’s contractor attended site to look at the issue.  Upon inspection, the resident was informed that it was the resident’s responsibility to repair the door locks and latches.
4. On 25 January 2022, the resident made a complaint to the landlord, stating that the issues with the door locks and latches were not her fault or responsibility. The resident wanted the landlord to change all door handles and door locks as they had done previously.
5. On 7 February 2022, the landlord issued its stage one response. It stated that the door handles could not disintegrate as they are made of metal and, as internal door handles, were the resident’s responsibility to repair or replace. It added that the handles could not be replaced and charged back to the resident.
6. On 10 February 2022, the resident is recorded to have requested escalation of the complaint, after which the landlord issued a final response on 10 March 2022. The landlord again advised the resident that it was her responsibility to repair or replace the door handles.
7. The resident subsequently brought her case to the Ombudsman, as she remained dissatisfied and believed that the landlord should have carried out the repairs and/or any necessary replacement.

Assessment and findings

8. The resident was upset that the landlord sought to attribute responsibility for the damage caused to the door handles/locks to her, her family, or visitors to the property. She also referred to another contractor (other than the landlord’s) informing her that the door handles should have been changed.
9. The Ombudsman understands that the  resident felt the landlord should have repaired or replaced the handles, and understands that she will have found the events distressing, particularly given her pregnancy and recognised vulnerability.
10. However, there is no significant failing that the Ombudsman can identify on the part of the landlord, as it has responded in accordance with the landlord and resident’s mutual obligations under its repairs policy and the tenancy agreement.
11. The landlord’s repairs policy states that the resident is responsible under the tenancy agreement to replace handles and latches on all doors inside the home. It adds that items provided by the landlord at the start of the tenancy may be the tenant’s responsibility to repair and states, for example, that after a handle is fitted to a new door this is the tenant’s responsibility. The landlord responded in line with this to inform the resident that the current issues with the door locks and repairs were her responsibility.
12. While this is the case, there are aspects of the landlord’s communication which were not entirely satisfactory.
13. The landlord’s repair logs indicate that the earlier repairs were carried out under warranty, but the landlord did not inform the resident that this was why earlier repairs were carried out but current repairs were not. It would have been helpful if the landlord had clearly communicated this to the resident and referred to relevant repairs information that confirmed this. Had the landlord done this, the resident would have been in a better position to understand the reason why repairs were her responsibility.
14. Given the resident’s responsibility to repair door locks and handles, the landlord did not need to attribute responsibility for the damage to the door locks, only for the repair. Had the landlord communicated this to the resident, this is likely to have avoided upset to the resident, who it is understood felt blamed for the damage and was led to believe this was the reason why the landlord was not carrying out the repairs.
15. However, even if the landlord had communicated differently, this would not have significantly impacted matters given that the repairs are ultimately the resident’s responsibility under the relevant policies and agreements. This leads the Ombudsman to make a finding of no maladministration, although some recommendations are made in respect to some of the issues identified above.

Determination

16. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident about damaged door handles and its obligation to repair or replace them.

Orders and recommendations

Recommendations

17. The landlord to ensure proper contact and complaint records such as call logs are kept, in light of these being unclear at points.
18. The landlord to improve its communication with residents to identify and explain the relevant and proper grounds on which its responses are based. As part of this, it should communicate and refer to responsibilities under the tenancy agreement and policies in a neutral manner where possible, in light of the comment identified at paragraph 14.
19. The landlord to help signpost the resident to any organisations who could assist her with the repairs.
20. The landlord to ensure that it meets its obligations under paragraphs 10 and 11 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme to respond in a timely manner to our requests for information.