Clarion Housing Association Limited (202122853)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202122853

Clarion Housing Association Limited

6 June 2022

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 landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s kitchen sink and cabinet.

Background

2. The resident is a tenant of the landlord, which raised a job in July 2021 for the sealing around her kitchen sink allowing water to seep below.
3. In September 2021, the resident raised a stage one complaint with the landlord regarding the condition of her kitchen sink. She had reported that there was a leak under her sink, which had been present since May 2020 and had now damaged her kitchen cabinet. The resident was dissatisfied that the work was outstanding for an excessive amount of time, and that appointments for this were being delayed or missed.
4. The landlord stated in its stage one complaint response to the resident in October 2021 that, following its previous works to the sink in May 2021 and further inspection of this in August 2021, a job was raised to fix the leak on 6 September 2021, but the appointment was missed due to parts being unavailable, and a new appointment was set for 11 October 2021. It confirmed that it would replace her kitchen sink, repair the kitchen cabinet if required, and it apologised to her for the missed appointment, the delay in fixing the leak, and offered her £115 compensation for this.
5. The resident nevertheless then reported to the landlord in her final stage complaint in November 2021 that its contractor was late for the 11 October 2021 appointment for her kitchen sink and cabinet, and that, due to this, she had to miss work. She further added that the work was undertaken in an “unprofessional” manner, as the sink fitted was the wrong size, and the water damage to the cabinet was still outstanding. The resident was also dissatisfied that her appointments continued to be late or missed by the landlord’s contractors, reporting that this had previously occurred in July 2021. She believed that the compensation offered of £115 was not sufficient to reflect the stress and inconvenience caused to her by this.
6. The landlord’s final stage complaint response in December 2021 said that the resident was advised during the measuring of the kitchen sink in October 2021 that it would have to cut the worktop by 20mm to fit the new sink, but that she had declined this option, so it had installed a smaller sink instead that had left markings from the original one. It also stated that it was happy to install the larger sink that it had previously offered to her, and to repair or replace the kitchen cabinet, if needed. The landlord scheduled the new appointment for this for 15 December 2021 between 9.30am to 14.30pm that it recorded the resident as refusing it access for. However, it declined to increase the compensation that it had awarded her, as it considered that its initial offer met with its policy and that no further increase was applicable.
7. The resident then spoke to her local MP in January 2022 regarding her concerns to the kitchen sink. She disputed the claims that the landlord had offered to cut the worktop by 20mm to install a larger kitchen sink, and she was dissatisfied that the water damage to her kitchen cabinet that had been caused by the leak from the sink was still outstanding. The resident also reported that the landlord’s contractor arrived late for the 15 December 2021 appointment, which had caused her inconvenience, as she was running late for work and had to pay for childcare because she had swapped shifts with her colleague.
8. As a resolution to her complaint, the resident wanted the outstanding work to be completed to fit a larger kitchen sink and repair her kitchen cabinet, and to receive increased compensation to reflect the stress and inconvenience caused by the missed and late appointments. Her MP therefore referred her complaint to this Service to investigate in their capacity as her designated person, and we then requested and received the above information about her case from the landlord, which informed us that it re-offered her a larger sink to cover the damage to the cabinet in March 2022 that she declined. 

Assessment and findings

Scope of Investigation

9. While the resident reports that she previously raised the issue of the kitchen sink needing repairs in May 2020, the scope of this investigation is limited to considering the landlord’s handling of her reports about this in 2021. This is because, under the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, this Service cannot investigate complaints about issues that were not brought to the landlord’s attention as a formal complaint within a reasonable period of normally within six months of the matters arising, and her complaint about this was first made in September 2021.

The landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s kitchen sink and cabinet

10. Under the landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy, it is obliged to ensure that appointments for non-emergency repairs are booked at the resident’s convenience within 28 calendar days. It is also required to monitor whether appointments are being made and kept, and that repairs are completed within the designated timeframes.
11. The landlord failed in its obligation to complete repairs to the resident’s kitchen sink and cabinet within the repairs and maintenance policy’s timeframes in 2021. There were significant delays to these repairs from when she reported the sink leak to it on 6 July 2021 and the subsequent water damage to the cabinet to it on 1 September 2021 onwards. This was due to the late and missed appointments for these on at least 6 September, 11 October and 15 December 2021, for which only the leak was resolved 69 calendar days late by a new sink on 11 October 2021. The resident nevertheless reported that the new sink was too small, and that a larger replacement sink and cabinet repair remain outstanding, with the late and/or no access appointment for the latter on 15 December 2021 being 77 calendar days late.
12. While it was therefore appropriate for the landlord’s stage one and final stage complaint responses to have apologised to the resident for these delays and that it offered her a larger kitchen sink and kitchen cabinet repairs on 15 December 2021 and 4 March 2022, it should have learnt from the outcome of her case. It ought to have done so by improving its oversight of its repair team by reviewing its processes for monitoring ongoing non-emergency responsive repairs to ensure that these were completed, and its appointments for them attended, promptly and within its repairs and maintenance policy’s timeframes, which it has been recommended to do below.
13. The landlord should also have performed a case review of the resident’s complaint to investigate and analyse the causes of the delays in her kitchen sink and cabinet repairs, and to identify the measures necessary for it to take in order to prevent these failings from occurring again in the future. It has therefore been recommended to do so below, and that the outcome of the review be provided to both her and to this Service.
14. Moreover, the resident reported that the new sink fitted in the kitchen was too small, and she wanted the original–sized sink to be installed, together with the kitchen cabinet to be repaired. There was some dispute between her and the landlord regarding what she was advised by it when the new sink was installed and when she requested this on 11 October 2021. However, it was reasonable for it to agree to install the original-sized sink and to repair the cabinet on 15 December 2021 and 4 March 2022, as this demonstrated a willingness on its part to put things right for the resident.
15. It is nevertheless of concern that the resident reported that work for the larger kitchen sink and damaged kitchen cabinet was still outstanding several months after the landlord made the above appointments for this after the end of the complaints procedure. It is noted that it recorded that she declined it access for this on 15 December 2021, which she disputed as it instead arriving late, and that she declined when it re-offered her the work on 4 March 2022. However, the landlord has been ordered below to seek to resolve any outstanding issues by contacting the resident to arrange an appointment for it to inspect and complete the remaining sink and cabinet works, if it has not done these already.
16. In light of the length of the above repair delays, missed and late appointments, and outstanding issues, the landlord’s compensation award of £115 was not proportionate to remedy the detriment caused by these to the resident. This is because she had reported experiencing stress and inconvenience due to the late and missed appointments, incurring additional costs due to taking time off work for these, and having had to repeatedly chase it to get it to respond to her about this.
17. The amount of compensation that the landlord awarded the resident ought to have instead been in line with amount recommended by its compensation policy and this Service’s remedies guidance for repeated failures to reply and meet its service standards for actions and responses, causing her distress, inconvenience and delays in getting matters resolved. Therefore, to reflect the impact these factors had on her, it has been ordered below to increase the compensation awarded to her to £250.

Determination

18. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of repairs to the resident’s kitchen sink and cabinet.

Orders and recommendations

19. The landlord is ordered to:

1. Pay the resident £250 total compensation within four weeks in recognition of any distress and inconvenience caused to her by its failures in its handling of repairs to her kitchen sink and cabinet, which includes the £115 that it previously awarded her, if she has not received this already.

2. Contact the resident within four weeks to arrange an appointment for it to inspect and complete the remaining kitchen sink and cabinet works at her property, if it has not done these already.

20. It is recommended that the landlord:

1. Review its processes for monitoring ongoing non-emergency responsive repairs to ensure that these are completed, and its appointments for them attended, promptly and within its repairs and maintenance policy’s timeframes.
2. Perform a case review of the resident’s complaint to investigate and analyse the causes of the delays in her kitchen sink and cabinet repairs, and to identify the measures necessary for it to take in order to prevent these failings from occurring again in the future, providing the outcome of the review both to her and to this Service.

21. The landlord shall contact this Service within four weeks to confirm that it has complied with the above orders and whether it will follow the above recommendations.