Eastbourne Borough Council (202220188)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202220188

Eastbourne Borough Council

28 November 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 handling of kitchen repairs.

Background

2.             The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord and occupies the property with her children.

3.             The landlord’s repairs contractor attended the property following a leak on 31 December 2021. The contractor removed kitchen units and doors to access and stop the leak and advised that a survey was needed to ‘see what’s what’ when dry.

4.             The landlord said its contractor tried to contact the resident to arrange repairs but voicemails were not returned.

5.             The resident complained about how long it was taking for the kitchen repairs to be completed on 27 June 2022.

6.             In its stage 1 complaint response of 1 July 2022, the landlord said the contractor had tried to contact the resident to arrange the repairs. It said it would re-book the repairs but found there had been no service failure.

7.             The resident escalated her complaint, saying that the contractor had not contacted her at any point and she had been off work since March 2022 so there would be no reason for her not to answer a call.

8.             The resident sent several email chasers to the landlord requesting updates on progress during this period, without receiving adequate responses. 

9.             In the landlord’s stage 2 response of 26 August 2022, it said it had tried to find replacement doors for the kitchen units but could not find an exact match. It gave the resident the option of sourcing doors herself, chased the surveyor for an update and offered £50 compensation to acknowledge the resident’s distress, inconvenience and time and trouble spent dealing with the matter.

10.        The resident contacted this Service in November 2022 as the kitchen had still not been repaired.

11.        Due to difficulty sourcing replacement doors and the length of time that had passed, the landlord replaced the entire kitchen with work starting 21 August 2023.

Assessment and findings

12.        As per the landlord’s repairs policy, it is responsible for the repair of kitchen units and these repairs are classed as ‘routine’ and should be completed within 28 days. The landlord evidently accepted this responsibility when it responded to the resident’s requests for replacement unit doors, so this assessment is focused on the length of time taken to meet that responsibility.

13.        The landlord said its contractor attempted to contact the resident to complete repairs between April and June 2022. Whilst the Ombudsman does not dispute this account, insufficient evidence has been provided to substantiate this position. Emails from the contractor say that calls were made to the resident but it is unclear from the records provided how many contact attempts were made or specifically when. The landlord should take steps to ensure that it has robust knowledge and information management systems in place, both for its own effective processes and also so that it can account for its actions to residents and the Ombudsman if necessary.

14.        The contractor tried to source replacement doors for the kitchen units from its supplier, which was not an unreasonable approach given the need for it to make the most effective use of its limited resources. When it was unable to find a suitable colour match, the landlord said it tried to find replacement doors from an alternative supplier. It is unclear whether it did this before October 2022, when the resident emailed for an update, as no evidence has been provided in that regard. As a result, the landlord has not demonstrated to the Ombudsman that any action was taken prior to that date.

15.        The landlord’s repairs log shows entries for the kitchen repair job on 4 January 2022 and 29 June 2022 (after the stage 1 complaint) which both show as ‘request cancelled’. It would have been helpful if the repairs log included reasons why the jobs were cancelled and whether it was because they had been unable to contact the resident. The evidence does not show how many contact attempts were made or the outcomes of the attempts and this represents a failing on the landlord’s part.

16.        The Ombudsman would expect the repairs to the kitchen units to have been completed within a reasonable timeframe. The landlords policy says routine kitchen unit repairs should be completed within 28 days. If it was not possible to do so, the landlord should have communicated this to the resident and explained why. Ultimately, the kitchen units were not repaired until a new kitchen was installed in August 2023, some 18 months after they should have been (February 2022) and 12 months after the stage 2 complaint response.

17.        Between the stage 1 response on 1 July 2022 and when the resident read the stage 2 response on 3 October 2022, she sent 6 chasing emails without receiving adequate responses from the landlord. She lived with unfinished repairs to the kitchen units for an unreasonable period of time which caused understandable stress and inconvenience. The landlord did not offer her financial redress specifically for the delays in carrying out the repairs to the kitchen units and it has therefore not taken sufficient steps to put things right.

18.        There were extensive delays repairing the kitchen. Whilst the kitchen was functional, the resident was not able to use it fully as she would wish. She also had safety concerns as she had young children in the property.

19.        There were long delays in communication between the landlord and its contractor when trying to find a solution for the replacement doors and a lack of updates provided to the resident unless she emailed for an update. This is indicative of the landlord’s poor communication throughout.

20.        In relation to the failures identified, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether the redress offered by the landlord put things right and resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances. The Ombudsman takes into account whether the landlord’s offer of redress was in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: Be Fair, Put Things Right and Learn from Outcomes, as well as our own guidance on remedies.

21.        Within its stage 2 response the landlord offered £50 compensation. It has subsequently fitted a new kitchen. However, there was maladministration and the landlord’s compensation offer did not adequately reflect the failings identified in this case. This includes the overall delay in repairing the kitchen between December 2021 and August 2023 and the inconvenience, distress, frustration, time and trouble caused to the resident by its poor communication and inadequate records.

Determination

22.        In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the kitchen repairs.

Orders and recommendations

23.        Within four weeks of this report, the landlord must:

1. Pay the resident £500 (comprised of £300 for the adverse effect caused by delays repairing her kitchen, £100 for poor communication and £100 for the time and trouble taken by the resident in chasing for the repairs to be completed). If the £50 previously offered to the resident during the complaints process has already been paid, it can be deducted from this total.
2. The landlord should create an action plan to demonstrate how it will improve its communication and record keeping practices in future and put measures in place to ensure it keeps detailed communication and repair logs. These should show when contact was attempted and the outcome of the contact attempt.