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GreenSquareAccord Limited (202014306)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202014306

GreenSquareAccord

20 July 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 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:
    1. The landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the safety of storage heaters installed in her property.
    2. The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Background and summary of events

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord and occupies a two-bedroomed flat. The tenancy commenced on 9 August 2018.
  2. On 7 July 2020, the landlord raised a job to attend the resident’s property due to two storage heaters which were “hanging off… which nearly fell on [the resident’s] son”. This job was recorded as completed on 28 July 2020.
  3. On 18 November 2020, the landlord raised a job to attend to the storage heater in the living room as it had “fallen away from the wall”. This job was recorded as completed on 15 January 2021. When the landlord attended the property that day, it noted that additional fixings were required to support the weight of the storage heaters and arranged to source these from a supplier.
  4. On 3 February 2021, the resident emailed the landlord to report that the storage in her living room had fallen on her child and injured his hand. She said that it had attended the previous week but had informed her that it would need to schedule another appointment with her to secure the heaters.
  5. The landlord acknowledged the complaint at stage one of its complaints procedure on 4 February 2021, stating that it would provide its response by 18 February 2021.
  6. The landlord issued its stage complaint response to the resident on 17 February 2021. In this, it summarised her complaint as her dissatisfaction with its response to her concerns about the quality of workmanship involved in affixing the radiators on the walls in her home. The landlord noted that she reported that a radiator fell onto her son, which she attributed to poor workmanship, and to resolve her complaint she wanted the radiators to be affixed securely and financial compensation for exposing her child to a risk of personal injury.
  7. The landlord explained that the radiators were originally attached to the walls using the standard fixings supplied with them. However, a second operative attended who advised a secondary bolt was required which was suited to the type of walls in the property. Whilst waiting for these to be sourced, the resident reported that the radiator had fallen onto her son. The landlord apologised for the distress caused and the “frustration” of waiting for the additional parts to be supplied. It noted that an operative attended on 5 February 2021 but required further assistance and a further appointment had been made for 9 February 2021.
  8. The landlord confirmed that the radiators were now secure and it would be attending the property on 22 February 2021 to carry out works to make good the wall around the radiator. It stated that “with any item fixed to a wall that becomes loose it is foreseeable that it may cause an accident… as our tenant you must ensure that you minimise all risk around the area until the fix is complete”. It acknowledged that there was a delay in securing the radiators and upheld the resident’s complaint.
  9. The resident escalated her complaint to the final stage on 18 February 2021. She highlighted that the landlord had not addressed the matter of compensation and questioned how she was to “minimise risk around the area”. The resident asserted that “the radiator could’ve fallen off the wall at any time” and asked the landlord to address her request for compensation for the “harm [her] child suffered”.
  10. After the landlord acknowledged the complaint at the final stage of its process on 22 February 2021, it issued a final stage complaint response to the resident on 10 March 2021. In this, it confirmed that it upheld her complaint but acknowledged that it had not addressed the compensation she had requested in her original complaint. The landlord stated that compensation for a personal injury claim was not dealt with under its complaints process and advised her that it had passed the matter to its insurers. It provided her with her reference number and a claim form and advised her that its insurers would investigate the matter. The landlord apologised for not addressing this matter in its stage one complaint response.
  11. In response to this Service’s information request for the investigation of this complaint, the landlord provided accounts from its operatives which recorded that the resident said that “her child “keeps messing and pulling at the heaters”” and that the heaters were installed “to manufacturers’ instructions but due to the weight of the heaters and tenant’s child hanging from them the plasterboard has given way behind”.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

  1. The landlord’s tenancy agreement with the resident confirms that it is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the installations in the property for the supply of heating.
  2. The landlord’s complaints procedure provides for a two-stage complaints procedure with responses due within ten working days at both stages.
  3. The landlord’s compensation policy states that all claims for personal injury must be referred to its insurance and/or legal advisors.
  4. The landlord’s repairs leaflet states that, for non-emergency repairs which do not pose an immediate health and safety risk, it will arrange a “suitably convenient” appointment to carry out the work.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the safety of storage heaters installed in her property

  1. The landlord had an obligation, as confirmed by the tenancy agreement above at point 12, to carry out repairs to the resident’s storage heaters. It therefore responded appropriately when it attended the property on 28 July 2020 and 15 January 2021 to carry out repairs to reattach the storage heaters to the walls. Given that there was no evidence of the repair being an immediate health and safety risk and that it was not reported that there was no heating at the property, it attended in reasonable timeframes on both occasions.
  2. The resident has expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of the landlord’s workmanship, which she held responsible for the storage heater in the living room coming away from the wall. There is no evidence that this was due to poor workmanship. Given that the resident was aware that a follow up visit was required to finish securing the storage heater, on balance, the landlord responded reasonably in its stage one complaint response in saying that she was expected to minimise the risk from the storage heater until the repair was complete. While the landlord upheld the resident’s complaint on the basis of the delay in acquiring parts to complete the repair, there was no evidence of a failure in the landlord’s response to her reports of safety concerns over the storage heaters.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

  1. The landlord’s stage one complaint response on 17 February 2021 acknowledged that the resident’s desired resolution was compensation for personal injury, yet this did not address the issue until its final stage response on 10 March 2021. It was reasonable, and in accordance with its compensation policy above at point 14, for it to advise the resident in its final response that claims for personal injury should be made through its insurers. However, it was a failure on the landlord’s part that it did not address this sooner, necessitating the escalation of the complaint by the resident before this was clarified.
  2. The resident’s complaint escalation request on 18 February 2021 questioned how it expected her to “minimise risk” but this was not addressed in its final response. It is expected of a landlord to ensure that all aspects of a resident’s complaint are addressed appropriately to ensure that its position is clarified. Therefore, there was a failure by the landlord in its handling of the complaint.
  3. While the landlord failed to handle the complaint appropriately, there is no evidence of this causing detriment to the resident, nor evidence that this would change the outcome of the complaint. Therefore, compensation is not merited under the circumstances, but to ‘put things right’ the landlord will be ordered to write to the resident to apologise for not addressing the issues in her complaint fully and to explain the measures it alluded to in its stage one complaint response for minimising risks in using the storage heaters.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its response to the resident’s concerns over the safety of storage heaters at her property.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of the associated complaint.

Reasons

  1. The landlord responded reasonably to the resident’s reports of the storage heaters coming loose from the wall and carried out remedial work within reasonable timeframes in accordance with its obligations under the tenancy agreement.
  2. The landlord did not fully address the points of complaint raised by the resident at both stages of the complaints process.

Orders and recommendations

Order

  1. Within 28 days, the landlord is to write to the resident to apologise for not fully addressing all points of her complaint and explain the measures that could be taken by the resident to minimise risks when using the storage heaters in the future.