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Guinness Housing Association Limited (202216676)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202216676

Guinness Housing Association Limited

27 July 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 the resident’s:
    1.  reports of mould at the property.
    2. associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. The resident has stated that she has a disability, and the resident made the landlord aware of this.
  2. The resident submitted a legal disrepair claim via her solicitor to the landlord in relation to the damp and mould in the property. The disrepair claim was settled on 6 May 2022 for the sum of £1000. The resident received £313.20 after the deduction of the solicitor and insurance fees.
  3. On 8 August 2022, the resident submitted a complaint to the landlord. She explained that she was unhappy the works to resolve the damp and mould issue had not been completed. The resident stated that her solicitor told her the repair works would be completed by 25 July 2022.
  4. On 18 August 2022, the landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response. The landlord stated that it previously agreed that the outstanding repairs to resolve the mould issue would be completed by 25 July 2022, however this was not the case. The landlord apologised for the delay in completing the repairs. The landlord stated that its electrician would attend the resident’s property on 26 August 2022 and a further appointment for decoration works and flooring had been scheduled for 13 September 2022. The landlord offered the resident £50 for the unreasonable delay to complete the repairs and the distress and inconvenience caused.
  5. The resident called the landlord on 31 August 2022 and requested her complaint to be escalated to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaints process. She stated she made a complaint over the phone on 8 August 2022, and it had well over the allotted 10 days to respond to her.
  6. On 28 September 2022, the landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response. It stated that the outstanding repairs were scheduled to be completed on 17 and 18 October 2022. As an apology for its failures, it offered the resident an increased compensation amount of £325. This included £200 compensation for the delay in completing the repairs, and £125 for the reimbursement of the cost of wallpaper and paint that the resident purchased. The landlord also offered the resident £50 compensation on 28 November 2022 for the further delays she experienced.
  7. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and submitted her complaint to the Ombudsman. The resident’s desired outcome was to receive further compensation for the length of time it took to resolve the mould issue. In addition, she would like compensation for the loss of use of the bedroom whilst the mould issue was awaiting to be resolved.
  8. On 13 July 2023, the landlord contacted the Ombudsman and offered additional compensation of £538.75 to acknowledge the loss of use of the resident’s spare bedroom. The breakdown of the compensation included:
    1. £346.32 – which was 10% of the resident’s weekly rent from 6 September 2021 up to 4 April 2022.
    2. £236.75 – which is 10% of the resident’s weekly rent from 4 April 2022 up to   12 August 2022.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of mould at the property

  1. The resident submitted a disrepair claim to the landlord via her solicitor in relation to the mould at the property. Making a disrepair claim is a legal process which sits outside the landlord’s complaints process. Therefore, this report will only investigate and focus on events after the disrepair claim was settled. The disrepair claim was settled on 6 May 2022. This report will not investigate the mould issues prior to this date. This is in line with the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (published on our website) which sets out the rules which govern our service. Paragraph 42(f) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme explains that this Service cannot investigate complaints that concern matters where a complainant has or had the opportunity to raise the subject matter of the complaint as part of legal proceedings.
  2. The landlord’s damp and mould policy states that residents are required to report any problems relating to damp and mould as soon as possible after noticing the problem. The policy also states when the landlord receives a report of damp or mould, an operative will visit the resident’s property to determine the cause and seek to resolve the immediate issue. The damp and mould policy explains that any required repairs are to be dealt with in accordance with the landlord’s responsive repairs policy.
  3. The landlord’s responsive repairs policy states that the landlord will respond to an emergency repair within 24 hours. It explains that it will either complete a repair or carry out a temporary repair to make the situation safe within 24 hours of the repair being reported. The landlord’s responsive repairs policy also states that for routine repairs it aims to complete the repair within 28 working days.
  4. Following the settlement of the disrepair claim, the landlord agreed that the works to resolve the mould issues would be completed by 25 July 2022. However, the landlord failed to meet this deadline and the works to resolve the mould issue were not completed until 10 November 2022.  The Ombudsman acknowledges that some of the delays were due to the landlord arranging for a different contractor to complete the works. However, the further delays by the landlord were unreasonable and it resulted in the resident awaiting several months from the agreed date for the works to be completed to resolve the mould issue.  Damp and mould can pose a significant risk to health, and therefore the delay in completing work to resolve this was unacceptable.
  5. The delay in resolving the mould issue, would have caused significant distress and inconvenience to the resident. The Ombudsman recognises that it must be very difficult for the resident living in property with mould conditions for such a long period of time, especially as the resident has also stated that she had a disability and had to sleep on the sofa because the bedroom was unusable due to mould.
  6. The landlord has acknowledged during its own internal complaints process that there have been delays in completing the proposed works to resolve the mould issue. The landlord apologised to the resident in its stage 1 complaint response and final response for the delays in completing the works. The landlord initially offered the resident £50 compensation in its stage 1 complaint response to recognise the delay. The landlord then increased its offer of compensation in its final response letter to recognise the further delays. The landlord offered the resident an increased compensation amount of £325. In addition, the landlord offered the resident a further £50 compensation on 28 November 2022 to recognise the further delays she experienced until that time.
  7. On 13 July 2023, the landlord made a further increased offer of compensation. The landlord offered compensation of £538.75 to acknowledge the loss of the resident’s spare room whilst the mould works were still outstanding. The landlord’s additional offer of compensation resulted in a total of £913.75 compensation which was offered to the resident.
  8. The Ombudsman acknowledges that the landlord not completing the agreed works to resolve the mould issue was unreasonable and would have caused the resident significant distress and inconvenience. However, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, the total compensation of £913.75 offered by the landlord is reasonable and proportionately recognises the significant delay and distress the resident would have experienced. The amount of compensation offered by the landlord is compliant with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance (published on our website), which sets out the Ombudsman’s approach to compensation. The remedies guidance suggests awards of £600 to £1000 where there has been a serious failure by the landlord which had a significant impact on the resident.
  9. The Ombudsman recognises that the landlord identified that there was a failure in its handling of the mould at the resident’s property. The landlord initially offered the resident £375 compensation during its internal complaints process. The increased offer of £913.75 was only recently offered to the resident on 13 July 2023. This service recognises that the landlord eventually identified that it should provide compensation to the resident for the loss of the bedroom. However, this was not identified until the resident’s complaint was submitted to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman acknowledges that the landlord has continued to attempt to put things right for the resident after the complaint came to the Ombudsman. However, the Ombudsman’s investigation is focused on the landlord’s handling of the complaint through its internal complaints process. Therefore, whilst we agree the landlord’s latest offer is fair, as it is in line with our service’s remedies guidance, this offer should have been made sooner, during the complaints process. Therefore, there has been a service failure in the landlord’s handling of the mould at the resident’s property based on its handling of this matter through its complaints process.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint  

  1. The resident has raised concerns about the landlord’s handling of the complaint and has asked the Ombudsman to investigate this issue. The resident has stated that she was unhappy with the landlord’s response times. She is also unhappy that the landlord did not begin its internal complaints process until the disrepair claim was settled.
  2. The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) sets out the Ombudsman’s expectations for landlords’ complaint handling practices. The Code states that a stage 1 response should be provided within 10 working days of the complaint. It also explains that a stage 2 response should be provided within 20 working days from the request to escalate the complaint. The landlord’s complaints policy includes the same timescales which are referenced in The Code.
  3. The resident submitted a complaint to the landlord on 8 August 2022 about the delays in the landlord completing works to resolve the mould issue at her property. Following this, the landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response to the resident on 18 August 2022. The response was provided within 8 working days of the landlord receiving the resident’s complaint. Therefore, the response was on time and compliant with the timescales referenced in the Code and the landlord’s complaints policy.
  4. On 31 August 2022, the resident contacted the landlord and requested her complaint to be escalated to the next stage of the landlord’s complaints process. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response to the resident on 28 September 2022, which was within 19 working days of the resident submitting her escalation. The landlord’s response time was reasonable.
  5. The landlord provided both its stage 1 and 2 complaints responses within a reasonable time and in line with the timescales referenced in the Code and its own complaint policy. The landlord’s responses were also adequate, and it acknowledged its failings in completing the repair works to resolve the damp and mould. It was also reasonable for the landlord not to begin its internal complaint process before the disrepair claim had been resolved and settled. This is because as explained above, disrepair claims fall outside the complaints process as there is a separate legal process for such claims. The Ombudsman has not identified any issues with the landlord’s complaint handling. Therefore, there has been no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was a service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s report of mould at the property.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

Orders

  1. The landlord to pay the resident £538.75 compensation which it offered in its letter dated 13 July 2023. In addition, the landlord should pay the resident £375 compensation it offered during its internal complaints process if it hasn’t already done so. This payment should be made within four weeks of the date of this report.