Landlords can now complete the Complaint Handling Code Annual Submissions form. More information is available online.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council (202204229)

Back to Top

 

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202204229

Hammersmith and Fulham Council

23 October 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 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 concerns:
    1. How the landlord handled reports of a blocked and overflowing waste pipe.
    2. The associated formal complaint into this matter.

Background

  1. The resident is a leaseholder of the landlord, which is a local authority. The property is a flat in a communal building. The resident sub-lets the property to a tenant.
  2. The landlord’s records state that it was informed by the resident’s tenant on 24 November 2021 of an issue with the waste pipe overflowing due to blockages. An inspection was arranged for 3 December 2021, which recommended a CCTV survey of the waste pipe. The survey recommended that the waste pipe should be descaled. This work was booked for 27 January 2022.
  3. On 4 January 2022, the resident contacted the landlord and requested to raise a complaint into how the issue was being handled by the landlord. He described the elements of the complaint as:
    1. His tenant had contacted the landlord on numerous occasions about problems with the waste pipe, but the matter had yet to be resolved.
    2. Food and oil waste that had been put down the waste pipe had backed up the gully and had resulted in a slippery residue coving the parking area for the building and left the inspection hatch underwater.
    3. He was concerned that if the waste pipe was left in its current condition that it would cause flooding in the area and that his property would be heavily affected as it was on the ground floor.
  4. As a resolution to the complaint, the resident requested that the landlord undertake a full CCTV survey of all the pipework, repair any damage to the pipes, visit the properties in the building to provide information on how to correctly use the waste pipes, and for the landlord to undertake regular inspections of the pipework and sewer.
  5. In its complaint responses, the landlord confirmed that the work to descale the waste pipe would go ahead on 27 January 2022. It apologised for the delay from when the issued was reported in November 2021 until the work was scheduled and offered £50 compensation for the inconvenience that this had caused.
  6. During the descaling work on 27 January 2022, it was discovered that a gas pipe had been put through the drainage pipe. The landlord raised an emergency repair and the gas supplier inspected the pipe on 28 January 2022. The gas supplier informed the landlord that the gas pipe was not live and was disconnected from the gas network. An internal landlord email sent on 28 January 2022 stated that further work may be required following on from the inspection by the gas supplier.
  7. In referring the case to this Service, the resident described the outstanding issues of the complaint as that he had received incomplete and contradictory information from the landlord on the status of repairs to the waste pipe, it was not clear if the repairs to the pipe had been completed, and that this had been an ongoing issue for more than ten years.

Assessment and findings

Relevant policies and procedures

  1. The sixth schedule of the leasehold agreement sets out the landlord’s repair responsibilities. This states that the landlord is responsible for the maintenance and the upkeep of the structure of the building (including rainwater, soil and waste pipes) and the communal areas.
  2. The landlord’s repair handbook prioritises its repairs as “Emergency” (attend within two or 24 hours), “Urgent” (attend within three or five working days) and “Routine” (attend within 20 working days). The handbook does not give a definition of an emergency repair, but the examples it gives of situations that it would consider an emergency include major leaks, burst pipes, and a gas escape.
  3. The landlord operates a two-stage complaints process. When a complaint is received, the landlord aims to provide a response at stage one within 15 working days. If the complainant is dissatisfied with the response, they can request an escalation of the complaint to the next stage. The landlord will then undertake a review of the complaint and provide a stage two response within 20 working days. This will be the landlord’s final response to the complaint.
  4. The complaints policy states that the landlord follows the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s (LGSCO) remedies guidance. This recommends that a compensation payment should be considered to remedy personal injustice where investigations have found there has been fault.

Scope of investigation

  1. In raising the complaint with the landlord and in bringing the case to this Service, the resident has stated that that there had been ongoing problems with the waste pipe and drainage for at least ten years. The Ombudsman encourages residents to raise complaints with their landlords in a timely manner, so that the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to consider the issues whilst they are still ‘live’, and whilst the evidence is available to reach an informed conclusion on the events which occurred. As the substantive issues become historical it is increasingly difficult for either the landlord, or an independent body such as the Ombudsman, to conduct an effective review of the actions taken to address those issues.
  2. This is in accordance with paragraph 42(c) of the Scheme, which states that we will not consider complaints that were not brought to the attention of the landlord as a formal complaint within a reasonable period, which would normally be within six months of the matters arising. In view of the time periods involved in this case, taking into account the availability and reliability of evidence, this assessment does not consider any specific events prior to July 2021. The historical issues provide contextual background to the current complaint, but the assessment is focused on the landlord’s actions in responding to the more recent events and, specifically, to the formal complaint made in January 2022

How the landlord handled reports of a blocked and overflowing waste pipe

  1. Once it was informed by the resident and his tenant of the issue with the waste pipe, the landlord had a duty to respond to the matter in line with the obligations set out in the leasehold agreement and its published policies and procedures.
  2. Initially, the landlord acted appropriately to the reports. It arranged for an inspection and CCTV survey of the pipe. It then booked the recommended work from the survey to descale the pipe. As the work occurred outside of the 20-working day window for a routine repair, it was appropriate for the landlord to apologise to the resident in its stage one complaint response and offer compensation in recognition of the inconvenience that this delay had caused him and his tenant. The landlord also arranged for a hand-delivered letter to be sent to all properties in the building to remind households what material can and cannot be flushed down toilets and put down sink waste pipes. This was also appropriate action for the landlord to take as it recognised the source of the blockage issues and showed that it was looking to work with the residents of the building to prevent a similar issue occurring again.
  3. However, there were clearly issues with how the landlord handled the matter following the 27 January 2022 appointment. The descaling work resulted in the discovery of a gas pipe within the drainage pipe. The landlord raised an emergency repair to investigate the matter further. This was appropriate action for the landlord to take as any issues with the gas supply to the building would be considered an emergency. The gas supplier attended on 28 January 2022. It informed the landlord that the pipe was not connected to the gas supply and that it would send a full report into the matter.
  4. Between 2 and 7 February 2022 the resident asked the landlord for updates on the status of work to the pipe and requested a copy of the report from the gas supplier. The landlord informed the resident that it was chasing the gas supplier to provide it with the report. The resident requested an escalation of the complaint on 9 February 2022. Following a delay (which is covered in more detail below), the stage two response was sent on 12 May 2022. The response informed the resident that all work to the pipe had been completed and that it stood by the resolution it offered at stage one of £50 compensation.
  5. No evidence has been provided by the landlord that confirms that any work had been undertaken since the 28 January 2022 inspection by the gas supplier, or that it received the inspection report from the gas supplier. Moreover, in an internal email sent by the landlord on 21 July 2022, the landlord stated that the information provided in the stage two response was incorrect and that “the works have not been carried out and if it has been completed the report [has] yet to be provided”.
  6. A further landlord internal email 4 August 2022 stated that a further stage two response was required to be sent once it had collected all the required information to explain the status of the work to the resident. However, this did not occur prior to the case being put forward by this Service for formal investigation on 13 August 2022.
  7. Therefore, there has been maladministration by the landlord as due to its poor record keeping it was unable to properly explain to the resident during the complaint process what work had been carried out to the waste pipe since the gas supplier inspected it on 28 January 2022. This caused inconvenience to the resident and his tenant, due to the time and trouble caused to them in contacting the landlord on numerous occasions chasing updates and highlighting their concerns relating to the status of the gas pipe within the drainage pipe, which were not properly addressed by the landlord. In order to resolve this aspect of the complaint, the landlord should write to the resident to confirm the current status of the pipe, explain what work has been undertaken since the 28 January 2022 inspection and what work, if any, remains outstanding. It would also be appropriate for the landlord to pay compensation.
  8. The Ombudsman’s own remedies guidance (which is available on our website) suggests a payment of £100 to £600 for considerable service failure or maladministration which has adversely affected a resident, but resulted in no permanent impact. Examples of when this level of redress should be considered would include failure over a considerable period of time to act in accordance with policy (such as addressing repairs) or failing to address all relevant aspects of the complaint, leading to considerable delay in resolving a complaint. Therefore, it would be appropriate for the landlord to pay £300 to the resident, in addition to the £50 it already offered in its complaint process, in recognition of its poor communication and record keeping which resulted in considerable inconvenience to the resident who was unable to find out what work the landlord had completed to the pipe after 28 January 2022.

The landlord’s complaint handling

  1. On receiving the resident’s request to escalate the complaint on 9 February 2022, the landlord replied on the same day. It confirmed that it had escalated the complaint and that it aimed to provide a stage two complaint response by 9 March 2022. There was a delay in providing a response due to the complaint handler being absent. The resident was informed by the landlord of the situation and on 16 March 2022 it called the resident to inform him that the complaint had been assigned to a new complaint handler. However, the stage two response was not sent until 12 May 2022; a further delay of 40 working days. No evidence has been provided that shows that the landlord informed the resident of the reasons for the further delay or that an additional delay in sending the response was agreed to by the resident. The landlord made no mention of this delay in the stage two response.
  2. Moreover, the landlord incorrectly informed the resident to contact the LGSCO rather this this Service if he was dissatisfied with the final response to the complaint. This resulted in further delay and inconvenience to the resident. The resident wrote to the landlord on 15 May 2022 and informed it of his intention to progress the complaint further. He then wrote to this Service on 31 May 2022 and asked us to consider the complaint, explaining the delay in making contact was as a result of him first mistakenly bringing the complaint to the LGSCO.
  3. Therefore, there has been service failure by the landlord in its complaint handling and further compensation is warranted to resolve this aspect of the complaint. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance suggests a payment of £50 to £100 for service failure of a short duration that did not affect the overall outcome of the complaint. This includes distress and inconvenience, time and trouble, disappointment, loss of confidence, and delays in getting matters resolved. It would therefore be appropriate for the landlord to pay £100 compensation for the 40 working day delay in providing the stage two response following the change of complaint handler, and £50 compensation for the delay and inconvenience cause to the resident by incorrectly informing him to contact the LGSCO if he wished to progress the complaint further. This would make a total compensation payment of £150 for this element of the complaint.
  4. It has also been ordered that the landlord review its complaint handling procedures to ensure that complainants are signposted to the correct ombudsman service once the internal complaints process has expired.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in respect of how it handled reports of a blocked and overflowing waste pipe.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in respect of its complaint handling.

Orders and recommendations

Orders.

  1. For the service failure and reasons set out above, the landlord is ordered to pay to the resident £500, made up as follows:
    1. £350 for the failures identified in this report in relation to its handling of the blocked and overflowing waste pipe. This includes the £50 compensation already awarded by the landlord in its complaint process, if the landlord has not already paid this to the resident.
    2. £150 for the complaint handling failures identified in this report.
  2. It is further ordered that the landlord write to the resident to confirm the current status of the waste pipe, explain what work has been undertaken since the 28 January 2022 inspection and what work, if any, remains outstanding.
  3. The landlord is to review its complaint handling procedures to ensure that complainants are signposted to the correct ombudsman service once the internal complaints process has expired.
  4. These orders are to be complied with within four weeks of the date of this report. The landlord should update this Service when it has complied.