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Hammersmith and Fulham Council (202224400)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202224400

Hammersmith and Fulham Council

8 February 2024


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. This complaint is about the landlord’s:
    1. Handling of repairs at the resident’s property.
    2. The level of compensation offered.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy with the landlord, which is a local authority. The property is a 2 bedroom flat. The tenancy succeeded the tenancy on 14 June 2021.
  2. On 1 December 2022 the resident contacted the landlord and raised a stage 1 complaint about the landlord’s handling of outstanding repairs at property, namely the windows, staircase and water tank.
  3. On 12 December 2022, the resident’s solicitor submitted a ‘letter of claim’ to the landlord, in accordance with the Pre-action Protocol for Housing Condition Claims.
  4. The landlord provided a stage 1 response on 20 December 2022 where it apologised for the delays and offered £350 compensation. On 22 December 2022, the resident escalated his complaint to stage 2 as he disagreed with the level of compensation offered by the landlord as he felt it should be increased due the health implications he had suffered as result of the water tank.
  5. On 10 January 2023 the landlord provided its stage 2 response where it apologised for length of time the repairs had been outstanding and confirmed new appointment dates, it also offered £350 compensation.
  6. On 14 March 2023, a full property inspection was carried out in relation to the disrepair case, which identified the outstanding issues with the windows and staircase. It also confirmed that the old water tank had been removed, but the pipework needed attention. 
  7. On 30 January 2024, the landlord confirmed that the outstanding works, which were the subject of the complaint, had been completed.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 41c of the Housing Ombudsman Code Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion concern matters where a complainant has or had the opportunity to raise the subject matter of the complaint as part of legal proceedings.
  2. On 18 October 2023 the landlord informed the Ombudsman that in May 2023, the landlord reached a settlement with the resident, whereby it agreed to pay £3000 in damages, which was paid on 6 June 2023. Costs were also settled in August 2023. The landlord further confirmed on 23 November 2023 that new windows had been fitted within the property.
  3. The Ombudsman notes that the resident has informed the landlord and the Service of the exacerbated health issues he says he has experienced, which he says are as a result of the landlord’s actions. The Ombudsman is unable to determine a causal link between these and the landlord’s actions. Often when there is a dispute over whether a health issue has been made worse, the courts rely on expert evidence in the form of a medico-legal report. This will give an expert opinion of the cause or deterioration of a condition. Without that evidence, this Service is not able to draw any conclusions on whether the resident or his son’s health has been affected. This question may be better for the courts to decide, where an expert can be cross examined during a live hearing.
  4. Therefore, after carefully considering all the evidence, in accordance with paragraph 41c of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the following aspect of the complaint is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction:
    1. The landlord’s handling of repairs at the resident’s property.
  5. The handling of the complaint and the landlord’s offer of compensation is fundamentally linked to the substantive issues and to extrapolate the landlord’s complaint handling from the substantive issues and consider this in silo would not allow for a fair and thorough assessment of the case. 
  6. This is also consistent with paragraph 41(c) of the Scheme, insofar as the resident would have had the opportunity to raise his dissatisfaction with the landlord’s handling of the complaint and compensation offer, as part of any legal proceedings.
  7. Therefore the level of compensation offered will also not be investigated.