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Housing 21 (202107347)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202107347

Housing 21

30 August 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 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 landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns over other residents’ use of her housing scheme’s communal drying/garden area.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord of a flat in an assisted living housing scheme. There are shared communal garden areas for residents to use, which contain washing lines to hang clothes.
  2. The resident contacted the landlord raising concerns over the use of the communal drying/garden area by other residents in July 2021. She expressed dissatisfaction that they were using the clothes drying area as a communal living space, raising concerns of adding pot plants, smoking and social activities there on their part instead of drying washing.
  3. The landlord discussed the issue with the resident on 26 July 2021, stating that the communal drying/garden area was free for use by the residents as they chose, and it encouraged them to live in accordance with its choice and consensus policy and procedure. She then raised an informal complaint with it regarding their incorrect use of the area with the knowledge of its staff on 12 August 2021, however she remained dissatisfied with this position and, on contacting this Service, she then raised a stage one complaint with landlord.
  4. The resident received a stage one complaint response on 6 September 2021. The landlord stated that it could find no evidence of wrongdoing in its investigations of her allegations against other residents and of its staff’s behaviour, again emphasising that it encouraged residents to live independently in accordance with its choice and consensus policy and procedure. It added that it could review the consensus of residents over the use of the communal drying/garden area with a residents’ meeting.
  5. The resident subsequently requested a final stage complaint escalation, as she remained dissatisfied that the use of the communal drying/garden area had changed to socialising by a few other residents without prior consultation with the rest of her housing scheme. She received the landlord’s final stage complaint response on 12 October 2021, in which it confirmed that it had talked to its staff and other residents at the scheme about the use of communal spaces and they had agreed that, if there was washing present, not to smoke in the area that was for the use of all residents. The landlord also advised that, as the drying area remained undisturbed and was still available for use, it would not be taking the issue any further.
  6. The resident was dissatisfied with this response and complained to this Service that she wanted the landlord to re-instate the communal drying/garden area for drying only. She believed that it had shown favouritism towards other residents, who were friends of its staff and were using the space as a social area from morning until dusk, including up to the present. The resident considered this to be antisocial behaviour that had distressed her, as the other residents’ smoking and drinking in the area was in her direct line of sight from her property, to which she had not consented and might have increased electricity costs from the lack of drying in the area. She suggested that they use other areas not in her line of sight instead.
  7. The landlord then explained to this Service at our request that the original use of the communal drying/garden area in the resident’s housing scheme had not changed, but that this had always had seating for residents to congregate and socialise. This included smoking in the area where there was no washing drying there, putting pot plants in the area and storing garden furniture there with a bin to keep this tidy, for which no formal agreement was required to use the area in this way. The landlord added that it had sent a letter to all of the scheme’s residents on 8 April 2021 inviting their feedback on smoking in gardens, but that its newsletter confirmed to them on 6 June 2021 that the consensus of their responses was agreement with the existing arrangements, with no further concerns raised about this.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident has also complained to this Service about other residents’ use of the communal drying/garden area as a social space up to the present in 2022. However, this is outside the scope of this investigation because, under the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, we cannot investigate complaints that are made prior to having exhausted a landlord’s complaint procedure, as the landlord needs to be given a chance to respond to these accordingly. As there is no evidence that the resident has raised a complaint to the landlord about its handling of her concerns over other residents’ use of the communal drying/garden area in 2022 that has exhausted its complaints procedure yet, this investigation will only consider the events in her case in 2021.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns over other residents’ use of her housing scheme’s communal drying/garden area

  1. The landlord’s court service agreement, which relates to residents’ use of the resident’s housing scheme, states that it allows residents to smoke within their own properties and outside where it has fitted signs, but not in indoor communal spaces or halls/corridors. It further encourages residents to make their own individual choices or if not via consensus with everyone at the scheme, provided that they do not need prior approval from it.
  2. The landlord’s choice and consensus policy and procedure supports residents to make choices to live as independently as possible. Where decisions, or residents’ actions are disputed, it will hold a consensus with residents to allow an outcome that the majority are happy with.
  3. The landlord acted appropriately discussing the concerns with other residents’ use of the communal drying garden area with the resident in July 2021. It demonstrated that it had taken her concerns seriously by conducting an investigation into this with its staff and her housing scheme’s other residents. The landlord found that the actions of other residents were in accordance with its choice and consensus policy. It further added that it had found no wrongdoing caused by other residents’ actions.
  4. The landlord stated it had canvassed other residents’ views on the current usage of the communal drying area in its final stage complaint response on 12 October 2021. Although this was disputed by the resident, it confirmed to this Service that it had sent a letter to all residents at her housing scheme on 8 April 2021, in the absence of residents’ meetings during the Covid-19 lockdown, inviting their feedback on smoking in gardens. Ultimately, however, the landlord found that the consensus of residents’ responses was agreement with the smoking permitted in indicated outdoor areas by its court service agreement, which its newsletter confirmed to them on 6 June 2021, with no concerns about this having been raised by other residents.
  5. It was appropriate for the landlord to review the residents’ consensus about the use of the communal drying/garden area at the resident’s housing scheme that currently existed, as she disputed this and its choice and consensus policy and procedure therefore required it to do so. As a result, it agreed on 6 September 2021 to look to arrange a residents’ meeting once lockdown restrictions had lifted, where she could express her concerns in accordance with the policy and procedure. It is nevertheless unclear whether this has since gone ahead, and it has therefore been recommended below that the landlord arranges such a meeting.
  6. In accordance with the landlord’s court service agreement, it acknowledged the resident’s concerns that other residents used the communal drying/garden area to smoke and socialise. It noted in its final stage complaint response, however, that this was not to the detriment or function of the drying area but that it had, nevertheless, come to a reasonable agreement with them, asking residents at her housing scheme not to smoke when someone hung laundry in the area.
  7. The landlord acted appropriately in investigating the history of the communal drying/garden area and finding that pot plants, garden furniture and a bin to keep this tidy had been incorporated into the area by other residents. It found that the use of the area had never formally changed and it agreed that, as the grounds remained accessible and were kept tidy, no formal agreement was required for this to function in such a manner. It was therefore reasonable that the landlord’s final stage complaint response found that, as the communal grounds remained undisturbed and still available for use, no further action would be taken by it on the matter.
  8. To conclude, the landlord followed its policies, ensuring that the resident was treated fairly while encouraging her to live independently in accordance with its choice and consensus policy and procedure. Ultimately, it could find no wrongdoing in the other residents’ actions and so it acted fairly and appropriately in line with this Service’s expectations. As such, we have found no failure in the landlord’s handling of this issue.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns over other residents’ use of her housing scheme’s communal drying/garden area.

Recommendation

  1. It is recommended that the landlord review the consensus of residents over the use of the communal drying/garden area in the resident’s housing scheme with the residents’ meeting suggested in its stage one complaint response to her, if it has not done so already.