Hyde Housing Association Limited (202216788)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202216788

Hyde Housing Association Limited

7 August 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:
   1. Repairs to the resident’s windows.
   2. The associated complaint.

Scope of investigation

2. Paragraph 42(c) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints that were not brought to the attention of the member landlord as a formal complaint within a reasonable period. This would normally be within 6 months of the matters arising.
3. The resident said that he had been experiencing difficulty progressing repairs with his windows for 5 years. In accordance with paragraph 42(c) above, the Ombudsman cannot consider the historical events as, with the passage of time, it is not possible to establish the facts of the case and make a reliable determination on these. Therefore, this investigation will focus on events from May 2021; this is 6 months prior to the resident raising his formal complaint with the landlord.
4. Paragraph 42(a) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not investigate complaints which are made prior to having exhausted the member landlord’s complaints procedure. This is because the landlord must be provided with the opportunity to first investigate and resolve a complaint through its internal complaints procedure.
5. The landlord’s final response to the resident’s complaint about its handling of the window repairs included a stage one response to a new complaint about a leak. There was no evidence of this complaint being escalated to the final stage of its complaints procedure. Therefore, the leak complaint, and the £150 compensation the landlord offered in respect of this, will not be considered in this investigation. This is in accordance with paragraph 42(a) of the Scheme, above. If he remains dissatisfied, the resident may wish to escalate this complaint with the landlord and he retains the right to bring this new complaint to the Ombudsman as a separate case.

Background

6. The resident is the tenant of the landlord. He chased the landlord for an update on the replacement of his windows on 4 occasions between 25 May and 2 September 2021. This last contact was to raise a complaint about the lack of response from the landlord.
7. The resident corresponded with the landlord between 15 and 18 October 2021 about the windows, when it advised him that cyclical works would take place the following year which would involve the renewal of the windows. When he reported that his windows were difficult to open and close, it raised a repair for this on 18 October 2021.
8. On 24 November 2021, the resident raised a stage 1 complaint with the landlord about its lack of action in addressing his windows. The resident highlighted that the front bedroom windows were faulty and could not be opened properly, and the rear bedroom window was rotten and covered with mould. He pointed out that he had received a visit from the landlord’s contractor a number of months ago but had not received any update on repairs, despite chasing the matter several times.
9. The landlord provided its stage 1 response to the resident on 20 December 2021, in which it acknowledged that he had been reporting the defective windows since May 2021. It noted that it had attended the property in June 2021 to inspect the windows and acknowledged that it had not kept him informed about the repair despite his multiple contacts. The landlord offered the resident compensation of £150 to recognise its lack of communication and confirmed that it would complete the repairs to the windows by the end of January 2022.
10. The landlord attended the resident’s property to carry out the window repairs on 27 January 2022.He escalated his complaint to the final stage the following day as he said he had not been given notice of the appointment and the rear window had not been repaired.
11. The landlord issued its final response to the resident on 23 February 2022. In this it acknowledged that there had been a “breakdown in communication” between itself and its contractor, leading to the rear bedroom window not being repaired. It noted that the resident had relayed that he was unwell and did not want the repair to go ahead immediately. The landlord provided contact details to the resident to arrange an appointment once he was ready and increased its offer of compensation to £200.
12. The resident informed the Ombudsman, on 28 October 2022, that he remained dissatisfied as he had been reporting his windows to the landlord for five years and the repairs remained incomplete. The landlord informed this service, on 15 November 2022, that it had not received contact from the resident to book in the incomplete repair; it advised it would contact him to arrange this and the remaining window was repaired on 15 February 2022. On 25 May 2023, the landlord increased its total offer of compensation to the resident to £500 excluding the £150 compensation the landlord offered in respect of the leak.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s windows

13. The landlord’s tenancy agreement with the resident states that it is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the structure of the property. This confirms that it had a repairing obligation to ensure that the windows of the property were in good repair. The landlord’s repairs procedure confirms that, for a non-emergency repair, it should arrange a repair appointment with the resident within 20 working days of the report.
14. The above timeframe is for a responsive repair, when an element of the property presents an immediate defect. When a structural element, such as a window, is not defective but is outdated, it is reasonable for a landlord to address this through its cyclical repair programme. It would be expected to satisfy itself that this was the case, and the landlord’s records from 27 August 2021 showed that its staff had consulted and found that the windows were not in need of replacement. A landlord has a duty to manage its resources effectively for the benefit of its residents; therefore, when windows can be economically repaired, rather than replaced, it is reasonable for it to do so.
15. While it was reasonable that the landlord deemed the windows repairable and therefore did not require replacement, it failed to respond to his enquiries about the replacement of his windows for 5 months. This was in spite of multiple contacts from him and his complaint request on 2 September 2021. This was a communication failure which likely caused frustration, uncertainty and inconvenience for the resident in having to chase responses from the landlord.
16. Although the resident pursued the landlord for updates on the replacement of his windows, there was no evidence of him reporting that he was unable to open or close his windows properly until 18 October 2021. Therefore, there was no failure by the landlord to carry out the responsive repair up to this point. However, although it raised a repair for the resident’s windows on 18 October 2021, this was not attempted until 27 January 2022, approximately 3 months later, and was prompted by his complaint. This was a failure by the landlord to complete a repair within the timeframe specified in its repairs procedure, above.
17. On its repair visit on 27 January 2022, the landlord also failed to complete all the reported repairs. It is noted that the landlord’s final response asked the resident to contact it to book the remaining repair work, as it was aware that his health prevented him from receiving a repair visit at the time. There was no evidence that he contacted the landlord to arrange this; consequently, it would be unreasonable to attribute any subsequent delay to the landlord.
18. The landlord’s final response acknowledged that there had been a communication failure which led to one of the reported windows being left unrepaired. It offered £200 compensation for this in its final response. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance provides for awards of compensation of between £100 and £600 for instances of failure which led to detriment for the resident, over an extended period, but which did not lead to a permanent impact on the resident. Compensation will be discussed further below.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

19. The landlord’s complaints policy states that it considers a complaint to be “an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual”. This mirrors the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code).
20. The Code goes on to set out that “a landlord must accept a complaint unless there is a valid reason not to do so”. If it chooses not to progress a complaint then it should clearly explain why to the resident.
21. When the resident contacted the landlord on 2 September 2021, he said that he wished to raise a formal complaint about its lack of response to his enquiries about the replacement of his windows. The landlord did not raise a stage 1 complaint until 24 November 2021, when the resident reiterated his dissatisfaction with the length of time he had waited for a response to his enquiries.
22. It was therefore a failure by the landlord to handle the resident’s complaint appropriately. In accordance with its policy and the Code it should have acknowledged his complaint on 2 September 2021 and raised a stage 1 complaint. This led to a delay in the resolution of the resident’s complaint and likely led to frustration and uncertainty for him.
23. The landlord’s stage 1 and final responses failed to recognise that it had not raised the complaint on 2 September 2021, nor did it offer any compensation to recognise that this failure prolonged the time taken for the consideration of his complaint.

The landlord’s revised offer of compensation

24. On 25 May 2023, the landlord made a revised offer of compensation to the resident of £500, made up of £400 for its repair failures and the £100 for its complaint handling failures. This was comparable to the awards the Ombudsman would typically order in such circumstances.
25. However, this revised offer does not result in a finding of reasonable redress. While the amount the landlord offered was proportionate the failures exhibited, it was a failure by the landlord not to made an appropriate award at the time of the complaint. It was unreasonable that this revised offer was only made after 15 months had elapsed since the conclusion of the complaint and after it became aware that the complaint was referred to the Ombudsman.
26. Therefore, while the compensation amount will not be altered, determinations of service failure will be made and the landlord will be ordered to pay the £500 compensation specified in its revised offer.

Determination

27. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in:
    1. Its handling of repairs to the resident’s windows.
    2. Its handling of the associated complaint.

Orders

28. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Pay the resident the £500 compensation it offered him in its revised offer, of which:
       1. £400 is to recognise its failures in the handling of the window repairs.
       2. £100 is to recognise its failures in the handling of the complaint.
    2. Confirm to the Ombudsman what steps it will take to improve communication with residents about repairs to ensure that its responses are timely and accurate.
    3. Confirm to the Ombudsman what steps it will take to ensure that residents’ complaints are recognised and acted upon promptly, and responded to appropriately.
    4. Confirm that it has complied with the above orders.