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Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (202221489)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202221489

Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust

22 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 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 response to the resident’s reports of repairs to her windows and front door.

Background

  1. The resident has been a tenant of the landlord of a house since her mutual exchange to the property on 17 September 2021. The landlord has no vulnerabilities recorded for the resident, but she reports that she has arthritis that is made worse by cold, and mental ill-health that has been negatively affected by her housing conditions.
  2. Following a stage 1 complaint from the resident to the landlord on 3 November 2021 about repair issues including the majority of the property’s windows being “blown”, so that they misted up between the panes of glass, and the front door being “flimsy”, it responded to the complaint on 11 November 2021. It agreed to replace the windows and check to ensure that the door was secure and fit for purpose.
  3. The landlord then inspected the resident’s property on 17 November 2021, when it agreed to replace 5 defective windows there, and firstly to repair and then to replace her front door, after this was found on 24 November and 22 December 2021 to be beyond economical repair. It also apologised for the delayed works at the property and offered her £50 compensation on 26 November 2022. The resident nevertheless chased the landlord for a timeframe for the window replacements, as she highlighted that the damaged windows were affecting the warmth of the property and her resulting heating costs.
  4. The resident raised a new stage 1 complaint with the landlord on 23 August 2022, as she was unhappy that she was yet to be provided with a date for when her windows and front door would be replaced. It issued its stage 1 response to her on 24 August 2022, in which it said that it would not be economical or fair to replace her windows and front door at that time, as it had to do so for her whole estate.
  5. The landlord confirmed that it had therefore brought forward a programme of modernisation and planned maintenance to 2023, which would involve the replacement of the resident’s windows and doors, with those of the rest of the estate. Although it agreed to arrange a surveyor’s inspection to see if hers would last through the winter, list her windows to be among the first to be replaced in January 2023, and consider its feedback and guidelines to any residents taking on mutual exchanges like hers.
  6. The resident escalated her complaint with the landlord on 24 August 2022, when she complained that the replacement of the property’s windows, front door and other works had been verbally agreed by it as part of her mutual exchange there but that it had still not given a date for these, and it provided its final response to her on 31 August 2022. In this, it said that it was “satisfied that [her] home remains safe, secure and weather tight in line with [its] duty as a landlord”.
  7. The landlord therefore maintained its previous position on the replacement of the resident’s windows and front door, asserting that its 2023 programme of work at her estate would resolve the issues that she reported, which existed on many other homes on the estate. Although it recorded that it then eased, adjusted and replaced a broken handle for her windows on 3 and 5 October 2022.
  8. The resident then complained to the Ombudsman that she remained dissatisfied, as she considered that she was paying increased heating costs as a result of the defective windows causing draughts that made her property cold, requiring her to use more gas that she could not afford. She explained that this, and the stress of chasing the landlord for the works every 2 weeks, had affected her physical and mental ill-health, after it had told her that her windows would be replaced not long after she moved to the property in September 2021.
  9. To resolve her complaint, the resident wanted the landlord to at least repair or replace the defective double-glazed window units. It subsequently confirmed to the Ombudsman that it had replaced her windows and front door on 9 March 2023.

Assessment and findings

  1. The landlord’s tenancy agreement with the resident confirms that it is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the structure of the property. This includes the windows and exterior doors of the property.
  2. The landlord’s residents’ handbook states that repairs to doors and windows are emergency repairs when there is a genuine security risk, and that these should be attended within 24 hours. Faulty door locks and window fasteners are considered urgent repairs, to be completed within 5 working days. The replacement of faulty double-glazed units and easing of doors and windows are listed as routine repairs, with a 20-working-day timeframe for attendance. Planned maintenance work programmes to keep properties up to a good standard are not given a timeframe, but residents are to be notified well in advance if any such work is to be carried out to their home.
  3. The landlord provided a reasonable response to the resident’s concerns about the replacement of her front door and windows, given that it explained to her in August 2022 that it would do so via its planned maintenance work programme in early 2023. This is because its residents’ handbook required it to notify her of this well in advance, and did not give a specific timeframe for the works.
  4. However, the landlord also previously failed to communicate with the resident and manage her expectations about this following her reports about the issues after it first agreed to replace the front door and windows on 17 and 24 November and 22 December 2021. This was despite her chasing it for a timeframe for it do so, and it apologising and offering her £50 compensation for the delayed works on 26 November 2021.
  5. It is reasonable for a landlord not to repair an element of a property when it is not economically viable to do so, and a replacement would be more appropriate. In line with this, the landlord provided a reasonable explanation to the resident in its complaint responses on 24 and 31 August 2022, when it explained that it “would not make financial sense to the organisation” or be fair to replace the defective double-glazing units and front door at that time. This was because these would then be disposed of when its planned maintenance programme took place to replace the windows and doors across the estate, including hers, in early 2023.
  6. The landlord was seeking to manage its limited resources effectively to provide the greatest benefit to all residents by replacing the estate’s windows and doors at once. Therefore, it was reasonable for it to not carry out the resident’s window and front door replacements when impending planned works would replace any earlier window and front door works.
  7. However, while the landlord’s decision was reasonable, there was a period of approximately 9 months between it identifying the defective windows and front door, and it subsequently informing the resident about its plans for remedying these, which was prompted by her second stage 1 complaint on 23 August 2022. It had nevertheless already informed her, in its previous stage 1 complaint response on 11 November 2021, that it would replace the windows.
  8. The landlord confirmed this on its inspection on 17 November 2021, and it confirmed on 24 November and 22 December 2021 that the front door required replacement. There is nevertheless no evidence that it then carried out any works or communicated with the resident about these until its second stage 1 complaint response on 24 August 2022, and when it eased, adjusted and replaced a broken handle for her windows on 3 and 5 October 2022.
  9. When a landlord chooses not to carry out works, it should have a good reason for this, which it should relay to the resident. It should also provide updates about any forthcoming follow-on work. There was no evidence of any communication from the landlord to the resident about how it would approach the replacement of her windows and front door, however, until it responded to her second stage 1 complaint about this on 24 August 2022. It appears that it made a decision some time after the inspections on 17 and 24 November and 22 December 2021 not to proceed with the replacement works at that time, but this was not relayed to her, which led to uncertainty and frustration for her while she was left unaware of progress, despite continuing to chase it about this.
  10. It is further noted that, while the landlord confirmed to the Ombudsman that the resident’s windows and front door were replaced by it on 9 March 2023, there was no evidence of any further communication from it to her about this. This was further evidence of its failure to manage her expectations, given that its final response said that the replacement programme would commence in January 2023, and that she would be given priority for the work.
  11. The landlord asserted, in its final response on 31 August 2023, that it was satisfied that the resident’s property was “safe, secure and weather tight”. There was nevertheless no evidence of how it came to this conclusion. This is because there was also no evidence that the landlord carried out any further inspections of the property since 17 and 24 November and 22 December 2021 until it eased, adjusted and replaced a broken handle for her windows on 3 and 5 October 2022.
  12. Since it was around 9 months since it identified that repairs were required to the windows and front door, it was unreasonable that the landlord did not carry out a new inspection to confirm that these would remain in a satisfactory condition until the planned works to replace them until October 2022. It had a duty, in accordance with the tenancy agreement, to ensure that the windows and door were secure and fit for purpose, and it should have assessed whether this was the case in their current condition.
  13. Therefore, while it was reasonable for the landlord to postpone any earlier replacement works to the resident’s front door and windows, ahead of their replacement under its planned maintenance programme, it was unreasonable that it failed to communicate with her about these and manage her expectations. It was also unreasonable that it did not carry out any investigation of her concerns about the condition of the front door and windows, and the resulting impact on her heating costs and physical and mental ill-health, in the meantime until October 2022.
  14. In recognition of the distress and inconvenience experienced and the time and trouble spent by the resident during the approximately 9 months that she awaited the landlord’s confirmation about her window and front door replacement works, it is ordered below that compensation of £300 should be paid to her by it. This award includes the £50 compensation that it previously offered her, if she has not received this already, and is made in accordance with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance. This provides for awards of compensation from £100 where there has been a failure by the landlord over an extended period which caused detriment to the resident, but which was not permanent.
  15. The landlord has also been ordered below to provide the resident with details to enable her to submit a liability claim to it or its insurers for the damages that she reported experiencing from her increased heating costs, and physical and mental ill-health, from the outstanding window replacement works at her property. It has additionally been ordered below to review its staff’s training needs to ensure that residents are communicated with appropriately, while long-term works remain outstanding, to ensure that they are kept informed of progress and their expectations are managed.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its response to the resident’s reports of repairs to her windows and front door.

Orders

  1. The landlord is ordered to:
    1. Pay the resident £300 compensation within 4 weeks, which includes the £50 compensation that it previously offered her, if she has not received this already.
    2. Provide the resident with details within 4 weeks to enable her to submit a liability claim to it or its insurers for the damages that she reported experiencing from her increased heating costs, and physical and mental ill-health, from the outstanding window replacement works at her property.
    3. Review its staff’s training needs to ensure that residents are communicated with appropriately, while long-term works remain outstanding, to ensure that they are kept informed of progress and their expectations are managed.
  2. The landlord shall contact the Ombudsman within 4 weeks to confirm that it has complied with the above orders.