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Leeds City Council (202125900)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202125900

Leeds City Council

15 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 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 the resident’s reports of damp and leaks following a repair to her roof.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord which is a local authority. The property is a house.
  2. The landlord’s repair records showed that an inspection was completed on 19 October 2020, for reoccurring roof issues causing moisture to the resident’s chimney breast areas in both attic bedrooms. The landlord raised a repair order on 19 October 2020 to renew the roof flashings (used to protect the building against water intrusion) around the rear chimney, and to point up all the necessary brickwork. The resident raised a formal complaint (this Service has not seen a copy of the actual complaint) and the landlord’s records suggest that it was raised on 8 December 2020. The resident said that apart from an inspection in 2020, works had not taken place to the roof. She said that she wanted the issue resolved and had been chasing with the repairs team to confirm when scaffolding would be erected but had not been given any dates. The resident said that her attic had worsened, she recalled that the first room in the attic was plastered and in October 2020 and a surveyor advised that there was still a leak and it needed to identify the source. She explained that the second room in the attic was also being affected and had dark, damp patches which was not an issue before. The resident said that no works were in place and as winter was approaching the issue needed to be handled urgently.
  3. The landlord issued its stage one complaint response on 14 explained that due to a high volume of repairs and backlog from Covid-19, it was unable to provide a specific date for commencement of works, but that it had asked its repairs team to prioritise the work. The landlord stated that works may not be attended until after the new year and assured that it would make good any internal damage to the resident’s ceiling. It apologised for any inconvenience caused. There was no correspondence between the resident and landlord from December 2020 to early March 2021.
  4. According to the landlord’s records a repair was raised on 31 March 2021 to renew the resident’s chimney gutter back, cheeks, and apron to the rear chimney stack. It noted that it would repoint the top of the chimney stack and apply coats of water seal to the entire chimney stack. A new work order was raised in early April 2021 to repoint the front stack, renew flashings and clear the water seal stack. The resident contacted the landlord in mid May 2021 as she was concerned none of the repairs to the attic were completed. Internal emails between staff in mid-May 2021 showed that the landlord advised the resident that the work was  awaiting scaffolding. The landlord’s repair records showed that an inspection was raised on 17 August 2021. It confirmed that the renewal of the fascia was completed on 2 September 2021. It noted that the renewal of the fascia board was not linked to the leaks nor was it an essential repair during the time of recovery from the backlogs created by Covid-19. The landlord raised a work order in mid-October 2021 to replaster the damaged areas of the attic.
  5. An internal email between the landlord and its staff showed that the resident phoned it on 9 December 2021 regarding plastering and the roof leak which she noted had been ongoing for the past two years. The resident explained that a plasterer had attended her property in late October 2021 but refused to complete the plastering as he advised the roof was damp and still leaked. She noted that she was unable to use the attic rooms. The landlord advised it would speak with the plasterer to discuss what was happening and would update the resident accordingly.
  6. The resident contacted the landlord on 5 January 2022 and questioned why the landlord had not fixed the leak before carrying out the plastering rather than having to repeat the plastering later on. The resident explained that the wall was damp again when it rained and was dissatisfied that the landlord was plastering the wall, she said that she did not want to go through the process again.
  7. The landlord issued its final complaint response on 24 January 2022. The landlord advised that it agreed with the resident’s position that re-plastering the wall was pointless until the source of the problem was resolved. The landlord apologised that the issue had not been resolved and said that it believed the issue would be resolved correctly at present.
  8. The resident passed her complaint to this Service as the leaks were still ongoing. She wanted the landlord to fix the leaks and then replaster the affected areas of the attic.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. According to the landlord’s repair records the resident reported that her roof leaked in 2019. The landlord attended and carried out works in March 2020. The Ombudsman encourages residents to raise complaints to the landlord whilst the issues are still live. As the events become historic, it can be more difficult for the landlord or an independent organisation such as the Ombudsman to gather the necessary information to carry out an investigation. In view of this, whilst the historic issues add context to the current complaint, the Ombudsman’s investigation will not take into consideration any specific events prior to June 2020 which is six months prior to the formal complaint being raised with the landlord.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and leaks following a repair to her roof

  1. The landlord’s repairs and maintenance handbook advise that the landlord is responsible for the structure and exterior of the property, including the roof external walls and chimney stack. The handbook states that minor repairs to external walls and chimneys fall under batched repairs/ non-urgent repairs and items of replacement that may require a pre-inspection; need time to order and/ or manufacture materials. It advises that batched repairs are completed within 60 days. The repairs handbook further states that improvements are delivered through its planned programmes of work and include; soffit and facia guttering replacement, brick work pointing, major repair to walls and rebuilding chimneys.
  2. The landlord was made aware of a reoccurring leak affecting both of the resident’s attic room ceilings in October 2020. In response the landlord raised a repair order thereafter to carry out remedial works. It explained that due to a high volume of repairs and backlog from Covid-19, it was unable to provide a specific date but asked that its repairs team prioritise the work. Taking into consideration the national restrictions in 2020 with guidance issued for landlords to only access properties for serious and urgent issues, it was understandable that the landlord could not adhere to its 60-day timeframe to carry out remedial works. Considering that lockdown restrictions on repairs began to ease from 1 June 2020, and the landlord’s advice that it had experienced a backlog of works, a delay in commencement of works was to be expected. Nonetheless, the period of approximately nine months to re-raise repair works from the easing of restrictions was not reasonable in this instance.
  3. The resident raised concerns regarding the landlord’s operative’s advice to raise a further repair request if the plaster came off once it was applied. She questioned why the landlord had not fixed the leak first before carrying out plastering. Regardless of how the landlord planned to do the work a delay of nine months to resolve the leak to the resident’s attic was unreasonable. Especially given that the reoccurring leak would have likely contributed to the damp within the property. Its failure to resolve the leak resulted in further delays to the plastering and overall completion of repairs. This was a failure by the landlord and compensation is due to the resident for the inconvenience and distress this caused her.
  4. The Ombudsman’s approach to compensation is set out in our Remedies Guidance (published on our website). The Remedies guidance suggests that the Ombudsman may award between £250 and £700 in cases where the Ombudsman has found considerable service failure or maladministration by the landlord, but there may be no permanent impact on the complainant. Examples include failure over a considerable period of time to act in accordance with policy – for example to address repairs. In this case the landlord failed to carry out repairs over a prolonged period and the landlord should pay £300 compensation in view of this.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in way it handled the resident’s reports of damp and leaks following a repair to her roof.

Orders

  1. The landlord is ordered to pay the resident £300 in compensation for distress and inconvenience.
  2. The compensation should be paid within 28 days of the date of this report.