LiveWest Homes Limited (202227289)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202227289

LiveWest Homes Limited

30 November 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:

a.             The level of compensation awarded to the resident by the landlord in respect of its handling of repairs to her boiler.

b.             The landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

2. The resident occupies a property under an assured tenancy agreement with the landlord that commenced on 12 May 1997. The property is a two-bedroom end terrace house.
3. The resident reported to the landlord’s out-of-hours service that her boiler was not working on 14 October 2022. She explained that she was without heating or hot water. The landlord repaired the boiler on 24 November 2022. Between 14 October 2022 and 24 November 2022, the resident chased the landlord for the repair to be completed on 7 separate occasions. This service also notes that there were several abandoned calls made in addition to these phone calls.
4. The landlord later explained to the resident that the delay in repairing her boiler was because the landlord did not categorise the repair correctly when it was initially reported. The resident raised a formal complaint to her landlord on 28 November 2022 because she had been left without heating or hot water for 6 weeks. The landlord acknowledged the complaint on 30 November and issued its stage 1 response on 7 December 2022. In the response, it upheld all her complaint points and offered her £250 compensation made up of:

a.             £50 for incorrectly logging the repair;

b.             £150 for being without heating or hot water for 6 weeks; and

c.             £50 for its lack of communication.

5. The resident escalated her complaint on 15 December 2022 because she was unhappy with the offer of compensation. She told her landlord that she felt it had not fully taken her circumstances into account in its offer of compensation because:

a.             She had not been provided with a temporary heater until 16 November 2022

b.             She was not offered any further support despite having vulnerabilities and it being wintertime

c.             She had no washing facilities and had to strip wash using the kettle

d.             She was put in danger because an operative told her she could use the boiler on 17 October 2022, but later a danger sign was placed on it by the engineer on 16 November 2022

e.             She had contacted the landlord on 11 occasions to report and chase the repair

f.               The experience had caused her distress and inconvenience.

6. The resident had to chase the landlord for a response to her complaint, which it issued on 17 January 2023 and explained that it had not provided the handover to the relevant colleague properly. The landlord offered £200 in recognition of this.
7. In its stage 2 response dated 20 January 2023, the landlord partly upheld the resident’s complaint. It increased its offer of compensation by £680, with a breakdown as follows:

a.             £250 impact payment for the period without heating or hot water

b.             £30 for its delay in providing temporary heaters

c.             £25 for rescheduling an appointment and attending the property without the property part

d.             £25 for lack of communication

e.             £50 for the incorrect advice being provided to her about her boiler

f.               £200 for its complaint handling.

8. The resident remained dissatisfied because she felt that the value of the compensation was not sufficient to address the experiences she had because of the landlord’s failings. The outcome she is seeking is for the landlord to increase its offer of compensation to £2,500.

Assessment and findings

9. The resident reported her boiler was broken on 14 October 2022 and the landlord completed its repair of it on 24 November 2022. The resident was without a working boiler for 41 calendar days.
10. The landlord’s failure to categorise the repair correctly and raise the correct repair works in a reasonable time resulted in the unreasonable delay experienced by the resident. Although it offered the resident £50 for this at stage 2 of its complaint process, the Ombudsman considers this remedy does not fully address the resident’s experience.
11. The landlord did not provide heaters to the resident until 16 November 2022. At that point, the resident had been without heating for 33 calendar days. The Ombudsman considers this to be maladministration because the landlord should be ready to mitigate any loss of heating through the provision of heaters.
12. The evidence shows that the resident chased the landlord on 7 occasions for the repair to be completed between 17 October 2022 and 28 November 2022. This service recognises that further calls were attempted by the resident to her landlord, but they were not completed to a stage where the landlord was engaged. However, it would be unreasonable to expect the landlord to consider this as part of its compensatory award as it did not have the opportunity to speak with the resident on these occasions.
13. The landlord did not try to contact the resident to explain what it was doing about her boiler and when it did speak with her, often, it did not execute the repairs promptly. It awarded the resident £25 for its poor communications. Additionally, it failed to communicate effectively internally to raise and follow up on the repair works.
14. The Ombudsman considers the landlord’s conduct about communication as maladministration. The Ombudsman would expect the landlord to have listened to the resident and acted to mitigate the delay and inconvenience. More effective external and internal communication would likely have resolved the issue at an earlier stage. Therefore, it would have been more appropriate to have awarded the resident an additional £150 for this aspect of the complaint.
15. The landlord’s findings show that a member of staff provided incorrect advice to the resident over the phone on 17 October 2022. Although this service has not had a copy of the call recording, the landlord concluded that the resident had been told she “should be fine to use the boiler.” At the next visit to the property on 16 November 2022, the resident said the operative placed a marker on the boiler to show it was not fit for use and its repair logs noted a “2-hour urgent repair” should be booked.
16. The Ombudsman notes that there is no evidence to show the potential impact of the advice provided to the resident. Furthermore, there is no evidence to show that there was any harm caused to the resident through the provision of the advice. On this basis, the Ombudsman is unable to make a judgement in respect of the level of compensation awarded to this issue.
17. The landlord’s compensation policy for discretionary awards allows up to £500 for “high level impact”. It states that if “there has been a serious failure in service standards – either around the severity of the event or persistent failure over a protracted time it can award a maximum of £500 and a partial rent refund.”
18. Although the landlord offered £500 to the resident for the impact, it did not provide her with a partial rent refund. This service is of the opinion that a 50% refund should have been provided to the resident for the 33 calendar days she was without heating and hot water in addition to the £500 for all the failures listed. This would be to reflect the resident’s loss of enjoyment of her home, the distress and inconvenience of the delays within the repairs process and the fact that this delay took place over the winter months. This should have been in line with its compensation policy and should have been in addition to the £500 awarded in its stage 2 response.

Complaint handling

19. The landlord’s customer compliments, complaints and feedback policy states at stage 2:

a.             The complaint will be escalated to stage 2 within 5 working days of receipt of the request.

b.             Timescales to respond will be agreed directly between the manager and customer but will be no more than 7 working days from the date of the stage 2 acknowledgement.

c.             For more details investigations it will take no longer than 7 working days which will be agreed upon, and a full explanation provided.

20. The resident raised her complaint by telephone on 28 November 2022. The landlord acknowledged the complaint at stage 1 of its complaint process on 30 November 2022. It responded on 7 December 2021 which was 3 working days from the complaint being raised. The Ombudsman considers the landlord has acted swiftly and reasonably in the way it handled the complaint at stage 1.
21. The resident requested an escalation on 15 December 2022. Although it is clear from the evidence the resident was dissatisfied with its stage 1 response and listed the reasons for this, the landlord requested that the resident confirm further that she requested an escalation.
22. The Ombudsman considers this unnecessary as the landlord was aware that the only way to address the points raised in the resident’s escalation request was to escalate the complaint. However, the Ombudsman notes that on this occasion it did not delay executing its stage 2 process at this point.
23. The Ombudsman recommends that additional confirmation should not be required from residents when an escalation is required and necessary to be executed. However, this is not considered to be a service failure because this did not have any impact on the resident.
24. Although internally the landlord raised the escalation request on 15 December 2022, the resident had not received a response by 6 January 2023, which was when it was due. The formal response was provided on 20 January 2023. This was 17 working days outside of the timeframe set out in its policy.
25. The Ombudsman considers this to be a service failure because of the inconvenience and further time and trouble the resident had to go through to receive a formal response. This was a repeat of the experience the resident had already had about the substantive repair of her boiler.
26. The resident chased it for its response on 13 January 2023, and the landlord responded on 17 January 2023. It apologised and said that it did not hand over the complaint correctly and explained she would have a formal response “at the end of the week.” It also explained the formal response would automatically include £200 in recognition of this failure.
27. The Ombudsman considers that the landlord offered sufficient redress in its offer of compensation to reflect the delay and inconvenience experienced by the resident.

Determination

28. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, the Ombudsman considers there was service failure in the landlord’s award of compensation.
29. In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Scheme, the Ombudsman considers that the landlord made an offer of redress to the resident prior to the investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolved its complaint handling satisfactorily.

Orders and Recommendations

Orders

30. The Ombudsman orders the landlord to, by 12 January 2024:

a.             Pay the resident the £500 already offered for the distress and inconvenience caused.

b.             Pay the resident additional compensation to the value of 50% of the rent for 33 calendar days for the period between 14 October 2022 to 16 November 2022. The landlord must calculate this based on the rent debits in the rent statement between the period.

31. Provide evidence of compensation payments and the outcome of its case review to this service.