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Livv Housing Group (202207745)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202207745

Livv Housing Group

31 October 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 complaint is about:
    1. The landlord’s handling of the repairs carried out to the bathroom tiling within the property.
    2. The landlord’s associated complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord of a house.
  2. The resident previously raised repair issues with the landlord regarding the condition of her bathroom tiling repairs in 2019 and 2020. She highlighted concerns that the tiles in her bathroom kept falling off the walls, leaving these uneven with wet plaster behind them, despite its frequent attempts to repair this.
  3. Following a further report from the resident about the tiles on 5 October 2021, the landlord then raised jobs on 12 and 28 October 2021 to inspect her bathroom and walls, with the former being cancelled before it reported on the latter date that works to knock off loose bathroom tiles and renew or make these good were required. However, because the repairs were not completed as expected on 25 November 2021, she raised a stage one complaint on 30 November 2021, as she explained that the bathroom tiles had fallen off while her son was bathing, they continued to do so, and she had received no follow-up from it regarding this.
  4. The landlord’s subsequent stage one complaint response of 14 December 2021 explained that it had raised further tiling works at the resident’s property, but that no appointment had been scheduled for this. It therefore acknowledged and apologised that this had fallen outside of its target timeframes for such repairs, confirmed that it had now scheduled for the tiling to be completed on 21 January 2022, and offered her £60 compensation for this and other failures in its service. The landlord recorded that it went on to complete works to knock off loose tiles around the resident’s bath, dub out, re-tile, reseal, renew and make these good on 17 January 2022, but that she reported that the tiles around the bath were loose again on 20 March 2022.
  5. The landlord attempted to conduct further tile repairs on 6 April 2022, but it could not gain access to the property. She then chased the repairs on 7 April 2022,and requested the escalation of her complaint on 14 April 2022. This wasbecausethe repairs remained outstanding, appointments were not being kept or rearranged,and the tileskept falling off and being replaced due to the uneven wall. The landlord rescheduledthe repairs for 19 April 2022, when it completed re-tiling around the bath, but furtherworksweredeclined by the resident who was awaitingan inspectionforthese,which tookplace on16 May 2022 and raised works to hack off, float, skim and re-tileher bathroom wall.
  6. The landlord’s final stage complaint response of 18 May 2022 highlighted that it did not achieve the service that it aimed to deliver, accepting that if had it inspected and correctly booked works for the tiling/bathroom wall earlier, it could have addressed the issue sooner. It noted that there had been several visits by it related to the tiling issues that she had raised, and that the most recent had been to make this safe for now, as it had explained that it had not yet booked works to replace the tiling. The landlord therefore apologised to the resident for not taking sufficient ownership of and delaying this job, offered £30 further compensation for its failings, booked an inspection on 21 May 2022, and promised to stay in touch with her until the works were completed.
  7. The landlord subsequently booked the remaining works to the resident’s bathroom on 6 June 2022, and it attended the property on 27 June 2022, when it could not complete the repairs due to no access. Its records then showed that the tiling around the splashback of the bathroom sink was in need of repair, for which an appointment had been made for 16 September 2022 to accommodate her work rota.
  8. The landlord later identified, in its correspondence to this Service, that it had failed to acknowledge the resident’s stage one complaint of 30 November 2021 within its 24-hour timescale to do so, for which it offered her £50 additional compensation for its failing in its complaint handling, which she accepted.
  9. The resident nevertheless remained unhappy, complaining to this Service that the landlord should complete the repairs right first time in line with its repairs policy. She was dissatisfied with the quality of the existing repairs to the bathroom tiling and that the tiles kept falling off, despite the previous repairs carried out for this. The resident was also unhappy with poor communication landlord and its contractors resulting in unnecessarily lengthy repair delays, near injuries to her and her son from falling tiles due to the uneven bathroom wall, a negative impact on her mental health, and water leaking from the damp wall into her kitchen, dealt with by it as a separate complaint.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident has raised concerns about the landlord’s tiling repairs since prior to 2021, their impact on her mental health, and a subsequent leak into her kitchen. These matters are outside the scope of this investigation, however, as under the Housing Ombudsman Scheme this Service cannot consider complaints that are not made to the landlord within a reasonable period of normally within six months of the matters arising. We also cannot consider complaints where the outcome is not within our authority to provide, or are made prior to exhausting the landlord’s complaints procedure.
  2. This means that this Service cannot investigate the landlord’s handling of the tiling repairs prior to 2021, as these did not take place within a reasonable period of normally within six months of the resident’s stage one complaint to it of 30 November 2021. We also cannot investigate the impact of its handling of the repairs on her mental health, as we do not have the authority to determine liability or award damages for ill-health in the way that a court or insurer might, or the leak into her kitchen, as there is no evidence that this has exhausted its complaints procedure yet.

Policies

  1. In accordance with the landlord’s repairs policy, it is responsible for repairing the property’s bathroom, including sinks, baths, wall tiles and any other splashback wall covering that it has fitted. It states that repairs that can wait without causing unacceptable inconvenience are routine repairs, and it aims to complete all such repairs within 28 calendar days, within which it will offer the resident routine repair appointments unless there is an express request from her for a later date.

The landlord’s handling of the repairs carried out to the bathroom tiling within the property

  1. In accordance with the landlord’s repairs policy, it is responsible for repairing bathroom tiling. It was therefore expected under the policy, following the resident’s reports of her bathroom tiling falling off on 5 October 2021, that it would look to repair the tiling within 28 calendar days of that date. This meant that it was reasonable that the landlord offered her appointments for it to inspect the tiling within this timescale on 12 and 28 October 2021, as required by its policy. This also meant that it was appropriate for it to have been expected to have then completed the tiling repairs by 25 November 2021 under the policy, as this was 28 calendar days from the date of its inspection on 28 October 2021.
  2. Given that the tiling repairs did not subsequently take place within the above timescale, it was therefore appropriate that the landlord addressed this in its stage one complaint response on 14 December 2021. It suitably acknowledged that the repairs were still required to the bathroom tiling that it had not followed up on, offering both an apology and compensation of £60 to the resident to address this failure. The landlord additionally gave her a new target date of 21 January 2022 for the completion of the repairs to the tiling by it. While this was 38 calendar days after the stage one response, instead of the 28-calendar-day timescale from its repairs policy, a ten-calendar-day delay to this from the holiday period was understandable.
  3. It was appropriate that the landlord went on to complete works to knock off loose tiles around the resident’s bath, dub out, re-tile, reseal, renew and make these good on 17 January 2022, which was four calendar days earlier than its latest timescale to repair the tiling. It is nevertheless of concern that she further contacted it on 20 March 2022 to report that the tiles around the bath were loose again, repeating her historic concerns that the tiles kept falling off despite its frequent attempts to repair these, which was unreasonable.
  4. The landlord therefore suitably re-attended the resident’s property to carry out additional tiling repairs once more on 6 April 2022, which was within the repairs policy’s 28-calendar-day timescale for it to do so, although it could not gain access to the property to complete the repairs. This led to her further chasing the repairs on 7 April 2022, and so it appropriately rescheduled the repairs within its policy’s timescale for 19 April 2022, when it completed re-tiling around the bath and made this safe. It was also reasonable, and in accordance with the policy, that the landlord then agreed to postpone additional works for this until after the timescale at the resident’s request until its inspections of 16 and 21 May 2022, which raised works for it to hack off, float, skim and re-tile her bathroom wall.
  5. It is nevertheless concerning that the landlord did not subsequently arrange an appointment for it to complete the outstanding bathroom tiling works at the resident’s property until after its repairs policy’s 28-calendar-day timescale on 27 June 2022, when it could not complete the repairs due to no access. Although the policy did permit it to rearrange these and the further repairs that it had identified to the tiling around the bathroom splash back to 16 September 2022, in order to accommodate her work rota.
  6. The landlord’s above delays and repeated attendances for the resident’s bathroom tiling repairs therefore meant that it was suitable that its final stage complaint response of 18 May 2022 acknowledged its further failures. It did so by highlighting that it should have inspected and correctly booked works for her bathroom tiling and wall sooner to resolve these earlier, accepting that it had made several visits for this that it had not yet booked or completed repairs for, and agreeing that it had not taken sufficient ownership of and had delayed the works. The landlord therefore apologised to the resident again, and offered her £30 additional compensation for these failings.
  7. While the landlord offered the resident £90 total compensation for its failings in relation to its handling of her bathroom tiling repairs, however, it failed to highlight the lack of communication between it and her about the works during the course of her case. Given the identified failures in this case, it would have been preferable if had instead regularly contacted her with updates until the completion of the repairs from its initial failure to complete these on time on 25 November 2021 onwards.
  8. The landlord also did not itself fully address or resolve the cycle of it repeatedly re-attending the resident’s property to repair the tiling that continued to fall off after its previous works, with her instead having to require it to inspect and raise works for the uneven bathroom wall that she attributed this to on 16 May 2022. This was despite her numerous previous reports to it about this, which was inappropriate, but it did not offer her increased compensation for this or for its above lack of communication with her.
  9. The landlord’s additional failings in this case led to a larger impact on the resident, as she had to spent a great deal of time and trouble pursuing it to resolve her bathroom tiling repairs, resulting in further distress and inconvenience to her. Therefore, it has been ordered below to pay her an additional £110 compensation, as well as the £90 that it previously awarded her if she has not received this already. This has been calculated using this Service’s remedies guidance, which recommends payments from £100 for failures that have adversely affected the resident, but the landlord’s attempts to put things right did not address the detriment to her or were proportionate to its failings.
  10. The landlord has also been ordered below to contact the resident to provide her with confirmation that it has completed all of the outstanding works to her uneven bathroom wall and tiling, and to arrange an appointment for it to do so if it has not yet completed these. Moreover, while it looked to identify and acknowledge its failings in her case, it did not specify how it was going to learn from these. As a result, the landlord has been recommended below to review its staff’s training needs in relation to their application of its repairs policy, and of their handling of repeated ongoing recurring works, to help to prevent the issues in the resident’s case from arising again. This is in line with this Service’s dispute resolution principles to be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes.

The landlord’s associated complaint handling

  1. In accordance with the landlord’s complaints and compliments policy, it is required to acknowledge stage one complaints within one working day, and to respond to stage one complaints within ten working days. It states that it will keep residents informed at regular intervals about what it is doing to fix the substantive issue.
  2. The resident raised a stage one complaint with the landlord regarding the condition of her bathroom tiling on 30 November 2021. It issued its stage one complaint response on 14 December 2021, which was within its expected ten-working-day timescale. The resident the requested the escalation of her complaint to the final stage of its complaints procedure on 14 April 2022.
  3. In line with the landlord’s complaints and compliments policy, it is expected to reply to final stage complaints within 20 working days upon receiving an escalation request. Where it is not possible to do so, it is expected by the policy to explain why and when a response can be expected. In this case, the landlord’s final stage complaint response on 18 May 2022 was 21 working days later. Although it missed its targeted deadline to reply to this, the brief one-working-day delay would have had no lasting impact on the resident’s complaint and was therefore not a substantive failure in its complaint handling.
  4. The landlord later identified its failure to acknowledge the resident’s stage one complaint on 30 November 2021 within one working day, as required by its complaints and compliments policy. In light of this failing, it offered her an additional £50 compensation, which she accepted. The landlord acted fairly by acknowledging its mistake to the resident, looking to put things right by offering her proportionate compensation for this, as recommended by this Service’s remedies guidance for minimal impacts for a short duration.
  5. The landlord has therefore been recommended to pay the resident the above further compensation, if she has not received this already. It has also been recommended below to ensure that it has learnt from the outcome of her case by reviewing its staff’s training needs in relation to their application of its complaints and compliments policy.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s handling of the repairs carried out to the bathroom tiling within the property.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has offered redress to the resident prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion resolves the complaint about its associated complaint handling satisfactorily.

Orders and recommendations

  1. The landlord is ordered to:
    1. Contact the resident within four weeks to provide her with confirmation that it has completed all of the outstanding works to her uneven bathroom wall and tiling, and to arrange an appointment for it to do so if it has not yet completed these.
    2. Pay the resident compensation totaling £200 within four weeks, which consists of an additional £110 in respect of its failings with regard to her bathroom tiling repairs, as well as the £90 that it previously offered her if she has not already received this.
  2. It is recommended that the landlord:
    1. Pay the resident the £50 compensation that it offered her for failing to acknowledge her stage one complaint on time, if it has not done so already.
    2. Review its staff’s training needs in respect of their application of its repairs policy, and of their handling of repeated ongoing recurring works, to help to prevent the issues in the resident’s case from arising again.
    3. Review its staff’s training needs in relation to their application of its complaints and compliments policy, to ensure that it has learnt from the outcome of the resident’s case.
  3. The landlord shall contact this Service within four weeks to confirm that it has complied with the above orders, and whether it will follow the below recommendations.