London & Quadrant Housing Trust (201904703)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 201904703

London & Quadrant H T

1 December 2020

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 resident’s complaint is about the landlord’s response to her reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB).

Background

2. The resident is a secure tenant of a terraced property.
3. The resident suffers from a history of mental health issues and is particularly vulnerable to noise. 

Policies and Procedures

4. The tenancy agreement prohibits residents of the block from playing any radio, television, record, tape recording or musical instrument so loudly that it causes a nuisance or annoyance to neighbours.
5. The landlord’s ASB policy provides for the following:
   1. It requires the landlord to work to prevent ASB by a range of means, including carrying out estate inspections to identify and respond to environmental issues and forming links and developing positive relationships with partners;
   2. Residents must acknowledge that day to day activities cannot be avoided and, whilst the behaviour of another resident is frustrating, it is not reasonable to place restrictions on their usual enjoyment of their home;
   3. It will assign a priority for the case based on the type of ASB reported;
   4. It will treat those affected by ASB sympathetically and sensitively, keeping in regular contact with the complainant and seeking to identify any vulnerabilities or support needs and adjusting its approach as necessary; and
   5. It will take prompt, appropriate and decisive action to prevent the problem escalating, for example by sending warning letters, using mediation and acceptable behaviour contracts. If necessary, legal enforcement action will be considered.
6. The landlord’s compensation policy states that it will consider offering compensation to recognise the impact of service failure where an apology will not suffice.

Summary of events

7. There is a long history of reports of ASB going back to 2001. For the purposes of this investigation, however, only ASB issues raised since 2019 will be considered. Any reference to events prior to this is included for contextual purposes only.
8. The resident made a number of reports of noise/ASB against her neighbours, the alleged perpetrators – a minimum of four a month – to the landlord throughout the relevant period. Many of these reports were made out of hours and included reports of loud music, bass and creaking floors allegedly for hours per day. The resident states that the landlord would rarely respond to the reports and that she reported the noise to the police and Council’s ASB team on more than one occasion. The resident describes that, when she is in the lounge of her property, it sounds like her neighbours are in the same room as her and that this is where the noise is loudest.
9. The landlord inspected the alleged perpetrator’s property in July 2019. It asked the alleged perpetrator to play their music at the level they normally would. Its notes state that, from the resident’s property, its staff “could hear a slight noise (but) it was not to the point of being disturbing, though (the resident) has sensitive hearing.” The notes report that “all (the) houses had thin walls” and are not soundproof. The landlord suggested that it had a sound meter which it could install to monitor the noise. The resident also made contemporaneous notes of the visit, which describe the alleged perpetrator’s not playing music at the level they normally would but then playing music loudly when the landlord left at approximately 4pm until 9pm. She spoke to the landlord about this a few days later.
10. Throughout the relevant period, the resident sought support from two support agencies, one of which wrote a letter to the landlord on 20 July 2019 regarding the suffering which she had experienced as a result of the reported ASB. The resident states that she did not receive a response from the landlord in relation to this letter. She has also sought help from her neighbours on a number of occasions.
11. The reports continued and the landlord did not send a formal response to the resident until it was contacted by this Service regarding the complaint. Its response of 9 April 2020 confirms its conclusion of its ASB investigation which was that the noise was not excessive and was “day to day and general lifestyle noise.” It acknowledges that noise equipment was never fitted as originally offered to the resident and confirms that it could no longer offer this equipment as the landlord now used a phone application instead. The resident had made the landlord aware that she was unable to use a mobile phone due to a medical condition. The response recognised that the ongoing situation was affecting the resident’s peace and enjoyment and had requested a case officer be assigned to start a new ASB case. It confirmed that the resident’s complaint was now closed.
12. The landlord’s notes of 29 May 2020 refer to a report of the Council’s Environmental Control Officer in which it “strongly recommends noise insulation” in the resident’s property. It refers to the fact that the neighbours had large speakers which caused the resident to hear a lot of bass sound and to the fact that she had been logging ASB reports with the landlord for 15 years.
13. The landlord’s notes of 13 July 2020 also confirm that it contacted an aide of the resident who had been delivering food to her during the pandemic. The aide confirmed that he too had heard music on two occasions from outside the resident’s property and was concerned for her health.
14. The resident continued to report ASB. In October 2020 a psychiatrist wrote to the landlord stating that “the resident is in a desperate position,” suffering from depression and panic attacks. She was described as feeling “unsafe and uncomfortable in her home environment.”
15. The landlord’s internal notes state that it was “unable to take action as an ASB report as this is not considered noise nuisance.”
16. The resident states the effects of the reported ASB have been extremely detrimental to her and that her mental health has suffered as a result. She is seeking a survey of her property and sound-proofing of the walls and flooring in the lounge as well as the windows throughout the property.

Assessment and Findings

17. The landlord has been aware for many years of the resident’s vulnerabilities which meant that the effects of the reported ASB were heightened. It is evident the landlord took some steps to try to establish the cause of the ASB, by arranging property visits, however it did little else to respond to the numerous reports, not only from the resident but other organisations and individuals.
18. Whilst it did offer to install noise monitoring equipment in the property (an offer which the resident accepted) the equipment was never installed. By the time it provided a formal response, it stated that it no longer used this equipment, but there appears to be no explanation as to why the equipment was not fitted when suggested or in the following months when it informed the resident that it had four such machines. The landlord was aware at the time of its formal response that the resident did not have and was unable to use a mobile phone, yet it made no adjustments in light of this.
19. The landlord was required to prevent ASB by a range of means, keep in regular contact with the resident and consider her vulnerabilities and support needs and adjust its approach accordingly. It displayed considerable service failure in failing to keep in regular contact with the resident, failing to get back to her on a number of occasions, offering and then failing to install the noise monitoring equipment, with no apparent explanation at the time. It also failed to consider that the resident did not have and could not use a mobile phone. In addition, there were further failings as the landlord failed to support the resident and should have done more to seek to establish whether ASB was in fact occurring, given that the resident advised the level of music played in the landlord’s presence was far lower than usual.

Determination (decision)

20. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was service failure by the landlord in respect of the complaint. 

Reasons

21. The landlord demonstrated considerable service failure in failing to keep in regular contact with the resident, failing to follow up on her reports, in offering and then failing to install the noise monitoring equipment with no apparent explanation at the time. It also failed to take into account that the resident did not have and could not use a mobile phone as a result of the noise monitoring app, and it failed to do more to seek to establish whether ASB was occurring and support the resident.

Orders

22. The Ombudsman orders that the landlord:
    1. Implements suitable alternative means of ASB inspection and prevention, considering the resident’s vulnerabilities. It should also confirm the steps taken in writing to the resident and this Service;
    2. Offer a written apology to the resident for its lack of support or regular contact with her throughout the period in which the ASB reports were made; and
    3. Pay £250 compensation to the resident to reflect the service failures identified.

Recommendation

23. The landlord to instruct a surveyor to consider sound proofing/ noise insulation options at the property as recommended by Newham Council’s Environmental Control Officer and as previously suggested by the landlord itself.