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London & Quadrant H T (202003178)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202003178

London & Quadrant H T

23 February 2021


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 response to the resident’s reports of outstanding repairs to the heating system.

Background and summary of events

Background

  1. The residents have been tenants of the landlord since mid-2017. The property is a two-bedroom flat within a block.
  1. The landlord’s repair policy sets out its repair responsibilities which include repairs to the hot and cold water supply; all types of heating system so as to ensure that tenants have ready access to space heating and hot water. This includes all communal heating systems. The resident has a responsibility to report a repair as soon as they become aware of it.
  2. The policy says that, when diagnosing repairs that are reported by vulnerable residents, the landlord will consider whether the defect is putting the resident at risk because of their physical or mental health.
  3. The landlord’s repair policy says that it is responsible for maintaining all fixtures and fittings gas, electricity and heating. This includes all types of heating system, including communal systems, so as to ensure that tenants have ready access to space heating and hot water. The policy says that the landlord will investigate reports that an installation may not be working correctly.
  1. The landlord has a two-stage complaints procedure. At stage one the landlord should keep clear records by accurately logging the complaint; capturing all relevant information; recording all interactions with the resident and other business areas; recording all decisions made including any compensation offer or payment. The procedure does not state that the stage one response must be in writing.
  2. A resident may ask for a review after stage one; however, the landlord may refuse a review if it believes, among other things, that it involves a request for compensation which is contrary to its compensation policy. The complaints policy does not cover issues that are over twelve months old.
  3. The landlord’s compensation policy says that it will pay compensation for loss of facilities/amenities in the home e.g. heating or hot water; failure to complete repairs within agreed response times; and failure to attend a booked appointment without good reason.
  4. The policy says that the landlord will pay, among other things, £20 for a missed appointment where at least 24 hours’ notice was not given. The policy explains that under the “Right to Repair”, when repairs are not completed within the statutory target times, the landlord will pay compensation for qualifying repairs under the right to repair obligations. This includes a lack of heating and hot water and the compensation payable is £2 a day for an outstanding repair up to a statutory maximum of £50. (Right to Repair is legislation that applies to local authority landlords. It applies to small, urgent repairs that cost less than £250.)
  5. The policy also says the landlord will offer discretionary compensation as a goodwill gesture. It does not give details of the amounts it will pay.

Summary of events

  1. On 28 May 2019 the landlord told the resident’s son (the representative) that it had identified at the residents meeting that the issue with the heating at the block was “ongoing” and it was waiting for the original builder’s recommendations about what action they were intending to take to resolve the communal boiler outages in the long term.
  2. On 27 August 2019 the landlord noted that the representative had called and was very unhappy about the situation regarding the residents’ heating and hot water which had been out of order for the past two weeks.
  3. On 30 August 2019 the landlord sent the representative a compensation form. On 25 September 2019 the landlord noted it had closed the case as it had not had a response. 
  4. On 18 December 2019 the landlord noted that the representative had called in wanting to make a formal complaint. He said the residents had had no hot water and heating for two weeks. He said he had been told that the contractor was waiting for parts, but he had not been kept up to date on progress. The landlord noted that there was a disabled resident in the property and the representative was “understandably furious at the long wait for the situation to be rectified”.
  5. On the same day the contractor told the landlord they were awaiting several parts which had been ordered on 12 December 2019. The landlord told the representative that it would be chasing up these parts and would hopefully have a resolution for the residents before Christmas. An appointment was made for 23 December 2019 but did not go ahead due to a problem with a part and there was no temporary fix. The repair was carried over to the new year as the supplier was closed until then. 
  6. On 7 January 2020 the landlord asked the representative to confirm that the heating and hot water had been restored to the property that day. It provided a compensation form to the representative to complete and return to it. The landlord added that, if it did not hear from the representative within ten working days, it would consider the matter resolved.
  7. On 10 January 2020 (it was incorrectly dated 2019) the landlord put on its virtual estate noticeboard that it would be replacing the main supply pipes to improve the heating and hot water services to the block starting from 13 January 2020. It added that planned shutdowns would be necessary as the work progressed. It explained that these works were being carried out to address the root cause of the recent and historical issues associated with the heating and said it was confident these works would address the core issues and minimise the risk of regular outages.
  8. On 24 January 2020 the landlord sought clarification from the representative about the amount of time the property was without heating and hot water. The following day he confirmed from 27 November 2019 to 7 January 2020.
  9. On 9 March 2020 the representative told the landlord the property had been without heating and hot water from 27 November 2019 to date. The landlord responded the same day to say that a repair job had been raised and that an appointment would be made as soon as possible.
  10. On 21 April 2020 the landlord sought the contractor’s full attendance record for the property so that it could resolve the complaint. The landlord chased again on 3 June 2020 and the contractor provided it the same day.
  11. In a letter to the landlord from the residents’ MP, she said that the landlord had offered the residents one heater “which ultimately proved inadequate in the cold weather”.
  12. On 18 June 2020 the landlord told the representative it understood the repairs were now complete. It asked him to complete a compensation form and added that, if it did not hear from him within ten working days, it would consider the matter resolved.
  13. On 1 July 2020 the landlord offered compensation as follows:

An initial payment: £10

84   days without heating or hot water x £2 = £50 (maximum)

3 x £20 for 3 occasions where its contractor failed to keep the appointment (or attended and were unable to resolve the issue): £60

Discretionary compensation payment x 3 for:

Inconvenience: £60.00 (maximum amount)

Distress: £60.00 (maximum amount)

Time & Effort: £200.00 (maximum amount)

Total compensation: £440

  1. On 9 July 2020 the representative contacted the landlord unhappy about the compensation offered. He asked how he could escalate this matter.
  2. On 13 July 2020 the landlord issued its stage two response to the representative under its formal complaints procedure. It said it acknowledged the complaint stemmed from experiencing substantial delays with repairs to reinstate the heating and hot water services to the property. It explained that the complaint had been upheld and outlined the compensation it had offered totalling £440. The landlord said that it had reviewed the compensation awarded and considered that it was in accordance with its compensation policy. It added that it considered the compensation awarded was reasonable and fair and took into account the failings he experienced. The landlord concluded by saying that no further investigation or review would be considered and the complaint was closed. It signposted the representative to the Ombudsman.  
  3. When the representative approached the Ombudsman, he said that the compensation offered did not reflect the distress and inconvenience this had caused his parents. He said that the landlord should find a permanent solution to the problems experienced.

Assessment and findings

  1. This investigation has focussed on events that occurred from the start of 2019, which takes into account the provisions’ of the landlord’s complaints policy (paragraph 6).
  2. The evidence shows that there was an on-going problem with the communal heating system (paragraph 17) which had led to the residents experiencing a loss of heating and hot water. The landlord and the representative do not dispute that the outage over the winter of 2019/20 lasted 84 days in total. In its final complaint response, the landlord acknowledged there had been “substantial delays” in carrying out repairs to the communal heating system.
  3. In July 2020 the landlord offered compensation to the residents totalling £440. The amount paid for the lack of hot water and heating over the winter period was £2 a day up to a maximum of £50 in line with its compensation policy. This policy appears to have been based on the “right to repair” legislation which applies to local authority landlords and covers small, urgent repairs up to the value of £250 (paragraphs 8 and 9).
  4. In this case compensation of £50 is not proportionate to the detriment caused to the residents by not having hot water or heating (the electric heater provided was described as inadequate – paragraph 21) for 84 days. The sum of £5 a day would better reflect the inconvenience and distress caused to the residents over an extended period over winter given that they are elderly and one has a disability. Furthermore, this sum should be paid for the whole 84-day period and not capped as the detriment continued for the entire time.
  5. This sum would take into account the distress and inconvenience to the residents. Therefore, the total compensation ordered below of £680 is made up of the following:

£5 for 84 days £420

Time and trouble £200

Three missed appointments £60

  1. While the landlord offered compensation, there is no evidence that the landlord offered the residents an apology for the substantial delays in carrying out repairs. Apologising when things have gone wrong is an important part of effective complaints handling. It is often the first step to repairing a damaged relationship and, while apologising cannot change what has happened, it can help to restore trust.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was service failure by the landlord in respect of its response to the resident’s reports of outstanding repairs to the heating system.

 

Reasons

  1. The landlord acknowledged its substantial delay in carrying out the heating repairs. While it offered compensation, this was not proportionate to the detriment experienced by the residents.

Orders and recommendations

  1. The landlord should take the following action within four weeks of the date of this report:
    1. Apologise to the residents for the service failures identified in this report.
    2. Pay the residents the sum of £680 (minus any sums previously paid).

Recommendation

  1. It is recommended that the landlord takes the following action:
    1. Update its complaints policy to include making an apology when it recognises that service failure has occurred.
    2. Write to the residents and the representative with an update on its repairs to the communal boiler. If the matter has not yet been resolved, set out a timetable when it expects the repairs to have been completed satisfactorily.