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London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202010785)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202010785

London & Quadrant Housing Trust

17 December 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 reports of a repair to the resident’s heating and hot water system, and its offer of compensation.

Background and summary of events

  1. The residents live in a third floor two-bedroom flat in a purpose-built block, under a fixed term assured tenancy since July 2020.

The tenancy agreement

  1. The tenancy agreement sets out the rights and responsibilities of both the resident and the landlord. Section 3.3.1 says that the landlord will keep in repair and working order all fixtures and fittings for water heating.

The repairs policy

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy (October 2018) section three covers the landlord’s responsibility and 3.2 says that it is responsible for all fixtures for water and gas.

The complaints policy

  1. The landlord’s complaints policy says that stage one complaints will be responded to within 10 working days, and stage two in 20 working days.

The compensation policy

  1. The landlord’s compensation policy says that from April 2020, the landlord will only make statutory compensation payments and, with few exceptions, no discretionary of proactive compensation would be made until further notice.

Summary of events

  1. The landlord log for the property first indicated a hot water problem reported by the residents on 1 November 2020, but this was followed by a call from the resident on 5 November 2020, which said that the system was fully working again, and they were happy for the job to be closed.
  2. On 10 November 2020, the resident reported that a tap had been swapped the day before, and water was now tepid at best. The following day it was reported that there was no hot water from the bath tap.
  3. The log then described an issue with the ‘heat interface unit’ (HIU) and that there had been no hot water to the whole property on 13 November 2020. 
  4. On 19 November 2020, the resident reported that there had been no hot water for two weeks. They stated that the engineer had said the previous fix had been ‘bodged’ and the neighbours confirmed that the previous tenants also had problems with the hot water. The log then indicated that the landlord was chasing a part and on 23 November 2020 it responded to the landlord and said that the engineer should not have said it was a fault with the HIU. 
  5. Following a call from the resident, the landlord acknowledged a complaint on 27 November 2020, under reference ending #7Q2 in respect of the outstanding hot water repair. The landlord said a response would be issued in five working days.
  6. In her response, the resident responded reminded the landlord that they had now had no heating for 16 days, which was classified as an emergency situation under the Landlord and Tenant Act and asked for an urgent call back. On 30 November 2020 the resident emailed the landlord after 19 days with no heating and hot water and included a timeline of events with various contractors and having taken three days off work.
  7. A further email advised that engineers had called but the issue was still not fixed. The resident had spoken to the manufacturer and parts supplier for the unit and had already told the landlord what the issue was and what part needed to be ordered. The landlord responded that the outstanding part was being fitted that day.
  8. The resident responded on 1 December 2020 and stated that the contractor had contacted him to say they would come and descale the heat exchange unit. The resident had spoken with the manufacturer and believed descaling the unit was not enough to fix the problem, and that it needed replacing.
  9. A further complaint was submitted on 3 December 2020 as the resident had no   heating and hot water in the property since 10 November 2020. An internal email chased the part on order, advised an operative would be attending that day to descale the heat exchanger and if that did not work, they would replace the part.  A later email confirmed that a new heat exchanger had been fitted and the residents had heating and hot water. 
  10. A further stage one complaint acknowledgement was issued on 23 December 2020 under reference ending #4V4 following contact from this Service. The acknowledgment said that the issue was the delay in responding to a complaint about a three-week period without heating and hot water from August 2020. It said that a response would be issued by 8 January 2021.
  11. A separate compensation sum relating to the start of the tenancy was chased internally, and a compensation form sent to the resident.
  12. The compensation form was returned on 3 January 2021 and claimed for the 21 days the residents were without heating and hot water and a failed visit by a contractor.
  13. A complaint response, without a reference, was issued on 5 January 2021 and the resident was offered £307 compensation, calculated using the landlord’s compensation matrix. It found that there were unacceptable delays by the contractor and gave appeal rights to escalate to the next stage of the complaint process if the resident did not agree with the decision.
  14. The resident responded on 10 January 2021 to say they did not accept the offer, referred the landlord to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 regarding the lack of heating in the winter and stated that the previous tenants had advised the problem started prior to their tenancy. The property was then empty from April to August 2020, but the landlord had not resolved it. The resident had now received the £150 compensation in respect of the 5 days they had no heating when they first moved in, which equated to £30 per day, not the £2 per day they were offered now. The residents provided a breakdown of the £1,411.66 compensation they believed was payable.
  15. The resident chased a response on 27 January 2021 and again on 4 February 2021. 
  16. The landlord sent an acknowledgment to the resident on 10 February 2021 following a phone call that day, under reference ending #4V4 and apologised for the delay. The letter blamed other landlord staff for delays and explained that the resident’s complaint was that the complaint ref #7Q2 was delayed and to resolve the issue the resident wanted a response and compensation for being without heating for three weeks and ongoing issues since August 2020. The landlord said that the £150 awarded in October 2020 had been addressed. It said that a response would be sent by 15 March 2021.
  17. A further stage one complaint response was sent on 15 March 2021 under reference ending #4V4. It apologised for the delay in the response as the complaint had been acknowledged on 23 December 2020. It blamed other landlord staff for delays in the response. It detailed issues with the bath and shower not working and various failures to return the resident’s calls and contractors arriving late. The resident had been without water for two weeks when they were advised that the HIU unit parts were out of stock. 
  18. The landlord now offered £720.00 compensation, £250 each for inconvenience and distress, £100 each for lack of communication and time and effort, and £20 for the delay in responding to the complaint, in accordance with the landlord’s complaints policy and guidelines. Appeal rights to stage two of the landlord’s internal complaints procedure were given, as well as contact details for this Service. The letter wrongly stated that the Ombudsman was the sector regulator. The resident responded on 19 March 2021.
  19. Following further contact from this Service, the landlord wrote to the resident on 22 March 2022 and said that complaint reference #4V4 would now be escalated to stage two, and contact would be made within 10 days. A further letter from the landlord explained that the original complaint was logged under reference #4V4 on 22 December 2020. Complaint reference ending #7Q2 was then logged on 22 November 2020 and remained active.  
  20. The resident chased the response on 8 April 2021, and the landlord responded the next day and apologised for the delay. This Service wrote to the landlord on 13 April 2021 and asked it to amalgamate the complaint references number and refer to both residents in correspondence, as previously they had been set up as from two separate residents and with two numbers.
  21. The landlord issued its stage two complaint response on 15 April 2021. It upheld the complaint and explained the breakdown of a new offer of £1,160.00 compensation to include:
    1. Two payments of £250 for the resident’s time and distress resolving the complaint; the compensation policy gives a range up to £200 for this.
    2. A discretionary £100 for poor communication.
    3. For time and effort, the resident spent resolving the repair and the complaint, the maximum of £200 was awarded.  
    4. In respect of the four unproductive and one missed appointment, £100 was awarded, in line with the policy amount of £20 each.
    5. For the loss of heating, in line with the landlord’s policy, and based upon the Government’s Right to Repair scheme, £50 was applied, the maximum limit.
    6. For not responding to the complaint within the time quoted in the landlord’s policy, £210 was awarded.
  22. The landlord also asked the resident for evidence regarding the charges for HIU heating they had not received, and any other reasonable costs incurred, so they could be reimbursed. It stated that the details of the complaint would be reviewed by its complaints management learning group and where required, action would be taken to improve service delivery. The repair aspect had been referred to the contractor and a request made to review their handling of the matter and take steps to reduce repair delays. This was the landlord’s final response and appeal rights to this Service were given. 

Since the stage two response was issued

  1. The resident accepted the landlord’s offer of £1,160 compensation but asked that the complaint be investigated by this Service to stop others being in the same situation. The landlord has confirmed the compensation payment was made in May 2021. 

Assessment and findings

  1. The landlord does not dispute the service failures, in both the management of the repair, and the complaint handling. Therefore, the scope of this investigation is limited to whether the acknowledged failures have been adequately recognised in the compensation paid, and whether the landlord has taken steps to improve service in these areas.
  2. The landlord’s log include an entry dated 13 November 2020 indicating that there was no hot water to the ‘whole property’. It is not entirely clear if the ‘whole property’ relates to the rest of the building, as the log does include communal repairs, or just the individual flat. The resident has also stated that she had learned from other residents and the former tenants that the property had a history of what seemed to be the same problem.
  3. However, this investigation does not cover previous periods and tenancies, and the landlord has not been given the opportunity to respond to enquiries about earlier issues. It may be that there is an explanation or that these episodes were unrelated. This investigation only concerns the issues the current residents have been compensated for. 
  4. There was excessive confusion caused by the logging of a second complaint reference, when the resident requested a stage two response to the first complaint. This resulted in the stage two response not being issued when requested by this Service. Overall, the stage two investigation was first requested by the resident on 10 January 2021 and not provided until 15 April 2021. One reference was allocated to one joint resident and a second to the other, which added to the misunderstanding. The period at the start of the tenancy, for which £150 compensation was awarded, was also confused with the later period in the first stage one response. In any event, this payment was confirmed as having been received by the residents by January 2021. 
  5. The complaint responses themselves were confusing, poorly structured, and late. The landlord also blamed other, named, members of staff instead of taking ownership of the complaint.
  6. However, the elements of compensation offered exceed the amounts in the landlord’s policy and appear reasonable in all the circumstances. It is noted that the landlord’s compensation policy had suspended discretionary compensation from April 2020, apart from few exceptions, and exceptions were made in this instance to provide a fair complaint resolution. 
  7. The final response said that the complaint would be reviewed at a senior level and, where required, teams would take action to improve service, to include training and regular monitoring. It also said that the heating contractors had been instructed to review their handling of the matter. This is a positive response and one the Ombudsman looks to see in complaint resolution. There is no feedback from the landlord since this response in April 2021 to explain what learning was found and what steps taken to ensure that the problem is not repeated, however.
  8. It would be reassuring to see the landlord explain its longer-term plan to maintain the heat interface unit (HIU) for the block if this is a wider problem, and what training has been put in place regarding repairs and complaint handling.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 55(b) of the Scheme, the Ombudsman is satisfied that the member has offered the resident redress prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the concerns regarding its handling of the formal complaint satisfactorily.

Reasons

  1. The landlord has acknowledged its failings and taken steps to remedy them with its offer of compensation. 

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord:
    1. Investigate and extract the learning from this complaint and ensure any underlying causes are dealt with.
    2. Train salient staff on complaint handling and writing formal decisions, in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles to ‘be fair, put it right and learn from outcomes’.