London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202015115)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202015115

London & Quadrant Housing Trust

2 November 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

The complaint is about:
1. The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of repairs to her front garden brick wall.
2. The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Background and summary of events

The resident is a tenant of the landlord.
The landlord’s records on 28 November 2019 showed that it raised and cancelled a job to address the resident’s front garden brick wall where part of the wall had collapsed.
On 17 December 2019, the landlord raised and completed a job to address the resident front garden wall, which it noted as a health and safety issue as three feet of brick pillar had fallen to the ground leaving the front wall and brickwork unsafe.
A subsequent job to address the wall was recorded as cancelled by the landlord on 11 February 2020.
On 23 April 2020, the landlord advised the resident that an appointment made for 27 April 2020 to carry out work to the wall had been suspended due to the impact of the corona virus pandemic. It told her that it would rebook this “in due course”.
The resident called the landlord on 31 July 2020 to chase the work to her front garden wall. It advised her that the repairs planner would be in touch to book the job in.
The resident contacted the landlord again on 25 September 2020 to highlight that the seasonal weather was affecting the condition of the wall.
On 4 November 2020, the landlord raised a job to make the wall safe as this was “falling onto [the] public footpath” and the brickwork posts at the ends of the wall were loose. This job was recorded as complete on the following day. The resident called the landlord later on 5 November 2020 and it informed her that the wall had been made safe and asked her to call back for the remainder of the work once its repairs service resumed normal operation.
The resident called the landlord again on 26 November 2020, when it asked her to call back on 2 December 2020.
On 3 December 2020, the resident requested an update from the landlord about the ongoing repairs to the wall as she was concerned about its safety.
On 1 March 2021 the resident contacted this Service to voice her dissatisfaction with the landlord’s handling of repairs to her front garden wall. She said that the landlord had been aware of the garden wall since the end of a complaint she had made in 2019 but despite assurances that it would carry out the work, the repair remained outstanding.
The resident said that the garden wall had been inspected on 7 December 2018 and she had since made seven to eight calls to the landlord at various times “during, between and after” corona virus lockdowns. She relayed that it had told her that the wall repair was on a list it was working through and it had not confirmed to her when this would be carried out. The resident said that the wall was deteriorating and unstable, and the bricks from the collapsed pillar remained in her garden from two years ago.
This Service contacted the landlord on 29 March 2021 to relay the resident’s concerns to it and request that it investigate these as a complaint.
The landlord’s records showed that it attempted to contact the resident on 1 April 2021.
The landlord attended the resident’s property on 13 April 2021 to make safe the front garden wall. She called it later that day about the repair and it informed her that it would contact her about any follow-on works once it received the report from its operative who had attended that day.
The landlord issued its stage one complaint response to the resident on 27 April 2021. It said that, following its attendance to make the wall safe, it had arranged for it to reattend on 15 June 2021 to carry out the repairs to the front garden wall. The landlord noted that the resident had asked for the wall to be rebuilt and relayed that it would not be rebuilding the wall but only repairing the damaged areas of it.
The resident called the landlord on 11 May 2021 to request an update on the wall repair.
On 7 June 2021, the resident advised this Service of her dissatisfaction with the landlord’s stage one complaint response. She said that it did not address its lack of communication with her and did not address the three inspections of the wall that had already taken place. The resident said that landlord had “untruthfully” said that she had asked it to rebuild the entire wall and that it had attempted to contact her on 1 April 2021. She added that she had been promised a call on 29 April 2021 by the complaint handler’s manager and that she was told that a letter had been sent to her on 11 May 2021; she had not received either of these.
The resident held that the front garden wall presented a health and safety issue and repeated that the landlord had inspected it on three occasions but had not carried out a repair.
The Ombudsman contacted the landlord on 10 June 2021 to relay the resident’s continued dissatisfaction and request that her complaint be escalated to the next stage of its complaints procedure.
On 15 June 2021, the landlord’s worker attended the property and reported back to it that the job would require more time. The resident informed this Service that she had been informed that day that the wall repair scheduled for the same day had been rescheduled to 21 September 2021.
On 24 June 2021, the landlord issued its final stage complaint response to the resident in which it relayed that it had attended the property on 4 November 2020 and 13 April 2021 as emergencies due to her reports of the front garden wall posing a hazard. It confirmed that it made the wall safe on both of these occasions but follow on works were put on hold due to the impact of the corona virus pandemic.
The landlord confirmed that it raised a repair on 27 May 2021 once its repairs service had resumed normal service. It said that it had attended on 15 June 2021, confirmed that the wall was safe and booked in follow on works for 21 September 2021, which was the earliest available appointment. The landlord said that it had a large backlog of non-emergency repairs, of which the resident’s front garden wall was one. It assured her that it would be monitoring the progress of this repair.
On 6 August 2021, the resident informed the Ombudsman that her dissatisfaction was that the landlord “lied” about contacting her on 1 April 2021and sending a letter to her on 17 April 2021. She was also unhappy that the repair had been outstanding since November 2019; she relayed that she had been originally informed that the repair could not be completed due to adverse weather, then it could not be completed due to the corona virus lockdown. The resident disputed that the wall had been made safe; it had been “wrapped… in red and white paper” and the landlord had not done any work since.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

The landlord’s tenancy agreement with the resident confirms that its responsible for the repair and maintenance of the structure and exterior of the property.
The landlord’s repairs policy confirms that it is responsible for the maintenance of boundary fences and gates and unsafe garden walls. This policy confirms that, where there is an “immediate danger to the occupant of members of the public” it will attend a repair within 24 hours. For follow on works, the policy states that these will be completed “at the earliest mutually convenient appointment”.
The landlord’s complaints policy provides for a two-stage complaints procedure where, at stage one, it will respond to the resident within ten working days to provide a resolution. At the final stage of its complaints procedure, it is to provide a response within 20 working days. If the landlord is unable to respond within these timescales at either stage, it is to explain why and write again within another ten working days. This policy states that it will not consider issues which are more than six months old unless there are exceptional circumstances.
The landlord’s compensation policy provides for payments of compensation to be offered where it had failed to follow its policies and procedures or when it has failed to respond to complaints or done so inadequately.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of repairs to her front garden brick wall

The Ombudsman would expect that a complaint is made by a resident to the landlord about their dissatisfaction about an issue within a reasonable period, which would normally be within six months of the matters arising. In this case this Service has exercised its discretion to consider events from November 2019, as it is evident that the issue has been outstanding since this time.
The Ombudsman accepts that landlords will have experienced challenges in delivering services in light of the challenges posed by the corona virus pandemic. However, a landlord would still be expected to maintain communication with residents to manage their expectations of the level of service which they could expect. This repair to the front garden brick wall was brought to the landlord’s attention on 28 November 2019 before the impact of the pandemic in 2020 and was yet to be completed by the time the complaint was duly made with this Service on 19 August 2021. During this time there was no evidence of the landlord keeping the resident informed about the progress of the repair and therefore excess effort was required of her to chase it for updates.
It is noted that the landlord attended the property within 24 hours of logging the repair on 17 December 2019, 4 November 2020 and 13 April 2021 to make the wall safe. This was in accordance with its repairs policy above, which specifies that repairs which pose a hazard to the resident or the public are to be attended within 24 hours. However, while it was reasonable for the landlord to carry out follow-on non-emergency work at a later date to repair the wall once it confirmed that the wall was safe, it delayed excessively from 17 December 2019 onwards in carrying this out.
It is noted that the resident disputed that the front garden wall had been made safe, however it is reasonable for a landlord to rely on the opinions of its suitably qualified staff and contractors. Therefore, it acted reasonably in considering that the wall was safe after its emergency attendances.
While it is accepted that the landlord will have experienced challenges in delivering its repairs service during the corona virus pandemic, it was a failure on its part to not communicate with the resident during this period to keep her informed. The landlord therefore exhibited failures in its handling of the repair by delaying excessively and not updating the resident on progress.
The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance, available to view at https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Remedies-Guidance.pdf, provides for compensation of between £250 and £700 to be awarded where there has been considerable service failure. This may involve “a complainant repeatedly having to chase responses and seek correction of mistakes, necessitating unreasonable level of involvement by that complainant” and “failure over a considerable period of time to act in accordance with policy – for example to address repairs”.
The landlord should therefore pay compensation of £250 to the resident in recognition of the likely distress and inconvenience caused by its lack of communication and delay in addressing the repair. In awarding compensation, the Ombudsman must consider all the circumstances of the case. While the follow-on repair has taken an excessive length of time to address, and there was no evidence of the landlord communicating effectively with the resident during this time, the Ombudsman accepts that challenges will have been faced by the landlord in delivering non-emergency repairs during this period due to the impact of the corona virus pandemic.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

This Service contacted the landlord on 29 March 2021 to request that it address the resident’s complaint. It did not provide its stage one complaint response to her until 27 April 2021; this was 19 working days later. This was nine working days in excess of the timeframe specified in its complaints policy above and there was no evidence of it contacting the resident to explain why there was a delay. Therefore, the landlord failed to adhere to its policy at stage one of the complaints procedure.
The landlord provided its final stage complaint response to the resident ten working days after the Ombudsman contacted it about her continued dissatisfaction. It therefore responded at the final stage in accordance with the 20 working-day timeframe specified in its policy.
The resident has disputed that the landlord called her on 1 April 2021 and wrote to her on 17 April 2021. The evidence is inconclusive on both of these matters and therefore it is not possible to determine the facts surrounding these.
In recognition of the delay in the landlord providing its stage one complaint response, compensation of £50 should be paid to the resident. This is in line with our remedies guidance which provides for awards of compensation of between £50 and £250 where there has been an instance of service failure which had an impact on the complainant but was of short duration and may not have significantly affected the overall outcome for the complainant.

Determination (decision)

In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in:
1. Its handling of the resident’s reports of repairs to her front garden brick wall.
2. Its handling of the associated complaint.

Reasons

The landlord delayed excessively in carrying out follow-on repairs to the resident’s front garden wall and did not keep her informed about the progress of this.
The landlord did not issue its stage one complaint response to the resident in accordance with the timeframe specified in its policy.

Orders

Within 28 days, the landlord should:
1. Pay compensation of £300 to the resident comprised of £250 for its failures in the handling of her reports of repairs to her front garden wall and £50 for its handling of the associated complaint.
2. If it has not yet done so, contact her to agree a date to commence the repair to her front garden wall, including providing information on the works to be undertaken.

Recommendation

The landlord should review its procedures for communicating to residents about repairs to enable it to better manage their expectations.