London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) (202215266)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202215266

London & Quadrant Housing Trust

29 September 2023

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 handling of repairs to the resident’s boiler.

Background

2. The resident holds an assured tenancy with the landlord in a 2-bedroom house. The resident has various physical health conditions.
3. On 20 September 2022 the resident reported to the landlord that she had no heating or hot water. The landlord attended the property the following day and completed a service of the boiler. On 9 November 2022, the resident reported that an error code had appeared on her boiler. The landlord attended on 22 November 2022 and resolved the issue. A further report was made by the resident on 3 January 2023 of intermittent flashing and an error code appearing on the boiler.
4. On 6 January 2023, the resident complained to the landlord. She stated that the problem with her boiler was still ongoing. She added that she had booked a morning appointment with its contractor that day, but they had failed to attend. She explained that she had no heating and that she was concerned for her health. Further, she stated that the contractor had found a leak coming from her boiler. They told her that they would need to order new parts and subsequently left her with no heating.
5. On 9 February 2023 the landlord responded to the complaint at stage 1 of its complaint process. In summary, the response said:
   1. That following the resident’s report of no heating on 20 September 2022 its contractor attended the following day and left the boiler in working order.
   2. That following her report of an error code on her boiler on 9 November 2022, the contractor attended on 22 November 2022 and resolved the issue.
   3. A further repair was raised due to reports of intermittent flashing and a boiler error code which was resolved on 6 February 2023.
   4. The engineer had recommended replacing the ‘PRB and Vessel’ and its contractor would arrange a follow-up appointment with the resident for 10 February 2023 to complete this.
   5. It apologised for the impact on the resident’s health and offered £125 compensation, comprised of £50 for distress and inconvenience, £50 for time and effort, and £25 for the delay in its stage 1 acknowledgment.
6. In the resident’s escalation request she said that “nothing had been done” and she could provide proof that she had no hot water or heating since 3 January 2023. She also stated that the landlord had ignored her and had left her to suffer.
7. On 16 March 2023 the landlord issued its final response. It repeated the timeline of repairs in its stage 1 response. In addition, the response said:
   1. Its contractor had tried to contact the resident several times via phone, text, and letter since 10 February 2023 to arrange an appointment to fit the parts to her boiler.
   2. It had called the resident twice on 10 March 2023 and left a voicemail requesting contact so that it could arrange an appointment with its contractor to fit the parts.
   3. The resident arranged an appointment with its contractor to fit the parts at the end of the month.
   4. The resident did not want the landlord to contact its contractor to try and obtain an earlier appointment.
   5. Its contractor still had the parts for the boiler, and these would be fitted on 29 March 2023.
   6. It increased its offer of compensation to £200, comprised of £50 for service failure, £50 for lack of communication, £50 for distress and inconvenience, and £50 for the delay in its response.
   7. It would offset the compensation against her current arrears of £141.97.
8. In the resident’s complaint to the Ombudsman, she said that it was untrue that its contractor had been trying to fit the parts since February 2023. Further, she added that due to the landlord’s errors, she had seen an increase in her electricity bills.

Assessment and findings

9. The landlord does not dispute that there were failings in its handling of this matter. Where there are admitted failings by a landlord, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether the landlord resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances and offered appropriate redress. In considering this, the Ombudsman assesses whether the landlord’s actions were in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles:
   1. Be fair – treat people fairly and follow fair processes;
   2. Put things right; and
   3. Learn from outcomes.
10. The Ombudsman must first consider whether a failing on the part of the landlord occurred, and if so, whether this led to any adverse effect or detriment to the resident. If it is found that a failing did lead to an adverse effect, the investigation will then consider whether the landlord has taken enough action to ‘put things right’ and ‘learn from outcomes’.
11. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it is responsible for maintaining and keeping in repair the installations for water and space heating within the resident’s property. Where the landlord becomes aware of the need for repair, it should take appropriate steps to put things right within a reasonable timeframe of 24 hours for emergencies. Its repair timescales states that non-emergency repairs will be attended to at mutually convenient appointment times.
12. Furthermore, where the landlord identifies a potential vulnerability, that may put a resident at risk in their home, which could be worsened by a delay in completing repairs, the landlord should, in accordance with its vulnerable residents’ policy, treat the repair with escalated priority for their health and safety. The landlord’s records showed that it was aware of the resident’s medical conditions.
13. The resident reported a loss of heating and hot water on 20 September 2022 and the landlord attended the property the next day and carried out a service of the resident’s boiler. Its records indicated that it left the boiler in working order. While the landlord responded to this report in line with its emergency repair timescales, the resident reported further issues with her boiler on 9 November 2022 and again on 3 January 2023.
14. It attended her property, following her November 2022 report, 13 days later. While the Ombudsman acknowledges that the landlord’s records noted that there was not a complete loss of heating, it is unclear why it did not attend to this repair as an emergency or as an escalated priority. Given the resident’s previous report and her known vulnerabilities, it would have been appropriate for it to do so. This was a failure on the part of the landlord that would have caused distress and inconvenience to the resident.
15. Moreover, it took the landlord 3 days to attend to her January 2023 report. Its records indicated that the contractor’s attendance was prompted by a further report from the resident on 6 January 2023. Following this further report, the landlord arranged an appointment to attend to her property that day. While it acted promptly in this respect, it failed to respond to the resident’s original 3 January 2023 report in line with its emergency repair timescales, which left the resident having to chase it for a response. This would have caused further inconvenience to the resident.
16. When the landlord attended on 6 January 2023,it found that the boiler needed new parts and that it would need to order them and re-attend the resident’s property at a later date. In the resident’s complaint and escalation request, she clearly stated that she had been left with no hot water or heating since 3 January 2023, yet the landlord failed to address this in its formal responses, and although it is not entirely clear if this was the case, the landlord did not dispute the resident’s assertions.
17. Additionally, the landlord discussed the boiler issues with its contractor. The contractor informed the landlord that it had attended on 6 February 2023, re-pressurised the boiler, and left the resident with heating and hot water. Given this statement, it would be reasonable to conclude that the resident was without adequate heating or hot water from at least 3 January 2023 up to 6 February 2023. Given the time of year and the resident’s medical conditions, it should have, therefore, considered if temporary heating was needed. There was no evidence that the landlord considered this. This was a failure on the part of the landlord that would have caused additional distress to the resident.
18. The landlord’s records indicated that its contractor would need to fit the new parts to prevent the loss of heating and hot water from happening again and that it would do so on 10 February 2023. However, this did not happen. The landlord’s final response stated that its contractor had tried to contact the resident several times via text, phone, and letter to arrange an appointment, however, the Ombudsman has seen no evidence to support this. Moreover, the resident disputed these claims in her complaint to this service. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the Ombudsman can only conclude that the landlord failed to keep to this commitment. This caused delays in repairing the boiler.
19. The landlord’s contractor arranged an appointment with the resident to fit the new parts for 29 March 2023. This was over 6 weeks after its original commitment of 10 February 2023. However, the landlord’s records showed that it made attempts to try and bring this appointment forward. Although the resident refused these offers, given the circumstances, this was a reasonable approach for the landlord to take.
20. However, it is unclear if the 29 March 2023 appointment happened. Furthermore, the Ombudsman has seen evidence that the resident reported on 4 May 2023 and again on 1 June 2023 that her boiler was not working and that she was without any hot water or heating again. The frequency of reports of the same boiler issues suggests that either the landlord’s contractor failed to establish the root cause of the matter or did not carry out the necessary actions to rectify the matter. While it is unclear exactly how long the resident was left without heating or hot water, it is clear that the resident has been left without a reliable boiler for a prolonged period, with a lot of these issues falling in colder months of the year. An order is made below in respect of this.
21. While it was appropriate for the landlord to offer compensation to try and ‘put things right’ for the resident, the Ombudsman considers that the landlord’s offer of redress does not adequately reflect the level of detriment caused to the resident for the failures identified in this report. Given the length of time that the resident had to contend with an unreliable boiler and the vulnerabilities that she had made the landlord aware of, its offer of £200 was insufficient. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance suggests that compensation between £100 – £600 should be considered where the offer of redress was not proportionate to the failings identified and therefore an order for compensation is made below.
22. The resident has informed this service that she experienced higher electricity bills due to using more electricity while her boiler was not working. In line with its compensation policy, the landlord should consider reimbursing direct financial losses, such as out-of-pocket expenses, which have been incurred by the resident due to its service failures. From the evidence submitted, it is not clear if this has been addressed by the landlord, and so a recommendation has been made for it to do so below.
23. Finally, the landlord’s compensation policy states it will partly or fully offset a compensation payment against any debt owed to it by a resident, including rent and service charge arrears. The landlord therefore acted in line with its policy when it offset its compensation award against the resident’s arrears.
24. However, it is the Ombudsman’s position that compensation awarded by this service should be treated separately from any existing financial arrangements between the landlord and resident and should not be offset against arrears. This applies regardless of whether the landlord’s compensation policy allows it to do this. As such, the compensation ordered below should be paid directly to the resident, and not offset.

Determination

25. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s boiler.

Orders

26. The landlord must, within the next four weeks:
    1. Pay the resident £258.03 compensation, which is broken down into:
       1. £200 further compensation for distress and inconvenience caused by the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s boiler.
       2. £58.03 compensation already offered in its final response, (and which was not offset to the resident’s rent account), which must be paid to the resident if has not already done so.
    2. Fit the new parts to the boiler if it has not done so already and provide an action plan to the Ombudsman that addresses the boiler issues. The landlord must demonstrate that it has considered replacing the boiler.

Recommendation

27. It is recommended that the landlord contact the resident to consider and respond to her reported extra costs from her increased electricity bills.