Longhurst Group Limited (202220643)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202220643

Longhurst Group Limited

19 December 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:
    1. The landlord’s handling of required works after completing a damp and mould survey.
    2. The landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s broken staircase and handrail.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the property, a 2-bed terraced house owned by the landlord. She is disabled and has several health conditions.
  2. The landlord completed damp proofing works in the property in 2021. Its follow-up inspection of these works, on 10 May 2022, showed that works were either partially completed or incorrectly undertaken. The landlord listed actions required following this inspection, which included further investigation of the damp and mould, removal of plasterboard and to supply evidence of prior damp treatment.
  3. The resident first reported an issue with her staircase to the landlord on 27 May 2022. While the staircase was being prepared for decoration, it came away from the wall and the handrail came loose.
  4. The resident made a complaint to the landlord on 7 July 2022, stating that it told her repairs to her staircase and damp and mould works would be completed by 3 June 2022, but this had not happened. She had to cancel a family wedding at the property because the landlord had not completed the works. As part of her complaint, she stated that she had been paying for a carer to assist her at home as her stairs were broken and too dangerous for her to use and asked for reimbursement of the carer costs. The landlord declined to reimburse her for these as part of its final stage 2 response but stated it did take this into consideration when calculating compensation. She stated she had fallen down the stairs on 5 July 2022. As part of this complaint, she told the landlord the situation had affected her mental and physical health.
  5. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response on 28 July 2022 with an offer of £250 compensation and an apology for delays and inconvenience. As part of its response, repairs to the staircase were booked for 26 July 2022 and damp and mould works were booked for 27 and 28 July 2022. It stated that it would call the resident on 29 July 2022 to ensure all works were completed. She did not accept the compensation offer and the landlord escalated the complaint to stage 2 following her dissatisfaction with its offer. She did not provide any new information at this stage.
  6. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 31 October 2022. It apologised for the service it had provided and offered compensation of £5,079. Of this total amount, £3,429 was reimbursement for costs paid by the resident and £1,650 was compensation. A large part of the £3,429 reimbursement seems to be directly related to the resident’s previous complaint in 2021.
  7. The resident referred her complaint to this Service on 17 February 2023. She noted that the works were completed in November 2022 but that the walls in her property had begun to bubble again and cause the paint to crumble off the walls in March 2023.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. Throughout the period of the complaint the resident has reported the impact these delays have had on her mental and physical health. The Ombudsman is not able to make a determination about any links between the delays and the resident’s health concerns. However, we will consider the overall distress and inconvenience that the issues in this case have caused. A determination relating to damages caused to the resident’s mental and physical health is more appropriate for the Courts and the resident may wish to seek appropriate advice if she wishes to consider that option.
  2. The resident has told this Service that there is a reoccurrence of the damp in her property currently. The landlord has advised her to begin a new complaints procedure with it in relation to this. While the latest problems may be related to the issues in this complaint, they were reported after the complaint period considered in this report, and so cannot be investigated in this report under section 42(a) of the Scheme which says the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion are made prior to having exhausted a member’s complaints procedure, unless there is evidence of a complaint-handling failure and the Ombudsman is satisfied that the member has not taken action within a reasonable timescale. The resident needs to make a new complaint to the landlord for its own investigation, once its complaint procedure has been exhausted, she can make a new complaint with this Service for investigation if she remains dissatisfied with the landlord’s response.

The landlord’s handling of required damp and mould works

  1. The landlord completed damp proofing works at the resident’s property following formal complaints in 2021. The relevant complaint process was completed in November 2021. It completed a follow-up inspection of these works on 10 May 2022 which found that the works had either not been completed at all or were not fully completed. The report included photographs to accompany these findings. The landlord raised actions in the report for completion after the inspection. These actions were listed as obtaining evidence of completed damp treatment, investigation of the poor plaster surface throughout the property and removal of plasterboard at damp proof course level throughout the property. The report did not include any time periods for these actions and did not request an urgent response.
  2. No evidence has been provided to this Service that the landlord took any action to arrange works following this inspection, or that the resident made any follow-up queries, until she made a formal complaint on 7 July 2022. She stated, as part of this complaint, that during the inspection on 10 May 2022 she was told that all works at her property would be completed before 3 June 2022.
  3. The landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy lists condensation, mould, and damp as a routine repair. It states that appointed routine repairs should be completed within a maximum of 28 calendar days.
  4. It is not clear from the evidence provided whether the identified repairs would have been considered as routine or not, but regardless of this, it would have been basic good practice for the landlord to manage the resident’s expectations by providing updates on when works would be arranged.
  5. The policy includes guidance in relation to customer vulnerability and allows for works to be prioritised when vulnerabilities such as disability and health are identified. While the resident noted an effect on her mental and physical health in her complaint on 7 July 2022, the evidence provided shows that the landlord was not fully aware of the circumstances surrounding her health until it visited the property on 20 July 2022.
  6. While the landlord had missed its own repair target of 28 calendar days in the first instance, the evidence provided to this Service supports the conclusion that it did not have knowledge of the resident’s health concerns to enable it to give the repairs higher priority at this stage.
  7. The landlord made a series of referrals for the resident following its visit on 20 July 2022 to provide her with further support from a variety of agencies. It noted that she appeared vulnerable and tearful during its visit. It showed good practice in making these referrals.
  8. The landlord acted promptly following its visit on 20 July 2022 and organised repair appointments for damp and mould to take place on 27 and 28 July 2022. It advised that it would call her on 29 July 2022 to ensure the repairs were complete. The resident cancelled this appointment due to ill health. The landlord acted appropriately with the information it had at this stage and it attempted to rectify the issue. The cancellation of the appointment was outside of its control.
  9. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 28 July 2022. It asked the resident to contact it when she felt well enough to reschedule the repairs appointments. It apologised for the delay in fully completing repairs and offered her £250 compensation for the “significant impact” the issues had on her. She declined the compensation offer and, following a miscommunication between the parties causing some confusion and her clear dissatisfaction with the compensation offer. The landlord escalated her complaint to stage 2 on 29 July 2022.
  10. The resident contacted the landlord by email on 3 August 2022. She stated that she did not want any works to begin until a dispute over the amount of compensation and who was responsible for replacement flooring which was an outstanding issue from her 2021 complaint. Further in the email she stated she was waiting until 26 August for a stage 2 response from it, but that she needed repair works completed as soon as possible. The instruction in this email regarding works was not clear, however the landlord advised the resident on 11 August 2022 that it would contact her by 12 August 2022 to arrange works. This indicated that it was acting quickly to ensure works could start.
  11. The resident made further contact with the landlord on 16 August 2022 stating that she was still waiting for contact to arrange damp and mould repairs. In this email she stated that the situation was becoming detrimental to her health. On 19 August 2022, she confirmed to the landlord that she had been provided with dates to complete all required works before 6 September 2022. While the call to arrange works was slightly delayed, this showed that the landlord had acted reasonably by arranging repair works within 3 weeks. The damp proofing works were completed on 31 August 2022.
  12. The resident emailed the landlord on 7 September 2022 for an update on when decorating works would be taking place. No evidence has been provided to this Service that she received a response to this email. She emailed the CEO of the landlord on 14 September 2022 stating she was “at the end of her tether” as she had still not been given a date for decorating works to take place. She also stated the deadline for her stage 2 complaint had passed and she had not received a reply. The landlord acknowledged this email on the same day, apologising for the delay.
  13. The landlord provided a stage 2 response to the resident on 31 October 2022. It confirmed that the damp and mould work, along with decoration, had now been completed. She had asked for reassurance on how long the damp proofing works and paint would last but the landlord did not yet have this information to provide. It offered her compensation of £5,079. The compensation relevant to her complaint discussed in this report totalled £1,650 and was broken down as follows:
    1. £150 for time taken to investigate her complaint.
    2. £100 for time taken to complete damp proofing work.
    3. £400 for failed damp proof work completed in October 2021.
    4. £1,000 for the impact on her mental health, including the inconvenience of having to postpone her family wedding.
  14. The landlord did not make entirely clear which works the £1,000 paid for impact covered. For the purposes of this investigation, it is reasonable to conclude that £500 of this was to cover the impact of the damp and mould works, with the remaining £500 covering the impact of the staircase works discussed further in this report.
  15. The landlord’s compensation policy lists the amount of compensation it will pay in relation to the level of service failure impact. The amount offered to the resident exceeded the highest level its policy calls for.
  16. In conclusion, while the landlord failed to communicate effectively and appropriately manage the resident’s expectations between 10 May 2022 and her complaint on 7 July 2022, it did make an offer of compensation in its stage 2 response which this Service finds reasonable in the circumstances.

The landlord’s handling of reports of a broken staircase and handrail

  1. The landlord first became aware of an issue with the resident’s stairs on 27 May 2022. The staircase had come away from the wall and the handrail became loose while being sanded for varnishing. In its stage 1 complaint response on 28 July 2022, the landlord stated that it had made an emergency appointment to attend within 24 hours but that the resident could not accommodate this. In its stage 2 response on 31 October 2022, it contradicted this statement by stating it was due to go as an emergency but did not attend. No further evidence was provided alongside its complaint responses to clearly explain why the appointment did not take place in May 2022.
  2. The resident complained to the landlord on 7 July 2022 as mentioned previously in this report. In this complaint, she stated she had to pay a carer to bring her food and do jobs in the house because the stairs were too dangerous for her to use. She told it that she had fallen down the stairs on 5 July 2022.
  3. The landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy list a loose or detached banister or handrail as requiring an urgent repair to be completed within 3 calendar days. In total it took it 104 calendar days to repair the stairs and replace the handrail. While some delays were related to the resident’s ill health, the landlord took no action between the resident’s initial report on 27 May 2022 and its visit to her property on 20 July 2022. This alone exceeds the 3-calendar day repair period outlined in its own policy, however there was no evidence provided showing her chasing these repairs with the landlord within this period.
  4. In conclusion, the landlord did not act in accordance with its own repairs and maintenance policy in relation to the staircase and handrail repairs at the resident’s property. In its stage 2 response on 31 October 2022, it apologised for rearranging appointments but did not offer an apology for the length of time taken to complete repairs to the staircase. It acknowledged that the repairs should have been treated as a higher priority due to her mobility issues and offered £1,000 in compensation for the impact the delayed repairs had on her.
  5. As mentioned previously in this report, it can be reasonably determined that £500 related to the impact the staircase repairs had on her. No offers of compensation were made for the staircase repair delays and instead were made for the damp and mould repair works. As such, a further payment of compensation is ordered in the orders section of this report. The landlord told her she could make a claim against their insurance for her fall if she wished to which was the correct advice for the circumstance.
  6. The landlord did not offer any compensation for the delays in repairing the stairs as part of its offer at stage 2, with the focus of the compensation being on the damp and mould works. Thus, it missed the opportunity of utilising the complaint escalation to fully put things right, although it had acknowledged it shortcomings. This Service has, therefore, made an order below which ensures that this aspect of the complaint is redressed by the landlord.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Scheme, the landlord has offered redress to the resident prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, satisfactorily resolves the complaint about its handling of damp and mould works.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in respect of the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s broken staircase and handrail.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report, the landlord should provide evidence to this Service of compliance with the following orders:
    1. Pay additional compensation to the resident totalling £150 for delays in repairing the broken staircase and handrail.
    2. Provide a written apology from a senior manager to the resident for its handling of her repairs.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord should consider self-assessing its practices against the damp and mould spotlight report published by this Service if it has not already done so.