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Metropolitan Housing Trust Limited (202005064)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202005064

Metropolitan Housing Trust Limited

4 March 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:
    1. response to the resident’s reports of no heating in her property,
    2. response to the resident’s report of damp and mould in the bathroom of the property,
    3. handling of the associated complaint.

Background 

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord. Her application for housing with the landlord on 27 September 2012 stated that she had no disabilities or conditions and the landlord confirmed to this Service on 22 December 2020 that there were no recorded vulnerabilities for her.
  2. The landlord’s repairs guide confirms that it is responsible for repairs and maintenance to boilers and central heating systems. This guide provides “total loss of heating” as an example of an emergency repair which should be completed within 24 hours. Non-emergency routine repairs are to be completed within 28 days by appointment.
  3. The landlord’s repairs guide states that it will sometimes inspect repairs beforehand and it will make an appointment with the resident for this.
  4. The landlord’s complaints policy provides for a two-stage complaints procedure with complaints to be acknowledged within two working days and contact maintained with the resident at a minimum of every two weeks. If a stage one complaint is not resolved within 28 calendar days, then it is to be escalated to the final review stage automatically where it is also to be resolved within 28 calendar days.
  5. The landlord’s complaints policy provides for payments of discretionary compensation to recognise inconvenience caused to a resident due to its failure to meet its service standards or when there have been unreasonable delays to its service standards. No specific amounts are provided for guidance.

Summary of events

  1. The landlord’s repairs log recorded that the resident reported on 15 October, 13 November and 29 November 2019 that she had hot water but no heating in the property. Both the reports on 15 October and 29 November 2019 were recorded as routine repairs, whereas the report on 13 November 2019 was treated as an emergency repair.
  2. On 9 December 2019 the resident raised a stage one complaint with the landlord in which she explained that she had called it over two weeks ago to report that there was no heating in the property and that there were “disrepairs and mould in the bathroom”. She said that a person had attended the property in the evening which she thought was “probably the workman” but she did not open the door. The resident contended that the landlord’s actions were “unacceptable” in light of her disability which she had informed the landlord of. She wanted the heating in the property to be restored within seven days and compensation for being without this.
  3. The landlord emailed the resident on 19 December 2019, after unsuccessfully attempting to call her, asking her to make contact to discuss the complaint.
  4. The landlord’s repairs log recorded that the repair to the heating was completed on 20 December 2019. The resident confirmed this in an email to it the following day in which she expressed her concern that the repair took over a month to be completed and she wanted £1,000 compensation for the loss of the heating. She added that there was mould in the bathroom which required attention and was affecting her health, and she asserted that the landlord was aware of her disability. The resident requested a response to her complaint within four working days.
  5. The resident emailed the landlord on 31 December 2019 and 10 January 2020 to request updates to her complaint. In the latter email she asked for an appointment to address the mould she had reported to her bathroom.
  6. The landlord left voicemails with the resident on 13 and 23 January 2020, and its internal emails showed that it attempted to arrange inspections of her mould reports on these dates.
  7. The landlord issued a stage one complaint response to the resident on 18 February 2020. It acknowledged that there had been a lack of communication about the complaint and it had failed to attend to inspect the damp and mould issue. The landlord confirmed that the complaint would now be escalated to the final stage of its procedure.
  8. On 26 February 2020 the landlord confirmed to the resident that it was still trying to arrange an inspection of the damp and mould and it had escalated the complaint to the final stage of its procedure. It advised her of an increase to its timeframes due to an unexpected increase in its workload and that it would be in contact within ten working days.
  9. The landlord emailed the resident on 4 March 2020 to apologise for the delayed resolution of her complaint. It confirmed that it would be considering its handling of the complaint as part of its response. The landlord asked the resident to provide her availability for an inspection of the damp and mould.
  10. The landlord advised the resident on 20 May 2020 that it was not conducting inspections presently due to the corona virus restrictions. It asked her if she preferred to keep the complaint open or to close it with an offer of compensation provided. The resident replied on 22 May 2020 to acknowledge that she understood that only certain repairs were being carried out during the corona virus lockdown and confirmed she wanted the complaint to be closed.
  11. The landlord issued a final stage complaint response to the resident on 4 June 2020. In this, it relayed that a routine repair was raised on 15 October 2019 which was attended on 23 October 2019 but could not be completed due to no access. The landlord also noted that an emergency repair was raised on 13 November 2019 which was attended the same day but again could not be completed due to no access. The repair was completed on 20 December 2019 after the resident called it on 29 November 2019 to request an appointment as she could not be available for emergency appointments. The landlord stated that it could not identify any failures in its response to the heating repair.
  12. The landlord asserted that it had not received previous reports from the resident about the damp and mould and therefore it had been unable to raise an inspection for this to be addressed. It noted that she had acknowledged that non-essential repairs had been put on hold and she had agreed to contact it to arrange an inspection once restrictions had lifted.
  13. The landlord acknowledged that there had been a lack of communication and delays in its response during stage one of the complaints procedure and offered £75 compensation for “poor complaints handling”.

Assessment and findings

The resident’s reports of no heating in her property

  1. The landlord’s repairs guide, above at point 3, confirms that a lack of heating is considered an emergency repair and therefore should be fixed within 24 hours. While it is not disputed that the resident’s report of no heating on 29 November 2019 was raised as a routine repair by appointment at her request, it is unclear why her report of no heating on 15 October 2019 was also raised as a routine repair. As there is no evidence that the repair report made on 15 October 2019 should not have been treated as an emergency repair, it is a failure on the landlord’s part not to repair this within 24 hours.
  2. In recognition of the inconvenience caused to the resident by the landlord’s failure to raise the initial report of no heating as an emergency, compensation of £50 should be paid to her. It should be clarified that compensation awarded by the Ombudsman is not intended to punish or make an example of the landlord, it is to ‘put right’ any failure on its part and recognise the likely level of detriment caused to the resident. The award of £50 is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance where “there has been 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”.
  3. In this case, by not raising an emergency repair, a delay of eight days occurred after 15 October 2019. That the repair was subsequently unsuccessful on 23 October and 13 November 2019 cannot be attributed to the landlord as access was not granted on those occasions.

The resident’s report of damp and mould in the bathroom of the property

  1. The landlord’s final stage complaint response on 4 June 2020 stated that it had been “unable” to raise an inspection for the damp and mould reported by the resident and appeared to attribute this to her not reporting this issue to it prior to her complaint on 9 December 2019. This was a reasonable response as the landlord can only respond to an issue at a property when it has been made aware of the issue and the resident did not report the damp and mould to the landlord prior to making the complaint.
  2. As set out in paragraph 12 the landlord left voicemails for the resident on 13 January 2020 and 23 January 2021 to arrange an inspection of the property for damp and mould. The landlord acted reasonably in attempting to contact the resident to arrange an inspection. The landlord was prevented, from March 2020 onwards by corona virus restrictions, from carrying out an inspection.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

  1. There is no evidence that the landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint within two working days, as per its complaints policy above at point 5. While there is evidence that it made contact on 19 December 2019 in accordance with its policy, there was no further contact from it until 13 January 2020. During the intervening time there had been three contacts from the resident requesting updates on her complaint.
  2. In accordance with its complaints policy, above at point 5, the complaint should have automatically been escalated to the final stage on 6 January 2020; this being 28 calendar days after the complaint was made. The escalation to the final stage was not confirmed to the resident until 18 February 2020 and while two updates were provided on 26 February and 4 March 2020, there was then a significant gap of 77 calendar days until 20 May 2020 when the landlord offered to close the complaint and make its offer of compensation.
  3. As the complaint was confirmed to have escalated to the final stage on 18 February 2020, the landlord should have issued its final response to the resident by 17 March 2020. The final complaint response was not provided until 4 June 2020, 64 calendar days in excess of the timeframe specified in its complaints policy above at point 5.
  4. This Service recognises that, during the corona virus lockdown period, it would have been reasonable to expect some delays to non-essential landlord services. While the delay in issuing the final stage complaint response was significant, under the circumstances it was not excessive. The landlord’s offer of £75 compensation is therefore a reasonable and proportionate award to address its failures at both stages of its complaints procedure to respond and communicate in a timely manner and represents reasonable redress to the resident.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its response to the resident’s reports of no heating in her property.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its response to the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the bathroom of her property.
  3. In accordance with paragraph 55(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has offered redress to the resident prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint concerning its handling of the associated complaint satisfactorily.

Reasons

  1. The landlord did not act in accordance with policy by raising an emergency repair in response to the resident’s initial report of a loss of heating on 15 October 2019.
  2. The landlord acted reasonably in attempting to contact the resident to arrange a visit to the property to carry out an inspection and was then prevented from doing so by the corona virus restrictions.
  3. The landlord recognised that it had delayed its handling of the resident’s formal complaint but offered an award of compensation for this which was reasonable and proportionate, under the circumstances.

Orders

  1. Within 28 days the landlord is to pay £50 compensation to the resident for its failure to respond to the resident’s reports of loss of heating as an emergency.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord should:
    1. within four weeks pay the resident £75 compensation that it offered the resident in its final stage complaint response for its failures in the handling of the complaint, if it has not already done so.
    2. as soon as restrictions permit, carry out an inspection of the damp and mould reported by the resident and carry out any remedial work which is its responsibility.