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Metropolitan Housing Trust Limited (202102795)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202102795

Metropolitan Housing Trust Limited

24 January 2022


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. This complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s:
    1. Reports of repairs to his boiler.
    2. Request that the landlord reimburse him for increased electricity costs which he said he had incurred as a result of the issues with the boiler.

Background and summary of events

  1. The resident is an assured shorthold tenant of the landlord. The property is a 2 bedroom flat and the tenancy commenced on 9 May 2018.
  2. The resident contacted the landlord on 2 December 2020 to report a fault with his boiler and that the immersion heater had automatically turned itself on when he had requested at the last service that this be disabled. The resident complained about the level of his heating and hot water bills and requested that the landlord reimburse him for the increased costs which he said was the result of the issues he had been experiencing with his boiler. An appointment was raised for the landlord’s heating contractors to attend the same day
  3. The landlord’s heating contractor missed the appointment on 2 December 2020 and then attended on 3 December 2020 to carry out checks and to provide the resident with two temporary fan heaters. The contractor attended again the following day and identified a fault on the boiler display which was referred to a specialist contactor to attend and resolve.
  4. On 7 December 2020 a further repair to the boiler was reported. The landlord’s heating contractor attended on 8 December and again the repair was referred to the specialist contractor this time to address an issue with the compressor.
  5. The specialist contractor attended on 10 December 2020 and identified low gas pressure caused by slow fan speed and that all 5 zone valves were stuck. The contractor increased the fan speed, freed the stuck valves and tested the boiler, noting that the resident had asked to run the system without the immersion heater and so it would take some time to warm both the water and the property.
  6. On 29 December 2020, the resident reported that the original error had reoccurred, leaving them without heating and hot water. The landlord requested that the specialist contractor attend the property again, which they did on 31 December 2020. Following the visit the specialist contractor advised the landlord that the boiler was unable to function effectively without the immersion due to the large area covered and the cold weather. They also confirmed that the immersion and wiring were checked, were confirmed to be in working order and had been reduced from 6Kw to 3Kw to reduce the heating costs.
  7. Prior to the specialist contractors visit on 31 December 2020, the resident emailed the landlord on 30 December 2020 to say that they had not had a response to their email of 2 December 2020 and that since then they had had a frustrating time trying to arrange the repair of their boiler, they had had to rely small 2kw fan heaters to heat their property, that such heaters were not designed the heat a whole property and so incurred extremely high energy costs. The resident said that they were seeking £375, made up of £325, being the equivalent of 50% of their rent for the month of December 2020 due to the lack of heat and hot water during that time, plus £50 for the landlord’s failure to response to their complaint.
  8. On 27 January 2021, the resident emailed the landlord a spreadsheet showing their electricity usage. The resident said that they had been advised by the landlord’s specialist contractor to keep the immersion on at all times, that this had resulted in 4x normal usage and so they turned the immersion off. Having queried the ‘‘massive usage’’ with the contractor, they were instructed to turn the immersion back on in the hope that they would experience a drop in energy use after a few days. The resident said that they tried having the immersion on between 7 and 13 January but the usage was again high and so they turned the immersion off, using the boiler only for hot water at the expense of heating their home. The resident said that they were now requesting £429 compensation from the landlord to cover the additional heating costs.
  9. The landlord issued its stage one response on 28 January 2021. The landlord:
    1. Acknowledged that there had been multiple visits to the resident’s property, including one missed appointment, however following this the visits were attended within the correct timescales.
    2. Apologised for the distress that this had caused the resident and offered him £110 compensation made up of £75 for his time and trouble, £25 for its poor complaint handling and £10 for the missed appointment on 2 December 2020.
    3. Said that it had sent a copy of the resident’s electricity usage to its Heating and Hot Water Manager to review, that it would be in contact as soon as it had an update on this, and that the resident’s request for their boiler to be replaced had been discussed, however, the boiler was not due for replacement.
  10. On 11 February 2021, the resident emailed the landlord to escalate his complaint. The resident said that he rejected the landlord’s proposed compensation, that he was able to demonstrate a clear correlation between the instructions given to him by the landlord’s contractors and the significant increase in energy use by the boiler. The resident also said that they had been informed directly by the landlord’s contractor that the issues raised had resulted in inefficiencies with the boiler.
  11. The landlord issued its final response on 8 March 2021. The landlord did not uphold the resident’s escalated complaint. The landlord:
    1. Apologised to the resident for the delay in its response and for the delay in their initial complaint being assigned.
    2. Said that its complaint handling failures, the missed appointment and the resident’s time and trouble were acknowledged in its Stage one response and that a reasonable offer of compensation had been made for this.
    3. Said that following the resident’s claim of outstanding repairs issues with their boiler, it had contacted its contractors who confirmed that they had no concerns regarding the boiler or the immersion and that the boiler was not due to be replaced at that time.
    4. Advised that the resident’s energy bills had been reviewed and the decision was made that the usage throughout the months shown was in line with a property of the size of the resident’s property, and that there was no unusually high usage or signs of undue costs incurred.

Assessment and findings

Relevant legislation, agreements, policies and procedures

  1. Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the landlord must keep in proper working order the installations in the dwelling house for the supply of water, gas, electricity, sanitation, space heating, and heating water. This obligation is confirmed in Clause 2.4(a) of the tenancy terms and conditions and in the landlord’s Repairs guide for residents.
  2. The landlord’s Repairs guide for residents explains that the landlord has three categories of repairs: Emergency, for which the landlord aims to respond within 24 hours, Routine, for which the landlord aims to respond within 28 calendar days and Major Routine, within three months or as part of a planned programme of works.
  3. Total loss of heating is included under emergency repairs and the guide notes that where requested by the resident, temporary heating will be supplied within the 24 hour period and that if replacement parts need to be sourced, ordered and fitted the repair may take a further seven days. Clause 2.4(b) of the tenancy states, however, that if the heating system breaks down, the landlord does not have to give the resident extra heating equipment during the repair period.
  4. Clause 1.8(b) states that the resident is responsible for registering for and paying the charges of any utilities services such as gas, electricity, water or telephone is these are not provided by the landlord.
  5. The landlord has a two stage complaints process for which the policy states the landlord will acknowledge the complaint within 5 working days, at both stages, and aim to provide its response within 10 days of the acknowledgement at Stage one and within 20 days at Stage two.

Assessment

  1. The resident initially contacted the landlord on 2 December 2020 to report a repair to his boiler and to raise concerns about his immersion heater. Between 2 and 31 December 2020, the resident a further two repairs on 7 and 29 December 2020. During this time there is no evidence of there being any faults with the immersion heater, although it is noted that the resident was concerned about the cost of using it, and the landlord had provided the resident with temporary fan heaters, which, whilst its Repairs guide states that it will provide, it was not obliged to do under the terms and conditions of the resident’s tenancy.
  2. Following the resident’s reports, the landlord recognised its responsibility to repair and arranged for its contractor to attend within 24 hours. The contractor missed the initial appointment on 2 December 2020, the other appointments on 3, 4 and 7 December 2020 were attended in accordance with its Repairs guide for residents. The landlord’s contractor was unable to resolve the fault and so following their visits on 4 and 7 December 2020 the repair was referred to a specialist contractor to resolve.
  3. The specialist contractor attended on 10 December 2020, three days later, carried out the required repairs and tested the boiler to ensure that it was working correctly. In total the repair took the landlord eight days to resolve, in accordance with the timescale of 24 hours plus up to seven days given in the landlord’s Repairs guide.
  4. The resident contacted the landlord again on 29 December 2020 to report that he again had no heating or hot water. The landlord arranged for the specialist contractor to attend. However, they failed to attend within the 24 timescale set out in the landlord’s Repairs guide for residents, attending on 31 December 2020 two days later. At this point the boiler was repaired and the settings on the immersion heater reduced in order to reduce the resident’s heating costs. There were no further reports of repair to the heating system at the resident’s property in the period covered by this report.
  5. In its Stage one response, the landlord acknowledged that there had been multiple visits to the resident property and a missed appointment on 2 December 2020. To redress this the landlord apologised and offered the resident £75 for his time and trouble and £10 for the missed appointment.
  6. With regards to the resident’s request that the landlord reimburse him for increased costs he had incurred as a result of the issues with the boiler.
  7. Whilst the landlord is obliged to keep in proper working order the installations for heating and hot water, under the terms of their tenancy agreement the resident is responsible for paying the charges of any utilities services such as electricity.
  8. The landlord acted appropriately by acknowledging the resident’s concerns, agreeing to review the evidence provided by the resident and raising the resident’s concerns about the efficiency of the heating and hot water system with its contractors, who confirmed that they had no concerns regarding the boiler or the immersion.
  9. Having satisfied itself that the usage was in line with a property of the size of the resident’s property, and that there was no unusually high usage or signs of undue costs, it was reasonable for the landlord to refuse the resident’s request that it reimburse him for some of the costs he had incurred.
  10. Whilst not a failure in itself, given that the resident had expressed concerns about the level of his bills, the landlord could have signposted the resident to its own website, which provides information to residents about how to reduce bills and links to external organisation such as the Energy Savings Trust, but did not do so.
  11. Having considered all the evidence, and for the reasons explained in this report, I am satisfied that the landlord provided the resident with reasonable redress for its acknowledged failures with regards to its response to the resident’s reports of repairs to his boiler and that there was no service failure by the landlord with regards to its response to the resident’s request that it reimburse him for increased electricity costs which he said he had incurred as a result of the issues with the boiler.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 55(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was reasonable redress by the landlord in respect of its response to the resident’s reports of repairs to his boiler.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was no service failure by the landlord in respect of its response to the resident’s request that it reimburse him for increased electricity costs which he said he incurred as a result of the issues with the boiler.

Reasons

  1. The landlord acknowledged, apologised and offered the resident a total of £110 compensation to the resident for the time and trouble to him as a result of the multiple visits to his property to resolve the issues with his boiler, the missed appointment on 2 December 2020 and for the delay in providing a response to his complaint.
  2. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s concerns about the level of his electricity bills and took appropriate steps to address those concerns by referring the resident’s concerns to its contractor and by reviewing the billing evidence provided by the resident. Having had confirmation from the contractor that there were no issues with the heating system and having satisfied itself that there was no evidence to support the resident’s claim that the increase in his electricity costs was the result of any fault with the heating system, it was reasonable for the landlord to refuse his request.

Orders and recommendations

Recommendation

  1. That is it has not done so already, within 28 days of the date of this determination, the landlord is to pay the resident the £110 compensation offered in its final response.