NSAH (Alliance Homes) Limited (202214812)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202214812

NSAH (Alliance Homes) Limited

31 January 2024

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 response to the resident’s request for compensation following a boiler breakdown.

Background

2. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. He resides in a one bed first floor flat. The flat is situated within a block of 17 and is serviced by a communal boiler.
3. On 24 December 2021 there was a boiler breakdown resulting in a total loss of heating and hot water. The landlord attended on the same day and successfully reinstated the hot water. It was unable to repair the boiler so provided the resident with electric heaters until a replacement boiler could be installed.
4. On 7 January 2022 the landlord completed the installation of the new boilers, and the heating was reinstated.
5. The resident contacted the landlord on 28 June 2022 requesting compensation for the costs he incurred as a result of the boiler breakdown. The landlord responded 2 days later apologising and offered a goodwill gesture of £50.00.
6. The resident was dissatisfied with the amount offered and provided a breakdown of the costs incurred and what he felt would be reasonable compensation. This amounted to £217.93, in addition to the £50.00 already offered. The residents’ calculations included £179.20 electricity usage for the period the boiler was out of order, £7.73 interest, and an additional £31.00 compensation for inconvenience.
7. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 9 August 2022 in which it said it had reviewed its response in line with the average published energy costs during December 2021 and January 2022, it increased its offer of compensation to £92.15. The landlord also informed the resident that it would not consider paying interest.
8. The resident remained dissatisfied with this response and escalated the matter to the Ombudsman.

Assessment and findings

9. The landlord’s compensation policy sets out the circumstances in which it will consider offering financial redress. It says that payments will be made when a person has experienced a delay or has incurred additional costs because of a service failure. The landlord’s initial response to the boiler breakdown did not amount to a service failure as it responded promptly and in line with its policy. Furthermore, it ensured that appropriate measures were in place in the form of temporary heating. However, following the resident’s complaint the landlord did agree to compensate for the energy costs incurred in using the temporary heaters, demonstrating positive complaint handling.
10. The landlord’s overall approach to calculating the energy usage at stage 2 was reasonable and proportionate, it took into consideration the resident’s personal circumstances and the fact that he was using the heater for 16 hours per day, which is above the average daily amount. The landlord was unable to confirm if the resident was provided with 1800w or 2kw heaters, however, in fairness to the resident it based its calculations upon the higher 2kw and the Department of business, energy and industrial strategy guidelines. There are, however, discrepancies in the landlords’ overall calculations.
11. The landlord offered compensation of £92.15. It agreed to compensate at a rate of 18.09p per kWh, accounting for the fact that the resident had 2 heaters it doubled this and rounded it up to 37p per kWh, which was reasonable in the circumstance. The landlord did not provide a breakdown of how it had reached it’s final figure, however, the evidence shows that although the landlord used the appropriate cost per unit it incorrectly converted this into the daily usage cost. Using an accurate energy calculation method of kW power rating of appliance x hours used x cost per kWh this would have been 2 x 16 x 0.37p, therefore the total amount payable would be £11.84 per day x 14 days = £165.76.
12. The resident also requested that the landlord include interest in its compensation offer, which it refused. In this instance I feel that landlord responded appropriately. The Ombudsman’s remedy guidance states that we will not usually consider including interest unless the period of delay is more than six months and the payment itself is larger than the figures involved in this case.
13. In summary, the landlord acted appropriately in its repair obligations and resolved the substantive issues in a timely manner. It reasonably and fairly tried to resolve the residents request for compensation, however, there was a service failure in its incorrect calculation of the compensation.

Determination

14. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s response to the resident’s request for compensation following a boiler breakdown.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

15. Within four weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Pay the resident £165.76 in addition to any amounts already paid in recognition of the costs incurred due to the boiler breakdown and the inconvenience caused by its miscalculation.