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Phoenix Community Housing Association (Bellingham and Downham) Limited (202121475)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202121475

Phoenix Community Housing Association (Bellingham and Downham) Limited

12 May 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. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
    1. Repairs to the bathroom extractor fan.
    2. Repairs to the back door.
    3. Damp and mould in the property.

Jurisdiction

  1. What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, in accordance with paragraph 39(a) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the following aspect of the complaint is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction:
    1. Damp and mould in the property.
  3. As a part of her complaint to this Service, the resident raised that she had been reporting damp and mould to the landlord. The Ombudsman cannot consider this issue under our rules. This is in accordance with paragraph 39(a) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme which states that the Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, are made prior to having exhausted a member’s [landlord’s] complaints procedure unless there is evidence of a complaint handling failure and the Ombudsman is satisfied that the member has not acted within a reasonable timescale.
  4. As this issue did not exhaust the landlord’s complaint procedure, this is therefore not something on which this Service can adjudicate at this stage, as the landlord needs to be provided with the opportunity to investigate and respond to this aspect through its internal complaints procedure. If the resident remains dissatisfied once she has received the landlord’s final response to her complaint, she may be able to refer the matter to the Ombudsman for investigation at that stage.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. The resident has informed this Service that she has vulnerable family members living in the property – specifically a disabled member of the household. It is unclear if the landlord was aware of this due to the lack of records provided by the landlord.
  2. The resident reported to the landlord that the extractor fan in her bathroom was not working ‘properly’ on 8 June 2021. The landlord’s contractors attended on 22 June 2021 and identified damp and mould in the bathroom.
  3. The resident made a formal complaint to the landlord on 20 September 2021. The resident was unhappy with the lack of communication from the landlord about the repairs to her bathroom fan and the damp and mould, as she had to chase these repairs. In her complaint escalation request on 27 September 2021, the resident also reported that her back-door was leaking when it rained and this was coming into the property and that the repair to her bathroom fan was unsuccessful and stopped working as soon as the operative left.
  4. The landlord issued its stage two response to the complaint on 1 October 2021. It stated that it had visited the resident a day prior (30 September 2021) to discuss her ongoing issues and both parties agreed that repair work completed on 27 September 2021 was satisfactory. The landlord acknowledged that the repairs were delayed and it had provided poor customer service. In recognition the landlord apologised to the resident for the poor service and offered £200 compensation. It also agreed to complete works to the back-door which was leaking and said it would source a new bar for the back-door.
  5. The resident remains unhappy with the landlord’s communication and customer service, which she feels could be improved. The resident also raised that the repair to her back-door had not been completed by the landlord and, due to heavy rain, her living room had flooded as a result of the door not being repaired.
  6. In correspondence to the Ombudsman, the landlord has advised the back door was repaired in January 2022. The landlord explained that the delay in fitting the door was due to a shortage in materials which affected the landlord’s supplier.

 

Assessment and findings

Policies and Procedures

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that ‘every day repairs’ will be attended within 28 calendar days. ‘Every day repairs’ are described as day–to–day maintenance; usually of a minor nature which is unplanned, and/or a routine repair that does not pose a health and safety risk to the resident.
  2. Following an inspection of the property, the resident will be informed of what will happen next. For everyday repair work, a repair will be raised within two days of the inspection appointment. For more extensive repairs, a repair will be raised within five days. If no repairs are raised following an inspection, the resident will be informed of the reasons why, via a phone call, a letter or at the inspection stage.
  3. The repairs policy also states that, if damage caused to a room has substantially affected a rooms décor, the landlord may redecorate the affected area, at its discretion.

Assessment

Scope of investigation.

  1. In the evidence provided to this Service, the landlord’s records show reports of the bathroom fan “not working ‘properly” dating back to 2018. The Ombudsman appreciates that this is a longstanding issue, however it is outside of the Ombudsman’s remit to consider events dating back to 2018. As a general principle the Ombudsman will consider events up to six months prior to a formal complaint being raised to the landlord, this is in line with the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, which sets out the rules which govern our service. Landlords are not expected to keep detailed records indefinitely and the landlord would not be expected to have much information about the repairs dating back to 2018. For this reason, the Ombudsman’s investigation does not consider any specific events prior to April 2021, which is six months before the resident complained to the landlord in September 2021.
  2. The resident also reported to the Ombudsman that the back door was allowing water to penetrate into the property and causing damage to personal items. In communication with this Service, the landlord stated it was not aware of the property damage that was reported. The Ombudsman is unable to determine whether the landlord was responsible for the damage at this stage as the landlord has not had the opportunity to investigate the claims itself before the Ombudsman becomes involved. However, the landlord has said if the resident provides it with evidence of the damaged items, it will review this evidence. The landlord should act upon this information and contact the resident about any property damage that occurred as a result of the leak.

Repairs to the bathroom extractor fan.

  1. The resident reported on 8 June 2021 that the fan in the bathroom was not working ‘properly’. The landlord arranged for an operative to attend the property on 22 June 2021. There is no evidence that the operative agreed to any replacement fan at this stage, but they did agree that follow on works for damp and mould needed to be conducted.
  2. The resident was unhappy that the landlord did ‘not get things right the first time’ in regards to the repair work carried out to the bathroom fan. This Service acknowledges that the landlord did attend multiple times to try and attempt repairs to the fan, or on occasions, failed to identify any repair issues with the fan. It is reasonable that a landlord may need to attend a property on multiple occasions to resolve a repair, especially if a repair obligation has not been identified on previous visits. Therefore, whilst the number of visits would have caused inconvenience to the resident, it was reasonable for a landlord to have to attend on multiple occasions in this case.
  3. However, the landlord was informed upon a further inspection on 16 August 2021 that the bathroom fan needed to be serviced as it only came on when the pull switch was used and was not running automatically. The repairs were not fully completed until 27 September 2021. This Service acknowledges that the landlord delayed repairs to the fan without explanation or communication with the resident. This was not in accordance with the repairs policy which states that repairs needed to be completed within 28 days.
  4. The landlord acknowledged a delay in resolving the repairs and that it had not followed its repair procedure. It apologised for these errors and offered £200 compensation. The compensation offered by the landlord was in line with the Ombudsman’s own remedies guidance (published on our website). The remedies guidance suggests that the Ombudsman may award between £50 to £250 in cases where there has been there has been service failure by the landlord which had an impact on the complainant but was of short duration and may not have significantly affected the overall outcome for the complainant. Examples include failure to meet service standards for actions and responses but where the failure had no significant impact. In this case, there were delays to the repairs to the extractor fan which would have caused inconvenience to the resident but did not affect the overall outcome as the landlord ultimately fixed the extractor fan.

 

 

Repairs to the back door.

  1. The resident raised in her complaint escalation request on 27 September 2021, that the backdoor was leaking and subsequently causing damage to the property. The landlord attended the property on 30 September 2021 and agreed to source a new UPVC bar for the backdoor. However, a brand-new door was installed on 11 January 2022.
  2. The landlord attended the property within three working days in-line with its repair timeframe as per the repairs policy and informed the resident of the works that would need to be completed in its stage two complaint response on 1 October 2021.
  3. The landlord informed this Service that it had delayed repairs to the back-door due to the shortage of plastic in the UK at the time, therefore, it was unable to source a new back-door. It is unclear if the landlord kept the resident informed of these delays, due to the lack of evidence provided. This delay would have been reasonable as it was an unavoidable delay due to there a nationwide shortage of plastic and, therefore, it was outside of the landlord’s control. However, the landlord should have made the resident aware of the delay to manage her expectations.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 55 (b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress prior to investigation, which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaints about repairs to the bathroom extractor fan and back door satisfactorily.

Recommendations

  1. The Ombudsman recommends that the landlord to pay £200 to the resident, which was offered prior to this investigation, if not already done so.
  2. The Ombudsman recommends that the landlord address any ongoing damp and mould concerns in the property.