Platform Housing Group Limited (202127521)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202127521

Platform Housing Group Limited

30 April 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 handling of the resident’s reports of cooking smells entering her property from her neighbour’s property.
2. The Ombudsman has also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

3. The landlord is a housing association. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. The property is a 3-bedroom semi-detached house and the tenancy commenced in May 2010.
4. The resident first noticed cooking smells entering her property from her neighbour’s property in October 2021 and reported this to the landlord. She complained to the landlord on 13 December 2021, as she had not heard back from it. She continued to chase it as she had received no update. On 18 March 2022 she was told her complaint would be dealt as a ‘quick resolution complaint’ and would be contacted in 3 days.
5. This Service received contact from the resident on 7 April 2022. We then emailed the landlord to provide a response to the resident’s complaint. The landlord issued a response to the resident on 28 April 2022. The landlord thanked her for speaking with it. It also noted she was happy with the progress that had been made and no other action was needed at the time. It offered £150 for the inconvenience caused for the delays in inspecting the property. The resident accepted the £150 payment and, on 5 May 2022, the landlord told us the resident had withdrew her complaint.
6. The resident continued to chase the landlord for updates related to the cooking smells she was experiencing. On 20 July 2022 the landlord told the resident it wanted to establish why its surveyor had not attended the property yet, as this was meant to have happened in April 2022. She received the contact details of the surveyor on 15 September 2022 and arranged a visit to the property for 23 September 2022.
7. Following the surveyor’s visit the resident said she was not kept informed by the landlord. She wrote to the landlord on 13 October 2022 saying that she had previously received an apology and assurances from it that the issue would be resolved. However, the issue remained unresolved and she was having to chase the landlord and this was affecting her home and her mental health.
8. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 21 November 2022. It noted the resident’s complaint was raised in April 2022 and it agreed to check the property for anything causing the smells entering her property. It apologised to her for the delays in resolving the issues, its poor communication, and the time expended. The surveyor had discussed the issues with her neighbours and the need for proper extraction in their kitchen to minimise the cooking smells. It said the neighbours had taken on board the surveyor’s comments and seemed happy to undertake alterations to help mitigate cooking smells.
9. The landlord also included in its final response that the resident had said the situation had improved, and cooking smells had diminished since the surveyor’s visit. Carbon filters were also discussed and would be recommended to the neighbours. It would use the poor service provided as a learning experience and share this with its teams to ensure it delivered a repairs service that was valued. It offered an additional £200 which considered the length of time taken to arrange a surveyor’s visit and the effect on the resident. The resident accepted the additional compensation award of £200 on 1 December 2022.
10. On 3 January 2023 the resident told the landlord she was experiencing cooking smells stemming from her neighbour’s property again. She described the cooking smells to be odours from what she believed as cabbages and onions. She referred the matter to this Service on 31 January 2023 as she remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response. She wanted the landlord to take further action in preventing the cooking smells from entering her property.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

11. It is noted the resident said her mental health was affected due to the cooking smells. The Ombudsman does not doubt the resident’s concerns about her health, but this Service is unable to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, effects on health and wellbeing. Therefore, we cannot confirm the effect the landlord’s actions or inaction had on the resident’s health and the resident may wish to seek independent advice if she wishes to pursue this aspect of her complaint. However, we will take into consideration any distress or inconvenience that the landlord’s handling of the issues may have had on the resident.

Cooking smells entering the resident’s property

12. When investigating a complaint, the Ombudsman applies its dispute resolution principles. The principles of effective dispute resolution are:
    1. be fair, treat people fairly and follow fair processes
    2. put things right
    3. learn from outcomes
13. This Service will apply these principles when considering whether the landlord has taken enough action to put things right and learn from outcomes. The Ombudsman will not find maladministration or service failure when the landlord has provided reasonable redress.
14. Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 the landlord has statutory obligations to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the building. As the resident had noted the smells were entering her property even when the windows were closed, it was appropriate for the landlord to investigate the condition of the structure of the property.
15. The landlord has accepted it failed in its service delivery, by the delays in organising an inspection of the properties. The surveyor did not attend until 23 September 2022, which was in excess of 9 months since the resident put the landlord on notice of the issues. The length of the delay was unreasonable. Had it arranged an inspection earlier it could have avoided the time and trouble expended by the resident in chasing the inspection. Through its submission of evidence the landlord confirmed to this Service that the surveyor found no repair issues in the inspection.
16. The resident’s neighbour is an owner occupier, so the landlord was limited in the action it could take.. However, it was reasonable for it to arrange access to the neighbour’s property to inspect the effects of cooking smells transferring to the resident’s property. This demonstrated that it was taking the resident’s concerns seriously.
17. From the information provided, the landlord failed to adequately manage the resident’s expectations at the outset. It did not explain what it could and could do to deal with the transference of cooking smells between properties. Although the landlord has demonstrated that it investigated the resident’s concerns, it may have always been unable to resolve the issue to the resident’s satisfaction. The landlord is not required to prevent the transfer of cooking smells between properties and the extent of its responsibilities should have been made clearer to the resident. Its communication following the inspection was not clear and it has been unable to evidence that it provided necessary information regarding the condition of the property to the resident until its final response. This was unreasonable in the circumstances.
18. Despite this, the landlord showed a willingness to put things right. Initially in April 2022 it had offered £150 to the resident for its delays. In its final response of November 2022 it recognised further delays and poor service, it explained the steps it had taken and recommendations made to the neighbour and demonstrated it was taking learning from the experience. Its offer of an additional £200 meant that the landlord had made a total offer of £350 throughout its internal complaints procedure. This sum is in line with the suggested compensation figure in the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance.
19. Overall, while there were failings by the landlord, it had acknowledged, apologised, offered proportionate and fair compensation, and learned from the outcomes. Given the above, there was reasonable redress in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of cooking smells entering her property from her neighbour’s property.

The landlord’s complaint handling

20. There is an entry on the landlord’s information systems that a complaint was logged on 13 December 2021 by the resident in relation to repairs. There was further contact made by the resident in February 2022 and March 2022. On 16 March 2022 the landlord was aware the resident was reporting issues from December 2021, yet it had not acknowledged her complaint.
21. It was not until this Service’s involvement that the landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint at stage 1 of its internal complaints procedure. This was on 14 April 2022. It is unclear whether, without our involvement, the landlord would have progressed the resident’s complaint. This is despite it telling her that her complaint was a quick resolution complaint. Under the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) 2022, the landlord should have kept the resident regularly updated about the progress of the investigation, even where there was no new substantive information to provide. It not doing so, was inappropriate. .
22. On 28 April 2022 the landlord emailed the resident and offered her £150 compensation. It explained to this Service on 5 May 2022 that it considered the resident’s complaint withdrawn. However, it had not confirmed in writing to her it had withdrawn her complaint and why, and therefore its communication was unclear.
23. The landlord’s complaints policy does not include any timescales for responses to complaints and omits the number of stages it has as part of its internal complaints process. Under the Code, the landlord must confirm at stage 1 of its internal complaints procedure the following:
    1. the complaint stage
    2. the complaint definition
    3. the decision on the complaint
    4. the reasons for any decisions made
    5. the details of any remedy offered to put things right
    6. details of any outstanding actions
    7. details of how to escalate the matter to stage 2 if the resident is not satisfied with the answer
24. The landlord’s response of 28 April 2022 did not include the complaint stage, definition, the reasons for decisions made and details of outstanding actions or of how to escalate the matter. It is unclear whether the landlord was treating this as a stage 1 complaint response at the time. This is inappropriate as the Code was effective when the landlord was responding to the complaint and from subsequent correspondence by the resident, she was still looking for a resolution to her complaint, as the issues remained.
25. Additionally, the Code says that a stage 1 complaint response is to be provided within 10 working days of the complaint being logged. The resident had complained on 13 December 2021. This meant the timeliness of the landlord’s response was poor and inappropriate, as it had taken 94 working days to produce a response.
26. The Code states if all or part of the complaint is not resolved to the resident’s satisfaction at stage 1 it must be progressed to stage 2 of the landlord’s procedure. From the evidence available, although the resident had not stated she wanted her complaint escalated, the landlord overlooked several points of escalation. From 6 June 2022, the resident chased the landlord for updates regarding the matter. It would have been appropriate to check with the resident to confirm if she wished to escalate her complaint at that stage. By not doing so, it caused unnecessary delays to the resident’s complaint journey and prevented her from receiving a response at the earliest opportunity.
27. The totality of the resident’s complaint journey was poor. The landlord did not acknowledged any of the above complaint handling errors. The landlord has also not identified any learning regarding complaint handling. By not responding to her complaint promptly and not assessing whether her complaint should be escalated, the resident incurred time and trouble because the complaints procedure was protracted. Hence, this Service has found service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling. The orders include additional compensation in respect of the complaint handling failures and the landlord’s failure to address these in its final response.

Determination

28. In accordance with paragraph 53b of the Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress in its handling of the resident’s reports of cooking smells entering her property from her neighbour’s property, which in the Ombudsman’s opinion resolves the complaint satisfactorily.
29. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

30. Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, the landlord must:
    1. Write to the resident and apologise for the failings identified in this report.
    2. Pay directly to the resident’s bank account, £100 for the inconvenience experienced, as well as time and trouble expended due to its complaint handling failings.
31. Within 8 weeks of the date of this determination, if the landlord has not done so already, it must review and amend its complaints policy. The policy must provide clarity in relation to timescales for responding to complaints. The changes should take into consideration and be in line with the updated Code, which became statutory in April 2024.
32. The landlord is to provide evidence of compliance with the above orders to this Service.