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Sanctuary Housing Association (202231198)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202231198

Sanctuary Housing Association

21 March 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 repairs to the roof of the resident’s property.
  2. This Service has also looked at the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident lives in a 2-bedroom house and has been an assured tenant of the landlord since 1996.
  2. On 30 November 2022, the resident contacted the landlord to inform it that birds were getting into his loft.
  3. The landlord raised a work order on 2 December 2022 for a contractor to visit and carry out an inspection. The job was refused by 2 contractors because it was out of their geographical area. The third contractor accepted the job on 13 December 2022 and inspected the roof on 22 December 2022.
  4. The resident completed the landlord’s online complaint form on 28 December 2022. He said:
    1. His roof was defective, allowing birds to access the loft space. The birds were disturbing his sleep which was affecting his life.
    2. The landlord’s response to the repairs had been slow.
    3. He spent hours on the phone to try and resolve the issue.
  5. On 30 December 2022, the landlord acknowledged the complaint and advised the resident that there might be a delay in it providing a response due to staff being on leave over the Christmas period. It committed to trying to respond by 16 January 2023.
  6. The landlord provided its interim stage 1 response on 16 January 2023. It offered its sincere apologies for the resident having to make a complaint and for the issues he had been experiencing. It listed the following points:
    1. It had raised a work order on 2 December 2022 for a contractor in relation to missing roof tiles. The contractor cancelled the job on 13 December 2022 because they no longer covered the area.
    2. It raised a new order on 13 December 2022 to another contractor who confirmed they would attend within 28 days.
    3. The contractor attended on 22 December 2022, but did not supply a quote for the works until 13 January 2023.
    4. Due to the costs, the quote had to go through additional approval steps. It was trying to speed the quote along. As soon as the landlord approved the quote it would let him know.
  7. The resident sent an email on 16 January 2023 acknowledging the interim stage 1 response. He requested an update on the works by the end of day on 19 January 2023. He called the landlord on 24 January 2023 for an update and emailed it again on 26 January 2023. He did not receive a response to either contact.
  8. The resident escalated his complaint on 3 February 2023. The landlord acknowledged his escalation on 9 February 2023 and said it would respond by 6 March 2023.
  9. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 6 March 2023. It summarised the events in the case and listed the following points:
    1. It apologised that it had not yet approved the work order. It had followed this up again and had requested that the appropriate team approve the order without further delay.
    2. Once it had approved the quote the contractor would complete the work within 60 days.
    3. It apologised for not responding to his contacts and for not giving the expected standard of service after the stage 1 response was issued. In recognition of its service failure, it offered:

 

  1. £300 for the time, trouble and inconvenience including any future impact until the work was completed.
  2. £100 for its complaint handling.
  1. On 9 March 2023, the resident accepted the compensation and asked the landlord to contact him to obtain his bank details.

Events after the landlord’s complaints procedure

  1. The resident called the landlord on 15 March 2023 because it had not approved the work order and said he wanted his complaint re assessed.  The landlord told him that it had closed his complaint at stage 2 because he had accepted the outcome and the compensation. The complaint response allowed an additional 60 days for it to complete the work. The landlord called the resident on 16 March 2023, it told the resident it had approved the work order.
  2. The landlord emailed the resident on 31 March 2023 stating it had approved the work order on 30 March 2023. It said the the target date for the contractor to complete the work was 27 April 2023. It advised the goodwill gesture of £400 remained open for another 3 months.
  3. The resident emailed the landlord on 24 April 2023. He said that he had contacted the contractor on 11 and 19 April 2023 but they were unable to give him a start date for the repair. The landlord informed him the contractor was waiting for the scaffolding to be put in place. The resident chased the contractor again on 20 and 28 April 2023.
  4. There were a number of emails between the resident and landlord on 3 and 5 May 2023. The resident said he was unhappy that the work had gone beyond the landlord’s target date of 27 April 2023. He expected it to take immediate action to resolve the issue and wanted to accept the goodwill offer of £400. The landlord said that it had processed the £400 on 14 March 2023 and apologised that it had re-offered the money when it should not have. The resident wanted his complaint re-opened and escalated to a senior manager for review. The landlord told him the complaint process did not allow for another manager to review the complaint. If he wanted to pursue the complaint, he would have to contact the Ombudsman. The landlord offered an additional £150 in recognition of its error associated with the confusion over the compensation.
  5. The work started on 25 May 2023 and was completed by 31 May 2023.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of the repairs to the roof

  1. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 places obligations on landlords to keep the structure and exterior of the premises in good repair. This is recognised in the resident’s tenancy agreement, which specifically mentions the landlord’s responsibility to maintain the roof.
  2. The landlord’s repairs and maintenance procedure lists two types of repairs, emergency and appointed. The repairs to the roof fall into the appointed category. The landlord should complete appointed repairs within 28 working days. If the work required a pre-inspection, it should be done within 10 days of the work being requested. The work should then be completed within 28 working days of the pre inspection.
  3. The landlord acted in line with its procedure when the resident reported the problem with the roof. It raised an order for a contractor to inspect it. However, the delay in the inspection could have been avoided if the landlord had raised the order with an appropriate contractor. The landlord raising the order with 2 contractors that did not cover the resident’s area was a short coming.
  4. There was then an additional delay of nearly 1 month before the third contractor submitted a quote. We acknowledge that the time between the contractor’s inspection and the quote being submitted included the Christmas and New year period. We have seen evidence that the landlord acted when the resident chased progress on 28 December 2022. It tried to contact the contractor on 3 January 2023, but the contractor’s office was closed.
  5. It told the resident on 16 March 2023 that it had approved the work. However, the landlord’s internal emails on 22 and 24 March 2023 show that the quote had not been approved. Providing incorrect information was a failure and caused frustration to the resident. The landlord finally approved the work on 30 March 2023, 56 working days after receiving the quote, which was an unreasonable delay.
  6. Throughout the process the resident had to chase the landlord for updates and to progress the repairs. In the absence of information from the landlord he contacted the contractors to obtain updates directly from them. In its repairs and maintenance procedure the landlord states it will provide residents with proactive communication for all repairs. It failed to comply with its procedure. The contractor completed the work on 31 May 2023, 6 months after the resident had raised the issue. This delay went significantly beyond the landlord’s 28 day timeframe required by its repairs and maintenance procedure. This was inappropriate.
  7. The resident told the landlord on 28 December 2022 that the birds in the loft had caused him trouble sleeping, which was affecting his life. He purchased equipment to film the birds and sent footage to the landlord as evidence. In its stage 2 response the landlord advised the work could take a further 60 days to complete. It failed to recognise the impact of sleep disturbance on the resident during this period. It was unreasonable that the landlord did not consider any temporary action to remove the birds and prevent them from gaining access to the loft. We have made an additional order for £150 compensation due to these omissions.
  8. The landlord’s failings in its handling of the repairs to the resident’s roof amounts to maladministration.

The landlord’s complaint handling

  1. The landlord has a 2 stage complaints process. It will acknowledge complaints and escalation requests within 5 working days. It will respond to Stage 1 complaints within 10 working days and stage 2 complaints within 20 working days. It will contact residents if more time is needed to provide a response.
  2. The landlord issued an interim stage 1 response on 16 January 2023, it advised it would issue a final stage 1 response when it had approved the quote for the work. The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) requires a response to be sent to the resident when the answer to the complaint is known, not when the outstanding issues have been completed. The status of the quote at the time of the response should have had no bearing on the landlord’s decision to uphold the complaint or not. The landlord should have issued its final stage 1 response, not an interim response, and listed the actions it was going to take and then track those actions to completion. Not doing so was a failing.
  3. When he received the interim response, the resident emailed the landlord and said he expected it to provide an update on 19 January 2023. He did not get a response to that email, nor did he get the update he requested. He contacted the landlord again on 24 and 26 January 2023, for an update but did not get a response from the landlord. This caused the resident frustration and led to him escalating his complaint.  The landlord did not issue the resident with a final stage 1 complaint response.
  4. In the stage 2 response the landlord apologised for the additional delays and its communication failures that followed its interim stage 1 response. However, it had still not approved the quote by the time of its stage 2 complaint response on 6 March 2023, and did not provide any reasons or mitigation for the delay, which was unreasonable. The landlord offered £100 for the failures in its complaint handling.
  5. In an attempt to put things right it also offered the resident £300 compensation, to cover the delays already experienced and the possibility of any future delays of up to 60 days. While this is allowed under the landlord’s policy, it is clear from the evidence that it created confusion and led to the resident feeling frustrated.  However, the landlord recognised this and made an additional offer of £150 on 5 May 2023, which was reasonable. This Service is aware that the resident did not contact the landlord about the additional offer of compensation due to his frustration with the process. A recommendation has been made for the landlord to pay the resident the £150.
  6. Overall, in the Ombudsman’s opinion there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the repairs to the resident’s roof.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord must pay the resident £150 for the distress and inconvenience associated with its repairs to the resident’s roof. This is in addition to any money already paid. It must be paid directly to the resident and not offset against any arrears.
  2. The landlord is ordered to provide evidence of compliance with these orders within the time limit set out.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord should pay the resident the £150 offered on 5 May 2023, in recognition of the distress, inconvenience, time and trouble associated with its complaint handling.