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The Community Housing Group Limited (202106309)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202106309

The Community Housing Group Limited

13 April 2023

 

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 the neighbour to store their rubbish bins within their own property boundary and not within the external communal areas.
  2. The landlord’s complaint handling has also been investigated.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of the property, a one-bedroom flat owned by the landlord, with access to a communal garden and yard. The resident’s neighbour lives in a property attached to the block of flats but it does not form part of the flat complex.
  2. The resident informed the landlord in June 2021, that he wanted the neighbour’s bin to be moved to where the other bins were located. His reasons included the fact that the neighbour only had access on bin day and had their own space to accommodate their bins in their front garden. The resident also stated that when he mistakenly put cans in the wrong bin, he was threatened by the neighbour who had a caravan parked in their backyard and could also have their bins there. He chased the landlord for a response on the issue and made a formal complaint in July 2021.
  3. In the landlord’s stage one response of 30 July 2021, it stated that it undertook an inspection and the bins were found to be stored neatly and ready for collection outside the flats. It further advised that the bins were normally stored by the rear gate, causing no obstruction to other users. Other residents of the block had confirmed that the bins were not causing an issue. The landlord explained that the arrangement dated back to when the rear courtyards and adjoining gardens were open plan (more than 40 years previously).
  4. Following the resident’s escalation request, the landlord advised in its stage two decision of the 11 August 2021, that he had not provided evidence to support further consideration of the matter and referred him to the Housing Ombudsman.

Assessment and findings

Bin Storage

  1. The resident reported the issue of his dissatisfaction with his neighbour’s use of the bins on 4 June 2021 and the landlord responded with the request for his reasons the day after. He exchanged emails with the landlord on the issue on 5 June 2021 to 8 June 2021 and then contacted this Service. The landlord is expected to take reasonable steps to ensure that its residents’ properties and communal areas were kept clean. It was reasonable and proportionate, therefore, for the landlord to inspect the area and ask other residents of the flats if the bins caused a nuisance.
  2. The landlord demonstrated that it took the resident’s reports seriously by conducting the site inspection and advising the resident of its findings in the complaint response. The resident did not make any allegations of refuse or litter dumping by the neighbour nor does the evidence suggest that this was occurring.
  3. In referring the matter to this Service, in August 2021, the resident stated that:
    1. The neighbour did not keep the yard clean (another neighbour did).
    2. He was unhappy that the landlord asked other residents if they were unhappy with the situation.
    3. The landlord failed to respond or show proof of the permission granted to the neighbour to store the bins in the communal yard.
    4. The neighbour has ample space to store their own bins, in both the front and back of their property boundary.
  4. As stated above, the report to the landlord did not include any allegation of the neighbour not using the bins appropriately. The matter of who kept the yard clean was not the part of the complaint and this Service finds no adverse effect to the resident through another tenant keeping it clean.
  5. It was reasonable that the landlord investigated the matter thoroughly, including interviewing other residents, so that it could ascertain whether there were issues to be resolved with respect to the bin storage.
  6. It was not necessary for the landlord to provide evidence of permitting the neighbour to use the communal bin space. Such proof would have been required if the space was not already being used for the bins, there was a tenancy requirement for tenants to obtain the landlord’s permission for this purpose and/or the landlord asserted that it had provided such permission. As none of these situations applied in this case, and the landlord had explained that the space had been used in the same manner for decades, its response to the resident was sufficient.
  7. It may have been accurate that the neighbour could have stored their bins in another location but there was no obligation for them to do so. The landlord’s investigations indicated that they were not causing any obstruction in using the communal space in a manner that had been the practice for a very significant length of time.
  8. From the foregoing, this Service concludes that the landlord provided a reasonable response to the resident and no further action was required.

Complaints Handling

  1. The landlord was contacted by this Service regarding the resident’s complaint on 15 June 2021 and chased for a response on 9 July 2021. It advised, on 1 July 2021, that it had not received a formal complaint request from the resident. However, the resident stated as follows in its  email to the landlord, of 5 June 2021, “When I put rubbish in their bins, you were quick to threaten me with eviction and involve the asbo officer, but with my valid complaint against them, you are siding with them again.” The wording of this email suggested that it was the resident’s perception that he had an ongoing complaint with the landlord. This Service finds that the landlord should have logged a formal complaint at that stage and advised the resident that this was in process. On the other hand, it could have advised him that a formal complaint had not been logged and clarified what, if any, was required for that to be done.
  2. The landlord’s complaint procedure allows for the 10 day working day stage one response to be extended if there is good and justifiable reason and with agreement of the customer. In this instance, the complaints procedure was not followed.
  3. The Ombudsman notes that, based on the information provided, the original complaint was made by the resident on the 5 June 2021 and a stage one decision was not issued until 30 July 2021. This equates to approximately 40 working days which is an unreasonable timescale. Although there were several email exchanges between the parties the landlord did not consider a formal complaint until it was chased by this Service to do so. It also failed to advise the resident about the steps it was taking to investigate the matter, which could have assured him that the issue was being considered.
  4. The landlord’s complaint’s procedure allows for a compensation payment for failure of staff to follow the landlord’s published policies and procedures. It failed to acknowledge that a formal complaint should have been considered sooner and to offer an apology for its failure in this regard. This Service concludes that compensation is warranted for the landlord’s handling of the complaint process in this case.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of its response to the resident’s request for the neighbour to store their rubbish bins within their own property boundary and not within the external communal areas.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was service failure by the landlord in respect of the associated complaint handling.

Orders and recommendations

  1. The landlord shall take the following action within four weeks of the date of this report and provide evidence of compliance with these orders to the Ombudsman:
    1. Apologise to the resident for the complaint handling failings identified in this report.
    2. Pay the resident the sum of £50 for the inconvenience of chasing it for a complaint decision.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord is to review the training needs of its complaint handling team regarding the application of its complaints policy and the Ombudsman’s complaint handling code at https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/landlords-info/complaint-handling-code/. This is in order to ensure that these are adhered to and to prevent the issues noted in this case.