The new improved webform is online now! Residents and representatives can access the form online today.

The Guinness Partnership Limited (202219858)

Back to Top

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202219858

The Guinness Partnership Limited

26 September 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 handling of:
    1. The resident’s report of window repair issues.
    2. The resident’s request for window adaptations to be completed. 

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, living in a flat.
  2. The resident reported difficulty opening and closing her windows on 10 May 2022. An assessment was completed by the contractor on 14 June 2022. A follow-on appointment was completed on 5 August 2022, but was unsuccessful.
  3. The resident raised a complaint on 20 October 2022 as she had not received an update regarding the window repair. She was dissatisfied with the time taken to complete the repair and wanted compensation for the stress and inconvenience caused.
  4. In its stage 1 response, the landlord acknowledged the delays in completing the repair. It said it was unable to complete the repair on 5 August 2022 as the contractor did not have the correct materials due to its poor record keeping and communication. It requested its subcontractor to complete the works, but they also did not have the required materials. The work was passed to a new subcontractor and an assessment had been arranged for 4 November 2022. It offered £75 compensation for the stress and inconvenience and £50 for its poor communication.
  5. The resident escalated the complaint on 28 November 2022. She said as the landlord had failed to complete the repairs, she was unable to access fresh air and had to rely on her carer to open the windows. During a call on 5 December 2022 regarding the complaint escalation, the resident stated that an adaptation request was sent in 2018 to install window winders, but the work had not been completed.
  6. In the landlord’s stage 2 response, it said that the repairs were completed on 23 December 2022, and the resident had confirmed she was happy with the repairs. It apologised for the delays in completing the repairs and the stress and inconvenience caused. It also acknowledged its poor communication as it had failed to call her back on 4 occasions. It offered £350 compensation for the delays to complete the repairs, the stress and inconvenience caused, its poor communication and the delay in escalating the complaint. It said it was unable to consider the handling of the adaptations identified by occupational therapy (OT) in 2018 within its complaint response, as it was originally reported over 6 months prior. However, a contractor would contact her within 20 working days to arrange an appointment to complete the work.
  7. The resident raised a second complaint on 20 February 2023. She said the adaptations to her windows had been outstanding since 2018, despite raising the issue several times. She wanted to know when the work would be completed.
  8. The landlord sent its stage 1 response on 16 March 2023. It acknowledged the resident had chased the works in December 2022. It said it was unable to look at the delays between 2018-2022 due to the time elapsed.  It recognised unreasonable delays since the resident chased the repair in her previous complaint and said the work would be completed on 24 March 2023. It offered £100 compensation to apologise for the unreasonable delays to complete the repairs and the stress and inconvenience caused and £20 due to the delay in responding to the complaint.
  9. On 27 March 2023, the resident escalated the complaint as the adaptations had not been completed. She said the property should be classed as unsuitable as the work had not been completed following the OT request.
  10. The landlord’s final response on 12 May 2023 stated that there had been a delay in receiving the quote for the work following the contractors initial visit and a further delay in reviewing and approving it. The repairs were scheduled for 8 June 2023 and 9 June 2023. It offered an additional £50 for the delays to complete the repairs and £30 as an apology for its poor communication and delayed response.
  11. In the resident’s complaint to this service, she said she remained dissatisfied that she had to pay full rent for the duration the window repairs and adaptations were outstanding. She had to chase the landlord for the works to be completed, which she said was difficult as she has memory issues. She confirmed that all the works were completed, but she wanted additional compensation.
  12. Following the referral of the complaint, the landlord determined the compensation offered did not reflect the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident by the delays in fitting the window winders. It offered an additional £350 compensation.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s report of window repair issues

  1. In accordance with the landlord’s responsive repairs policy, it is responsible for window repairs. It should complete routine repairs within 28 calendar days. As such, when the resident reported that she was having difficulty opening and closing the windows, the landlord was obliged to inspect the windows, ascertain whether there was a repair issue and complete any necessary works. The resident informed this service that she was unable to open 5 out of the 7 windows in the property and her carer had to use bottles to wedge the windows open.
  2. The landlord has acknowledged its failings to complete the window repairs within a reasonable timeframe. Where there are admitted failings by a landlord, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether the redress offered by the landlord put things right and resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances. In considering this the Ombudsman assesses whether the landlord’s offer of redress was in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes.
  3. The landlord acknowledged there were delays in completing the repairs as the subcontractor cancelled an appointment the day before it was scheduled. It was also unable to complete the work during the appointment on 5 August 2021, as it did not have the required materials. It recognised the omission was due to poor record keeping and communication. While it was appropriate that the landlord recognised the reason for its failing, it should have taken steps of learning to prevent a recurrence of the issue. A recommendation has been made below to reflect this.
  4. Further delays were experienced as the landlord was subsequently unable to obtain the required materials. It is recognised that this is somewhat outside its control. The landlord took reasonable steps to resolve the issue as it contacted 2 contractors to find one with access to the necessary materials to complete the work. However, there is no evidence to indicate the resident was informed of the reasons for the delays, so the landlord failed to manage her expectations. This resulted in her chasing the repairs on 4 occasions between 12 September 2022 and 10 October 2022, to which she did not receive a meaningful response. The landlord’s poor communication therefore caused the resident additional time and trouble pursuing the repairs.
  5. An appointment was attended on 4 November 2022 to assess the required works, and the repair was completed on 23 December 2022. The landlord significantly exceeded its repair timeframe as it took over 7 months to complete the works. It is evident that the delay had a detrimental impact on the resident as she said she was unable to open the windows without the assistance of her carer, who only attended for 3 hours a week. She said this meant she was unable to access fresh air most of the time. The resident also told the landlord if her carer forgot to close the windows, she would have to stand on a stool to do so, which was a safety risk and impacted her chronic pain condition.
  6. In its final response, the landlord offered £300 compensation for its handling of the repairs, comprised of £100 for the delays to complete the repairs, £100 to acknowledge the stress and inconvenience caused and £100 for its poor communication and failed promises. In line with this service’s remedies guidance, awards of £100-£600 are appropriate in cases where the landlord’s failure has adversely impacted the resident. The compensation bracket also applies when the landlord has acknowledged failings and attempted to put things right, but the offer was not proportionate to the failings identified in this investigation.
  7. In view of all the evidence, the compensation offered was not sufficient for the length of the delays. The compounding failures to adhere to the complaint timeframes or regularly update the resident caused clear distress and inconvenience to the resident. Furthermore, the resident’s vulnerabilities meant the delays in completing the repairs had a greater impact on her, and there is no indication that the landlord took this into consideration or prioritised the repairs. In light of this, an additional £150 compensation has been ordered below.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for window adaptions to be completed

  1. The landlord’s aids and adaptations policy states that it will complete minor adaptations subject to funding and major adaptations require an OT assessment. The resident said she reported the issues when she initially moved into the property in 2016. The landlord has provided evidence that an OT assessment was completed in July 2018, which recommended window winders should be installed. However, the works were not completed at the time of the recommendation. The landlord should have completed the repairs when initially identified or provided a reasonable explanation why it was unable to. However, due to the time elapsed, this report is unable to consider the landlord’s actions at that time.
  2. In December 2022, as part of her complaint escalation relating to the window repair issues, the resident stated that the window adaptations were outstanding. The landlord said it was unable to consider it as part of the complaint as it could only investigate issues that had been raised within the previous 6 months. This approach is consistent with both its complaint policy and this service’s complaint handling code. As there is no evidence of the issue being pursued between June 2021, when the occupational therapist chased the adaptations, and December 2022, the landlord’s approach to the issue was reasonable.
  3. This investigation will focus on the events considered in the landlord’s complaint response. However, it is recognised that the resident said there were gaps in her chasing the adaptations as she has memory issues. Consideration will be given to the fact the landlord was made aware the adaptations had been outstanding for a prolonged period when the resident chased the works.
  4. The landlord raised a work order to install the window winders on 15 December 2022. In its complaint response on 4 January 2023, it stated it would contact the resident within 20 working days to arrange an appointment. However, there is no evidence that the landlord attempted to contact the resident or complete the repair within the specified timeframe, which was a failing. The resident subsequently raised a complaint on 20 February 2023.
  5. In its stage 1 response, the landlord said the repair was scheduled to be completed by 24 March 2023. However, due to the landlord’s delay in approving the revised quote provided by the contractor, the adaptation was not completed until 9 June 2023. As a result, the landlord exceeded the timeframe it set out and it took almost 6 months to complete the work from when the resident re-raised the issue. This was an unreasonable delay. It was appropriate that the landlord identified the reasons for the delay, but it should have outlined steps it would take to ensure such delays would not reoccur.
  6. It is evident that the delays in completing the adaptations meant the resident experienced prolonged difficulty using her windows. Furthermore, as the landlord failed to adhere to the timeframes it set out, it failed to appropriately manage the resident’s expectations. Compensation is therefore warranted for the distress and inconvenience caused, as well as the time and effort pursuing the issue. In its final response, the landlord offered £200 compensation and following the resident referring the matter to this service, it offered an additional £350. It would have been reasonable for the landlord to have offered the additional amount as part of its formal complaint process. However, as there was only a month between the adaptation being completed and the revised offer, the delay did not necessarily have a detrimental impact on the resident.
  7. The landlord’s offer of compensation was in line with its compensation policy which states that £250-£700 is appropriate when the issue took a long time to resolve and caused moderate inconvenience. The offer was also in line with this service’s remedies guidance. As a result, the landlord has demonstrated that it reasonably redressed the complaint as it has taken appropriate steps to put things right.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in the way it handled the resident’s report of window repair issues.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 53 (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 complaint about the resident’s request for window adaptations to be completed satisfactorily. 

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. In addition to the compensation already offered, the landlord should pay the resident £150 for its failings in handling the window repairs. The landlord should provide evidence of the total payment of £500 to this service within 4 weeks of the date of this report.

Recommendations

  1. If it has not done so already, the landlord should pay the resident £550, as previously offered, for its failings in handling the resident’s request for window adaptions to be completed.
  2. It is recommended that the landlord reviews its record keeping practices, to ensure that details of any required follow-on works are correctly recorded.