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The Guinness Partnership Limited (202228241)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202228241

The Guinness Partnership Limited

11 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 reports of delays in communication by the sustainability team.

Background

  1. The resident holds a secure tenancy with the landlord in a 2-bedroom flat. The landlord is a Housing Association.
  2. The resident contacted the landlord’s repairs team on 5 December 2022 to report that one bedroom in his property was extremely cold. He advised that the radiator was working but he felt he was losing heat through the walls due to lack of insulation. The landlord advised that he would receive contact from its Sustainability team within 5 working days. The resident made a complaint to the landlord on 13 December 2022 where he expressed dissatisfaction at not receiving any contact from the sustainability team within the 5 workings days as advised by the landlord.
  3. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint on 15 December 2022 and issued a stage 1 response on the same day. In summary, it stated as follows:
    1. It agreed that the call back was not made and apologised for any inconvenience this may have caused the resident. It stated that its customers service team followed the correct process and advised the resident of the correct timescales.
    2. It had discussed this failure to call the resident back with its sustainability team and it had provided feedback to ensure that future call back requests were made within its service level agreement.
    3. Its sustainability team had reviewed the resident’s query and found that his home had solid walls so it was unable to install cavity wall insulation.
    4. It would send out a pack of radiator reflectors to try and stop some of the heat being lost through the external walls.
    5. It asked for an Energy Advice Officer for the resident’s region to contact him to offer further support and guidance.
    6. It upheld the resident’s complaint, apologised for the distress and inconvenience, and offered him £15 compensation as an apology for its poor communication.
  4. The resident was not happy with the landlord’s response and escalated his complaint on 16 December 2022. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 24 January 2023. In summary, it stated as follows:
    1. That the guidance document which its repairs team referred to when providing advice on its internal timescales stated the sustainability team callback timeframe was 5 days. This information was correct. It agreed that the resident should have received a call back from the sustainability team and it apologised for the distress or inconvenience the failure had caused the resident.
    2. It stated that it had shared the findings of the complaint with its sustainability team and requested that all call back requests are actioned within the agreed timescales.
    3. That it was satisfied the stage 1 investigation was conducted correctly and the information provided in its response was accurate and factual and it the residents complaint remained upheld.
    4. It said to put things right at stage 1 it had offered £15 as a goodwill gesture to apologise for the poor communication the resident received. It offered an additional £25 for the poor communication and delay in issuing the stage 2 complaint response.
    5. That the sustainability team had advised that as the resident’s home had solid walls, it was unable to install cavity wall insulation. He should have received the pack of radiator reflectors that was sent by the sustainability team.
    6.  It had asked the energy advice officer for his region to contact him to offer further support and guidance on keeping his home warm.
  5. The resident contacted this Service on 14 February 2023, expressing dissatisfaction with the landlord’s stage 2 complaint response. He stated that he was unhappy with the landlord’s decision regarding insulation at the property and he wanted an apology and an explanation from the landlord regarding not providing additional insulation and for the landlord to provide insulation to reduce heat loss from the property.

Assessment and findings

Scope of Investigation

  1. After the conclusion of the landlord’s internal complaint process on 24 January 2023. The resident subsequently attempted to make a new complaint to the landlord on 8 February 2023 regarding the landlord’s stage 2 response of 24 January 2023. He stated that the information the landlord included regarding his walls being solid walls was incorrect and that the walls were not solid walls but had cavity in them. Therefore, cavity wall insulation could be installed.
  2. The landlord initially closed this new complaint in error on 9 February 2023. However, it subsequently reopened the complaint on 14 August 2023 and provided a stage 1 complaint response on 31 August 2023 advising the resident of his escalation rights to stage 2 if he was unhappy with the response. The resident has now provided this Service with a copy of the final complaint response dated 21 September 2023. As this complaint is concerning new issues regarding the structure of the resident’s wall it is a separate complaint and will not be considered in this report. This report will focus on the resident’s complaint regarding communication delays by the sustainability team.

The landlord’s handling of reports of delays in communication by the sustainability team.

  1. The landlord’s sustainability policy states customers with queries regarding insulation, energy, heat loss or meters will receive a call back from the sustainability team within 5 working days. In this case the resident did not receive a call back within the time specified in its policy. This was a failing by the landlord and the uncertainty of waiting for a call back would have caused distress and inconvenience to the resident. The landlord acknowledged this failure and provided feedback to the sustainability team to ensure that future call back requests would be made within its service level agreement. This is reasonable and shows the landlord is committed to improving its service.
  2. It is reasonable for the landlord to rely on the information of experts, in this case the sustainability team advised it that the resident’s wall was solid. It was reasonable to communicate this information to the resident and to suggest alternative ways to solve the problem of heat loss and to arrange an appointment for an energy expert to speak with the resident.
  3. The landlord offered the resident £15 compensation as a good will gesture at stage 1 and an additional £25 at stage 2 for its poor communication. Although, the landlord apologised and tried to put things right. The total amount of £40 it offered as compensation falls below the threshold recommended by this Service remedies guidance for findings of service failure and therefore does not amount to reasonable redress as it is not in line with this Service remedies guidance. This Service remedies guidance states that where there has been a service failure amounts between £50 to £100 would be considered appropriate remedy. We would be making an order for the landlord to pay an additional £20 compensation to the resident for the service failure identified above.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of reports of delays in communication by the sustainability team.

Orders

  1. It is ordered that within four weeks of the date of this report, the landlord takes the following actions:
    1. The landlord pays the resident a total of £60 compensation, comprised of:
      1. The £40 initially offered by the landlord in its final response for poor communication.
      2. A further £20 for distress and inconvenience.
  2. The landlord should reply to this Service with evidence of compliance with these orders within the timescale set out above.