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The Guinness Partnership Limited (202231149)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202231149

The Guinness Partnership Limited

22 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:
    1. Repairs following a leak from the hot water cylinder.
    2. The associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy of the property, a 2 bedroom house. Her tenancy commenced in April 2021. She lives at the property with her child, who was 7 years old at the time of the complaint.
  2. The resident reported an uncontainable leak coming through the ceiling on 24 November 2022 to the landlord’s out of hours repairs service. The landlord attended on 25 November 2022 and found the hot water cylinder had caused the leak. The landlord provided the resident with temporary heaters, emptied the cylinder and capped the boiler to make the situation safe. The leak damaged the kitchen ceiling and kitchen cabinets. The resident was without heating for a week and was then decanted on 2 December 2022 until 5 December 2022. The boiler was replaced on 6 December 2022 and the shower then stopped working.
  3. The resident made a complaint to the landlord about the issue on 28 November 2022 however this was not logged. The resident followed this up with a further complaint on 13 December 2022 and included the issue with the shower not working. She said she had not received the call backs from the landlord that she had been promised when she chased the issue and said that it should not have taken the landlord a week to decant her. In its stage 2 response of 26 January 2023, the landlord apologised for the delays and acknowledged a failure in its service. It offered £220 compensation made up of:
    1. £75 for the delayed repair.
    2. £50 for poor communication.
    3. £20 for the delayed complaint response.
    4. £75 for the stress and inconvenience.
  4. The landlord went on to offer a further £30 on 16 February 2023, after 2 missed appointments to repair the shower, making the total offer of compensation £250. The resident accepted the compensation but expressed her dissatisfaction with the amount offered.
  5. In referring the matter to this Service, the resident stated that she sought an increased offer of compensation and wanted the landlord to demonstrate it had learned from this case. The resident also said the damage to the kitchen ceiling and cabinets was yet to be repaired.
  6. It is noted that following this Service’s request for evidence, the landlord issued an updated response to the resident on 28 March 2024. The landlord said it had reviewed the case and found that the compensation offered was not reflective of the time the resident spent pursuing the case or of the impact the issue had on her. The landlord offered an additional £150, made up of £75 for time, trouble and inconvenience and £75 for poor complaint handling. This meant a total compensation offer of £400. The landlord also outlined changes it had made since dealing with her complaint which included increased resources within the complaints team, reviewing its approach to remedies and offers of compensation and said it was going to deliver updated training on complaints handling to all staff. The resident accepted this offer.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of the repairs following the leak.

  1. In its stage 1 response of 5 January 2023 and stage 2 response of 26 January 2023, the landlord identified the following service failures:
    1. It failed to promptly resolve the repair.
      1. The landlord’s contractor attended within 24 hours when it should have attended to the initial emergency repair within 4 hours as per its Code of Conduct of Suppliers and Contractors.
      2. The landlord’s contractor failed to attend arranged appointments for the shower on 23 December 2022 and 5 January 2023.
      3. There was confusion around which contractor was responsible for repairing the hot water.
    2. The landlord failed to communicate effectively.
      1. The landlord failed to contact the resident in a timely manner, specifically failing to return calls on 28, 29 and 30 November 2022.
      2. The landlord found an error in the email address its contractor had been using to submit the report following its attendance on 25 November 2022 which caused a delay in updating the resident.
  2. The landlord apologised for these failings and offered compensation of £220 in its stage 2 response of 26 January 2023.
  3. The landlord acted reasonably in offering a further £30 compensation on 16 February 2023 upon completion of the repairs to the shower. This was in recognition of 2 further missed appointments which the landlord’s repair logs show to be on 6 January 2023 and 8 February 2023. This shows the landlord was monitoring the progress of the repair following the closure of the complaint and is demonstrable of a proactive approach.
  4. Though the landlord compensated for poor communication and delayed repairs, it failed to fully acknowledge the distress and inconvenience caused during the initial 7 day period where the resident was left with only temporary heaters during the winter months. The lack of heating understandably caused the resident significant distress and she raised concerns about the effect the cold temperatures had on her young child.
  5. As outlined above, the resident called the landlord on 28, 29 and 30 November 2022. The landlord returned the resident’s call on 1 December 2022 and, at a visit with the resident on 2 December 2022, agreed with the resident that the property was cold. This was because the temporary heaters could not adequately heat the property due to the open plan layout. The landlord organised a temporary decant for the resident which commenced the same day. It was appropriate for the landlord to have provided temporary heaters initially. However had the landlord returned the resident’s call at an earlier stage, it could have identified sooner that the temporary heaters were not adequately heating the property and a decant may be necessary. The landlord failed to identify the requirement for a decant in a timely manner and so failed to act in accordance with its decant policy. The landlord’s offer of £50 for poor communication is not proportionate to the impact this issue had on the resident.
  6. The landlord replaced the boiler which restored the heating on 6 December 2022. On 7 December 2022 the resident reported that the hot water in the bathroom upstairs was not working correctly and the pressure was very low in the shower and bath taps. The resident said the hot water was working correctly downstairs in the kitchen. The landlord confirmed to the resident that the hot water was working as it should on 16 February 2023 following visits from both the gas engineer and the plumber. The evidence shows some confusion around who was responsible for the repair which slightly delayed the repair. It is acknowledged that though the issue with the water pressure would have been inconvenient for the resident, there was no immediate risk and it is reasonable that the landlord may have needed more than one visit to determine the cause of the issue. The landlord acknowledged and compensated for the missed appointments and this investigation has found no additional service failures in relation to this matter.
  7. The resident told this Service that the damage to the kitchen ceiling and kitchen cabinets caused by the leak is yet to be repaired. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it is responsible for decoration where a “repair has resulted in damage to existing décor”. The landlord was considered on notice of these repairs from November 2022 and should have completed them within 28 days as per the landlord’s repairs policy. Nevertheless, the resident has told this Service that she has not specifically contacted the landlord in relation to this repair since the hot water issue was resolved. The landlord’s failure to complete the repairs is not considered to have had a significant adverse effect on the resident and an order has been made below to resolve this.
  8. The landlord’s compensation policy outlines a scale on which compensation offers will be based. The amounts range from £0 to £700+ and are considered by the length of time the issue took to resolve and the overall impact on the household. In this case the landlord offered £250 which is defined on the scale as having been a moderate inconvenience to the resident and having had a demonstrable impact on the resident.
  9. The resident was living in the property with a young child without adequate heating for a week, and experienced further inconvenience when the shower stopped working correctly. The resident had to chase the landlord for updates throughout the process. This is not considered to be a “moderate inconvenience” and an increased overall offer of compensation is considered reasonable in this case.
  10. In its letter dated 28 March 2024 the landlord offered a further £75 for the time, trouble and inconvenience experienced by the resident. This increased amount is considered in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance and represents an offer that is proportionate to the distress and inconvenience incurred by the resident. The late offering of this amount has been considered below under the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

The landlord’s handling of the complaint.

  1. The resident made her initial complaint on 28 November 2022 and the landlord explained in its stage 2 response that this was not logged as a complaint. Instead, the landlord treated the further contact from the resident on 13 December 2022 as a complaint. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 5 January 2023. The landlord explained in its response that it often attempts to resolve concerns prior to logging a formal complaint. It acknowledged that the initial complaint made in November 2022 should have been logged as a formal complaint. The landlord apologised for this error and offered £20 compensation in recognition of the delay it caused. It is noted that the landlord identified what had gone wrong and apologised. The offer of compensation is considered proportionate to the failings identified.
  2. The landlord’s stage 2 response includes a generic paragraph in relation to learning from the failures identified in the report and does not commit to any specific improvements. The Ombudsman encourages landlords to use complaints as a source of intelligence to identify issues and introduce positive changes in service delivery. The landlord has missed the opportunity to identify failings in its service, specifically the evident failings in communicating with residents and handling repairs potentially involving more than one trade.
  3. In the letter dated 24 March 2024 the landlord offered an additional £75 for poor complaints handling and £75 for the time, trouble and inconvenience experienced by the resident. It is not clear why the landlord did not offer this amount when considering the complaint within its own complaint procedure. It appears to have been prompted to reconsider its position following the complaint being referred to the Ombudsman. This was a missed opportunity to potentially resolve the complaint at an earlier point, and it is of concern that the landlord did not use its complaints procedure to address these matters. This investigation has concluded that, had the complaint not been referred to this Service, the revised offer of compensation may not have been awarded. The landlord failed to adequately address the level of compensation required to resolve the complaint satisfactorily and only did so 14 months after the complaint had exhausted its internal complaints procedure when contacted by this Service. This was unreasonable and is a failing in the landlord’s handling of the complaint. An order has been made below in recognition of this service failure.
  4. It is not evident that the landlord has sought to learn from its service failings by making changes to its service delivery. In the letter of 24 March 2024 the landlord explained changes in its handling of complaints and outlined new complaints training for its staff. It has not demonstrated any changes or improvements in its repairs service. For these reasons, the Ombudsman has found service failure in the landlord’s complaints handling.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the repairs following the leak from the hot water cylinder.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks, the landlord must:
    1. Pay the resident £475, comprising £400 as offered in relation to the complaint and £75 for the failing in reviewing the complaint only upon contact from this Service. If the landlord has already made some of this payment, it must provide evidence of the payment.
    2. Provide the resident with a written confirmation of what steps it is taking or has taken to improve its response to repairs of a similar nature. This must come from a senior member of staff in the relevant team and a copy must be provided to this Service.
    3. Contact the resident to book an appointment for the repairs to the kitchen ceiling and kitchen cabinets.