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Tower Hamlets Homes (202121885)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202121885

Tower Hamlets Homes

26 July 2022

 

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 landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of:
    1. no heating and hot water.
    2. the hot water supply being ‘too hot’.

Jurisdiction

  1. What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the following aspect of the complaint is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

The resident’s reports of the hot water supply being ‘too hot’.

  1. The resident contacted this Service to inform it that, since the repair to her boiler the hot water in the property had become ‘dangerously too hot’. The Ombudsman cannot consider this issue as part of the current complaint investigation. This is in accordance with paragraph 39(a) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme which states that the Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, are made prior to having exhausted a member’s [landlord’s] complaints procedure unless if there is evidence of a complaint handling failure and the Ombudsman is satisfied that the member has not acted within a reasonable timescale.
  2. As this is a separate issue to the complaint raised with the landlord, this is not something on which this Service can adjudicate at this stage, as the landlord needs to be provided with the opportunity to investigate and respond to this aspect of the complaint before the Ombudsman can consider it. The resident will need to contact the landlord and, if appropriate, raise a separate complaint to get these matters resolved. If the resident remains dissatisfied once she has received the landlord’s final response to her complaint, she may be able to refer the matter to the Ombudsman for investigation as a separate complaint at that stage

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord.
  2. On 9 November 2021, the resident reported to the landlord that there was not hot water or heating in the property. The landlord’s contractors attended on the same day, but the boiler could not be repaired due to a boiler part needing to be ordered. This was subsequently ordered on 11 November 2021.
  3. The resident complained to the landlord on 8 December 2021. The resident stated that she had been without hot water and heating since she had moved into the property and had spoken to multiple staff members and yet ‘nothing had been resolved’ in regards to the lack of heating and hot water. The resident stated a boiler engineer had attended the day before, but further parts needed to be ordered in order to repair the boiler, meaning a further two to three weeks delay. The resident stated she was not willing to wait any longer for the repairs, as it was affecting her mentally, physically, emotionally and socially. The resident felt that she had been deprived of her right to live comfortably as she had been left to suffer in the cold weather. She also stated that she had not been provided with a temporary heater. The resident informed the landlord, that due to the lack of heating, her personal hygiene was restricted as she could not wash due to having no hot water, and had to attend a relative’s house to wash. The resident felt that this had deprived everyone involved of their privacy and was an uncomfortable situation. The resident requested a rent refund for the period of time without hot water and heating and also requested to be relocated to a hotel whilst the repairs were waiting to be completed.
  4. On 22 December 2021, the landlord issued its stage one response to the complaint. The landlord apologised that repairs could not be completed on the days where engineers attended. However, when the engineer attended on 7 December 2021, limited hot water was available for the resident to use. A further appointment had been scheduled for the second replacement valve to be installed. The landlord apologised about the length of time taken to resolve the boiler issues. It stated that its compensation policy awards £1.50 for every day without heating, after the first five days. Therefore, the landlord offered £54 compensation at a rate of £1.50 a day, for thirty-six days without heating.
  5. The landlord issued its stage two response to the complaint on 17 January 2021. The landlord confirmed that the boiler repairs had been completed. The landlord stated that a rent refund would not be considered however, an additional £50 compensation had been awarded to the resident. Therefore, a total of £254 compensation had been awarded, as the landlord’s contractor had also awarded the resident £150 compensation.
  6. On 17 March 2022, the resident contacted this Service. She stated that despite repairs being completed, she remained unhappy with how long it took to have the issues fully resolved. The resident stated she had felt ‘unwell’ during the period without heating and was stressed which impacted her ‘emotionally, mentally, socially and financially’ as she had to take time off from work due to ill health. As a resolution, the resident has requested a rent refund for the period she was without heating and hot water.

Assessment and findings

Policies and Procedures.

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that emergency repairs will be attended to within twenty-four hours. Emergency repairs are defined in the policy as a loss of hot water and a complete loss of heating in winter (the defined winter period), where no alternative heating is available. The defined winter period as per the Right to Repair scheme, is between 31 October to 1 May.

Scope of Investigation.

  1. The resident has stated that the lack of hot water and heating caused an impact on her emotional and mental wellbeing. The Ombudsman does not doubt the resident’s concerns about her health, but this Service is unable to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. However, we have considered the general distress and inconvenience which the situation involving her property caused the resident. This is an accordance with paragraph 39(i) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme which says the Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which concern matters where the Ombudsman considers it quicker, fairer, more reasonable or more effective to seek a remedy through the courts, a designated person, other tribunal or procedure.

Assessment.

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that both a loss of heating and hot water should be treated as emergency repairs and be attended to within twenty-four hours. In the evidence provided to this Service, the landlord did attend within the twenty-four-hour timeframe on 11 November 2021. Therefore, the landlord acted in-line with its policy, when attending the property in response to the resident’s initial report of a loss of heating and hot water.
  2. It is acknowledged that there was a delay in repairing the boiler. However, this was due to parts needing to be ordered for the repair. This was an external factor outside of the landlord’s control and therefore, the landlord did not unreasonably delay the repair.
  3. Whilst the landlord’s compensation policy does not provide an exact figure to be paid to residents who have no hot water or heating, the landlord would not be obliged to offer the resident a rent refund, which is the resident’s request. This is because although the loss of heating and hot water would clearly cause significant inconvenience, it would not necessarily mean that the property was unusable and a rent refund would only generally be considered if the property was entirely uninhabitable due to a repair issue. However, it was reasonable for the landlord to offer compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by the loss of heating and hot water, in line with its compensation policy.
  4. It is also acknowledged that the resident stated she had no hot water or heating from the day she moved in. In the evidence provided to this Service, the landlord was only made aware of this issue on 9 November 2021. Therefore, the landlord would not be obliged to pay compensation for a period where it was unaware that a repair needed to take place.
  5. However, it is unclear why the landlord did not offer the resident temporary heaters for the property while the repair was outstanding. It is good practice, that if a repair to heating is delayed outside of the repairs period in winter months, landlords should consider providing residents with temporary heaters if available or consider other options such as reimbursing residents for the cost of purchasing heaters themselves. In this case, the landlord did not provide the resident with temporary heaters for the period she was without heating. Therefore, the landlord had not acted in-line with good practice in this regard. The landlord would not generally be expected to move a resident to a hotel in this situation as it would usually be considered acceptable to provide temporary heaters and kettles etc for temporary use for hot water instead of a hotel room.
  6. Overall, although it took a significant amount of time to complete the boiler repair, the landlord was not at fault for this delay. However it should have done more to support the resident while she was awaiting the boiler repair. The landlord has acknowledged that the resident was inconvenienced by the delayed repair and has offered a total of £254 compensation in view of this. The compensation offered by the landlord is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance (published on our website) which sets out our service’s approach to compensation for distress and inconvenience. The remedies guidance says the Ombudsman may award between £250 and £700 in cases where we have found considerable service failure or maladministration by the landlord, but there may be no permanent impact on the complainant. Examples include failure over a considerable period of time to act in accordance with policy – for example to address repairs. In  view of this, the landlord’s offer of compensation is reasonable and it is not required to do anything further with regards to this complaint.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 55 (b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress prior to our investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint regarding the resident’s reports of no heating and hot water satisfactorily.

Recommendations

  1. This Service recommends the landlord pay the resident the compensation offered to her at stage two of its internal complaints process, if it has not already done so.