Tower Hamlets Homes (202208704)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202208704

Tower Hamlets Homes

4 March 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 repairs to the resident’s immersion heater, and its response to reports her of being without heating and hot water.

Background

2. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord.
3. The resident has stated that she had been experiencing intermittent issues with her heating and hot water since September 2021. On 24 January 2022, the landlord attended the property and found that there was leak in a pipe that ran from the communal boiler to the resident’s immersion heater. It stated that it would complete the remedial work in February 2022. On 6 April 2022, the resident contacted the landlord, stating that the work had not been completed. The landlord attended on 7 April 2022 and 13 April 2022, inspecting the issue and undertaking repairs to the resident’s bath valve and shower head. The landlord continued to attend in May 2022, however the issues remained ongoing.
4. On 24 May 2022, the resident complained to the landlord, stating that the repair issues remained outstanding. She was dissatisfied that it was taking repeated reports and visits for the landlord to find a solution. As an outcome, the resident wanted the repairs to be completed as soon as possible. The landlord attended on 27 May 2022 to repair the pipe. On inspection it concluded that further repairs were required. The landlord attended again on 7 June 2022, but was unable to find any issues with either the heating or hot water. It reported the leak for further inspection.
5. In its stage one response on 13 June 2022, the landlord explained that there had been a number of internal administrative errors that had contributed to the delay to the resident’s repairs. This included assigning the job to the wrong contractor on 3 April 2022 and failing to forward the work onto the contractor again on 27 May 2022. It apologised for causing stress and inconvenience and promised to oversee the remaining work, to ensure that it would be completed to a good standard. On 21 June 2022, the resident escalated her complaint. She explained that she was dissatisfied that the repairs remained outstanding, and stated that the landlord had missed an appointment that day. She later added to her complaint that she wanted compensation for several missed appointments, as well as for the delay in solving her repairs and for the loss of heating and hot water. 
6. The landlord continued to attend the property throughout June and the beginning of July to undertake various repairs to the resident’s pipe and immersion heater. On 15 July 2022, the resident contacted the landlord explaining that following its visit, she was now without hot water, heating or electricity. The landlord reinstated her electricity on 16 July 2022, and raised an emergency repair order for the water, which was fixed on 19 July 2022. The landlord responded the same day. It apologised for missing three repair appointments, and for the inconvenience caused by its errors in carrying out her repairs. It offered £30 for the missed repair appointments, as well as £150 for the loss of services.
7. In her complaint to this Service, the resident has stated that the repairs still remain outstanding. She would like the landlord to fully complete the repairs.

Assessment

8. According to the landlord’s repairs policy, the landlord is obliged to keep its properties in a decent state of repair. The policy quotes the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which states that the landlord has an absolute obligation to carry out basic repairs for the structure and exterior of the property and for installations for the supply of water, gas and electricity, space heating and heating water. It also explains that the legislation makes it liable to compensate residents who suffer as a result of its failure to maintain their properties.
9. The same policy also states that the landlord endeavors to complete all repairs within agreed timescales. Emergency repairs will be completed within 24 hours. Repairs that are treated as an emergency are generally those that have serious effects on residents or to the home. This includes water leaks that cannot be contained, total loss of electricity and total loss of water supply. Alternatively, routine repairs should be completed within 20 working days. Within the policy, the landlord undertakes to closely monitor the effectiveness of its contractors, to ensure the quality of the workmanship is in accordance with an agreed specification.
10. The landlord’s complaints policy states that it will track promises made in its responses so that it resolves complaints quickly, improves the resident experiences and prevents escalations.
11. The resident has stated that she has had ongoing issues with her heating and hot water since at least September 2021. Within the evidence, the landlord has stated that its record keeping is not complete for this case. This is clear, as the records are piecemeal and are not completely consistent with the dates given by the landlord in its responses. It has supplied repair records that evidence that the issues began in at least January 2022. As the records are not complete, it is difficult to assess how long these repairs have been outstanding. This is not appropriate, as in-line with general good customer service standards, the landlord is expected to maintain comprehensive records of its interactions with its residents. The fact that it has not is a failing in the circumstances.
12. The landlord’s repair policy states it will attend routine repairs within 20 working days. The resident has explained that the repairs were still outstanding on 8 September 2022. The evidence shows that the repairs were being reported in January 2022 at the latest (although it is likely that the repairs became an issue at an earlier date). As it is not evident that the repairs have now been completed this would mean that the repairs have remained outstanding for at least nine months. This is well outside of the landlord’s timeframes stated above.
13. A delay can sometimes be reasonable when a repair is particularly complicated and the landlord needs several visits to find a lasting solution. This is partly applicable in this case, as the landlord seems to have struggled to find the source of the leak. However, there are numerous issues with how the landlord handled the resident’s repair. It missed at least three repair appointments, and seems to have inspected the same repair, with the same conclusions, on multiple occasions. The landlord also made several administration errors, resulting in delays to assigning the repairs to the correct contractors. An amalgamation of these errors caused an unreasonable delay to the resident’s repairs.
14. In preparation for its complaint response, the landlord asked the resident for details on the issues she had been experiencing since September 2021, specifically when she had been without hot water or heating. The resident stated that it had been on and off, but that she hadn’t kept records. She asked the landlord to consider its own repair records. As the landlord did not keep proper records, there was limited information for it to consider. It would later acknowledge that the resident had been without these services in its complaint response, and offer compensation. However, it struggled to assess how much compensation would be appropriate, as neither the landlord, nor the resident had recorded how often she had been without hot water or heating. Although the emphasis is on the landlord to keep records of its repairs, it would have been helpful for the resident to have given a rough indication on how much she was impacted by these issues, so that appropriate compensation could be assessed.
15. The landlord acted appropriately in its complaint responses by apologising for the delay to the resident’s repairs. It also acknowledged that it had missed three repair appointments, and that the resident had been without hot water and electricity, due to its error on one of its repair visits. It acted reasonably by offering £150 compensation for the loss of services and £30 for the missed appointments. It also promised to monitor the progress of the repairs and make sure that they were completed to a good standard.
16. However, given that the issues began in at least January 2022 and were still ongoing at the time of the landlord’s final complaint response of 19 July 2022, some six months later, the £150 offered by the landlord for the loss of service was not sufficient, particularly given that some of the six months fell within the  winter period. The landlord also failed to offer compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident’s by the repairs themselves.. 
17. The landlord has therefore been ordered to pay the resident and additional £350 compensation, bringing the total payable to £500. This is calculated in accordance with the Ombudsman’s Remedies guidance (published on our website) which suggests amounts of £100 to £600 for cases where there has been service failure which adversely affected the resident, but had no permanent impact. 

Determination (decision)

18. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of repairs to the resident’s immersion heater, and its response to reports of being without heating and hot water.

Orders

19. Within four weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Pay the resident £500 compensation, made up of:
       1. £250 for the loss of service, this is inclusive of the £150 previously offered by the landlord, if this has not already been paid.
       2. A further £250 for the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident’s by the repairs themselves.

2. To contact the resident to discuss the outstanding repairs to her heating and hot water, referred to by the resident in her communications with this service, and to agree a way forward to ensure that these can finally be resolved.
3. Confirm that it has complied with the above orders.