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Clarion Housing Association Limited (202122885)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202122885

Clarion Housing Association Limited

4 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 actions following its dislodging of a BT cable affecting the resident’s property.

Background

  1. The resident is the tenant of the landlord and occupies a house (the property).
  2. In response to a previous complaint the resident had raised with the landlord about hedge cutting and decoration work, the landlord wrote to her on 10 June 2022. It addressed the issues she had raised. As part of its response, it explained that during the hedge trimming, a cable on the side of the property had been dislodged. It said that it would be the resident’s responsibility to resolve the loose cable, but also said it would “arrange for an operative to contact you to attend and inspect the cable again and see if there is anything we can assist with.”
  3. The resident informed this service on 9 December 2022 that the landlord had attended on 15 November 2022 and offered to reinstate the cable but had since directed her to approach BT to resolve it. She said this would cause her to incur a charge of £130, and she felt that the landlord should take responsibility for reinstating the cable.
  4. After the resident approached her MP to intervene in the dispute, the landlord replied on 9 March 2023 saying that it had attended the property on 12 December 2022 to reinstate the cable and complete other works. It said that if the cable had become dislodged again it was now the resident’s responsibility to remedy. The resident has disputed that this visit happened.

Assessment and findings

  1. The landlord’s compensation policy states that it recognises “that on occasions mistakes will happen and [its] services may fall below [its] agreed service standards”. When this occurs, the landlord will “say sorry and work with the resident and [its] contract providers to put things right”.
  2. In line with basic good practice, and the landlord’s compensation policy, when something goes wrong due to its own actions the landlord should take steps to put things right. Something clearly went wrong, in that the landlord’s contractors dislodged a cable attached to the property and left it hanging. The landlord’s response to that should have been to promptly take steps to reattach it, or whatever other action may have been appropriate in the circumstances. The landlord’s actual response was ambiguous, because it said both that the cable was the resident’s responsibility to resolve, but also that it would try to assist. That was confusing, and not in line with good practice.
  3. Nonetheless, the landlord’s repair records confirm what it told the resident’s MP i.e., that it had planned to reattach the cable while its contractors were at the property completing other work. Unfortunately, the repair records also state that job was cancelled (with no reason given). The records therefore support the resident’s claim that the work did not proceed. No evidence has been provided showing that the cable issue was resolved at a later date, or that any other remedy has been offered. Accordingly, it appears that the landlord has not acted in line with its policy, or with basic good practice in terms of putting things back to the state they would have been in but for its mistake.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in respect of the complaint.

Orders

  1. Within four weeks, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Confirm that it has clarified the outstanding cable issue with the resident and taken steps to resolve it. Meaningful evidence showing the issue has been resolved must be provided.
    2. Pay the resident compensation of £100 for the inconvenience and frustration caused to her.
  2. Evidence of compliance with these two orders must be provided to this Service by the four-week deadline.