Epping Forest District Council (202215006)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202215006

Epping Forest District Council

19 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 handling of repairs to the resident’s shower.

Background

2. The resident is a tenant of the landlord.
3. On 30 July 2022, the resident reported that her bathroom shower was faulty and causing intermittent hot water. The landlord’s operative attended the same day but could not get the fault to replicate. The resident reported the same fault the following day. The operative tried to attend the property within four hours but was unable to gain access. At the resident’s request, an out-of-hours operative attended later that day, finding the shower to be faulty but still providing hot water. The resident was advised to turn the water slowly from cold to hot, to avoid the outage of hot water, until a replacement was sourced.
4. The resident raised a complaint with the landlord on 3 August 2022. She raised concerns that she had been left without a fully functioning shower, that she had no communication from the landlord as to when her new shower would be installed, and she felt that it should have taken her vulnerabilities into consideration to conduct the repair sooner. The landlord’s operatives attended on 4 August 2022 and installed a temporary shower it had in stock, as it had difficulty obtaining a new shower unit. The temporary shower was tested and found to be working. On 18 August 2022, the resident said that her shower was not sealed correctly and was making an “awful noise” when in use.
5. The landlord issued its stage 1 formal complaint response on 18 August 2022. It did not uphold the resident’s complaint, stating that it had fulfilled its repair obligations, repairing the shower within 5 working days. It gave a timeline of events, stating that the resident informed it that the only issue with the shower was that it now needed sealing.
6. The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 as she remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response. She remained concerned about the length of time it took the landlord to replace her shower.
7. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 22 September 2022. It upheld its previous response, adding that the resident’s shower repairs were not considered an emergency repair, but given her vulnerabilities it listed the repair as urgent. It stated it had attended and installed the temporary shower within 5 working days.
8. The landlord later attended on 29 September 2022 to fully seal the resident’s shower, but found that the noise persisted when running and recorded low pressure readings. It agreed that a new shower was required, which was installed on 7 November 2022.
9. The resident brought her complaint to this Service, as she remained dissatisfied with the time it had taken for the landlord to install her new shower unit. She also felt the landlord did not take into account her vulnerabilities when completing the repairs. As a resolution she wished the landlord to acknowledge its failings and to respond quicker to repairs where it is aware of vulnerabilities.

Assessment and findings

10. In accordance with its repairs policy (located on its website), the landlord is required to respond to emergency repairs within 4 hours. It is to respond and complete urgent repairs within 5 working days where possible, and any routine repairs are to be completed within 30 working days. In this case it is not disputed by either party that the landlord was responsible for repairs to the resident’s shower unit, as per its obligations under the resident’s tenancy agreement, which states it will ensure the good working order/repair of the means and provisions to provide suitable bathing facilities.
11. It was apparent that the lack of communication from the landlord resulted in the resident believing that her shower unit would be restored within 4 hours. However, according to the records provided, this was discussed with the resident upon its attendance on 3 and 4 August 2022, and as such the landlord looked to set the resident’s expectations surrounding the length of the repairs, and its next available attendance.
12. According to the records provided the landlord appropriately attended to the resident’s reports of her loss of hot water from her bathing facility on each occasion within 24 hours, both on 30 and 31 July 2022 as an out-of-hours emergency. Furthermore, it installed a temporary shower unit on 4 August 2022, 4 working days after it was first reported, within its stipulated timescales reported to the resident.
13. Furthermore, its decision to treat the resident’s repair as urgent was both fair and reasonable, especially given that the resident’s intermittent shower fault did not pose any immediate danger or risk to the resident, and that it suitably sourced an alternative shower unit, finding a temporary solution to the resident’s issue.
14. Despite this, it was clear that there were delays in providing a new shower unit, the evidence provided in this case states that this was due to “difficulties” in obtaining the parts. Where delays are unavoidable, the landlord would be expected to clearly communicate this to the resident in a timely manner, providing an estimated timeframe of when the repairs can be completed, and looking to proactively move the repair forward.
15. While the Ombudsman accepts that the delayed provision of the new shower unit was beyond its control, the landlord has not evidenced that it clearly communicated and updated the resident accordingly regarding these delays. Nor did it provide any reasoning for these delays in its complaint responses, thus failing to fully utilise its complaints process to manage the resident’s expectations.  Furthermore, it failed to evidence how it had been proactive in obtaining the new shower unit, such as providing a record of when this was ordered, or chasing its supplier for an update.
16. Considering the above, the Ombudsman makes an overall finding of service failure in the landlord’s handling of the repairs to the resident’s shower. An order to pay the resident £75 compensation as well as providing her with a written apology, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, would be deemed a suitable and proportionate remedy to distress and inconvenience the resident experienced, as well as a loss of faith in the landlord in this case. This amount has been calculated using this Service’s Remedies Guidance, where the failing identified has not had a prolonged, or lasting impact on the resident, but the landlord has not addressed the failing nor looked to put matters right.
17. The landlord has also been ordered to conduct a review of its staff training to ensure that, moving forward, all repair delays are communicated in a clear and timely manner with residents.

Determination

18. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure found in respect of the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s shower.

Orders

19. That within four weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Pay the resident £75 for its communication failings in this case.
    2. Review its staff training to ensure that, moving forward, all repair delays are communicated in a clear and timely manner with residents.
    3. Confirm to this service that it has complied with the above orders.