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Leeds City Council (202003569)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202003569

Leeds City Council

21 January 2021


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 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 the resident’s reports of other residents leaving items in the communal areas of the building.

Background and summary of events

Background

  1. The resident has a secure tenancy with the landlord that started in 2015. The property is a two–bedroom flat on the 11th floor of a multi-storey block (the block). The landlord is a city council.
  2. The tenancy agreement says that tenants must dispose of rubbish correctly in containers, bin areas or rubbish chutes provided by the Council following the instructions on rubbish disposal in their block. Tenants must not leave refuse bags, sacks, containers of recycling or any other items outside their front door or in the common areas.
  3. Tenants must not dispose of any bulky items via the refuse chutes as this can cause the chutes to become blocked.
  4. Tenants must cooperate with the Council and their neighbours by keeping any common areas clear and the Council may remove and dispose of any objects found in common areas.
  5. CEL[1] clear blocks daily at all multi–storey blocks when bulky waste was reported to them; the landlord has allocated a budget to CEL in order to ensure this is carried out as promptly as possible.
  6. The landlord’s cleaning service standards say that staff will complete fire safety checks, check any communal chutes and report any hazards or issues on a daily basis. The landlord noted that any bulky waste is reported to CEL.
  7. The landlord’s fire safety policy and procedures say that in high-rise buildings (four stories and above) the landlord will check exit routes on a daily basis in blocks to ensure that all emergency routes are not obstructed.
  8. The landlord has a two-stage complaint process. It aims to respond at stage one within 15 working days (including by telephone). At review stage it aims to respond within 28 days. 

Summary of events

  1. On 16 December 2019 the resident made a complaint to the landlord. He said he was not happy with rubbish being left in the public areas in the block, even on a temporary basis, as it was a fire hazard.
  2. On 16 and 17 December 2019 the daily operative monitoring sheet recorded that the walkways in the block were clear of obstructions/waste.
  3. On 16 January 2020 the landlord responded to the resident at stage one of its formal complaints procedure by telephone (paragraph 9). The landlord agreed to review its procedures whereby bulky items in the foyer of the block were collected later that day by CEL. The landlord noted that now this matter had been brought to its attention, it agreed this should not be happening “due to the fire implications”. The landlord noted that the resident was happy with the outcome of this telephone call.
  4. On 12 March 2020 the landlord met with its senior fire safety officer and an employee from CEL to discuss residents leaving items in the foyer of the block. In asking for the meeting the landlord acknowledged that it had been a longstanding arrangement that items left in the foyer of the block were removed on a daily basis.
  5. On 16 March 2020 the resident made a further complaint by telephone. The landlord noted that he said that residents were still leaving bulky waste items in the foyers/landings/lifts and stairwells that could be put down the chutes. The resident said when he spoke to the landlord on 16 January 2020, he understood that letters would be going out to residents but these had not yet been sent out.
  6. On 18 March 2020 the fire safety officer provided the landlord with the following advice:

“Bulk waste is a distinct issue in any property type with communal areas … Residents must be aware that … it may be necessary for the individual resident, as it is with private single dwellings, to store the item in the flat until the agreed time and date (for collection). Bulkier items must be agreed with waste management and payment will be required as applied to all households.

The use of a communal areas as a disposal area cannot be sanctioned by any fire safety officer and the responsibility lies with the householder to comply and therefore not put other households at risk. Once again it has to be clear that compliance is down to the individual flat residents. It is their safety that is at risk.”

  1. On 19 March 2020 the landlord spoke to the resident. It noted that it would be preparing a leaflet for his and the neighbouring block with advice on how bulky waste could be disposed of and warning that leaving such waste in communal areas was a breach of the tenancy agreement. The landlord explained that it could not send out these leaflets at that time due to the pandemic.
  2. On 1 April 2020 the landlord responded to the resident at stage two of its formal complaints procedure. In relation to the complaint that the resident has brought to this Service, the landlord upheld his complaint saying that there had been delays in getting the information to residents because post and leaflet deliveries had been affected by the pandemic. The landlord signposted the resident to the Ombudsman.
  3. When the resident approached the Ombudsman, he said he had started making complaints to the landlord about this matter in 2017 and, while the landlord “made the right noises”, it had not taken any substantive action. He said he was worried about his safety in the event of a fire. 
  4. The resident confirmed that CEL did collect bulky waste when it was reported to them by the cleaners in the block; however, anything left out after the cleaners finished work there (at approximately 10:30am) was left until the following day and, at weekends, until Monday. He said the outcome he sought was for the landlord to take action which stopped residents leaving bulky waste in communal areas of the building.
  5. In its response to the Ombudsman in October 2020, the landlord acknowledged that residents were leaving bulky items in communal areas at blocks across the city, possibly because they knew that the items would be removed free of charge. It explained that a process was in place so that any items were reported as soon as they were seen/notified of and they were quickly removed. It said tenants were aware they should not leave out any items in communal areas as it was a fire risk but, instead, they should report that they needed an item removing from their flat to the bulky waste team.
  6. The landlord also said that it had agreed to issue a leaflet reminding residents of their responsibilities with regard to bulky waste, however, it had been unable to do so due to the pandemic.

Assessment and findings

  1. The evidence this Service has seen from the landlord (paragraph 11), along with the resident’s account (paragraph 19) shows that the landlord is complying with its fire safety policy and procedures by checking exit routes on a daily basis in the block to ensure that all emergency routes are not obstructed (paragraph 8).
  2. The evidence suggests that the landlord has not previously taken action against residents who leave items in communal areas; rather, that it arranged for the disposal of these items. With no consequences for the residents, leaving items for the landlord to dispose of had become routine (paragraph 13).
  3. Following the resident’s complaint, the landlord acknowledged that residents leaving bulky items in the foyer of the building to be collected by CEL was a fire risk. It said it would review its procedures (paragraph 12).
  4. The landlord took appropriate action by meeting with its senior fire safety officer and CEL to discuss this problem (paragraph 13). The fire safety officer subsequently provided the landlord with advice (paragraph 15).
  5. Following this advice, the landlord made a reasonable decision that this matter may be resolved by warning residents, by way of a leaflet, that leaving items in communal areas was a breach of the tenancy agreement and also by giving advice about how to dispose of such items. The landlord said it could not deliver the leaflets at that time due to the pandemic (paragraph 16).
  6. This Service accepts that March 2020 and the following weeks was a difficult period for most organisations. We are aware that councils often had to transfer staff to frontline services to ensure a continuity of its business. This Service therefore accepts that it was reasonable for the landlord not to have delivered the leaflets at that time.
  7. By October 2020 the landlord had still not done so (paragraph 21). This Service acknowledges that there continue to be restrictions on what action the landlord can take during the pandemic. However, given the time that has now elapsed, it would have been reasonable for the landlord to, by now, have produced and delivered these leaflets, or to have considered other options to get this information to tenants. The landlord’s failure to take action to stop residents leaving waste items in communal areas has caused evident concern to the resident who has concerns about his safety in the event of a fire in the block. The landlord’s delay in taking action is a service failure.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was service failure by the landlord in respect of its handling of the resident’s reports of other residents leaving items in the communal areas of the building. 

Reasons

  1. The landlord has not taken timely action to make residents at the block aware that it had decided that it cannot continue with its approach to removing items left by residents in communal areas for disposal. Given that it accepts that this was a fire risk, its failure to do so was a service failure. 

Orders

  1. The landlord shall take the following action within four weeks of the date of this report and provide the Ombudsman with evidence of compliance with these orders:
  • Apologise in writing to the resident for its delay in taking action after he had brought to its attention the fire risk in having items left in communal areas.
  • Remind residents in the block that leaving items in communal areas is a breach of the tenancy agreement and the potential consequences of that.
  • Give residents information about the alternative methods of disposing of such items.

Recommendation

Given that this issue is longstanding, it is likely that the behaviour of residents may not change immediately. Therefore, the landlord should consider different ways in which it can give residents in the block the message that they can no longer leave items in communal areas for it to dispose of.

  1. [1] Civic Enterprise Leeds (CEL) is the local authority’s in-house maintenance service.