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The Guinness Partnership Limited (202011931)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202011931

The Guinness Partnership Limited

16 June 2021


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

  1. The complaint concerns the landlord’s response to reports of staff conduct.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. 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, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. On 22 March 2021, the resident submitted a complaint about the behaviour of a member of staff. This related specifically to the handling of reports of antisocial behaviour made in 2018 and 2019 and conversations which the resident had with the staff member at the time.
  2. The landlord provided a final response to the complaint on 21 April 2021. The landlord explained that it could not consider the complaint due to the length of time that had elapsed since the incidents complained about. It explained that it would be unable to retrieve accurate information or recount reliable versions of events given the lapse of time since the incident occurred.

 

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 39(e) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that

the Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion were not brought to the attention of the member as a formal complaint within a reasonable period which would normally be within 6 months of the matters arising;

  1. The resident complained about incidents which occurred in 2018 and 2019, on 22 March 2021; more than a year after the incidents occurred. I am therefore satisfied that this is not a complaint which the Ombudsman can consider.

Recommendations

  1.  The Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, clearly sets out that, when a landlord rejects a resident’s complaint, they have the right to bring it to this Service. In future, when the landlord decides that it cannot consider a complaint under its complaint procedure, it must include contact details for the Housing Ombudsman Service in correspondence.

More information about our Complaint Handling Code can be found on our website – https://hos.dev.civiccomputing.com/landlords-info/complaint-handling-code/