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Tower Hamlets Homes (202225645)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202225645

Tower Hamlets Homes

14 November 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:
    1. Repairs following a leak at the resident’s property.
    2. The associated formal complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord. He is represented by an advocate; both parties will be referred to as ‘the resident’ in this report unless a distinction needs to be drawn between them.
  2. On 20 May 2022 the landlord’s contractor attended the property following a report of a leak. The contractor reported to the landlord that the leak had occurred in March 2022 and there was no gas or electricity supply to the property . On 1 and 6 June 2022, the landlord restored the electricity and the gas respectively.
  3. The resident raised a complaint with the landlord on 23 June 2022, in which he said that he had been without gas and electricity for 3 months since the leak occurred. He said that he has experienced damp and mould in the property and had needed to dispose of most of his furniture and possessions. He said that the landlord had not responded to his multiple requests for repairs, and wanted compensation for the delay in restoring the power and for his lost possessions. The resident noted that the landlord had provided him with an insurance claim form, however, he was unable to make a claim as he was not insured with the landlord’s provider.
  4. The landlord issued its stage 1 response to the resident on 7 July 2022. In this the landlord said that it had not received any reports of a leak, or damp and mould, from the resident until 20 May 2022. On this date it had attended the property and found no evidence of a leak, and had raised repairs to restore the gas and electricity. The landlord apologised for not completing these repairs within emergency timeframes and explained that the insurance forms were for the resident to make a liability claim if he considered that the landlord had been negligent. It offered the resident £19.50 compensation for the loss of hot water and £20.50 for his time and trouble in raising the complaint.
  5. Later that day, the resident escalated his complaint to the final stage of the complaints procedure as he disputed that the landlord was unaware of the leak in March 2022. The landlord spoke to the resident on 15 July 2022 and noted that the fire brigade attended on 15 March 2022 to isolate the leak. The landlord also noted that the resident agreed to withdraw the complaint on the condition that it completed repairs, remedied a newly-occurring leak, and paid him compensation.
  6. The resident’s advocate subsequently informed the landlord that there had been no agreement to withdraw the complaint and requested it to continue with the complaint. The landlord issued its final response on 1 September 2022, in which it increased its offer of compensation to £50, reiterating that it had no record of a report of the leak in March 2022. The landlord confirmed it attended on 27 July 2022 to commence remedial work to the walls and ceilings and would have to return on 13 September 2022 to complete further work.
  7. The resident informed the Ombudsman that he remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and wanted it to complete repairs and pay him compensation to resolve his complaint.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. It is noted that the resident reported another leak to the landlord on 28 September 2022. As this occurred after the conclusion of the complaint, and there is no evidence that this leak was connected to the previously reported leak, the handling of this leak has not been considered in this investigation. This is because the Ombudsman can only investigate matters that have first been considered by the landlord through its complaints procedure. If the resident is dissatisfied with the landlord’s handling of the new leak, he may wish to raise a new complaint about this, and bring this to the Ombudsman if he remains dissatisfied following the conclusion of the landlord’s complaints procedure.

Repairs

  1. The tenancy agreement confirms that the landlord is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the structure of the property and the installations within for the provision of water and sanitation. It was therefore responsible for repairing leaks within the property and any ensuing damage to the structure of the property.
  2. The tenancy agreement also confirms that the resident must let the landlord know as soon as possible of any repair that needs doing in the property. The resident was therefore required to inform the landlord as soon as he experienced the leak on 15 March 2022. However, there is no evidence in the landlord’s records of the resident reporting the leak prior to 20 May 2022, and the landlord cannot reasonably be expected to repair a defect that it was not aware of.
  3. The landlord responded appropriately to the report of the leak on 20 May 2022 by attending within its target of 24 hours for emergency repairs. When it attended it found no evidence of a leak but noted that there was no gas or electricity in the property. In accordance with its responsive repairs policy, the landlord should have attended the property again within 24 hours to reconnect the electricity and the gas, as this posed a risk to the resident’s health and safety.
  4. However, the landlord first attempted to restore the electricity on 26 May 2022, 6 days after it was made aware of the matter. It was unable to gain access to the property and subsequently restored the electricity on 1 June 2022. Therefore, there was a delay in the landlord attending to this emergency repair.
  5. In addition to this delay, the landlord managed the work inefficiently, dispatching an operative to the property on 24 May 2022 to recommission the boiler before it had restored the electricity. This was a mishandling of the repairs which would have likely caused further distress and inconvenience to the resident. The gas was subsequently restored on 7 June 2022; 17 days after the landlord became aware that the resident had no gas supply.
  6. The landlord raised an order to repair damage to the plaster and decorations in the property on 20 July 2022. It is unclear why the order was not raised until this time given that the landlord had attended on 20 May 2022 and any damage from the leak should have been evident then. Furthermore, there was an unexplained delay in completing the plastering repairs and decorating works after the order was raised. These repairs were completed on 7 September and 7 October 2022 respectively, exceeding the 20 working day target for routine repairs.
  7. The landlord’s stage 1 response acknowledged that it had delayed in restoring the resident’s gas and electricity and offered £19.50 compensation for the lack of hot water and £20.50 for the distress and inconvenience caused. This totalled £40 and was subsequently increased to £50 in the landlord’s final response. This offer was not proportionate to the distress and inconvenience experienced by the resident during this time given the impact the outstanding repairs would have had on the living conditions in the property. The total loss of gas and electricity meant that the resident had no access to basic amenities including hot water, lighting and cooking facilities.
  8. To put things right the landlord has been ordered to pay the resident £300 compensation for the delays in completing the repairs, inclusive of the £50 compensation already offered. This award is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance which provides for awards of this amount where there has been a failure by the landlord which adversely affected the resident.
  9. It was appropriate for the landlord to provide the resident with its liability insurance details to facilitate a claim for damage to furniture/belongings. This is because the landlord would not be expected to offer compensation for damage to belongings unless it was clearly evidenced that the leak occurred as a result of a failure on its part. An occurrence of a leak is not, in itself, evidence of a failure by the landlord.
  10. It should be noted that it is not the role of the Ombudsman to determine liability where this is disputed as this is more appropriately decided by insurers or the courts. Therefore, if the resident’s claim on the landlord’s liability insurance is unsuccessful and he wishes to pursue this further, then he would need to seek legal advice or claim on his own contents insurance if he has such cover in place.

Complaint handling

  1. There was a dispute, following the resident’s escalation of the complaint to the final stage, over whether or not he agreed to withdraw the complaint. The landlord’s records show that it spoke directly to the resident on 15 July 2022 and he agreed to withdraw the complaint provided that the landlord completed repairs and paid him compensation. This was subsequently disputed by the resident’s advocate, who said there was no such agreement. In the absence of independent third-party evidence to confirm the conversation between the landlord and resident in relation to the withdrawal of the complaint, the Ombudsman is unable to determine what was agreed between the parties.
  2. Nevertheless, the Ombudsman would expect the landlord, once it became aware that the resident wanted to proceed with the complaint, to progress the complaint and provide a timely response. The advocate made the landlord aware on 3 August 2022 that the resident wanted to proceed with his complaint, and the landlord subsequently issued its final response on 1 September 2022. This was issued within 21 working days which was reasonable and broadly in accordance with the landlord’s complaints policy, which states that a final stage complaint response should be issued within 20 working days.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of repairs following a leak at the resident’s property.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the formal complaint.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Pay the resident £300 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by its handling of repairs following the leak.
    2. Review its handling of the repairs in this case and implement any necessary remedial action to ensure that the same service failures do not recur.  A copy of the review’s findings should be provided to the Ombudsman.