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Orbit Group Limited (202411766)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202411766

Orbit Group Limited

8 November 2024


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 a missed heating contractor appointment.

Background

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy with the landlord in a 1-bedroom bungalow. He has a mental health condition and a physical disability which the landlord is aware of.
  2. In November 2023 the landlord’s contractor serviced the resident’s heating system and found that repairs were needed. An appointment was arranged for 8 December 2023 to complete these, but the contractor did not attend. The same day the resident raised a complaint. He said the contractor had cancelled the appointment because the landlord had given them false information. He was upset and said the situation had affected his mental health.
  3. On 15 December 2023 the landlord responded to the complaint at stage 1 of its complaints process. It upheld the complaint. It said that due to an administrative error in raising the appointment, its contractor did not attend. It apologised for the inconvenience and offered £10 compensation for the missed appointment. The same day the resident escalated his complaint.
  4. On 8 January 2024 the landlord issued its final response. It again apologised and increased its offer of compensation to £110 in recognition of the inconvenience caused by the missed appointment. It added that its contractor attended on 15 December 2023 and resolved the issue.
  5. In the resident’s referral to this Service, he was unhappy that he had waited another week for the appointment and explained he had waited in to accommodate the contractor. He added that despite the contractor coming to fix the heating, the issue was unresolved.

Assessment and findings

  1. The landlord does not dispute that there were failings in its handling of this matter. Where there are failings admitted by the landlord, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether it resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances and offered appropriate redress. In considering this, the Service assesses whether the landlord’s actions were in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: Be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes.
  2. In this case the landlord recognised that the 8 December 2023 appointment was cancelled due to an administrative error. It acknowledged this and apologised for the inconvenience caused. In addition, it promptly rearranged the appointment. Indeed, the evidence showed that it was in regular contact with its contractor to ensure this error did not happen again.
  3. Further, it increased its offer of compensation to £110 in recognition of the distress and inconvenience caused. It acted fairly in this respect and demonstrated it had considered the effect on the resident’s well-being and the time and trouble caused. This was reasonable and the landlord acted appropriately reviewing its stage 1 offer of compensation.
  4. Overall, the landlord made an offer in accordance with its own compensation policy and broadly in line with this Service’s remedies guidance, which states that awards of up to £100 should be considered where there has been a minor failure that has caused distress and inconvenience to the resident. In the Ombudsman’s opinion, the landlord’s offer of compensation proportionately reflected the level of detriment and was satisfactory in putting matters right.
  5. In the resident’s referral to this Service he explained that despite the contractor coming to fix the problem the heating issue was unresolved. While this matter does not form part of this assessment, the resident has referred other complaints to the Ombudsman regarding his heating system which are currently awaiting investigation and will be determined in due course.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53b of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord offered redress to the resident prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the landlord’s handling of a missed heating contractor appointment.