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Home Group Limited (202325031)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202325031

Home Group Limited

28 March 2025


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 the resident’s request for it to replace her bathroom flooring.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. She has lived at the property since 1991.
  2. The resident contacted the landlord on 17 May 2021. She explained that she had a letter from her GP advising that she needed non-slip flooring. The landlord said that the resident would need to get an assessment from an Occupational Therapist (OT). The landlord inspected the bathroom flooring in 2022. It said that the resident had installed her own ceramic tiles. It explained that if it were required to replace the flooring for medical reasons, she would need to get an OT assessment. An OT completed an assessment and noted that there was a risk of the resident falling after a shower, as the bathroom floor was not slip resistant. The OT wrote to the landlord on 4 April 20223 to recommend that it change the bathroom flooring. The landlord declined the resident’s request on 4 July 2023. It said that she was responsible for changing the bathroom flooring herself.
  3. The resident raised a stage 1 complaint in July 2023. She said that she needed non-slip flooring for health and safety reasons, as she had fallen several times. She asked it for non-slip flooring in her bathroom and kitchen. She said the landlord told her she had to get an OT report. The resident explained that since providing the landlord with an OT report she had to chase its response before it said it would not install non-slip flooring. The resident said this was a health issue and that she had fallen several times.
  4. The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 18 July 2023. It said that its surveyor had visited the property in February 2022 and identified that the flooring was not original and had not been installed by the landlord. Because of that the landlord said it was not its responsibility to maintain. The resident escalated her complaint on 14 August 2023. She said that the landlord installed the current flooring when it replaced the bathroom several years previously. She was unhappy that the landlord told her to get an OT assessment to then decline her request.
  5. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 20 September 2023. It maintained its previous response. It explained that flooring was the resident’s responsibility even if it had previously installed it. The landlord said it could only offer adaptation work for items it was responsible for, such as taps and showers.
  6. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response. She asked us to investigate her complaint. She told us in March 2025 that her mobility has worsened and was also seeking non-slip flooring in her kitchen.

Assessment and findings

Policy and procedure

  1. The landlord’s repair and maintenance guide states that residents are responsible for flooring coverings. It also states that residents are responsible for repair and maintenance of any fixtures not fitted by it, including bathroom tiles.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for it to replace her bathroom flooring.

  1. The OT letter from April 2023 explains that a senior OT assessed the flooring in the resident’s bathroom. They found this was not slip resistant which caused a risk of falling after a shower. The OT recommended that the landlord change the flooring in the bathroom to meet shower and building regulations.
  2. The landlord in its complaint responses said that it had no responsibility to replace the flooring. It said that this was the resident’s responsibility and if it had previously replaced the flooring, it considered this a gifted item.
  3. The landlord disputed that it installed the resident’s bathroom flooring. The evidence shows it came to this conclusion as the flooring material is ceramic. A staff member said it would not have installed this type of flooring. The resident advised the landlord in 2021 that it had previously installed her flooring and had offered non-slip flooring as an option. However, she did not require this type of flooring at that time and had not requested it. The landlord was unable to find any records for the bathroom installation, as it did not have records older than 2015.
  4. The landlord’s decision that it was not responsible for the flooring was based only on staff recollection. In the absence of any other evidence, that conclusion was not robust or fair. The landlord was responsible for the flooring in the bathroom unless it could clearly show it had been replaced by the resident (or the previous tenant) and, under its policy it was responsible for repairing and maintaining it.
  5. The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) lists falling on any level surface as a potential hazard. An OT provided an assessment to the landlord that the flooring in the resident’s bathroom was unsafe for her. Any landlord, in cases where there is a potential safety risk to a resident in one of its properties, is obliged to assess and complete any necessary work to address the risk. In a situation such as this case it could consider recharging the cost to the resident if it believed it was not responsible for the work (although that decision could be the subject of a further complaint by the resident).
  6. There is no evidence that the landlord has taken steps to reassure itself and the resident that there are no trip hazards in her bathroom since receiving the OT report. Therefore, its response to the resident’s complaint was not reasonable.
  7. The evidence shows that the OT provided their assessment to the landlord on 4 April 2023. The landlord noted that the resident sent in a request for new flooring on 6 April 2023. The resident then chased the landlord for its response in May and June 2023 before it declined the request on 4 July 2023. The landlord provided no explanation for the reason for the delay in its response. In addition, there is no evidence that the landlord contacted the resident to set her expectations for how long it would take to provide a response. Therefore, there was an unreasonable delay in landlord’s response to the resident’s request to replace her flooring. The landlord did not identify or apologise for this failing in its complaint responses.
  8. Overall, there were failings in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for it to replace her bathroom flooring. There was a delay in the landlord providing its response to the request. The landlord then disregarded the resident’s version of events without evidence to support its position. There is also no evidence that the landlord took steps to assess whether the resident’s bathroom was safe for her to use. The landlord’s failures caused the resident distress and inconvenience.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for it to replace her bathroom flooring.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report, the landlord must pay the resident compensation of £400 for the failures identified within this report.
  2. The landlord must send the resident an apology in writing for the failures identified within this report.
  3. The landlord must inspect the resident’s bathroom to assess its condition, taking into consideration the resident’s needs and the OT information. Within 8 weeks of this report, the landlord must write to the resident to explain what its inspection found and what actions it will take to address any safety issues identified, along with the timescale for completing these actions.
  4. Evidence of compliance with these orders must be provided to the Ombudsman by the relevant deadlines.

Recommendations.

  1. As the resident has raised a concern with her kitchen flooring, the landlord should consider discussing the matter with her and inspecting the kitchen flooring at the same time it inspects the bathroom.