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Stonewater Limited (202311789)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202311789

Stonewater Limited

20 February 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 reports of pest control issues.

Background

  1. The resident has an assured tenancy agreement with the landlord. The property is a 1-bedroom house. The landlord has no recorded vulnerabilities for the resident but is aware she is a full-time carer for her daughter in her own home.
  2. In May 2023 the resident reported a large infestation of brown tail caterpillars in the shrubs at the side of the property. She explained how the hairs on these caterpillars were toxic and, as well as irritating the skin, could also cause asthma attacks and severe breathing difficulties, if inhaled. The resident explained her adult daughter had a progressive lung disease and could not therefore risk visiting the property until the caterpillars/moths had gone, which she understood would be the following month. She said she understood from neighbours that this was an annual problem. In response, the landlord said it was not responsible for this infestation.
  3. On 23 May 2023 the resident made a formal complaint to the landlord about its decision not to take pest control action.
  4. On 12 June 2023 the landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response to the resident under its formal complaint procedures. It said it would contact its pest contractor to treat and destroy the caterpillars. It added it would keep the resident updated. It explained that it did not want to remove the shrubs but would do so if its pest contractor advised that was the best course of action. 
  5. The resident subsequently asked the landlord to escalate the complaint saying that it should remove the shrubs.
  6. On 17 August 2023 the pest contractor visited the property and found no evidence of caterpillars or moths in the shrubs.
  7. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response to the resident on 18 August 2023. It said the pest contractor had not taken action as set out in its stage 1 response. (We note, however, the evidence shows they had had visited the previous day.) The landlord said the pest contractor would attend urgently within the next 2 to 3 weeks. It offered the resident compensation of £250 for its delays and the inconvenience and distress caused to the resident.
  8. In February 2024 the landlord decided to remove the affected shrubs and replace them with species that would not be affected by the caterpillars. We understand it completed this work in March 2024.
  9. In June 2024 the landlord reviewed the resident’s complaint and offered additional compensation of £250 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its delays in carrying out a pest control survey and deciding to remove and replace the shrubs.
  10. When the resident approached us, she said that the landlord had not removed and replaced all the affected shrubs. She said it had cut back, rather than removed, the shrubs by the back gate. She said these shrubs were now growing back and she was concerned that the infestation cycle would start again.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

  1. We have considered the events that led to the formal complaint in May 2023. We have also considered events after the landlord’s final complaint response including the landlord’s offer to remove the shrubs and the additional compensation it offered to the resident.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of pest control issues

  1. The landlord did not have a pest control policy at the time of the events complained about. It acted reasonably by agreeing to engage its pest contractor to inspect the shrubs. However, by the time the pest contractor inspected the bushes in August 2023, the moths had left the nest. (We understand they do so in about July of each year.)
  2. In its complaint handling, the landlord acknowledged it had delayed taking action and apologised to the resident and offered compensation of £250 for the distress and inconvenience caused to her. It later offered an additional £250 for the distress caused by its delay in deciding to remove the affected shrubs.
  3. Where the landlord has accepted it has made errors, it is our role to consider whether the redress it offered put things right and resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances. In considering this we take into account whether the landlord’s offer of redress was in line with our Dispute Resolution Principles: Be Fair, Put Things Right and Learn from Outcomes as well as our own guidance on remedies.
  4. We consider the landlord’s apology and compensation totalling £500 were reasonable and proportionate steps to take to reflect the inconvenience and distress caused to the resident by its delays in taking pest control action and deciding to remove the shrubs.
  5. The landlord’s decision in early 2024 to remove the shrubs was reasonable to prevent a re-infestation at the property. However, given the resident’s ongoing concerns about a re-infestation, we have made a recommendation for the landlord to inspect the shrubs and ensure the work undertaken in early 2024 satisfied its decision of 7 February 2024 to completely remove the bushes and roots and replace them with shrubs that would not attract the brown tail moths/caterpillars.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the Ombudsman considers that the landlord has made satisfactory redress to the resident which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint with respect to its handling of pest control issues.

Recommendations

  1. We recommend that the landlord should take the following action:
    1. Inspect the shrubs at the property promptly and ensure the work undertaken in early 2024 satisfied its decision of 7 February 2024 to completely remove the bushes and roots and replace them with shrubs that specifically did not attract the brown tail moths/caterpillars.
    2. If that work was not undertaken in full, the landlord should write to the resident setting out the action it will now take (with timescales) in respect of removing and replacing the affected shrubs. If the landlord decides not to take action, it should write to the resident with its reasons for that decision.