London Borough of Camden Council (202322440)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202322440

Camden Council

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 a report of a leak from the resident’s bathroom.

Background

2. The resident is a secure tenant with the landlord, a local authority. The property is a first-floor flat in a block owned by the landlord, consisting of 5 floors. The property has one bath as the sole bathing facility.
3. On 16 June 2023, the resident’s neighbour downstairs reported a leak entering her property from above. The landlord’s plumber attended the resident’s property on the same day. They removed the bath panel and determined they needed to renew the bath, taps and pipework. They said the landlord would contact her about this.
4. The resident complained to the landlord on 22 June 2023. She said despite calling daily to chase it, it had not called her from 16 June about replacing her bath and taps. In its stage 1 complaint response of 7 July, the landlord acknowledged it had not communicated well with her. It said it would replace the bath on 28 September, which it acknowledged was delayed. However, this was due to requiring two different tradespersons to attend.
5. The resident escalated her complaint on 18 July 2023. She said the details and timeline in the landlord’s previous response were inaccurate. She said after difficulty raising with the landlord, it arranged a temporary repair of her bath on 17 July 2023 where the taps were repaired. She said she had no hot water for her bath. This meant she was unable to bathe still. She asked why it had not considered temporary repairs sooner.
6. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 15 August 2023. It admitted its record keeping was poor and this had caused confusion and affected the progression of the work. It offered £50 compensation for this. It confirmed it would renew the bath, taps and pipework on 18 September.
7. The resident paid for a contractor to inspect and repair the bathroom on 21 August 2023. They renewed the damaged bath panel and taps. The resident told the Ombudsman she took this step as she was left with nowhere to bathe. She said she has asked the landlord to reimburse the £507 she paid.
8. The landlord has told the Ombudsman it believed all repairs were complete as it could see nothing outstanding. The resident said she was left without bathing facilities for 1 month and this would have been longer if she had not acted. She said the landlord failed to follow its procedure as she is on its enhanced repairs list for people with disabilities.

Assessment and findings

9. The landlord’s repairs policy defines urgent repairs as those not considered an emergency, but those that if not completed quickly would cause significant nuisance. It aims to complete such repairs within 5 working days.
10. In her complaint the resident said the landlord had traced the leak to her flat on 15 June 2023. She said its plumber removed and damaged her bath panel. The plumber said they could complete a temporary repair but the best option was to change the bath, pipes and tap. They told her the landlord would call her the same day to arrange the repairs. She said this did not take place and when she chased this each day was told to “be patient.”
11. In its stage 1 reply of 7 July 2023 the landlord said it would not complete work to replace the bath, pipes and taps until September 2023. It explained the delay was due to requiring a plumber and carpenter to attend on the same day. It said it had tried to find an earlier appointment but was unsuccessful.
12. The landlord’s plumber confirmed on 15 June 2023 that a temporary repair was possible, but a permanent solution was more appropriate. There is no evidence of the landlord considering whether to implement a temporary solution while it waited to complete the work, or of it considering alternative bathing options. It did some repairs in July, but that did not make the bath useable. Given the impact on the resident, and the number of months before the work could be completed, that was not reasonable. The resident made this point in her escalated complaint, but the landlord did not respond to it.
13. The resident has shown evidence that she arranged privately to repair the taps and replace the damaged bath panel. That was completed on 21 August 2023. The repairs were in line with the information she said she was told by the landlord’s plumber on 17 July. She confirmed on 15 March 2025 that there were no further issues with leaks from the bathroom.
14. The resident has told the Ombudsman she asked the landlord to reimburse her for the £507 cost of the taps and bath panel repairs. She said the landlord took a copy of the invoice but did not respond further. The work was seemingly in line with what the landlord intended, resolved the issue sooner and was fully invoiced. In the circumstances of the essential nature of the repair, the landlord should have considered reimbursing the resident for the work completed, but there is no evidence of it doing so.
15. The information in the landlord’s stage 1 response was confusing. In her complaint escalation, the resident said it had provided inaccurate dates about when it had initially attended and the date it would install the new bath. The landlord acknowledged and agreed with this in its stage 2 response. It awarded £50 compensation for the inconvenience caused, which was in line with its compensation policy, but it did not explain how it intended to address this issue or improve its processes and procedures.
16. The landlord acknowledged in both complaint responses its communication had been affected by its poor record-keeping. The failure to accurately record information resulted in the landlord failing to appropriately manage the repair in the quickest possible time.
17. In summary the landlord initially took appropriate steps to manage the leak at the property. However, when it found permanent repairs would be almost 3 months it should have considered as soon as possible a temporary repair and/or alternative bathing facilities. The landlord failed to change its approach following further information from the temporary repair. Its handling throughout was limited by its poor record-keeping.

Determination

18. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s handling of a report of a leak from the resident’s bathroom.

Orders

19. In light of the failings found in this report the landlord must pay the resident compensation of £750 within 4 weeks of this report. This comprises of
    1. £700 for its failure to appropriately manage the repairs to the resident’s bath in an appropriate timescale.
    2. £50 that it previously offered to the resident as part of its final complaint response, if it has not already paid this.
20. The landlord must complete a review of the case and identify what learnings it has or will take from it. It must explain what it will do to ensure the failings found in this report do not reoccur. The landlord must share this review with the resident and Ombudsman within 8 weeks.

Recommendations

21. The resident informed the Ombudsman she is disabled and, on the landlord’s, enhanced repairs list. Information on its website confirms it will prioritise such repair requests and bring them forward where available. The landlord told the Ombudsman it holds no known vulnerabilities for the resident.
22. The landlord should review its recording of the resident’s health and response to this. This must include whether it records her as vulnerable and if it has her recorded on its enhanced repairs list. It must confirm any action it will take to the resident and the Ombudsman.