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London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) (202308548)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202308548

London & Quadrant Housing Trust

16 December 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:
    1. Reports of repairs to 2 toilets.
    2. Reports of repairs to a kitchen tap.
    3. Reimbursement of additional water charges due to leaks.
  2. The complaint is also about the landlord’s handling of the complaint and the resolution offered.

Background

  1. The resident has an assured shorthold tenancy with the landlord, which began on 19 July 2019. The resident lives in a 2-bedroom flat on the third floor.
  2. The member landlord manages the resident’s home on behalf of one of its wholly owned subsidiaries. In this report, we will refer to the member landlord as ‘the landlord’.
  3. Between November 2020 and September 2023, the resident reported numerous issues regarding the toilets not flushing and constantly draining, and leaking kitchen taps. The landlord arranged emergency visits within 24 hours. It also made other repairs that did not fall within required timeframes. The resident experienced water leaks for a total of 81 days and was without a working toilet from 7 December 2021 until 29 September 2023.
  4. The resident complained to the landlord on 17 February 2022. The resident was unhappy about the landlord’s handling of repairs due to being without a working toilet in the property and incurring additional water charges due to the leaks.
  5. The landlord issued a stage 1 complaint response on 17 February 2022. It acknowledged the resident’s complaint about the repairs and offered to reimburse additional water charges resulting from the leaks.
  6. After several further contacts with the landlord, the resident remained dissatisfied with the complaint response due to there being no reference to leaks reported between January 2021 and March 2021 and the offer of reimbursement for additional water charges. The resident requested escalation of the complaint on 4 May 2022. The landlord acknowledged this on 10 May 2022 and issued its stage 2 response on 21 July 2023.
  7. The landlord acknowledged and addressed each of the resident’s complaint issues. It detailed a history of the problems reported and the actions taken to resolve them. The landlord offered an increased level of compensation of £815.77, comprised as follows:
    1. £445.77 to reimburse additional water charges
    2. £140 for its delayed stage 2 response
    3. £120 for the distress and inconvenience caused
    4. £100 for the resident’s time and effort
  8. The resident again disputed the amount of water charges offered, stating that the landlord had based this on their normal usage rather than the increased usage resulting from the leaks. The resident also pointed out that the 2 toilets still did not work.
  9. The resident referred their complaint to the Ombudsman on 14 August 2023. The resident requested that the landlord fix the toilets and provide reimbursement of water charges to reflect the leaks that they had reported. The complaint became one that this Service could consider on 1 May 2024.

Assessment and findings

  1. The Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles are:
    1. be fair
    2. put things right
    3. learn from outcomes
  2. This Service will apply these principles when considering whether any redress is appropriate and proportionate for any maladministration or service failure identified.

Scope of investigation

  1. During the complaint process, the resident has sought to claim for loss of earnings for taking time off work to allow the landlord to visit the property to assess and undertake repairs.
  2. In general, we would not propose a remedy of compensation to reimburse a resident for their time off work or loss of wages or loss of employment while repairs are carried out. Although such works will inevitably cause some inconvenience to residents, their occupancy agreement will require them to give access for repairs to be carried out as needed, and it would not be fair or reasonable for the Ombudsman to order a landlord to pay a resident reimbursement for loss of earnings for routine appointments. However, there may be circumstances when the Ombudsman decides that it is appropriate to make an order that a landlord pays compensation in recognition of the inconvenience caused; for example, where repairs appointments are repeatedly missed or fail to resolve the repair issue.
  3. In accordance with paragraph 42(a) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the Ombudsman is unable to consider complaints about matters which have not yet exhausted the landlord’s internal complaints procedure. For this reason, the Ombudsman has not considered the resident’s reports of the lounge lights, bathroom lights and communal lift not working after the landlord issued its final response to the complaint in July 2023. If the resident is unhappy with the landlord’s response to their recent reports, they can raise this as a new complaint to the landlord. If the resident remains dissatisfied with the landlord’s final response to their new complaint, they may be able to refer the matter to the Ombudsman to investigate as a separate complaint.
  4. Within the stage 2 complaint response dated 21 July 2023, the landlord referenced repair issues reported by the resident between November 2020 and December 2021. The Ombudsman encourages residents to raise complaints with their landlords in a timely manner. As issues become historical, it is increasingly difficult for either the landlord or an independent body to conduct an effective investigation of the actions taken to address reported issues.
  5. Paragraph 42(c) of the Scheme states the Ombudsman may not consider complaints that were not brought to the attention of the member as a formal complaint within a reasonable period of time. Taking this into account and the availability and reliability of evidence, this assessment has focussed on the period from 9 March 2021, which is when the resident first reported issues with the toilets. This investigation considers matters up to the date of the landlord’s stage 2 response dated 21 July 2023. Reference to historical and more recent events is to provide context only.

Landlord’s obligations, policies and procedures

  1. The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), prepared in consideration of the Housing Act 2004 (the Act), states landlords should provide sanitation that is connected to a properly working flushing system and an adequate drainage system.
  2. Clause 4.1 of the landlord’s repairs policy confirms it is responsible for maintaining, ‘Fixtures and fittings for water, gas, electricity, heating, and sanitation’. Clause 4.8 states it will aim to complete routine day-to-day repairs in an average of 25 calendar days and emergency works with 24 hours.
  3. The landlord’s compensation policy also states it is obliged to offer compensation when it fails to complete certain repairs within timeframes set by the government. A toilet not flushing, where there is no other working toilet in the home, should be repaired within one working day. Leaking from a water pipe is also required to be repaired within one working day.

Landlord’s handling of toilet repairs

  1. The landlord repaired a flushing issue with one the resident’s toilets on 9 March 2021. It also repaired a blocked toilet issue on 25 June 2021, which was the same day the resident reported the issue.
  2. On 28 October 2021, the resident reported that both toilets in the property were not flushing and that the water was constantly refilling. The landlord noted the job as urgent due to the resident having a water meter and raised this with a contractor the same day.
  3. A contractor made attempts to contact the resident, initially unsuccessfully on 18 November 2021, before visiting on 7 December 2021 to resolve the constant flushing and draining issue in both toilets.
  4. The contractor removed the push pin behind the paddle on both toilets, which was causing the flush valve to get stuck. Although this stopped the constant flow of water, it meant the resident could no longer flush the toilets and had to use a bucket instead.
  5. The resident experienced constant running water in both toilets for a period of 40 days, from 28 October 2021 until the landlord took action on 7 December 2021.
  6. The resident then had to use a bucket to flush the toilets until the landlord fixed them on 29 September 2023.
  7. The landlord’s compensation policy states it should repair a toilet that is not flushing within one working day, where there is no other working toilet in the home. The landlord condemned both toilets on 7 December 2021 – it then took 661 days until it fixed them.
  8. The landlord failed to repair either toilet within 24 hours after condemning them. Instead, it took nearly 2 years to do this, which no doubt inconvenienced and distressed the resident. This meant it did not comply with the Act or its own repair policy.
  9. The excessive length of time that it took the landlord to repair the toilets, which left the resident without a working toilet for nearly 2 years, represents severe maladministration due to the significant long-term impact that this had on the resident.
  10. We may order a landlord to pay compensation in cases where there has been avoidable inconvenience, distress, detriment, or other unfair impact of the maladministration we have found. We understand that the impact of a landlord’s actions or inactions cannot simply be remedied by a financial payment, but we may order a landlord to make a payment in recognition of that impact and to acknowledge how the resident has been affected.
  11. The landlord’s failure to fix the toilets for almost 2 years no doubt significantly impacted the resident, as they had to use a bucket to flush the toilets for an unnecessary, excessive period of time. In recognition of the distress and inconvenience that this caused the resident, the landlord is required to pay compensation of £1,000. The landlord is also required to provide a written apology.

Landlord’s handling of repairs to kitchen taps leaking

  1. On 3 September 2021, the resident reported leaking kitchen taps, which the landlord fixed on 14 October 2021 by replacing the mixer tap. The resident experienced leaking water for a period of 41 days between these dates.
  2. The length of time that the landlord took to resolve the issue with the leaking mixer tap exceeded the 25 calendar days timeframe set out in its repairs policy by some 16 calendar days. This was an unreasonable delay which would understandably have resulted in unnecessary distress and inconvenience to the resident.
  3. The landlord’s failure to repair the issue sooner than it did represents maladministration. Although there was no long-term impact to the resident, we recognise that the delay in fixing the leaking kitchen taps adversely impacted the resident. Therefore, the landlord is required to pay £100 compensation in recognition of the inconvenience caused by failing to fix the repair within the timeframe set out in its repairs policy.

Reimbursement of additional water charges due to leaks

  1. The resident raised concerns about higher-than-expected water charges due to leaks from the toilets and kitchen tap impacting the amount of usage recorded by the water meter.
  2. The resident disputed the landlord’s calculation of additional water charges, stating that their usual cost was £96.48 per quarter based on bills issued for the period from 1 May 2021 to 14 January 2022. We note that the resident calculated this quarterly usage from an estimated reading for 1 May 2021.
  3. The landlord contacted the water company to obtain meter readings, which it used to calculate what it considered to be additional water usage resulting from the leaks that the resident reported.
  4. The meter readings shown in the bills that the resident provided to the landlord are the same as the readings that the landlord received from the water company. As the reading for 1 May 2021 is estimated, this Service does not consider it valid for calculating the resident’s actual water usage.
  5. In their email to the landlord dated 4 May 2022, the resident confirmed they had paid nothing towards their water bill since April 2021. It is unclear why the resident chose not to pay anything towards their water usage during this period. Failing to pay anything towards the bill would have contributed to an outstanding balance building up.
  6. When considering the resident’s complaint about incurring additional water charges due to leaks, the landlord offered to reimburse charges for 35.752 and 154.28 cubic meters of water (190.032 cubic meters in total). Its email dated 21 April 2022 and stage 2 response dated 21 July 2023 explained how it had calculated the water supply and wastewater charges using actual meter readings recorded on the resident’s water account.
  7. The resident disputed the landlord’s offer, stating it did not account for reporting an uncontainable leak from one of the toilets between January 2021 and March 2021. The resident says these reports did not appear in the landlord’s maintenance log, during which time they had to keep mopping the floor while water kept running through the waste pipe.
  8. The maintenance log shows that the landlord completed a job on 2 March 2021 regarding a toilet not flushing. This is the only record of any toilet issue reported in early 2021. If there was a constant leak, we would have expected the resident to have reported and chased this on more than one occasion.
  9. Neither the resident nor the landlord have provided any evidence of a leak reported in early 2021. This means there is no evidence of an ongoing leak that would have impacted water usage between January 2021 and March 2021. Therefore, in the absence of any evidence, we do not consider it appropriate for the landlord to reimburse any water charges during this time.
  10. The resident’s email to the Ombudsman dated 9 August 2023 stated that the landlord had offered to reimburse water charges based on their normal usage rather than the increased usage. The resident asked for reimbursement of the full outstanding balance on their water account. We do not consider this request reasonable because there is only evidence of water leaks for a total of 81 days.
  11. There are no actual water meter readings that cover the specific dates for the leaks (3 September 2021 to 14 October 2021 and 28 October 2021 to 7 December 2021). However, the resident’s water bills show actual meter readings of:
    1. 21 cubic meters for 30 November 2020
    2. 41 cubic meters for 20 January 2020
    3. 477 cubic meters for 20 July 2021
    4. 559 cubic meters for 22 October 2021
    5. 883 cubic meters for 14 January 2022
    6. 1147 cubic meters for 20 January 2024
  12. The closest actual meter readings around the dates of the leaks are for 20 July 2021 and 17 January 2022 (a period of 181 days). During this time, the resident had both normal and increased water usage. The resident used 406 cubic meters of water (883 minus 477) during this time, which equates to average daily usage of 2.24 cubic meters.
  13. Before the leaks, between actual readings of 21 for 30 November 2020 and 41 for 20 January 2021 (52 days), the resident used an average of 0.38 cubic meters of water per day.
  14. Since the leaks, between actual readings of 883 for 17 January 2022 and 1147 for 22 January 2024 (736 days), the resident used an average of 0.36 cubic meters of water per day.
  15. The water usage is consistent for both periods where there is no evidence of a water leak.
  16. We have used the average daily usage of 0.38 cubic meters to calculate the difference between the resident’s normal water usage and the increased usage due to leaks. This is because these are the readings that were available when the landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response in July 2023.
  17. Between 20 July 2021 and 17 January 2022 (181 days), we consider that the resident would have expected to use 69 cubic meters of water. This covers the periods of the leaks that the landlord and this investigation have identified.
  18. Removing the expected usage from the recorded usage (406 cubic meters) provides additional usage of 337 cubic meters, which is higher than the 190 cubic meters that the landlord calculated. These are the water charges that we consider the landlord should reimburse.
  19. The water bills confirm the following charges applicable:
    1. Water supply charges of 131.87 pence per cubic meter and 10.79 pence per day for the water supply
    2. Waste water charges of 90.51 pence per cubic meter and 17.85 pence per day for the water supply
  20. For additional water usage of 337 cubic meters and a total of 81 days recorded for water leaks, we have calculated that the landlord should reimburse additional water usage charges totalling £772.62.
  21. The landlord previously reimbursed £445.77 towards the resident’s additional water usage. Therefore, it should reimburse a further £326.85.
  22. The landlord sought to calculate additional water charges resulting from the leaks it had on record. We consider the landlord’s failure to calculate enough additional charges represents maladministration due to the impact that this had on the resident regarding their concern about receiving significantly higher-than-usual water charges.
  23. Although the landlord tried to put things right regarding the additional water charges, it did not fully address the detriment to the resident. Therefore, the landlord is required to pay £300 compensation in recognition of the inconvenience and distress caused by failing to offer sufficient reimbursement of additional water charges incurred due to the leaks reported.

Complaint handling

  1. The resident logged a formal complaint with the landlord on 17 February 2022.
  2. In accordance with the landlord’s complaints policy and this Service’s complaint handling code, the landlord should have acknowledged the complaint within 5 working days and then provided its stage 1 response within a further 10 working days.
  3. The landlord acknowledged the complaint and issued its stage 1 response on the same day that the resident raised this, 17 February 2022. Therefore, it acted within the required timeframes.
  4. After several contacts between the resident and landlord, the resident asked to escalate the complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaints process on 4 May 2022.
  5. In accordance with the landlord’s complaints policy and this Service’s complaint handling code, the landlord should have acknowledged the escalation request within 10 working days and then provided its stage 2 response within a further 20 working days.
  6. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s escalation request on 10 May 2022 but then failed to issue a response. It was not until 11 July 2023 that the landlord again acknowledged the escalation request before issuing its stage 2 response on 21 July 2023, which was over a year later. Although the landlord initially acknowledged the escalation request within the required timeframe, we consider the delay in issuing its stage 2 response excessive.
  7. In consideration of the resident’s complaint, the landlord issued a cheque for £815.77, which included £140 for its delayed stage 2 response. The landlord also signposted the resident to the Ombudsman if they remained unhappy.
  8. We consider the landlord’s failure to respond to the resident’s complaint at stage 2 for more than 12 months represents maladministration. If the landlord had responded to the complaint sooner, it would likely have dealt with the repairs sooner. Although the landlord apologised, it doesn’t appear to have upheld the resident’s complaint or demonstrated any learning. Therefore, we consider £300 compensation appropriate to acknowledge the adverse impact caused to the resident by the landlord’s failure to address the complaint sooner.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was severe maladministration regarding the landlord’s handling of toilet repairs.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration regarding the landlord’s handling of repairs to kitchen taps leaking.
  3. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration regarding the landlord’s reimbursement of additional water charges due to leaks.
  4. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration regarding the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, the landlord must provide a written apology from the Chief Executive for the failings identified in this report.
  2. Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, the landlord must pay compensation totalling £1,700 to the resident, comprised as follows:
    1. £1,000 for the distress and inconvenience caused by failing to fix the toilets for almost 2 years
    2. £100 for the inconvenience caused by failing to fix the leaking kitchen taps within the timeframe set out in the landlord’s repairs policy
    3. £300 for the inconvenience and distress caused by failing to offer sufficient reimbursement of additional water charges incurred due to leaks
    4. £300 for the adverse impact caused by the landlord’s failure to address the complaint sooner
  3. Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, the landlord is required to reimburse additional water charges of £357.71.
  4. The landlord is to pay these amounts directly to the resident less any amount previously paid. The landlord must not offset this compensation against any rent or service charge arrears that the resident may have accrued.
  5. Within 6 weeks, in accordance with paragraph 54(g) of the Scheme, the landlord must carry out a case review around:
    1. an exploration of why the failings identified by this investigation occurred
    2. the findings and learning from the review
    3. recommendations on how it intends to prevent similar failings from occurring in the future
    4. provide the Ombudsman with a copy of the review and findings
  6. On 8 February 2024, the Ombudsman issued the statutory Complaint Handling Code. This Code sets out the requirements that landlords must meet when handling complaints in both policy and practice. The statutory Code applies from 1 April 2024.
  7. The Ombudsman has a duty to monitor compliance with the Code. We will assess landlords using our Compliance Framework and take action where there is evidence that the requirements set out in the Code are not being met.
  8. In this investigation, we found failures in complaint handling. We therefore order the landlord to consider the findings highlighted in this investigation when reviewing its policies and practices against the statutory Code.
  9. The landlord is to confirm compliance with these orders within the timeframes set out above.