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London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) (202324021)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202324021

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q)

12 May 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:
    1. Reports of delays in completing repairs to the communal doors and pedestrian gate.
    2. Associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident was an assured tenant on a private rent basis at the time of the complaint. He has since moved out of the property. The property is a 1-bedroom third–floor flat in a communal building, owned by the landlord.
  2. The resident contacted the landlord on 2 February 2023, reporting that the communal doors and pedestrian gate required repair. While it fixed the gate on 28 February 2023, the communal doors remained broken. He later reported that the pedestrian gate had broken again on 4 June 2023.
  3. The resident complained to the landlord on 28 June 2023. He said it had been 22 days since his last request to fix the communal doors. He expressed his concerns about the security of the building given anyone could enter. He had chased for updates and requested compensation for the delay in completing the repairs. He complained further on 20 and 28 July 2023.
  4. The landlord raised 2 separate complaints for the communal doors and pedestrian gate. It sent stage 1 complaint responses on 29 June and 11 August 2023. It noted that its contractor had attended on 10 February 2023 but was unable to complete the communal door repair. It raised an order to an alternative contractor but they were unable to gain access. It apologised for the delay in completing repairs and confirmed that it would attend on 7 July 2023. It said that the automatic gate control panel was faulty, and it replaced this on 25 July 2023. However, it found a further fault and its engineer attended on 10 August 2023 to install a new motor.
  5. The landlord offered £60 compensation for the delayed gate repair on 21 August 2023. It also offered £160 for the delay in completing the communal door repair. The resident responded the same day stating that the compensation offered did not reflect the time and effort taken to resolve the matter and asked for compensation comparable to 1 month’s rent. He added that operatives had not attended as advised and asked to escalate his complaints.
  6. The landlord sent stage 2 complaint responses on 8 September 2023 and 23 May 2024. It said that it had resolved the pedestrian gate on 10 August 2023 following 2 repairs. It repeated its offer of £60 compensation comprising £10 for loss of service, and £50 for inconvenience.
  7. In the landlord’s second stage 2 response it apologised for its delayed complaint response and for the delays in completing the repair to the doors. It set out the actions it had taken and said there had been delays due to access, waiting for parts, and that it completed the repair on 15 August 2023. It explained that it did not refund rent but had considered the inconvenience. It offered £180 compensation comprising £50 for inconvenience, £50 for time and effort, £40 for poor complaint handling, and £40 for missed appointments. Its total compensation offer for both repairs was £240.
  8. The resident was unhappy with the landlord’s response and brought his complaint to us. He wants it to recognise the inconvenience caused and increase its compensation offer to £850.

Assessment and findings

Reports of delays in completing repairs

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy says that it will attend emergency repairs within 24 hours where there is an immediate danger to the occupant or members of the public. It aims to complete routine repairs within an average of 25 calendar days.
  2. It is not disputed that there were delays in completing repairs to the pedestrian gate and communal doors. When there are failings by a landlord, as is the case here, we will consider whether the redress offered by the landlord (apology, compensation and offer to complete repairs) 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.
  3. The resident told us that he contacted the landlord on 2 February 2023 to report his concerns about the communal doors and pedestrian gate. He confirmed that it repaired the gate on 28 February 2023. While we appreciate that this delay was likely frustrating for the resident, it did complete the repair within 25 calendar days in line with its repairs policy timescale.
  4. In the resident’s complaint on 28 June 2023, he said that it had been 22 days since his last request to fix the communal doors. He said he was concerned about the security of the building as anyone could enter and believed the landlord was ignoring him despite chasing for updates. He added that it was unacceptable to wait 6 months for it to resolve such a serious issue.
  5. The landlord’s stage 1 response, the following day, appropriately apologised for the delay in completing the door repair. It demonstrated that it had reviewed its repairs history and confirmed that the door closure was faulty and the handle inside was missing. While it attended on 10 February 2023 it was unable to complete the repair due to the door specification.
  6. The landlord said that it had raised an order to an alternative contractor but did not specify when. Its contractor had been unable to complete the repair as they were unable to gain access to the building. It is not clear why it failed to arrange access prior to its contractor attending. It said it would attend on 7 July 2023 to complete the repair and ensure it provided access. While the landlord acknowledged the delays and apologised, it failed to offer any redress or demonstrate any learning.
  7. While the landlord committed to complete the repair on 7 July 2023, it failed to do so. The resident wrote again on 10 July 2023 stating that both the building doors and pedestrian gate remained broken. He said he was “exhausted and frustrated” with the situation and having to email again and again. He wrote further on 20 July 2023 repeating his concerns and gave a detailed timeline of his and the landlord’s communications from February to July 2023.
  8. The landlord’s records of 2 August 2023 noted that the complaint was about outstanding work which appeared to have been raised in June but was not complete. It also updated the resident the same day that its contractor was waiting for parts. It said it would complete the repairs as soon as parts arrived. It told him that it had raised a separate complaint for the gate as the repair was being done by its building team.
  9. The landlord’s stage 1 complaint response demonstrated that it had investigated its repairs records. It confirmed that it replaced a faulty control panel to the gate on 25 July 2023. It found a second fault with the encoders and raised a further repair to replace the motor, which it completed on 10 August 2023. It appropriately apologised that the resident had cause to complain.
  10. The resident responded to the landlord on 14 August 2023 confirming the repair of the gate. However, the communal doors remained broken. He said it had failed to provide any updates. The following day he confirmed that the repair to the doors was complete and said he wanted to discuss compensation.
  11. The landlord responded the same day and offered £60 compensation for the delayed gate repair. The resident stated that he had been speaking with another member of staff who had offered £160 for the delay in completing the door repair. He remained dissatisfied with its offers and asked to escalate his complaints.
  12. The landlord’s stage 2 response on 8 September 2023 regarding the gate, repeated its apology and £60 compensation offer. It repeated its previous response and timeline of events.
  13. The landlord’s response was reasonable in apologising for any delays. While it took 67 calendar days to repair the gate, from 4 June 2023 to 10 August 2023, this involved 2 separate repairs. The first repair was completed 51 days after the gate was reported being out of service. This was not in line with its repairs policy timescale of 25 calendar days. The second repair was completed 14 calendar days later within the landlord’s repair policy timescale of 25 working days. The landlord’s offer of £60 compensation was reasonable and in line with our remedies guidance in the sum of £50 to £100.
  14. Following our intervention, the landlord provided a stage 2 response regarding the communal doors on 23 May 2024. It appropriately apologised for the delay in completing repairs, its delayed complaint response, and its poor communication. It provided a comprehensive account of its actions and offered £140 compensation. This comprised £50 for inconvenience, £50 for time and effort, and £40 for missed appointments.
  15. We appreciate that the delay in completing repairs would likely have been frustrating for the resident, particularly given his concerns about security. There was a delay of 194 days to complete the repairs which were 169 days later than its 25-day complaint policy timescale. That said, we consider that the landlord’s apology, completion of the repairs, and compensation offer was reasonable in the circumstances. Its offer of £140 compensation was in line with our remedies guidance and shows it considered his time and trouble and the inconvenience.
  16. In summary, we find that the landlord has offered redress for the gate and door repairs and have made a finding of reasonable redress.

Associated complaint

  1. The landlord operates a 2-stage complaints process. It says it acknowledges complaints within 5 working days. It responds to stage 1 and 2 complaints within 10 and 20 working days respectively. This is in line with our Complaint Handling Code.
  2. It is not disputed that there were delays in the landlord’s complaint handling. It failed to provide a stage 2 response in relation to the doors until our intervention in May 2024. It appropriately apologised for the delay in its stage 2 response and offered £40 compensation. However, this was not proportionate to the delay experienced by the resident of 9 months since asking to escalate his complaint in August 2023. It also failed to demonstrate any learning.
  3. For the above reasons we have made a finding of service failure and made and order for additional compensation in the amount of £60. This is in line with our remedies guidance as outlined above.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Scheme the landlord has made a reasonable offer of redress prior to investigation which, in our opinion, satisfactorily resolves the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of delays in repairing the pedestrian gate and communal doors.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s associated complaint.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. The landlord is ordered to take the following action within 4 weeks of the date of this report:
    1. Pay to the resident the sum of £100 for time and trouble, distress and inconvenience, for its complaint handling failures. (£40 offered in its stage 2 response can be deducted if already paid)
    2. Provide evidence of its compliance with the above order.

Recommendations

  1. Our finding of reasonable redress is made on the basis that the landlord pays to the resident the sums of £60 and £140 offered in its stage 2 responses.
  2. The landlord should ensure that it tracks reported repairs through to completion to prevent delays.