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London Borough of Lambeth (202323039)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202323039

Lambeth Council

6 June 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:
    1. A payment of compensation for a missed appointment.
    2. The resident’s complaint.

Background

  1. The resident has lived in the property as a leaseholder since May 2009. The property is a 1-bedroom flat.
  2. The landlord told the resident it had arrange to repair a broken window on 28 November 2022. The landlord cancelled the appointment and then did the repair on 7 December 2022. On 17 March 2023, the resident complained he had not received compensation for the missed appointment.
  3. The landlord sent a complaint response on 18 April 2023. It said it did not have a record of a missed appointment and because of this would not pay the £20 missed appointment compensation. It said it would arrange to do the repairs and asked him to send evidence of any missed appointments.
  4. On 20 April 2023 the resident told the landlord the missed appointment was on 28 November 2022. He said the landlord completed the repairs on 7 December 2022. He said he lost pay due to the missed appointment and asked the landlord to reconsider making a payment to him.
  5. The landlord apologised on 17 May 2023 for the missed appointment. It said it would pay £20 for the missed appointment and £20 for inconvenience caused. It said it could not compensate him for loss of earnings. On 14 June 2023, the resident said he would accept the offer.
  6. The resident escalated his complaint on 4 September 2023 because he said he had not received the payment. In its final response on 10 October 2023, the landlord said it processed the payment on 26 September 2023. It apologised for the delay and lack of communication.
  7. The resident told the landlord on 10 October 2023 that he had not received the payment, and he was escalating his complaint to the Ombudsman. He said there had been 10 months since the missed appointment and he had spent time trying to resolve the matter.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of a payment of compensation for a missed appointment

  1. The landlord’s compensation policy says it will pay £20 compensation for each missed appointment when it is the “sole fault of the contractor”. It says it will process payments within 4 weeks of the date of complaint response.
  2. The Ombudsman has not seen details of when the resident requested a repair. However, in its complaint response on 18 April 2023, the landlord said it raised a repair for its community works team to fix a broken window. It said the community works team then cancelled the order because that team was not responsible for the repair. The landlord said it would raise a new work order and contact the resident when an appointment was available. It said because it had been unable to find a missed appointment, it could not pay the £20 missed appointment compensation. It asked the resident to provide evidence of a missed appointment.
  3. In his response on 20 April 2023 the resident sent a screenshot of a text from the landlord about an appointment on 28 November 2022. He said the landlord had not told him it had cancelled this appointment. He wanted to know when it cancelled the appointment and why it gave the repair to the wrong team. He said he called the landlord about the appointment at 1.00pm on 28 November 2022 and it told him to wait until 6.00pm for someone to arrive. He said there had been poor communication and he had lost earnings. He wanted the landlord to reconsider paying compensation for the missed appointment.
  4. On 17 May 2023 the landlord apologised for confusion with the appointment and the frustration this caused. It said in line with its compensation policy, it could pay £20 for a missed appointment but could not compensate for loss of earnings. It said it could offer another £20 compensation for the inconvenience caused and the time taken to complete the repair.
  5. The Ombudsman has not seen a copy of the screenshot the resident sent on 20 April 2023 about the appointment on 28 November 2022. However, in its response on 17 May 2023 the landlord accepted it had missed the appointment. Because of this it was reasonable for the landlord to offer £20 compensation for a missed appointment, which was in line with its policy.
  6. The Ombudsman has found it was also reasonable for the landlord to offer a further £20 compensation for inconvenience caused. This is because when the resident asked about compensation in March 2023, the landlord told him it could not find a record of a missed appointment. It then asked the resident to provide details of the appointment. The landlord was also unaware that it had done the repairs on 12 December 2022. The landlord should have had a record of the missed appointment and the completed work. The Ombudsman has also seen there was a delay in the landlord’s response to the resident’s email on 20 April 2023, as it took almost a month to respond. In these circumstances, it was right for the landlord to offer £20 compensation for the frustration and inconvenience caused.
  7. The resident told the landlord he accepted the total offer of £40 on 14 June 2023. However, on 4 September 2023 the resident said he wanted to escalate his complaint because he had not received the payment. In its final response on 10 October 2023, the landlord said it processed the payment on 26 September 2023. It apologised for the delay in processing the payment, the lack of communication, and the frustration this caused. On the same day 10 October, the resident told the landlord he had not received the payment.
  8. The Ombudsman has not seen evidence showing whether or when the landlord made the payment. Because of this the Ombudsman cannot comment on whether the landlord made the payment.
  9. However, the resident said he had not received the payment on 4 September 2023, which was almost 3 months after he accepted the offer. The records seem to show the landlord only processed the payment after the resident escalated his complaint. This is because it said in its final response that it processed the payment on 26 September 2023. This delay caused the resident further inconvenience and was a failure to follow the 4-week timescale in the compensation policy.
  10. Although the landlord apologised for the delay in processing the payment and the frustration this caused, it did not offer compensation for the service failure. It is the Ombudsman view that it should have offered further compensation for the unreasonable delay in making the payment.
  11. In line with the Ombudsman remedies guidance, the Ombudsman has found there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of a payment of compensation for a missed appointment. Because of this, the Ombudsman orders the landlord to pay the resident £50 compensation for the delay in making the payment after the final response.

The landlord’s complaint handling

  1. The landlord’s complaints policy at the time of the complaint said it would send a stage 1 response within 20 working days. When a resident escalated their complaint, the landlord said it would respond in 25 working days.
  2. Records provided by the landlord show the resident complained on 17 March 2023 about compensation for a missed appointment. The landlord sent its first complaint response on 18 April 2023, which was 22 working days later.
  3. The resident escalated his complaint on 4 September 2023 because he said he had not received the payment agreed in the complaint response. The landlord responded on 10 October 2023. This was 27 working days later.
  4. The Ombudsman has found the landlord sent both responses slightly outside the timescales in its complaints policy. The landlord could have apologised for the slight delays. However, these were minor delays, and because of this the Ombudsman has found there was no maladministration in the landlord’s complaint handling.

Determination

  1. In line with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was:
    1. Service failure by the landlord in its handling of a payment of compensation for a missed appointment.
    2. No maladministration by the landlord in its complaint handling.

Orders

  1. The landlord must pay the resident £50 compensation for the failures found in this report. It must pay compensation directly to the resident and not offset it against any arrears.
  2. The landlord must provide the Ombudsman with evidence that it paid the resident the £40 offered in its complaint response. If this evidence is not available, it must pay the resident the £40 it originally offered.
  3. The landlord must provide the Ombudsman of evidence of compliance with the above orders within 4 weeks of the date of the report.