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Kingston upon Hull City Council (202315837)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202315837

Kingston upon Hull City Council

21 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 arranging gas service appointments.

Background

  1. The resident has been a secure tenant of a 2-bedroom house since 2017.
  2. He complained to the landlord on 22 May 2023 about the way it handled the gas service appointments. This related to missing appointments and making unannounced visits. The gas service was completed on 9 June 2023.
  3. The landlord sent its stage 1 complaint response to the resident on 13 June 2023. It said it did not uphold his complaint. It said it had followed its process for arranging gas service appointments.
  4. On 14 June 2023 the resident asked the landlord to review the complaint. The landlord sent its stage 2 complaint response to the resident on 31 August 2023. It again said it had followed its process when arranging the appointments, so it did not uphold his complaint. The landlord offered £30 compensation for the delay in responding to his complaint.
  5. The resident remained unhappy with the landlord’s handling of his complaint.

Assessment and findings

  1. Paragraph 53.c. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that:

“The Ombudsman may determine the investigation of a complaint immediately if satisfied that the member has made an offer of redress following the Ombudsman’s intervention which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint satisfactorily.”

The Ombudsman’s intervention

  1. We contacted the landlord on and provided it with a summary of our understanding of the events. This included some comments on areas that could have been handled better and what the landlord could do to resolve the resident’s complaint.
  2. The landlord offered to apologise to the resident and pay £250 compensation for its handling of the gas service appointments and the delays in responding to his complaints. It also agreed to update the resident’s contact preferences. The resident informed us that he was satisfied with this as a resolution to his complaint.
  3. We are therefore satisfied that, following our intervention, that the landlord has agreed to take actions to remedy the matters raised which resolve the complaint satisfactorily.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.c of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the complaint was resolved with intervention.

Recommendation

  1. The landlord should now send an apology letter and make the £250 compensation payment to the resident. It should also update the resident’s contact preferences. The complaint has been resolved with intervention on this basis.