Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (202303386)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202303386

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

5 July 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

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of a suspected gas leak in the resident’s kitchen.

Background

The resident holds an assured tenancy. The property is three–bedroom semi-detached house.
The resident made a formal complaint on 14 March 2023. He said:
1. On 9 March 2023, a plasterer attended his property to complete a repair. During this visit, the plasterer informed him that he could smell gas.
2. The gas leak was repaired on 13 March 2023.
3. He was upset that no one dealt with the gas leak when it was first identified on 9 March 2023, and he was left with a leak over the weekend.
The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint on 15 March 2023, and issued its stage 1 response on 28 March 2023. It said:
1. On 6 March 2023, it started repair works to the resident’s kitchen. Its operatives stated that there was no smell of gas in the property on this day.
2. On 7 March 2023, before reconnecting the cooker, one operative thought he could smell gas however another could not. It used a leak detection spray around the fitting before and after it reconnected the cooker which did not identify any leaks.
3. On 9 March 2023, an operative thought he could smell gas again so he asked another operative to return to re-check the cooker fitting. The resident was present during this conversation. However, the operative later could not smell any gas and so advised the resident to contact the landlord immediately if the gas smell returned. It noted that the resident disputed this conversation occurred.
4. On 10 March 2023, due to adverse weather conditions the operatives that were due to attend the property could not attend. The resident did not contact it regarding any gas leaks over the weekend.
5. On 13 March 2023, it found a pipe in the kitchen which it had not noticed previously which could have caused the gas smell. A manager was informed and a gas operative attended immediately. The gas operative found a leak on the pipe. It repaired the leak and it conducted an appropriate drop test.
6. It apologised for delay in detecting and resolving the issues. It said its operative should have contacted the manager for advice and a gas operative should have attended sooner.
7. It would arrange appropriate training to prevent the issue reoccurring in the future.
The resident escalated his complaint on 29 March 2023. He said that the landlord should have inspected the gas leak sooner as he feared his house could have ‘blown up.’ He also disputed the landlord’s statement in its stage 1 response with regards to being asked to call the landlord if he smelt gas again.
The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint on 30 March 2023 and issued its stage 2 response on 25 April 2023. It said:
1. It should have inspected the gas leak on 9 March 2023 which it had confirmed previously.
2. It cancelled an appointment on 10 March 2023 due to poor weather but acknowledged it could have considered another operative to attend.
3. It apologised for any stress or concern caused and offered £50 compensation to the resident.
The resident contacted the landlord on 26 April 2023 and asked it to review its compensation offer. He said:
1. The offer of £50 compensation did not account for the ‘danger of death’ and requested increased compensation for this and for any increases to his gas bill.
2. It did not consider that he had no access to heating or hot water for 17 hours during the gas leak.
The landlord responded to the resident’s review request on 4 May 2023. It said:
1. It’s policy states that it does not compensate for the loss of heating and hot water for the first 24 hours. Following this period, it would compensate for each full day that a resident is without heating and hot water.
2. It was unable to determine how the gas leak had affected the resident’s energy bills. It was unable to measure the gas leak and therefore could not make an estimate as to how this may have affected his bills. It asked the resident to submit evidence of his current bill and previous bill for it to consider the bill increase.
3. In recognition of the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident, it made an additional offer of £250 compensation, in addition to the £50 previously offered at stage 2, bringing the total compensation offered to £300.
The resident contacted this Service on 4 May 2023, he informed us that he was unhappy with the landlord’s revised compensation offer and asked us to investigate his complaint.

Assessment and findings

Policies and Procedures

The landlord’s Gas and Heating Policy and The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (as amended) state that the landlord is responsible for the maintenance and repairs of gas installations and appliances. The regulations also place a legal duty on landlords to ensure that gas appliances, fittings and flues provided for tenants’ use are safe.
The landlord’s repairs policy states that gas leaks should be dealt with as an emergency within 24 hours and should also be reported to the National Gas Emergency number.
The landlord’s complaints policy states that residents can request a review of their stage 2 response within 21 working days if they have new facts and/or evidence that has not been considered, which they think might change the outcome, or if they wish to challenge the facts and/or evidence that has been relied upon. It advises that the resident can contact this Service at any stage of its complaints process.

The landlord’s handling of a suspected gas leak in the resident’s kitchen.

When investigating a complaint, the Ombudsman applies its Dispute Resolution Principles. These are high level good practice guidance developed from the Ombudsman’s experience of resolving disputes, for use by everyone involved in the complaints process. There are three principles driving effective dispute resolution:
1. Be fair – treat people fairly and follow fair processes;
2. Put things right, and;
3. Learn from outcomes.
The Ombudsman must first consider whether a failing on the part of the landlord has occurred, and if so, whether this led to any adverse effect or detriment to the resident. If it is found that a failing did lead to an adverse effect, the investigation will then consider whether the landlord has taken enough action to ‘put things right.’
The landlord reported that its operative could not smell gas when he finished the repairs on 9 March 2023. However, considering he had smelt gas the previous day at the resident’s property, when he it smelt it again in the morning of 9 March 2023, it would have been reasonable and proactive for him to have raised a repair request for a qualified gas engineer to attend and investigate the issue.
It was a failing that the operative did not do so, and the landlord’s actions were therefore not in line with its repairs policy and wider sector policies. It is understandable that this failure to take proactive steps in reporting the gas leak and arranging an inspection by a qualified gas engineer would have caused the resident distress and inconvenience.
Furthermore, it was appropriate for the landlord to later acknowledge that it missed another opportunity to report and repair the potential gas leak by not arranging for a different plumber to attend the property on 10 March 2023.
Following the operative’s discovery of a gas leak on 13 March 2023, it was appropriate for the matter to be escalated to a manager for a gas engineer to attend within 24 hours. This was reasonable and in line with its repairs and gas safety policy. This was also in line with how this Service would have expected the landlord’s operative to respond at an earlier stage when it suspected a gas leak on 9 March 2023.
This Service’s dispute resolutions principles state that where there has been a failing, we would consider whether the landlord has taken enough action to ‘put things right’ for the resident.
In this case, the landlord in its complaint response accepted that there had been failings. It stated that in hindsight its operative should have contacted their manager for advice and a gas operative should have attended. It also agreed that it should have arranged for another plumber to attend the resident’s property on Friday 10 March 2023. The landlord’s actions in apologising and recognising that there had been a failing, was reasonable and in line with this Service dispute resolution principles.
The landlord’s actions of considering the resident’s request for a review of the compensation and providing an adequate explanation of why it would not cover the cost of heating and increased gas bills was reasonable, and in line with its policy.
The landlord stated in its stage 1 response that it would complete appropriate training to prevent the mistakes it made in responding to the reports of gas leaks from reoccurring in the future. However, the landlord has not provided this Service with any evidence to show it has learned from these issues and it has taken steps to prevent them from recurring. This was a failure, and not in line with this Service expectations regarding learning from complaints.
The landlord’s revised offer of an additional £250 compensation for distress and inconvenience was a reasonable attempt to ‘put things right’ for the resident. However, the £50 compensation offered for the failure in relation to not following its gas and safety policies and not arranging for another plumber to attend the property on 10 March 2023 was too low and not proportionate to the failings identified within this investigation. Furthermore, the landlord has failed to evidence any learning regarding its handling of gas leaks. For this reason, this Service finds there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of a suspected gas leak in the resident’s kitchen.
This Service’s remedies guidance suggests compensation of between £100 and £600 should be awarded where the Ombudsman has found a failure which adversely impacted the resident. In view of this, an order has been made below for the landlord to pay the resident an additional £200 compensation. This brings the total compensation to £500 which is in line with this Service remedies guidance.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of a suspected gas leak in the resident’s kitchen.

Orders

Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, the landlord is ordered to:
1. Write to the resident to apologise for the service failures identified in this report.
2. Pay the resident total compensation of £500. This amount must be paid direct to the resident and not offset against his rent account. This £500 compensation is comprised as follows:
  1. £250 previously offered by the landlord in relation to distress and inconvenience.
  2. £50 previously offered by the landlord in its stage 1 complaint response.
  3. An additional £200 in relation to its operative not reporting the gas leaks on 9 March 2023 and the landlord not attending the resident’s property on 10 March 2023.
The landlord should reply to this Service with evidence of compliance with these orders within the timescale set out above.
In accordance with paragraph 54(g) of the Scheme, the landlord must:
1. Conduct a review of this case to establish why the suspected gas leak was not actioned appropriately and implement any subsequent recommendations to ensure its operatives are aware of action required in relation to suspected gas leaks.
2. Following the review, the landlord should produce a report setting out the findings and learning from the review.
3. The review should be conducted by a senior manager.
The landlord is to confirm compliance with these orders to the Ombudsman within 10 weeks of the date of this report.