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Royal Borough Of Greenwich (202313581)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202313581

Royal Borough Of Greenwich

27 February 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 response to the leaseholder’s reports of a roof leak in her property.

Background

  1. The property is a flat located within a block. The leaseholder sublets the property to a tenant. The landlord is the freeholder.
  2. On 24 January 2023, the leaseholder raised a complaint to the landlord. She said:
    1. She had reported roof leaks since 2018, yet the roof was still leaking in 2023.
    2. The landlord had cleared the gutters in December 2022, but the tenants reported a further leak on 23 January 2023. She said that the landlord would not be able to attend until 3 March 2023, which was “unacceptable”.
    3. Water was constantly leaking into the flat, and her tenants were ‘unable to live’ in those conditions.
  3. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 8 February 2023. It said:
    1. It had previously repaired the brickwork in 2021 and cleared the gulley. It had cleared the gulley again in December 2022.
    2. It had inspected the roof following the leaseholder’s complaint on 6 February 2023. It did not identify any leaks and concluded that the roof was in good condition, and the gulley was clear.
    3. It had previously identified an issue with condensation in the property, that it provided advice to the tenants about. It confirmed that any internal repairs to resolve condensation would be the leaseholder’s responsibility.
  4. The leaseholder escalated her complaint on 10 February 2023. She said that she did not agree with the landlord’s findings that there were no issues with the roof. When she or tenants reported leaks, the landlord failed to attend as an emergency, so the ceiling was dry by the time it did attend. The leaseholder wanted an independent person to inspect the roof.
  5. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 9 March 2023. It said:
    1. The roof was in good condition, and it had not needed any repairs since March 2021.
    2. It had means to conduct inspections itself, therefore it did not need an independent person to inspect the roof.
    3. It had dealt with a reported leak on 5 March 2023, the same day that the leaseholder had reported it. However, it found that the issue was condensation inside the property. However, the roofer recommended that the landlord inspect parts of the roof. It had arranged to do so on 9 March 2023.
  6. The roof was subsequently inspected on 14 March 2023, as it was unable to gain access on 9 March 2023, with no evidence of leaks. It inspected the leaseholder’s flat on 12 April 2023 and found no evidence of a leak. However, the property had condensation.
  7. The leaseholder remains dissatisfied with the landlord’s response due to the time taken to undertake roof repairs, and the continued leaks in the property. This Service is aware that the landlord undertook roofing repairs in January 2024 following further reports of leaks.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The leaseholder has stated that she has been reporting roof leaks since 2018. This Service does not dispute the leaseholder’s comments. However, the Ombudsman encourages residents to raise complaints with their landlords in a timely manner. This is because with the passage of time, evidence may be unavailable and personnel involved may have left an organisation, which makes it difficult for us to conduct a thorough investigation and make informed decisions.
  2. Taking this into account, and the availability and reliability of evidence, this assessment has focussed on the period from December 2022 onwards. The records indicate that this was the beginning of the events that led to the resident raising a formal complaint. Any references made to events prior to this time are to provide context.

Reports of roof leak

  1. The lease states that the landlord is responsible for keeping the structure and exterior of the flat and the building, including the drains, gutters and external pipes in good repair. It is also responsible for making good any defects that affects the buildings’ structure.
  2. The landlord’s repairs handbook states that it is responsible for repairs to the roof. The handbook distinguishes between emergency, urgent and routine repairs. Under this policy, it should deal with urgent repairs within 1-5 working days. It says that a leaking roof qualified as a 5 working day repair. Non-urgent repairs, or routine repairs, would be dealt with in up to 20 working days. Leaseholders are responsible for repairing and maintaining everything inside their flat.
  3. The leaseholder reported a leak on 23 January 2023. The landlord’s repair records state that the leak was reported to be caused by blocked guttering, and it arranged to attend on 3 March 2023; 30 working days after the resident’s report. This Service appreciates that blocked guttering would ordinarily be considered as a non-urgent repair. However, the reports that it was causing a leak into the property should reasonably have given the landlord reason to be pro-active and treat the matter as an urgent repair. Why it did not is unclear.
  4. However, we are aware that the landlord attended on 6 February 2023 to inspect the issue following concerns raised by the resident. While positive, this Service does not expect that a leaseholder or resident should need to complain for the landlord to take action, in accordance with its repair obligations. While no repairs were identified during this attendance, its failure to initially manage the leaseholder’s expectations caused her considerable frustration and inconvenience.
  5. The landlord attended on the same day that the leaseholder reported a further leak on 5 March 2023. This was reasonable and in accordance with its repair obligations. It also agreed to undertake a further inspection of the roof. This was appropriate.
  6. The leaseholder disagreed with the landlord’s assessment that there were no issues with roof leaks, and the issues inside the property were caused by condensation. While the resident may disagree with the landlord’s assessment, it is entitled to rely on the qualified opinion of its staff and contractors. As the landlord can undertake its own inspections, its refusal to organise an independent inspection was not unreasonable.
  7. Overall, the landlord responded to the resident’s reports and inspected the roof. It concluded that any issues in the property were not due to a leak or defect with the structure of the building. It explained its findings, which was appropriate. However, its initial communication with the resident was unreasonable. It arranged an appointment that did not adhere to the timeframes in its repairs policy, which caused the leaseholder frustration. She also needed to take the time and trouble to raise a complaint to prompt the landlord to respond in a more timely manner. The landlord failed to identify its failure when responding to the complaint, and subsequently failed to put things right.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s response to the leaseholder’s reports of a roof leak in her property.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. The landlord must apologise to the resident about the frustration and inconvenience caused due to its initial delay in arranging an inspection.
  2. Evidence of compliance with the above orders must be sent to this Service within four weeks of the date of this determination.