London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) (202321059)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202321059

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q)

28 March 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 renewal of the kitchen in the property.
2. The Ombudsman has investigated the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Background

3. The resident lives in a 3-bedroom semi-detached under an assured tenancy agreement dated July 2003.
4. The resident states that the landlord told her that it would install a new kitchen in her property in 2020. The landlord delayed its works programmes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It later told the resident that her kitchen had not been due for renewal.
5. The resident complained to the landlord on 5 November 2021. She said she was unhappy the landlord told her that she could not have a new kitchen. The landlord sent a stage 1 response to the resident on 8 November 2021 in which it said:
   1. A member of staff told the resident that it had not scheduled the resident’s kitchen renewal at that time.
   2. It had an annual maintenance programme. When her kitchen was due for renewal, it would make contact with her. It said it could not provide a timescale for this.
   3. It was sorry that the resident was dissatisfied, and it appreciated that it could be frustrating when expectations were not met. It said it did not uphold the complaint.
6. The resident escalated the complaint to stage 2 on 16 November 2021. She said the landlord had told her that it would complete planned kitchen works in 2020 but that this had changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic which was understandable. She also said that it had not completed these works despite her living in the property for 19 years.
7. The landlord acknowledged the complaint on 14 September 2022. It sent her a final response on 13 October 2023. It said:
   1. It had not allocated her stage 2 complaint until 14 September 2022 due to a backlog of complaints. It apologised for this.
   2. It had discussed the matters with the resident on 20 September 2022 and understood how the matters were affecting her. It had noted that she wanted it to inspect her kitchen and provide an update about its renewal.
   3. Its surveyor inspected the property on 7 October 2022. He recommended that it should renew the kitchen. It said it would add the works to its 2023/24 planned works programme, but it could not provide a specific date.
   4. It had found an outstanding kitchen repair works order and its contractor would contact the resident to arrange an appointment.
   5. It provided a reduced service between March 2020 and April 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This had created a backlog in its repair service.
   6. It offered the resident £100 for poor complaint handling and £50 for time and effort which it said was in line with its compensation policy.
8. The resident contacted the Ombudsman. She said the landlord had told her it would install a new kitchen in 2020, but it had not renewed the kitchen, or the bathroom. Its complaint responses said that it would renew the kitchen in 2023/24. The resident told us that the landlord did not renew the kitchen in 2023/24 as it promised. She explained the kitchen upgrade was still outstanding. She said that, to put the matters right, the landlord should renew the kitchen and the bathroom.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation.

9. The landlord’s stage 2 response addressed the resident’s complaint about the renewal of the kitchen. However, since she made her original complaint, she said that the landlord had not renewed her bathroom. The Ombudsman has not investigated the bathroom renewal as there is no evidence this has exhausted the landlord’s complaint procedure. This is in line with Paragraph 42.a. of the Scheme which says we may not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, a resident has made prior to having exhausted a member’s complaints procedure.

The renewal of the kitchen

10. The resident reported that she had been unhappy with the landlord’s advice that it would not renew her kitchen as a complaint of 5 November 2021.
11. Landlords do not generally have to offer upgrades to kitchens and bathrooms unless:
    1. The components are in a poor state of repair and the only way to put things right is renewal.
    2. The property does not meet the decent home standard in that the facilities are old or in poor condition.
12. The landlord’s ‘Major Works – Component Renewal Referral Standard Operating Procedure’ (April 2020) requires a landlord to inspect to decide if the decent home standard is met. Paragraphs 4.2 to 4.5 of the procedure state that if a resident requests an upgrade, then the landlord must decide if a renewal is planned. If it is, the landlord will inform the resident of the planned works. If there are no planned works, it should arrange an inspection. If, as the resident says, the landlord agreed to complete the renewal after COVID-19 then the landlord complied with its policy at that time. If that changed, then it was open to the landlord to update the resident on the change and the reasons why.
13. However, based on the landlord’s stage 1 response, the position appears to be that the resident called and asked the landlord for an upgrade to the kitchen on  Friday 5 November 2021. The landlord accepts that during this call it had informed her that her kitchen was not due for renewal. This clearly did not follow paragraphs 4 and 5 of the landlord’s procedure. In short, it ought to have arranged an inspection and did not. The resident raised the matter as a complaint and the landlord responded to her on 8 November 2021. It could have arranged an inspection at that point to resolve the issue. It did not, which was a further failure.
14. The landlord surveyed the resident’s kitchen on 7 October 2022. This was 11 months after the resident raised the initial request on 5 November 2021. There is no evidence the kitchen could not be used or was not safe. It said that the kitchen required renewal because of its age. The landlord was entitled to plan when to complete the kitchen renewal in line within its works programmes and its component renewal referral procedure. The landlord explained to the resident that it would add her kitchen renewal to its 2023/24 works programme in its stage 2 complaint response of 13 October 2022. It was appropriate for the landlord to have provided this information to the resident to manage her expectations. However, its delay in responding to the resident’s enquiry which she had sent 11 months earlier was unreasonable and avoidable – this appears to have stemmed from the landlord’s staff not being aware of its procedure.
15. The landlord apologised for its delay in providing a response to the resident. It explained that it had a backlog in its repairs service and that the COVID-19 pandemic had created a shortage of materials and labour. It also empathised with the resident’s circumstances and how the matters had affected her. It was appropriate for the landlord to explain the reason for its delays and reassure her that it had programmed her kitchen renewal in a future year. However, it did not consider the likely impact of its further delay in progressing the kitchen renewal works on the resident, or recognise that this had caused inconvenience, time, and trouble to her.
16. The landlord had a compensation procedure, and it would have been reasonable for it to have offered an award to the resident as a chance to put right the effect of its delays. Furthermore, the landlord did not keep its promise by renewing the kitchen in keeping with its final complaint response. Taking all matters into account we have found maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the renewal of the kitchen in the property.
17. In short, the landlord did not apply its policy and delayed by 11 months. We have ordered the landlord to pay the resident £300 for the impact the delays and limited communication are likely to have had on the resident. This award is in keeping with our remedies guidance for circumstances like here where the landlord has not appropriately acknowledged the effect of its handling failings and/or had not fully put them right. We have also ordered the landlord to apologise to the resident for the failings this investigation has found and for it to add the kitchen upgrade to its 2025/26 works programme.
18. The Ombudsman previously ordered the landlord to carry out a review of its practices, processes, and procedures following our special investigation under Paragraph 49 of the Scheme. This order addressed the landlord’s handling of repairs, knowledge and information, complaints, and compensation. The landlord provided evidence in January 2024 that showed compliance with our order. Therefore, we have not made any orders or recommendations as part of this case, which would duplicate those already made to landlord. The landlord itself should consider whether there are any further issues arising from this later case that require further action.

The resident’s complaint.

19. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint as the landlord:
    1. Did not consider its Major Works – Component Renewal Referral Standard Operating Procedure’ at stage 1 of the complaint procedure and whether it had complied with this. The information within the response was not in accordance with its policy.
    2. Did not issue its response to the resident’s stage 2 complaint of 16 November 2021 until 13 October 2022. This was 209 working days later than its 20 working-day complaint policy response timescale.
    3. Did not say if it had upheld the stage 2 complaint in line with paragraph 5.16 of the Housing Ombudsman’s April 2022 Complaint Handling Code (the Code) in use at the time. This says that landlords must confirm the decision on the complaint, and any reasons for the decisions made.
    4. Promised that it would complete the planned works in 2023/24 in its final response. The resident informed the Ombudsman that the landlord had not kept this promise. This means the landlord has repeated its initial error causing further frustration.
20. The landlord offered the resident £150 as compensation for its poor complaint handling, and for time and trouble that this may have caused to the resident. Given that the landlord has still not resolved the matter for the resident, the award of compensation is not fair in all the circumstances. We have therefore ordered the landlord to provide an additional £100 as compensation and a written apology to the resident. 

Determination (decision)

21. In accordance with paragraph 52. of the Scheme there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s handling of:
    1. The renewal of the kitchen in the property.
    2. The resident’s complaint.

Orders and recommendations

22. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord must:
    1. Apologise in writing to the resident for its handling of the renewal of the kitchen in the property and the resident’s complaint.
    2. Pay the pay the resident the £150 compensation it offered in its final response if it has not already done so.
    3. Pay the resident an added £400 compensation comprised of:
       1. £300 for the time, trouble, and inconvenience that its handling of the kitchen renewal likely caused to the resident.
       2. £100 for the distress and inconvenience likely caused by the complaint handling (in addition to the £150 awarded during the complaint procedure).
    4. Place the works on the 2025/26 works programme to have the kitchen upgraded.
23. The landlord should pay the compensation directly to the resident and not offset this against any money that the resident may owe the landlord.