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A2Dominion Housing Group Limited (202228086)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202228086

A2Dominion Housing Group Limited

28 April 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. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of a boiler repair.
  2. The Ombudsman has also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy with the landlord.
  2. The resident reported a boiler issue and a loss of hot water and heating. He has explained he reported it on 10 December while the landlord states it was reported on 17 December 2022.
  3. The evidence shows the landlord repaired the boiler on 9 January 2023 restoring the resident’s hot water and heating. After the resident reported a boiler leak on 10 January 2023, it addressed the leak on the same day.
  4. The resident raised a complaint on 10 January 2023 about the boiler repair saying he had been without hot water or heating since 10 December 2022 and, following the repair on 9 January 2023, another repair was needed the next day. He also said on one occasion he had not been given notice that the landlord’s contractors had cancelled an appointment.
  5. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response verbally during a call on 10 February 2023. It upheld resident’s complaint and offered £195 compensation. A written response was not issued.
  6. The landlord has told the Service the resident did not escalate his complaint, and no evidence of him doing so has been seen. Despite the apparent lack of a complaint, the landlord issued a stage 2 response on 12 October 2023. It said its stage 1 response had not considered the time of year of the heating and hot water loss or the stress and inconvenience caused, including due to the missed appointment. It increased its compensation to £325 (£100 for stress and inconvenience, £120 for loss of heating and hot water, £30 for the missed appointment and £75 for its final complaint response delay).
  7. The resident brought his complaint to the Ombudsman seeking additional compensation.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. In the resident’s communication with the Service in May 2024, he raised an additional matter concerning water damage in his property due to the boiler issues. As this was not part of his complaint to the landlord the resident should raise a formal complaint about it and exhaust the landlord’s complaint process.
  2. If he remains dissatisfied once the new issues have been through the landlord’s complaints process, he has the option of bringing the new matters to the Ombudsman for consideration. This investigation centres on the complaint to which the landlord sent its final response in October 2023.

Boiler repair

  1. The resident’s tenancy agreement states the landlord will keep in good repair and proper working order any installation for space heating and supply of water. The landlord’s responsive repairs policy sets out its repairs priorities of urgent repairs within 24 hours and standard repairs within 14 days.
  2. The landlord’s compensation policy sets out a calculation for loss of heating and hot water from the first full 24 hours of loss with a higher daily rate of £4 during the “cold weather period”. Payments for missed appointments are £20 for tenants.
  3. The resident had no hot water and heating from mid-December 2022 and experienced a boiler leak on 10 January 2023. He was dissatisfied with the way the landlord had addressed the repair and the way in which he said he was given no notice of an appointment cancellation by its contractors.
  4. At stage 1, the evidence shows the landlord rang the resident to say his complaint was upheld and to offer £195 compensation. The Service has not seen a detailed complaint response explanation or compensation breakdown. Because of that we are unable to assess if the compensation or the basis for upholding the resident’s complaint was reasonable. Further, it also means the landlord did not comply with the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (Code) requirement that a landlord provide clear reasons for its decisions.
  5. In the resident’s complaint he said he reported the repair on 10 December, but the evidence supports the landlord’s explanation that it received the report on 17 December 2022. The landlord attended the resident’s property on this date. This was in line with its urgent repairs timescales and was reasonable.
  6. The resident complained he was without both heating and hot water from his report to when the issue was resolved. The evidence shows the heating was working again on 17 December 2022 (the same day the issue was reported) and the hot water on 9 January 2023. The loss of hot water would understandably have been stressful and inconvenient for the resident. Nonetheless, the hot water issue was dependent on ordered parts and the time needed was therefore partly outside the landlord’s control. The heating issue was resolved in a timely way and in line with the landlord’s repairs policy timescales.
  7. The evidence shows the boiler leak on 10 January 2023 was addressed promptly and on the same day, with the heating and hot water left working. After the boiler dried out, the repair was resolved with a fan being fitted on 12 January 2023. The response was timely with the landlord appropriately applying its repairs timescales.
  8. The landlord’s final complaint response explained a missed appointment was not included in its stage 1 compensation offer. The evidence shows the appointment was scheduled for 29 December 2022 and was cancelled as parts for the repair were not in stock. The landlord offered £30. This sum exceeded its policy payment for missed appointments of £20 and appropriately put right the error at stage 1.
  9. The landlord’s final response acknowledged its stage 1 compensation had not offered the higher daily rate of £4 for loss of hot water and heating during the “cold weather period”. It offered the resident £120 for the loss of heating and hot water. This exceeded its policy payment calculation and was reasonable. The landlord also appropriately applied its policy to offer £100 for the stress and inconvenience caused, which was in line with the highest level set out in its compensation policy. The level of compensation showed the landlord appreciated the impact the issue had on the resident.
  10. The evidence does not indicate how, if at all, the landlord kept the resident updated about the delay or the reasons for it. Its final response appropriately said it would try to ensure more “efficient” communication going forward after it acknowledged its poor communication. This showed a willingness to put things right.
  11. The Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether the landlord’s redress offer put things right and resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily. In considering this the Ombudsman takes into account whether its offer of redress was in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes.
  12. In this case the landlord appropriately upheld the resident’s complaint, acknowledged poor communication, and offered £250 compensation to include the missed appointment and pay the correct sum for the “cold weather period”. This offer was in line with the Ombudsman’s own remedies guidance. It was proportionate to the nature and scale of the delays.

Complaint handling

  1. The landlord’s complaint policy states that it operates a 2 stage complaint process with responses being issued within 10 working days at stage 1 and 20 working days at stage 2. Acknowledgments to be within 5 working days of the complaint and escalation request, respectively.
  2. Both of the landlord’s complaint responses exceeded its policy timescales. The final complaint response appropriately acknowledged its delay and compensated for its stage 2 response delay, but the evidence does not show the landlord acknowledged delays with its stage 1 response. This was unreasonable and a failure to “proactively engage” with the process in line with its policy commitments.
  3. On 10 February 2023 the landlord issued its stage 1 response verbally in a call to the resident. It has told the Service a written response was not issued. The landlord’s evidence of the call does not set out the reasons for the decision. It says, “complaint upheld and offered £195.00 comp”. The landlord failed to comply with the Code, which requires a written response with an explanation of the decision. As the resident was not provided with a detailed decision, including how the compensation was decided, the complaint was not resolved appropriately.
  4. The landlord appropriately acknowledged and compensated the resident for its final complaint response delay. However, it unreasonably failed to provide a written stage 1 response to the resident nor acknowledge its stage 1 response delay. It has not apologised or compensated the resident for these complaint handling failures and therefore the matter has not been resolved.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress prior to investigation which satisfactorily resolves the complaint about the landlord’s handling of a boiler repair.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord must pay the resident £75 compensation for its complaint handling failures and the inconvenience caused. This sum is in addition to the £325 compensation previously offered by the landlord. It must provide evidence of compliance with the order by the deadline.