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A2Dominion Housing Group Limited (202335032)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202335032

A2Dominion Housing Group Limited

25 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. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
    1. reports of heating and hot water issues at the property.
    2. associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident has an assured tenancy with the landlord which is a housing association. The property is a 1-bedroom flat.
  2. The resident reported no heating and hot water in the property to the landlord on 17 October 2023. The landlord raised a repair for a planning engineer to attend on 18 October 2023. The engineer identified that the radiator needed replacing.
  3. On 24 October 2023 the landlord’s engineer attended and said that they found a leak on the Heating Interface Unit (HIU), it would need a HIU specialist engineer to attend, and was likely to need replacing.
  4. On 1 November 2023 an operative of the landlord attended to fix the heating. The operative said they had temporarily fixed the HIU and they recommended replacing the HIU unit. The same operative reattended on 7 November and reiterated his view that replacement of entire HIU unit is suitable. The next day the landlord made a request to purchase a new HIU unit.
  5. The resident complained to the landlord on 28 November 2023. He said he was dissatisfied with the service received because he still had no heating and hot water, and he had been waiting since October 2023 for it to be fixed. He also highlighted that numerous appointments had taken place to attend to the issues, without a resolution to date.
  6. The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 8 December 2023. It apologised for its poor service and for its delays in attending to the HIU unit. It acknowledged that the resident’s HIU unit had been missed off of its replacement programme the previous year and said it would replace it by 5 January 2024. It said the radiator repair would also be picked up alongside the HIU repair. The landlord offered the resident £150 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its delays.
  7. On 12 December 2023 the resident said he was unhappy with the landlord’s stage 1 complaint response because the compensation did not adequately address the inconvenience he experienced.
  8. On 12 February 2024 the landlord recorded in its repair log that it had fitted a new HIU had been fitted and had successfully tested the controls. On the same day the resident raised that the radiator was still an issue.
  9. The landlord supplied its stage 2 complaint response on 22 February 2024. It said:
    1. It apologised for the missed appointment on 26 January 2024 and said a new appointment was booked for later that day which was attended.
    2. It had completed repairs to the HIU on 12 February 2024 and it was fully operational at this time.
    3. It was aware the repair to the living room radiator was outstanding the contractor would  confirm an appointment with the resident soon to resolve this.
    4. It reviewed the compensation amount, and offered a total of £687, comprising of:
      1. £20 for a missed contractor appointment on 26 January 2024.
      2. £472 for the amount of days that the resident was without heating and or hot water (£4 per day for 118 days).
      3. £95 for the length of time it took to resolve matters since its first visit to the resident’s property in October 2023.
      4. £100 for the stress and inconvenience caused.
  10. When the resident approached us, he said he wanted us to review the compensation and the landlord’s complaint handling process.

 

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. We acknowledge the resident’s comments that there have been issues in the past with the heating and hot water at the property. There is evidence of the resident experiencing issues with the hot water system in November 2022. However, paragraphs 42.b and 42.c of the Scheme limits our consideration of a case to issues that have been raised with both the landlord and us within a reasonable timeframe. As such this investigation has primarily focused on the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of issues leading to his formal complaint in November 2023, and that were considered in the landlord’s final response of 22 February 2024. Any events mentioned prior to or following the landlord’s complaints process are purely contextual for the purposes of this investigation. 

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of heating and hot water issues

  1. The tenancy agreement states that the landlord will keep in good repair and proper working order any installations for space heating, water heating and sanitation, and for supply of water. This reflects the landlord’s obligations under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
  2. The landlord’s repair policy says it will assign an emergency priority to a repair which is to be completed it within 24 hours. An example of an emergency repair is where there are reports of no hot water.
  3. The landlord initially promptly attended within 24 hours to the reports of no heating/hot water. Although the evidence indicates the landlord did delay in identifying and ordering a replacement HIU.
  4. The repair logs show the landlord’s operative made comment on 24 October 2023 that a specialist HIU engineer would be required to assess the HIU unit, and they recommended a replacement. However, it is not apparent from the evidence if or at any point a specialist HIU engineer was engaged. While it was correct for the landlord to seek to rely on a professional opinion in making this decision, there is no evidence to confirm that they did in fact engage the correct professional and within a reasonable timeframe. The landlord undertook at least 7 appointments after the 24 October appointment, before it ordered a replacement HIU unit. These appointments added to the delays and frustration experienced by the resident.
  5. The evidence shows that the resident did not have full access to hot water/heating from 17 October 2023 until 12 February 2024, across 118 days. This is well beyond the landlord’s repair policy timeframe for an emergency repair and is an unreasonable period of time to be without heating and hot water. We do however acknowledge that replacements of items can take more time than straightforward repairs. Although the landlords repair policy is silent on replacements or follow on repairs. The resulting impact on the resident was significant. Where the resident had to shower at the gym and had sleepless nights where he was unable to keep warm.
  6. The landlord did try to put things right by acknowledging the delays in its stage 1 response and it offered compensation for this, and the inconvenience caused. It also recognised the need for a replacement of the HIU and took actions to do so. Although it did not fit the HIU on the date promised in its stage 1 complaint response, once it had received the HIU unit it acted quickly to replace it and ensure it was in working order. This was appropriate.
  7. The landlord further used its stage 2 complaint response to apologise for the failings and offered redress. The landlord responded to the residents’ concerns and also recognised improvements to make to its service. This was reasonable in the circumstances.
  8. The landlord did not fix the heater in the living room until 19 March 2024, this  was a significant delay given the resident raised it as an issue in October 2023. Although it did acknowledge the delays and followed up on 1 March to ensure an appointment was booked for its repair, as promised in its stage 2 complaint response. This was appropriate action to take in the circumstances. It acknowledged its errors and took actions to correct them.
  9. The combination of the failings amount to maladministration. However, the actions of the landlord have sought to put things right and it has offered appropriate redress. Our remedies guidance sets out that for findings of maladministration an order of compensation between £100 and £600 may be appropriate to put things right for the resident where they have been distressed and/or inconvenienced by the landlord’s errors. The sum offered by the resident was in line with our guidance and reflects that there was no permanent impact on the resident. Additionally the evidence does not indicate circumstances that may have exacerbated matters or given cause to reflect further impact or loss to the resident. We have therefore determined that the landlord’s offer of £687 in compensation was reasonable to put right the failings identified.

Associated complaint

  1. The resident raised the complaint on 28 November 2023. The landlord supplied its stage 1 complaint response on 8 December 2023, this was within a 10 working day timeframe, and in accordance with the landlord’s complaints policy.
  2. The resident escalated his complaint on 12 December 2023. The landlord acknowledged this on 31 January 2024. This is 13 working days after the escalation was received and is not in accordance with the landlord’s policy, which records a timeframe of 5 working days.
  3. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 22 February 2024. This is 49 working days from the date of the resident’s escalation request. This is not appropriate given the response time in the landlord’s policy is 20 working days. Where the landlord experiences any delays in issuing a complaint response we expect it to keep the resident informed of any delays. This did not take place in this case.
  4. Overall there were delays in the landlord acknowledging and issuing the stage 2 complaint response, this amounts to maladministration by the landlord in its complaint handling. The landlord did not acknowledge these failures or recognise the impact it had on the resident. Given this the landlord is ordered to pay the resident £80 for the stress and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling failures.

Determination

  1. In accordance with 53.b. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord made an offer of redress, which in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolved its handling of the resident’s reports of issues with the heating and hot water.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in respect of its handling of the complaint.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report, the landlord is ordered to provide evidence to the Ombudsman that it has:
    1. Paid directly to the resident £80 compensation in recognition of the stress and inconvenience caused by its poor handling of the associated complaint.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord pay the resident the £687 in compensation, if it has not already done so, that it offered in its stage 2 complaint response. The reasonable redress finding is made on the basis of this sum being paid to the resident, as it recognised elements of service failure by the landlord.