Accent Housing Limited (202234586)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202234586

Accent Housing Limited

21 May 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

1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of communal repairs.

Background

2. The resident has had a shared ownership lease with the landlord since 2002. The property is a first floor 2-bedroom flat in a block. The landlord had no vulnerabilities recorded for the resident.
3. On 3 March 2023 the resident made a formal complaint about repairs to communal areas including faulty exterior lighting which she said she had first reported in May 2022. The landlord acknowledged the complaint 3 days later.
4. On 14 March 2023 the landlord responded at stage one of its formal complaint procedure. It noted the complaint concerned, among other things, the bin store timber doors which the resident said were decayed; and the external street lighting which was not in working order. The main points were:
   1. The external lighting had been inspected on 9 March 2023 and it had raised a request for the local authority to attend that day to identify who was responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the street lighting. It said it would be in touch with an update when it had a response.
   2. The bin storage doors needed redecorating, not replacing. This work was expected to take place in 2024/25 as part of its planned maintenance programme.
5. The landlord explained how the resident could escalate the complaint.
6. The resident subsequently contacted the Ombudsman. The landlord responded at the final stage of its complaint procedure on 31 March 2023. The main points relating to the complaint brought to the Ombudsman were:
   1. The external lighting had not been adopted by the local authority; however, they had carried out the repairs as a goodwill gesture. It would ensure that it would deal with any future faults reported to it within the timescales outlined in the service level agreement.
   2. It did not consider that the bin storage doors needed to be replaced; however, it acknowledged they required redecorating. It apologised that the previous maintenance to these doors was of a poor standard and did not meet the resident’s expectations. Its contractor would carry out the repairs on 17 April 2023 which included sanding, preparation, applying a timber treatment and 2 coats of waterproof external paint. It added that the black hinges would be removed and cleaned before being repainted black and refixed to the doors. Also, the retainers on those doors would be overhauled as necessary to prevent them swinging open and shut when being used.
   3. It acknowledged, following an inspection, that the external communal door needed replacing. A door survey would be carried out on 6 April 2023 and its contractor would manufacture and install the new door under the planned maintenance contract, with a completion date expected to be no longer than 6 weeks from the date of the survey.
   4. Both areas of guttering were scheduled for repair that day and its surveyor would follow up to confirm those repairs had been completed.
7. The landlord apologised for any inconvenience the resident had experienced. It signposted her to the Ombudsman.
8. When the resident approached the Ombudsman, she said she was unhappy as communication about communal repairs was poor and could not be tracked on the system in the same way a repair to a property could be. She added that chasing repairs was frustrating and time-consuming.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

9. This report has considered the events that led up to the resident’s formal complaint on 3 March 2023 until the landlord’s final complaint response at the end of that month.
10. In the evidence, the resident refers to a fall in the car park in March 2023. The Ombudsman does not doubt the resident’s comments regarding their health, but this Service is unable to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. Matters of personal injury or damage to health, their investigation and compensation, are not part of the complaints process, and are more appropriately addressed by way of the courts or the landlord’s liability insurer as a personal injury claim. However, we have considered any inconvenience and distress the resident experienced as a result of errors by the landlord.

Communal repairs

11. I will deal with the individual issues in turn.

External lighting

12. The lease sets out the resident and landlord’s obligations. It says that the landlord undertakes to:
    1. Repair the landlord’s estate including, among other things, all external parts including doors as well as the common parts.
    2. Clean and light the common parts.
13. It defines common parts as entrance halls, landings, staircases, communal aerial bin store as well as any driveway, footpath, garden, parking area or other part of the landlord’s estate which is intended to be, or is capable of being, enjoyed and used by residents in common with the occupiers of other flats.
14. The landlord’s responsive repair and voids policy says that it will attend emergency repairs within 4 hours to make safe in the first instance (these are repairs which are dangerous or pose a risk to health and safety). Emergency repairs must be resolved within 24 hours of being attended to unless exceptional circumstances prevent this. It says that routine repairs (where the repairs required do not pose an immediate risk to residents or the property and/or possessions) will be carried out within 28 days.
15. The evidence shows that the resident first reported that bulbs needed replacing in the streetlights in May 2022. In response the landlord said it would allow 4 weeks to carry this work out as it was a non-emergency repair. That was appropriate.
16. The landlord subsequently explained to the resident in August 2022 that there had been a delay with this repair as it had changed its subcontractor. In October 2022 the landlord told the resident this work had been completed on 15 September 2022. However, the repair log does not evidence any work to the lighting at that time. Given that along with the landlord’s subsequent view that the lighting was not its responsibility, it is reasonable to presume that no action was taken at that time.
17. On 28 December 2022 the resident again reported faulty street lighting. An engineer inspected on 6 February 2023 and concluded the lights were the responsibility of the local authority. The resident reported faulty lighting in late February and 8 March 2023 and in that correspondence described a fall in the car park where she had tripped and had fallen the previous evening which had left her “very bruised and shaken up”. She asked that this be looked into urgently as she was disabled and used a stick and a walker.
18. The landlord acted appropriately by inspecting the lighting the next day after which it contacted the local authority to find out who was responsible for the lighting. It would have been reasonable for the landlord to have established that at the time it took responsibility for the block.
19. At the end of that month, the local authority said it had established that the streetlights around the block were not currently adopted by them and therefore did not form part of the maintained inventory for them to look after. However, they had repaired the lights on this occasion as a goodwill gesture. In its complaint handling the landlord confirmed it would repair the streetlights in line with its service level agreement from then on.
20. The landlord’s handling of the street lighting repairs was not appropriate. It should have taken steps to find out who had responsibility for the lighting when the resident first raised these repairs. Its failure to do so meant that there was faulty lighting which meant that the car park and outside areas were not as well lit as they should have been from at least May 2022 to March 2023, rather than the 4 weeks the repairs should have taken a delay. That is a delay of about 9 months. This matter has caused evident distress, convenience and frustration to the resident. It is clear she had to chase this matter on a number of occasions including to the local authority.
21. When the resident approached the Ombudsman, she said that the bulbs of some of the external lights had started to fail. An order has been made for the landlord to inspect the external lighting and take appropriate action to resolve any lights that had stopped working effectively.

Bin storage doors

22. The landlord confirmed the resident’s report that the storage doors required repainting in May 2022. As above, the landlord explained to the resident in August 2022 that the appointment of a new contractor had delayed matters.
23. In its stage one complaint response, some 7 months later, the landlord said the repainting would take place as part of the planned programme of works for 2024/25. However, in its final complaint response later that month, it acknowledged that the previous maintenance of these doors was of a poor standard and did not meet the resident’s expectations. It apologised for that. It gave the resident details of the work it planned to take the following month to overhaul and repaint these doors. A surveyor subsequently carried out a post-inspection in late June 2023 and confirmed the work had been completed to a suitable standard.
24. The landlord’s actions here were reasonable in recognising the substandard of work and bringing forward the planned works.
25. When we spoke to the resident, she disputed the reasonable condition of the bin storage doors. She said the wood had deteriorated so much in parts that there were holes in them. An order has been made for the landlord to inspect all the bin storage doors and assess whether further work is required to bring them up to a reasonable standard or if replacement would be more appropriate. The landlord should write to the resident with the outcome of that inspection and include what works, if any, will be undertaken and when.

Communal door

26. On 6 March 2023 the resident reported that the front communal door was very stiff. A contractor attended the same day and found the door had “dropped slightly” but still worked as it should. It noted the door did require replacement because of the cracking around the lock which they noted had weakened the door. The work was referred to a sub-contractor. That was a reasonable step to take.
27. In its final complaint response, the landlord confirmed a door survey would be carried out on 6 April 2023 and its contractor would manufacture and install the new door under the planned maintenance contract, with a completion date expected to be no longer than 6 weeks from the date of the survey.
28. The evidence demonstrates that the front door was overhauled on 21 June 2023 and in early August 2023 the sub-contractor inspected the door and concluded that it needed adjustment “to get it going better” rather than replacement.
29. The landlord subsequently decided in September 2023 that, while the communal door was in good working order at present, it had decided to replace it due to its cosmetic damage. The landlord confirmed the door was replaced on 1 February 2024.
30. The conflicting information and action in relation to the door would likely have caused some frustration to the resident. However, it was reasonable for the landlord to rely on appropriately qualified contractors when deciding what work was required to resolve the problem with the door and whether or not a replacement was a more appropriate outcome. We are satisfied that there was no service failure in relation to the replacement of the front door. 

Guttering

31. In its first complaint response, the landlord said that it would look into whether or not the guttering could be pressure-washed. In an internal email later that month, the landlord noted that the guttering was in a poor condition and needed to be repaired but the maintenance to keep them cleared was “never carried out”. The landlord noted on 28 March 2023 that the guttering repairs had been carried out. The repair log does not make any reference to this work so there is no evidence of what work was carried out and whether or not that included pressure washing.
32. In the final complaint response, the landlord that a surveyor would follow up to confirm those repairs had been completed. We have not seen evidence of any follow-up work or an inspection by a surveyor. The evidence demonstrates that there was a failing by the landlord in maintaining the gutters appropriately.
33. When we spoke to the resident, she said that the guttering problems were continuing as one had split and meant water poured onto the ground. An order has been made for the landlord to inspect all the guttering on the block. The landlord should write to the resident with the outcome of that inspection and include what works, if any, will be undertaken and when.

Compensation

34. In relation to the failures identified, the Ombudsman’s role is to provide fair and proportionate remedies where maladministration or service failure has been identified. In considering this the Ombudsman takes into account our Dispute Resolution Principles: Be Fair, Put Things Right and Learn from Outcomes as well as our own guidance on remedies.
35. The Ombudsman recognises that some of our residents’ circumstances mean that they are more affected by landlords’ actions or inactions than others. This might be due to their particular circumstances, or as a result of a vulnerability. Consideration of any aggravating factors (such as a resident’s health condition) may justify an increased award to reflect the specific impact on the resident.
36. In its complaint handling, the landlord apologised for the inconvenience caused to the resident. At that stage, it would have been reasonable for it to have considered if compensation was appropriate for the inconvenience caused to the resident in particular for the delays in resolving the external lighting and guttering.
37. Financial redress of £250 is appropriate in this instance to reflect that impact on the resident, as well as for her time and trouble in pursuing these matters. The sums awarded in this report are in line with the Ombudsman’s Remedies Guidance (published on our website) which sets out our approach to compensation. This includes cases where there have been delays in investigating repair issues. The sums ordered also reflect the fact that the resident’s vulnerabilities are an aggravating factor.

Determination

38. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was maladministration by the landlord in respect of its handling of the resident’s reports of communal repairs.

Orders

39. The landlord should take the following action within 4 weeks of the date of this report and provide evidence of compliance to the Ombudsman:
    1. Apologise to the resident for the failings outlined in this report. In doing so, the landlord should have regard to the apologies guidance on our website.
    2. Pay the resident the sum of £250 for the impact of the delays and for her time and trouble.
    3. Inspect the following:
       1. External lighting and take appropriate action to resolve any lights that had stopped working effectively.
       2. All the bin storage doors and assess whether further work is required to bring them up to a reasonable standard.
       3. All the guttering on the block.
    4. The landlord should write to the resident with the outcome of those inspections and include what works, if any, will be undertaken and when.
    5. Explore how it could manage communal repairs to ensure the person reporting the repair is kept updated.