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Accent Housing Limited (202315372)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202315372

Accent Housing Limited

25 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 the resident’s request for it to repair a garden fence.
  2. The Ombudsman has also investigated the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident is a leaseholder of the property, a 3-bedroom ground floor maisonette. The property has a rear garden contained by a fence. He has lived at the property since 2020.
  2. On 2 February 2023 the resident reported to the landlord that the rear garden fence had fell down and his garden was now accessible from the carpark. He contacted the landlord again on 26 April 2023 to chase the repair.
  3. The landlord contacted the resident on 10 May 2023 and informed him that it was not responsible for repairs to the fence and advised him that this information was contained within the lease.
  4. The resident contacted the landlord again on 15 June 2023. He stated there was no information in the lease and he wanted the matter looking into or he would consider legal action. The landlord provided the resident with a copy of his lease on 27 June 2023 and confirmed the repairs to the fence were the responsibility of the resident. The landlord did not record a complaint, as per its complaints policy, as it did not believe it was responsible for the repair.
  5. The resident remains dissatisfied and brought the complaint to us. He has since paid for the fence to be fixed and is seeking reimbursement for the cost of repairs to the fence.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. In communication with us, the resident has questioned the ownership of the rear garden fence. We are unable to determine ownership of the fence. A court can give a legally binding interpretation of a lease. However, we have considered the landlord’s responses to the resident’s request for repairs to the fence.

Repairs to the garden fence

  1. The resident first reported the repair to the landlord on 2 February 2023. The landlord did not inform the resident that he was responsible for the repair until almost 3 months later, despite the resident chasing the request. This was a significant delay, which was unreasonable and would have caused frustration and inconvenience to the resident.
  2. The resident’s lease sets out the obligations of both the resident and the landlord. The lease defines the premises as “the maisonette” and includes “the fixtures and fittings” and “the garden”.
  3. Under the lease, the landlord is responsible for repairing the “common parts” of the development, which includes fences that are not subject to leases or tenancies.
  4. Paragraph 3.3 of the lease states that the leaseholder will keep “the fixtures and appurtenances of and belonging to the premises clean and in good and substantial repair.” A fence on the grounds of the property would be considered a fixture.
  5. It was appropriate for the landlord to ask the resident to keep the fence in repair as the documents state that the leaseholder is responsible for fixtures on the land and in the garden. It appears from the evidence provided, that the fixture (the fence) is in the resident’s garden. Therefore, the landlord was not obliged to carry out any repair to the fence. However, the delay in replying to the resident’s initial service request was unreasonable.
  6. This leads to a finding of service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for it to repair a garden fence. An order has been made for the landlord to pay £50 compensation to the resident. This in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for service failure where the impact was minimal, and it did not significantly affect the overall outcome for the resident.

Complaint handling

  1. The resident expressed his dissatisfaction with the landlord’s response to his repair request on 15 June 2023. The landlord did not record this as a complaint.
  2. The landlord’s complaint policy sets out complaints that it will not investigate. This includes complaints relating to repairs for which the landlord is not responsible. The landlord’s decision not to record the complaint was in line with its policy and appropriate.
  3. However, paragraph 1.9 of the Complaint Handling Code 2022 (the Code) states that if a landlord decides not to accept a complaint it must:
    1. Provide the resident with a detailed explanation as to why the matter is not suitable for its complaint process.
    2. Inform the resident of the right to take the matter to the Ombudsman.
  4. The landlord did not communicate this information to the resident and was therefore in breach of the Code.
  5. This leads to a determination of service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling. An order has been made for the landlord to pay £50 compensation to the resident. This in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for service failure where the impact was minimal, and it did not significantly affect the overall outcome for the resident.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, the was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for it to repair a garden fence.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord must:
    1. Provide the resident with a written apology for the failings identified in this report.
    2. Pay directly to the resident a total of £100 compensation made up of:
      1. £50 for its failures in handling of the resident’s request for it to repair a garden fence.
      2. £50 for its failures in complaint handling.
  2. The landlord should provide us with evidence of compliance with these orders within 4 weeks of the date of this report.