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Birmingham City Council (202402096)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202402096

Birmingham City Council

13 January 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 response to the resident’s:
    1. Reports of flies and odour in the property, including associated repairs.
    2. Reports of damp and mould.
    3. Request for additional electrical sockets.
    4. Concerns about council tax payments.
    5. Dissatisfaction with being allocated the property.
    6. Report of a rodent infestation.

Jurisdiction

  1. After careful consideration, the following aspects of the complaint are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction:
    1. The landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about council tax payments.
    2. The landlord’s response to the resident’s dissatisfaction with being allocated the property.
    3. The landlord’s response to the resident’s report of a rodent infestation.
  2. Paragraph 42.f. of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not investigate complaints which fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body.
  3. Complaints about a local authority’s handling of council tax fall properly within the remit of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). Therefore, this issue will not be considered in this investigation, in accordance with paragraph 42.f. above.
  4. The resident has also complained about being allocated the property by the landlord after the previous occupant was found deceased within. She was living in temporary accommodation prior to taking on the property. In this instance the landlord was acting in its capacity as a local authority in discharging its homelessness duty. Therefore, this aspect of the complaint also falls properly within the LGSCO’s remit. The resident may wish to contact the LGSCO if she wishes to pursue these 2 aspects of her complaint.
  5. Paragraph 42.a. of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which are made prior to having exhausted the landlord’s complaints procedure. In accordance with this, we are unable to investigate the resident’s report of a rodent infestation. This is because the resident said she had not reported this issue to the landlord. Therefore, it would not have had an opportunity to address the issue, or respond to any dissatisfaction from the resident on its response.
  6. If she is unhappy with the landlord’s handling of her reports of rodents in the property, the resident may wish to raise a complaint with the landlord. Once the complaint has exhausted its procedure, the Ombudsman may consider the complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure the tenant of the landlord, which is a local authority. She began her tenancy on 25 December 2023. The resident occupies a 3 bedroomed house (the property). The previous occupant of the property was sadly found deceased in the property prior to the resident moving in. The landlord did not have a record of any vulnerabilities for the resident’s household.
  2. On 12 January 2024 the resident emailed the landlord to report that there was a “smell of death” in the front bedroom, which forced her to sleep downstairs with her children. The landlord inspected the property on 16 and 17 January 2024. It noted the presence of 4 dead flies but no flies in the front bedroom, nor any smell. The landlord lifted the floorboards and examined the underfloor cavity and found no evidence of a fly infestation or odour. It carried out an environmental clean at the property on 17 January 2024.
  3. The resident raised a stage 1 complaint with the landlord on 12 February 2024 as she was unhappy the odour had not been resolved. She was also unhappy that there was only one electrical socket in each room and there was damp and mould in the living room. The landlord inspected the property on 16 February 2024 and did not detect a smell. It found that there was damp and mould in the living room caused by blocked drains. It arranged for the drains to be unblocked on 20 February 2024.
  4. The resident continued to report flies and odour, and the landlord inspected the property again on 27 February 2024 when it noted 2 dead flies in the front bedroom and an unconfirmed third live fly.
  5. The landlord arranged for pest control to visit the property on 4 March 2024. The operative’s report stated that there were no bad smells detected during the visit and no fly activity. The landlord’s senior manager visited the property on 5 March 2024 and did not detect any odour other than the smell of paint as the room had been recently painted.
  6. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response to the resident on 6 March 2024 which confirmed that it had unblocked the drains causing the damp and mould and further damp treatment work was planned for 2 April 2024. It confirmed it would install additional electrical sockets in the bedroom and kitchen, and it would replace a section of 14 floorboards in the bedroom.
  7. The resident continued to correspond with the landlord to report flies and odour and escalated her complaint to the final stage on 18 March 2024. It provided its final complaint response to her on 5 April 2024. The landlord confirmed that the additional sockets had been installed, it had planned work to replace the floorboards, and the environmental health team would investigate further.
  8. The environmental health team inspected the property on 8 May 2024 and found no evidence of a fly infestation. The floorboards were replaced on 10 May 2024.
  9. The resident made more reports of flies and odour, and the landlord provided a final update to the resident on her complaint on 22 May 2024. It confirmed it would not install any further additional electrical sockets. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s report that she was unable to use 2 bedrooms because of the flies and odour and said it would contact her again to offer compensation. On 13 June 2024 the landlord offered £145 compensation to the resident.
  10. On 16 December 2024 the resident confirmed to the Ombudsman that she remained unhappy as the smell in the property persisted. She was also unhappy with the landlord’s handling of damp and mould repairs as she now had mould on her furniture. The resident also wanted the landlord to install additional electrical sockets in the property. She added that she had experienced further issues with damp and mould, which she had reported after the final complaint response, and the property had a rodent infestation. The resident said she had not reported the rodent infestation to the landlord.

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident reported an issue with damp and mould in the second bedroom of the property on 18 April 2024. She reported this after the landlord’s final response and therefore we are unable to consider this report in this investigation.
  2. Paragraph 42.a. states that the Ombudsman may not investigate complaints which are made prior to having exhausted a member’s complaints procedure. The landlord must be given the opportunity to formally respond to a resident’s dissatisfaction before the complaint may be considered by the Ombudsman. The resident can raise a separate complaint to the landlord about the recent issues affecting her property if she wishes to. The resident may be able to refer the new complaint to the Ombudsman if she remains dissatisfied once the complaint has exhausted the landlord’s internal complaints process.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of flies and odour in the property

  1. When a resident reports a repair issue to a landlord, its first action should be to inspect the matter. In this case, the landlord acted quickly to inspect the resident’s property in response to her concerns. It carried out 4 inspections over 2 months, involving different members of staff, and it did not find any evidence of a fly infestation or odour on each inspection. This demonstrated the landlord acted promptly and took the resident’s concerns seriously.
  2. This was further demonstrated by it requesting inspection by the environment health team on 2 occasions. The second inspection examined the entire property including the loft, the exterior, as well as the interior of the property. This again showed that the landlord made reasonable efforts to address the resident’s reports.
  3. Despite the landlord not finding evidence of a smell or a fly infestation, it arranged for the replacement of floorboards in the resident’s bedroom. Since it had not identified a cause of the reported flies and odour, this action was in excess of its strict obligations. The landlord was only obliged to carry out work when disrepair is evident. The landlord’s replacement of the floorboards showed that it had paid due regard to the resident’s concern and attempted to resolve them. The landlord was not in a position to carry out any further work to resolve the odour or infestation as the inspections had not identified any work which could reasonably be carried out to resolve this.
  4. The landlord offered £145 compensation to the resident to recognise that she felt unable to use the bedroom due to the reported odour and infestation. It made this offer a significant time after its final response, after approximately 2 months. However, the landlord was under no obligation to make this offer as there was no evidence of a failure in its response to the resident’s reports. This was further evidence of the landlord’s willingness to resolve the matter for the resident. Overall, the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of flies and odour was reasonable and there was no maladministration in its handling of this.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of damp and mould

  1. The resident reported damp and mould in her living room in her stage 1 complaint on 12 February 2024. The landlord acted quickly to inspect this on 16 February 2024 to diagnose the cause. It then unblocked the drains on 20 February 2024, and its repair log shows that it completed work to address the damp and mould on 29 February 2024.
  2. The above shows that the landlord acted quickly in response to the resident’s report of damp and mould and took reasonable measures to remedy the cause. The landlord was entitled to assume that the actions it had taken had resolved the damp and mould until the resident reported damp and mould again later in the year. The landlord should now reinspect the property in response to the resident’s recent reports of damp and mould to see if any further works are needed to resolve this.
  3. Overall, there was no evidence of a failure in the landlord’s approach and therefore there was no maladministration in its response to the resident’s reports of damp and mould.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s request for additional electrical sockets

  1. The landlord’s tenancy agreement with the resident confirms that it is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the installations in the property for providing electricity. The agreement also states that “We have no responsibility to install, extend or improve existing electrical appliances and fittings within your home, unless we are required to do so to abate a statutory nuisance or to satisfy any statutory provisions.”
  2. The landlord’s repairs policy document says that “improvements should not be carried out except where there are special needs”. The landlord’s empty property repair standard states that “The gas and electric supply to your home will be in good working order on the day you move in and checked and tested.” It is silent on the minimum number of electrical sockets required in the property.
  3. There was no evidence that the electrical installations in the property presented a statutory nuisance or did not comply with electrical safety regulations. The landlord’s void inspection checklist on 14 December 2023 showed that the property had a valid electrical certificate. Therefore, in accordance with the tenancy agreement, the landlord had no obligation to install additional electrical power sockets. Installing additional sockets is an improvement, and in line with the landlord’s repairs policy document, it had no obligation to carry out improvements, unless the household had special needs. There was no evidence of the resident reporting any special needs which would have been affected by the number of electrical sockets.
  4. The landlord, therefore, acted reasonably, and in excess of its obligations, by installing additional electrical sockets in the front bedroom and the kitchen on 29 February 2024. This showed that it had considered the resident’s concerns about a lack of sockets and made efforts to address them. The landlord was not obliged to install any other sockets. There was no maladministration in the landlord’s decision not to install further additional electrical sockets in the property.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s:
    1. Reports of flies and odour in the property.
    2. Reports of damp and mould.
    3. Request for additional power sockets.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 42.f. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the following complaints are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to consider:
    1. The landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about council tax payments.
    2. The landlord’s response to the resident’s dissatisfaction with being allocated the property.
  3. In accordance with paragraph 42.a. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the following complaint is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to consider:
    1. The landlord’s response to the resident’s report of a rodent infestation.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord should pay the resident the £145 compensation it offered her on 13 June 2024, if it has not done so already.
  2. The landlord should contact the resident about her recent issues with damp and mould leading to damage to her possessions. It should inspect the issue as appropriate and arrange remedial work if required in line with its published repairs timescales.
  3. The landlord should also contact the resident to gain information on her recent rodent infestation and carry out work as appropriate, in line with its published repairs timescales.