bpha Limited (202312405)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202312405

bpha Limited

24 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 responses to the resident’s complaint about:
   1. His concerns with the new communal heating system.
   2. The quality of the new windows installed during the refurbishment of the building.

Background

2. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. He has lived at the property, which is a block of flats since 2011.
3. The landlord started works in 2021 to refurbish the exterior of the building, which included replacing cladding and windows. In 2022, it started interior refurbishments to replace individual gas supplies and replace them with a communal heating system. Residents are charged for their own individual heating and hot water usage. However, the landlord did not start billing for this usage until February 2023. It became aware in April 2023 that some tenants, including the resident, were experiencing an issue with the temperature of their hot water supply.
4. The resident complained to the landlord on 15 June 2023 about several issues regarding the changes to the heating system, such as not being notified in advance of the billing start date. He also said that he was experiencing issues with the temperature of his hot water. He requested that the landlord cancel the communal heating charges up to April 2023.
5. The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 28 June 2023. It addressed the resident’s concerns about the heating system changes. It explained when it had notified residents it would start charging for heating and hot water usage. It said it had found the cause of the hot water temperature issue, and it would contact resident’s regarding this. It declined to cancel the heating charges because it had not charged for heating and hot water in the earlier period between October 2022 and January 2023.
6. The resident was dissatisfied with the landlord’s response. He told it on 10 July 2023 that a gas engineer had fixed the issue with his hot water temperature. He raised a new concern, saying that the new windows did not work properly and had dangerous sharp edges. The resident contacted the Service on 6 October 2023. We asked the landlord to escalate his concerns about the window refurbishment and heating charges.
7. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 31 October 2023. It explained the actions it had taken to resolve the hot water temperature issue reported in April 2023. It said no problems had been reported before April 2023. The landlord acknowledged that there were ‘snagging’ issues with the refurbishment but said it was unaware of the resident reporting any problems other than the windows. It said it had inspected the windows and identified no issues.
8. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response to both issues. He requested that we investigate his complaint in November 2023.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

9. The resident told us that he was worried about the effect the newly installed cladding was having on the building. This issue was not part of the resident’s original complaint and there is no evidence that the resident has raised this with the landlord.
10. Because of that, this issue will not be considered in this report. If the resident’s concerns about the cladding remain, he has the option of raising them formally with the landlord as a complaint. If he remains dissatisfied once the landlord has investigated his new complaint, he can ask the Ombudsman to investigate.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s complaint about his concerns with the new communal heating system

11. The evidence shows that the landlord wrote to residents in November 2022 explaining their communal energy charges would start being billed on 9 January 2023. However, the resident told us that an onsite representative told him to ignore this correspondence and to wait for the next letter. He told the landlord that he was told it was pushing the start date back. He complained that he was not told of the February 2023 billing start date until April 2023. He said that it was unreasonable for it to charge him for energy before he was notified of the billing start date. The resident told us that this prevented him from altering his usage before he started to incur charges.
12. The evidence shows that following the original letter in November 2022 the landlord wrote to residents on 30 March 2023 saying that billing would start from 1 February 2023 instead of January 2023. We have seen no evidence that the landlord told the resident to ignore the correspondence received in November 2022 or that it would tell him of a new billing start date before it would start billing. Because of that, the resident did have the opportunity to alter his usage for the original January 2023 billing start date. The amended start date in February was beneficial for the resident as it gave a further month of energy usage without charge.
13. The resident told us that he experienced issues with his hot water temperature prior to April 2023. We have seen no evidence that he reported this issue to the landlord until April 2023. The evidence shows that the landlord identified a fix for this issue in June 2023 after completing inspections in April and May 2023. However, before it could implement this fix in the resident’s property, he told it that a gas engineer had fixed the issue on 10 July 2023. He said that no further work was required from the landlord.
14. In its final complaint response, the landlord acknowledged that the resident requested it take no further action regarding the hot water issue. It said to let it know if the issue reoccurs and it would implement the fix it had deployed elsewhere. It was reasonable for the landlord to acknowledge the resident had confirmed he had resolved the issue and to offer further support should the issue reoccur. There is no evidence that inaction from the landlord caused a delay in it identifying a fix for this issue or that it could have resolved the issue before a gas engineer resolved this in July 2023.
15. In its complaint responses, the landlord responded to the resident’s concerns about the change to his heating system by explaining the benefits of the changes to a communal heating system, such as lower carbon emissions and improved energy efficiency. It provided details on what consultation events it held, how it kept residents updated and how it sets the tariff price. It was reasonable for the landlord to provide responses to the concerns the resident had raised regarding the changes to the heating system. Nothing in the evidence shows that information and explanations provided to the resident were incorrect.
16. In its complaint responses, the landlord acknowledged the disruption caused to the resident by the changes to the heating system. It explained that it had provided the resident with 22 weeks of free heating and hot water during the coldest months of the year. In addition, it provided the resident with a payment of £80 to cover a gas meter removal charge from his energy supplier that his supplier subsequently did not charge. The landlord said it had tried to reflect the disruption caused to residents in the free energy it provided. It was reasonable for the landlord to highlight how it had already compensated the resident for issues caused by the regeneration work of the building, such as the change in heating system.
17. Overall, the landlord was responsive to the concerns the resident raised with it regarding issues related to the change to communal heating. It responded to the concerns the resident had raised and provided a reasonable explanation as to what actions it had taken to acknowledge the inconvenience and disruption caused to the resident.

The resident’s concerns about the quality of the refurbishment of the building.

18. The basic expectation on a landlord when it receives a report of a repair or maintenance concern, or issue is to inspect the problem and take appropriate action based on its inspection findings.
19. In this case, the evidence shows that the landlord inspected the resident’s windows in June 2023 following concerns he raised about them. It identified no issues with them.
20. The resident told the landlord in July 2023 that he considered the new windows dangerous due to having sharp edges. It inspected the windows again in August 2023 and identified no concerns. We have seen no evidence that the resident raised any issues with the landlord other than the windows regarding the quality of the building refurbishment.
21. The landlord explained in its complaint responses that it had inspected the windows when he was present. It explained how they worked and confirmed its view that the windows were not faulty. It said it would re-inspect the windows at the end of the defect rectification period for the contract it had with its main contractor. It was appropriate for the landlord to confirm what actions it had taken following the resident raising a concern and to confirm that it was satisfied that there was not a fault with the windows.
22. Overall, the landlord was responsive to the concerns the resident raised with it regarding the windows. The landlord took the resident’s concerns seriously by inspecting the windows on more than one occasion and providing reassurance that it did not consider that there were any faults with the windows.

Determination

23. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s responses to the resident’s complaint about:
    1. His concerns with the new communal heating system.
    2. The quality of the new windows installed during refurbishment of the building.