Chelmer Housing Partnership Limited (202328124)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202328124

Chelmer Housing Partnership Limited

12 February 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. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
   1. Reports of property repairs.
   2. Concerns about communication about his rent.

Background

2. The resident holds an assured joint tenancy with his wife.
3. The landlord’s records show the resident raised a range of repair issues from January 2022 to September 2023. The evidence shows during this period repairs were raised but not completed due to either unsuccessful contact attempts with the resident or for reasons that are unclear.
4. The resident complained on 28 September 2023. He said he had been without hot water and heating for 2 weeks. He also said since moving to his property in 2021 other reported repairs, including a faulty light fitting were still unresolved. Finally, he complained that the initial rent quoted before he moved to his property was lower than the rent he was charged after his tenancy started.
5. The landlord issued a stage 1 complaint response on 20 October 2023. It said it had resolved the hot water and heating issue in October 2023 after delays booking appointments. It stated it had no records of the rent levels offered at the time of the resident’s viewing. But it apologised for any incorrect advice given at the time. It said it had resolved all reported repairs by August 2022 and had nothing new reported after that. It confirmed it had referred the resident’s new reports to the repairs team to resolve. It apologised for the inconvenience caused by the heating and hot water repair as timely appointments were not made. It offered £200 compensation. It asked the resident to ensure the contact details it held for his household were correct.
6. The resident remained dissatisfied and escalated his complaint on 20 October 2023. He repeated his original concerns about the outstanding repairs including the delays resolving the hot water and heating issue. He said there had been poor communication by its contractors. The resident supplied the landlord with an email from 2021 with a lower rent. Finally, he said the £200 offer was insufficient.
7. After a panel meeting on 30 November 2023, the landlord issued its stage 2 response on 21 December 2023. It apologised for causing confusion with the wrong rent amount. However, it said it was satisfied the resident was aware of the correct rent when viewing, accepting, and signing the tenancy agreement. It apologised for not progressing the repairs identified in his original complaint, but said the resident would get a call directly to book repair visits. It also apologised for the service provided to resolve the hot water and heating issue saying its contactors should have tried all contact details to progress the repair. It offered an additional £200 for delay, stress, and poor communication. The resident accepted the compensation in December 2023
8. The resident referred his complaint to the Ombudsman in January 2024. He is seeking increased compensation from the landlord and completion of unresolved repairs.

Assessment and findings

Handling of reports of property repairs

9. The resident’s tenancy agreement states it will carry out repairs within a reasonable period. It is responsible for the property structure and will keep in proper working order equipment for heating and hot water. The landlord’s repairs policy states it will deal with emergency repairs, for instance, involving a health and safety risk, within 4 hours of a report.
10. The landlord’s compensation and goodwill gesture policy sets out a payment matrix for service failures. For example, for a loss of heating between October and March and if it has not provided temporary alternative heating, it will pay 100% of daily rent after 48 hours. Further, for a loss of hot water it will pay 20% of daily rent after 72 hours. In the first instance, it states in the event of a loss of heating, it will put in place measure such as the supply of fan heaters.
11. On 28 September 2023 the resident complained that reported repairs since the 2022 had not been completed. The repairs were a loose baluster, faulty light fitting, defective toilet door lock and kitchen ceiling condition following a leak. While records show the issues being reported, it is unclear what was done in terms of jobs being raised and why the jobs raised were not followed through to completion.
12. The resident reported on 16 September that he did not have any hot water and heating after a gas inspection failed on 16 September 2023. The issue was resolved on 13 October 2023.
13. The landlord’s stage 1 complaint response of 20 October 2023 said it had raised a job for a replacement new multi-block and pump to resolve the heating and hot water issue. And that its contractor had tried to call to arrange visits on 22 September, 5 and 13 October 2023 to carry out this work. The resident told the contractors he had been unaware of the first visit and had denied access due to illness. The contractor cancelled the second visit due to staff sickness. The third, which had been confirmed with a letter, took place. The landlord apologised for the inconvenience, for the visits on 5 and 13 October not being timely, and offered £200 compensation.
14. While the stage 1 complaint response said the baluster repair and bathroom lock had been dealt with in August 2022, the supplied evidence does not support this. For example, there are no completion notes. In addition, on 6 September 2022, the resident’s wife sent a message requesting dates for the outstanding repairs. Further, the complaint response said there were no reports about the lighting issues although there is evidence the light fitting had been reported. In addition, the response does not mention the resident’s ceiling repair. Because of that, the landlord’s position that the reported repairs had been completed is not supported by the evidence.
15. The landlord compensated the resident in its stage 1 response outcome but failed to set out a breakdown for the £200 offer. The evidence does not show it considered compensation in line with its policy, for instance, for loss of heating or hot water after October. This was unreasonable and in breach of its policy.
16. Based on the rent figures provided from April 2023 and in the absence of the landlord providing temporary heating, the resident should have been offered £502.73 for the 13 days of no heating (11 days at 100% of daily rent) and £91.40 for the 13 days with no hot water (10 days at 20% of daily rent). It is not clear why the calculation for loss of heating and hot water was not applied in the complaint response. The compensation policy provided by the landlord for this investigation post-dates the complaint, but no evidence has been provided of an earlier policy which might be different to the one provided.
17. The stage 2 response accepted and apologised for failing to follow up repairs and for not making further attempts to contact the resident when it could not contact his wife. It said it had learned lessons. For example, it said it would ensure contact details were logged when repairs were reported as well as attempting alternative contact details. This was appropriate and showed a willingness to learn from mistakes. It also said it had identified an officer who would book all repair visits with the resident direct. This was proactive and reasonable. It offered additional compensation of £100 for delays and poor communication which went some way to reflect the impact to the resident.
18. The landlord again apologised for the stress caused for its handling of the hot water and heating issues. It said it had told its contractor to try further contact details when the primary could not be contacted. If offered additional compensation of £100 for delay and stress caused. This was reasonable and showed lessons were being learned to make its repairs handling more efficient.
19. While we have not seen completion notes, the evidence indicates most outstanding repairs were resolved by early January 2024. The resident has however told the Service kitchen ceiling repairs are unresolved.
20. In this case, the landlord appropriately apologised for its poor service, offered compensation, made service improvements, and put in place a process to address the resident’s repairs. However, the lack of evidence showing the completed works and the resident’s assertion that some repairs are outstanding means this investigation cannot conclude the landlord has resolved the complaint. Overall, the evidence shows the landlord failed to act in line with its policies. For example, its compensation offer does not reflect the loss of hot water and heating calculation.
21. While the compensation of £400 for delays and inconvenience was reasonable, the landlord failed to offer £594.13 to the resident in compliance with its policy calculation. In recognition of this an order has been made that the landlord pay the resident £594.13.

Communication of the rent level

22.  The resident’s weekly rent of £288 is set out in the tenancy agreement which was signed by him and his wife on 8 December 2021.
23. In support of his complaint the resident showed the landlord an email it had sent in November 2021 which said the weekly rent would be £184.12. He said he felt that they were given little notice of the increased rent prior to their move.
24. In response the landlord apologised for any confusion caused by the email. It said the correct weekly rent was set out in the property advertisement, was part of pre-tenancy discussions, and was in the signed agreement. It also noted the resident had not raised the issue before his complaint including around the first rent payment in 2022. It said it was satisfied he had been made aware of the correct rent before the tenancy start.
25. The evidence supports the landlord’s position that the correct rent details were provided including, the property advert. Further, the resident’s wife accepted the property by email before receiving the email with the wrong rent figure.
26. The landlord took reasonable steps to investigate the matter despite it being raised almost 2 years after the events. Nothing in the evidence provided by the resident undermines the explanations it gave about the correct rent. In accepting and signing the tenancy the resident was also accepting the rent listed in it. Overall, the landlord’s response to the resident’s complaint was reasonable.

Determination

27. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of reports of property repairs.
28. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s communication of the rent level.

Orders

29. The landlord is ordered to pay the resident £594.13 in line with its compensation policy for the loss of heating and hot water. This figure is in addition to the landlord’s offer of £400 for the inconvenience caused to the resident, which it has already paid. Evidence of the payment must be provided within 4 weeks of this report.
30. Within 6 weeks of this report the landlord must confirm to the Service that the remaining repairs to the resident’s kitchen ceiling have now been completed. If they have not yet been completed the landlord must provide a timetable for the works it intends to undertake to resolve the repair.