City of Doncaster Council (202341833)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202341833

City of Doncaster Council

15 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 response to the resident’s reports that the shower was not working when the property was let.

Background

2. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord. The property is a 2-bedroom bungalow. The tenancy started on 1 December 2023.
3. The landlord undertook a pre-let inspection of the property on 24 November 2023. The inspection report records that locations containing a bath or shower were checked for their electrical condition.
4. The resident moved into the property on 18 December 2023 and reported on that day to the landlord that the water from the shower was not warming.
5. The landlord logged an urgent out of hours repair for the shower, where it inspected the issue on that same day the resident raised it and recorded it as completed on 20 December 2023. It further completed a repair to the thermostat on 22 December 2023.
6. The resident submitted a complaint with the landlord on 12 January 2023. He said that when he moved in the shower was not working and while it was repaired the same day he believed he should not have to pay rent for the 2 weeks prior to moving in, and since the tenancy started.
7. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response on 17 January 2024. It said it had investigated with its void team and ensured that the correct process had been followed. It said electrical tests had been performed and no issues had been noted. It said it attended within its emergency repairs timeframes and resolved the issue in a timely manner. 
8. The resident subsequently contacted the landlord expressing he was unhappy with the landlord’s stage 1 response and reiterating his request for a refund of 2 weeks rent.
9. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s escalation on 24 January 2024 and responded on 7 February 2024 at stage 2 of its process. It said it had further investigated the issue and the head of repairs and planned maintenance had confirmed its findings from stage 1, and namely that it had checked the shower  prior to letting. The landlord agreed that this was an unfortunate situation but was unforeseen after the voids checks.
10. The resident brought his complaint to the Service on 19 February 2024.

Assessment and findings

11. The landlord’s lettable property standards require the landlord to ensure new tenants can expect their new home to be free from any unforeseen major repairs and that all gas and electrical installations will have been tested and certified to show they are in good working order. This includes showers.
12. It is not disputed that the landlord took appropriate action to deal with the shower repair once the resident reported it. The resident acknowledged this and explained that his complaint was about the shower not working for the 2 weeks period from the start of the tenancy on 1 December 2023 until he moved in on 18 December 2023.
13. In its complaint responses the landlord provided clear explanation of what could have happened and stated that based on its investigation the shower failure was unforeseen following its void checks. It reassured the resident that it had investigated the issue and its investigation confirmed that it had taken all appropriate steps to ensure the property was in good condition before letting.
14. The Service has seen evidence that an inspection performed by the landlord on 24 November 2023 included an electrical certificate which checked the electric charges supplying the shower electricity. The shower on the certificate was ticked off as functional as well as locations of electrical installations containing a bath. This evidences that the electrical installations were tested and in good working order in accordance with the lettable standards.
15. We have also seen evidence of a property inspection undertaken at the end of November, where the landlord noted that it had completed repairs and replacements of two parts relating to the shower. These actions were reasonable and sufficient for the landlord to take to ensure no repairs may be subsequently needed to electrical works or shower before tenants moved in.
16. The landlord demonstrated as such that it had based its position and conclusion on evidence which it was able to provide to this Service. This was appropriate.
17. The landlord’s response to the complaint was reasonable in the circumstances of the case. In addition to responding promptly to the repair job it subsequently investigated the situation to ensure the necessary checks had been taken for the shower’s functioning and safety prior to the tenants moving into the property. This was appropriate evidence and was reasonable for the landlord to rely on these checks. Therefore there was no failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports that the shower was not working when the property was let.

Determination

18. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was no maladministration in the landlord’s response to reports that the shower was not working when the property was let.