City of Westminster Council (202305067)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202305067

Westminster City Council

31 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:
   1. Repairs at the property.
   2. The associated complaint.

Background

2. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord’s since 2011. The property is a studio apartment on the fourth floor of a block. The landlord is aware of the resident’s vulnerabilities.
3. On 16 January 2023 the resident raised the following repairs to the landlord for his property:
   1. A leak from the bottom of the toilet.
   2. A faulty radiator in the living room.
   3. Low water pressure from the bath and kitchen tap.
4. The resident complained to the landlord and said he was unhappy with the delayed repairs to his property. On 16 March 2023 the landlord logged his complaint and responded at stage 1 of its internal complaints process. It upheld the resident’s complaint and offered him £170 in compensation.
5. The resident escalated his complaint on 10 May 2023. He said he would like more compensation due to the landlord’s handling of repairs to his property.
6. On 29 September 2023 the landlord replied at stage 2 of its internal complaints process. It apologised to the resident for the delayed repairs and increased the offer of compensation to £770.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

7. In his correspondence with us the resident raised issues that have not yet been through the landlord’s complaints process. These were reports of squirrels in his property and the landlord issuing the resident a warning letter. In the interest of fairness, the scope of this investigation is limited to matters which completed the landlord’s internal complaints procedure on 29 September 2023. This is because it needs to be given opportunity to investigate and to respond to any reported dissatisfaction before our involvement. 

The landlord’s handling of repairs at the property

8. On 16 January 2023 the resident raised repairs for the toilet, living room radiator and low water pressure at his property to the landlord.
9. The landlord failed to attend a repairs appointment booked in for 18 January 2023 due to staffing issues. The landlord attended the property on 20 January 2023 and 8 February 2023. However, as the appointments had not been arranged with the resident the landlord did not gain access to the property on either date.
10. On 2 March 2023 the landlord attended the property and repaired the living room radiator. The landlord made some repairs to the toilet, however, a further appointment was made for 20 March 2023. This was later rescheduled by the landlord.
11. The landlord’s tenant handbook states it will repair sanitary fittings including toilets and repair heating systems including radiators. Its repairs policy states it will attend non-urgent repairs within 28 working days.
12. It is unclear precisely what date the resident made his complaint. However, the landlord logged the complaint on 16 March 2023 and replied at stage 1 of its internal complaints process on the same day. The landlord said the following:
    1. There was an unacceptable delay in repairing the living room radiator. This was caused by it not attending the first appointment and then failing to properly arrange a new appointment with the resident.
    2. It should have communicated better with the resident and arranged appointments with him.
    3. It apologised for the delay in repairing the toilet and it confirmed the next appointment was in 2 weeks’ time.
    4. The landlord offered £150 in compensation broken down as:
       1. £100 for missed repairs appointments.
       2. £50 for the resident’s time and trouble.
13. The landlord’s compensation policy states it can award the following:
    1. £20 for missed appointments.
    2. Discretionary compensation for impact to a resident:
       1. Low impact up to £250.
       2. Medium impact up to £700.
       3. High impact and above £700.
14. A review of the landlord’s stage 1 response shows it acknowledged the delays in repairing the living room radiator and the toilet. It awarded the resident compensation over the amount allowed within its policy for missed appointments. The compensation offered was in line with a “low impact” discretionary payment as per its compensation policy. This was a reasonable response by the landlord considering the length of time the resident waited for the repair and the resulting impact on him. However, the landlord failed to acknowledge the resident was still waiting on the repair for the low water pressure at the property.
15. The toilet repair was completed, 52 working days after it was raised, on 28 March 2023. On 10 May 2023 the resident escalated his complaint to the landlord.
16. On 18 August 2023 the landlord fixed the low water pressure at the resident’s property. The landlord replied on 29 September 2023 at stage 2 of its internal complaints process and said the following:
    1. It apologised to the resident for the service failures and the inconvenience caused.
    2. Since the repairs had been completed to the toilet and living room radiator at the property, the resident had not raised any further repairs for these issues.
    3. The landlord acknowledged the “considerable time” that had passed before the low water pressure at the property was resolved.
    4. It increased the offer of compensation to £595 for its handling of repairs, broken down as:
       1. £150 offered at stage 1.
       2. £175 for delays and poor communication in addressing the low-water pressure repair.
       3. £250 for distress and inconvenience caused to the resident.
17. The evidence shows the resident experienced the following delays:
    1. Around 5 working days for the living room radiator repair.
    2. The toilet leak repair by around 24 working days.
    3. Around 6-months for the low water pressure repair.
18. At stage 2 the landlord recognised its failings and the impact this had on the resident. It increased the offer of compensation in line with a medium impact on him. These were reasonable responses by the landlord given the extent of its failings.
19. The landlord acknowledged the failings through its complaint responses and compensation was offered to the resident. It is our role to consider whether the redress offered by it resolved the complaint and put things right as per our Dispute Resolution Principles.
20. The landlord offered £595 compensation for delays, poor communication, distress, and inconvenience. This amount is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for failures that adversely affect but do not result in a permanent impact on the resident.
21. In our opinion the landlord has evidenced it made reasonable and proactive efforts to resolve the complaint. This was through the repairs it conducted, its apology and offer of compensation. The landlord’s actions and its offer of compensation were fair in the circumstances. This amounts to a determination of reasonable redress for this complaint point, in that the landlord made an offer which put things right for the resident.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

22. The landlord has been unable to provide us with the date the resident raised his complaint to it, despite us requesting this. The landlord responded at stage 1 of its internal complaints process on 16 March 2023. The landlord offered the resident £20 compensation for the “delay in responding” to his complaint.
23. On 10 May 2023 the resident escalated his complaint. We contacted the landlord on 10 July 2023 and asked it to respond to the resident’s complaint at stage 2 of its internal complaint process. The landlord told us on 26 July 2023 it had difficulty in finding out what the resident wanted to escalate. We wrote to the landlord again on 15 August 2023 and asked it to respond to the resident within 5 working days. We included evidence of the resident’s escalation points that he had raised with the landlord.
24. The landlord responded to the resident at stage 2 of its internal complaints process on 29 September 2023. This was a delay of around 81 working days as per its complaints policy.
25. The complaints policy states if the landlord needs longer to investigate a complaint it will send a holding response with a date for when the full response will be given. However, it did not do this.
26. The evidence shows that at stage 2 the landlord apologised for its delay in complaint handling and offered the resident £175 compensation. This amount is an appropriate offer which reflects the level of failings in the landlord’s complaint handling. As such this also leads to a determination of reasonable redress.

Determination

27. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has provided reasonable redress in its handling of repairs at the property.
28. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has provided reasonable redress in its handling of the associated complaint.

Recommendations

29. The landlord to pay the resident the total sum of £770 compensation awarded to the resident as part of its complaints process, if it has not already done so.