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East Midlands Housing Group Limited (202306396)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202306396

East Midlands Housing Group Limited

3 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 to the resident’s boiler.
    2. The associated complaint.

Background and summary of events

  1. The resident has been an assured tenant of the landlord since 2022. The property is a bungalow. The landlord was aware of the resident’s medical conditions at the time of the issues with her boiler.
  2. The resident reported that she had no heating or hot water on 10 February 2023. The resident e-mailed the landlord on 14 February to complain at the time it was taking to repair her boiler.
  3. The landlord’s gas contractor repaired the boiler on 15 February 2023.
  4. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 28 February 2023. It apologised that it had taken 5 days to repair her boiler and that its contractor had not contacted her to let her know about the delay.
  5. The resident requested escalation of her complaint on 13 March 2023 because she was unhappy the landlord had not offered her compensation. She said it had delayed in repairing her boiler on 3 occasions since November 2022.
  6. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 24 March 2023. It told the resident it had delayed in repairing her boiler on 2 occasions by a total of 8 days. It awarded her £50 for the distress and inconvenience those delays had caused her. It also awarded her an additional £35.36 compensation to reflect the cost of having to use an electric heater for those 8 days.
  7. The resident contacted this Service on 19 June 2023. She does not feel the landlord’s offer of compensation reflected the impact no heating or hot water had on her. She wants it to increase its offer of compensation to the equivalent of 1 month’s rent.

Assessment and findings

Scoping

  1. The resident informed the Ombudsman the landlord’s handling of the matters under review in this investigation had a negative impact on her health and wellbeing. Whilst this service is an alternative to the courts, it is unable to establish legal liability or whether a landlord’s actions or lack of action have had a detrimental impact on a resident’s health. Nor can it calculate or award damages. The Ombudsman is therefore unable to consider the personal injury aspects of the resident’s complaint. These matters are likely better suited to consideration by a court or via a personal injury claim. However, we will consider any impact that resulted in distress and inconvenience caused to the resident.

Boiler repairs

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it should attend to emergency repairs within 24 hours. It considers a loss of heating and hot water as an emergency repair.
  2. The landlord’s compensation policy allows it to make payments for the distress and inconvenience caused by its failure to meet its targets to complete a repair. It sets out that it will pay resident’s £50 where it exceeds its targets by 5 working days. That amount increases to £100 where it exceeds 20 working days. Although its policy refers to working days, it should attend emergency repairs within 24 hours, regardless of if it is a working day or not. It can also make payments to residents for quantifiable loss for example increased energy bills resulting from disrepair.
  3. The resident reported a fault with her boiler on 29 November 2022. The landlord’s gas contractor repaired her boiler in line with the landlord’s repairs policy the next day.
  4. The resident reported further issues with her boiler on 15 December 2022. The contractor did not attend within the 24 hours allowed by the landlord’s repairs policy. The landlord or on its behalf the contractor should have let her know it was unable to repair her boiler, but it did not. Given it was aware of that she was vulnerable it would have been appropriate to contact her to ask her if she needed temporary heating. Although its repairs policy does not explicitly state it will offer temporary heating it has provision to refund costs incurred for temporary heating. It should have looked at what options it could have offered to support the resident. She called the landlord to chase it up on 18 December 2022. The contractor attended later that day and repaired the boiler. The landlord holds no record of what caused that delay.
  5. The resident reported that she had no heating or hot water on 10 February 2023. The landlord raised an emergency repair the same day with its contractor. It did not attend and did not update the resident. As the job remained open on its system the landlord was aware the contractor had not attended. It missed an opportunity to offer the resident temporary heating. The resident made a stage 1 complaint because she was unhappy with how long it was taking the landlord to restore her heating and hot water.
  6. In its stage 1 response the landlord apologised for the delay in repairing her boiler and that its contractor had not contacted her as it should have. It explained its contractor had received an exceptional number of emergency repairs which prevented it attending her repair within the 24-hour target. Given it had not met the target for completing emergency repairs it was appropriate it apologised and explained the reason for the delay. As the resident had only complained about the February 2023 repair the landlord’s apology for the failure to meet its target for responding to an emergency repair was reasonable because the delay was under 5 working days. However, it missed an opportunity to apologise or provide compensation for its failure to offer further support.
  7. The resident e-mailed the landlord on 13 March 2023 unhappy it had not offered her compensation in its stage 1 response. She said it had failed to repair her boiler within the target times on 3 occasions since November 2022. She was unhappy that it had not offered her temporary heating. She had borrowed an electric heater from her family.
  8. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 24 March 2023. It said it had found that it responded in time in November 2022. It apologised that it had taken 3 days to repair the boiler in December 2022 and 5 days in February 2023. It said it had decided to combine both delays and in doing so it exceeded the 5 days set out in its compensation policy for failure to meet its targets. It was appropriate that it awarded her £50 in line with that policy. It calculated the energy costs of using an electric heater for those 8 days and awarded her £35.36 compensation. That action was also appropriate because its compensation policy allowed it to make a payment for quantifiable loss. Again, it missed an opportunity to address its failings in offering her support during the periods she was without heating and hot water.
  9. The landlord’s 2 stage complaints procedure worked as it was supposed to in its handling of the resident’s complaint. The second stage allowed the resident to explain that she was unhappy with earlier repairs and to provide further information that she had needed to use electric heaters because of the delays. The landlord addressed both of those concerns in its stage 2 response. It was appropriate that it awarded her compensation for its failure to meet its targets for responding to an emergency repair and for the cost of using of electric heaters.
  10. However, there has been service failure with the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s boiler. The boiler issues happened during the winter months, and it was aware she was vulnerable. It was not appropriate that it did not offer her temporary heating during the period of the 2 delays. While she was able to borrow an electric heater from her family the landlord was not aware of that until her stage 2 complaint. It also missed opportunities at both stages of complaint to put that right. The landlord is ordered to pay the resident a further £100 for that failing. That amount it falls within the banding for service failure in this Service’s remedies guidance.

Complaint handling

  1. The landlord has a 2 stage complaints procedure which is compliant with the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code). It should acknowledge complaints at both stages within 5 working days. It should respond to complaints within 10 working days at stage 1 and 20 working days at stage 2.
  2. The resident made her stage 1 complaint on 14 February 2023. The landlord acknowledged it the next day. It provided its response on the tenth working day, 28 February 2023.
  3. The resident requested stage 2 escalation on 13 March 2023. The landlord acknowledged her complaint the same day. It provided its response in 9 working days, on 24 March 2023. 
  4. The landlord acknowledged and responded to the resident’s stage 1 and stage 2 complaints within the time allowed by its complaints procedure. It addressed all the issues she had raised in her complaints. There has been no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s boiler.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was no maladministration with the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report the landlord should:
    1. Provide the resident with an apology for its failure to offer her temporary heating in line with the Ombudsman’s guidance for making apologies
    2. Pay her £100 distress and inconvenience in relation to that failing.
  2. It should provide proof of compliance to this Service within 4 weeks of this report.