Epping Forest District Council (202317860)
REPORT
COMPLAINT 202317860
Epping Forest District Council
27 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
- The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports about the loss of hot water.
Background
- The resident is a tenant of the landlord, a housing association. The property is described as a 3-bedroom house. There are no vulnerabilities recorded by the landlord for the resident or its household members.
- The landlord’s grounds maintenance and repairs services are managed by a management company on its behalf.
- On 10 July 2023 the resident reported she had no hot water supply to the property. The landlord attended the same day and noted parts were needed to resolve the issue. The resident chased up the repair on 12 July 2023 and later received a text message the same day that the repairs had been booked for 27 July 2023.
- The resident raised a formal complaint on 12 July 2023. She complained that the date offered for the repair was too far because her family were washing with cold water. She said she would be seeking compensation.
- The landlord advised the resident on 14 July 2023 that her immersion heater should be supplying hot water while the boiler was not working. The out of hours service attended on 16 and 18 July 2023 and resolved a fault with the immersion heater so the resident could have hot water supply.
- The resident reported on 24 July 2023 that the immersion heater was not supplying hot water. This was resolved on 26 July 2023 and the repair to the boiler was completed on 27 July 2023.
- The landlord responded to the resident’s stage 1 complaint on 28 July 2023. It apologised for the poor communication. It said it had not dealt with the matter to the resident’s expectations, but it had since been resolved. The resident escalated the complaint to stage 2 on 28 July 2023. She said she was unhappy with the landlord’s overall service provision.
- The landlord responded to the stage 2 complaint on 11 August 2023. It apologised to the resident for the communication about the repairs. The landlord acknowledged there was a delay in resolving the repair and offered £38 for the lack of hot water. The resident refused this offer and asked us to investigate the complaint.
Assessment and findings
The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports about the loss of hot water
- The landlord’s repairs policy states that it is responsible for repairs to heating appliances including the immersion heater. Residents will be offered an appointment while reporting their repair wherever possible.
- The tenant handbook states that the landlord should fix certain urgent repairs (under the government right to repair scheme) within a target time. It states that:
- These are qualifying repairs which would not normally cost more than £250.
- The loss of hot water should be resolved within 3 working days (between 1 May and 31 October).
- If the landlord does not complete these repairs within specific timescales, it may pay compensation of £10 and additional £2 per day until the repair is carried out (up to a maximum of £50).
- The policy further states that it may upgrade a repair that may normally be categorised as urgent to an emergency if an occupant has a vulnerability (such as age or ill health) where a delay could have an adverse effect.
- The landlord attended the resident’s property on 10 July 2023, the same day she reported an issue with the hot water supply. It noted that a new part was needed to complete the repair. We have seen from the evidence that the resident was not updated until she contacted the landlord on 12 July 2023. This was not reasonable. If it was not able to complete the repair within the agreed times, it should have informed the resident and advised on alternative means of hot water supply.
- The resident complained on 12 July 2023 that her family were washing with cold water and the repair had been booked for 27 July 2023 which was too long. The landlord realised its error and advised the resident around 14 July 2023 that her electric immersion heater should supply hot water while she was waiting for repairs to her boiler. The resident explained that the immersion heater was not working.
- The landlord advised that the thermal cut out on the thermostat had kicked in as she was mainly using the immersion heater due to the boiler not working. The landlord advised her to turn it off when the water tank had heated up. It offered to raise a repair for the immersion heater if it was not working. We have not seen evidence that the resident requested a repair that day. The landlord’s actions at this stage were reasonable.
- From the evidence seen the resident had no hot water from 10 July until 14 July 2023, but the landlord offered a temporary solution while it was waiting for the parts ordered. The landlord explored the possibility of bringing the repairs forward, if its supplier was able to deliver the parts needed earlier. The landlord also explained that the delivery date for the part ordered by its gas team was 27 July 2023, which was why the repair was booked for this date. It assured her that an earlier appointment would be scheduled if they could get the part quicker. This shows that the landlord tried to manage the resident’s expectations. This was reasonable.
- The resident requested emergency repairs to the immersion heater on 15 and 17 2023. The resident reported on those days that this had caused her family some inconvenience, as they had to travel away from home to have showers. She said she also incurred additional costs. The out of hours service attended on 16 and 18 July 2023 respectively and reset the thermal cut out. They noted that this resolved the issue. This shows that the landlord continued to take steps to minimise the disruption to the resident, caused by the fault to the boiler. This was reasonable.
- On 24 July 2023 the resident reported that her hot water had stopped working again, but the out of hours refused to attend as it was not classed as an emergency. When residents report no hot water between 1 May and 31 October it would aim to attend between 3 working days. It asked if the resident had any elderly or disabled household members, and she replied that she did not. While we acknowledge this would have been an inconvenience to the resident, the landlord acted in accordance with its policy.
- The landlord attended on 26 July 2023 to resolve the issue to the immersion heater, and it completed repairs to the boiler on 27 July 2023 as scheduled. It apologised through its complaint responses on 28 July and 11 August 2023 for:
- The inconvenience experienced by the resident.
- The initial poor communication which caused a delay in arranging repairs to the immersion heater when she first made contact.
- In terms of its communication the landlord said it had learned from its handling of the case and raised the matter with the relevant team manager. It said they would ensure staff seek advice from the gas team when dealing with more complex queries in the future. This was reasonable. While the delay to the boiler took longer than expected, this was due to circumstances beyond the landlord’s control. We have also noted that the resident had intermittent supply of hot water between 10 July (when the repair was first raised) and 27 July 2023 when the boiler was repaired.
- In response to the resident’s request for compensation the landlord referred to the provisions set out in the tenant handbook. The landlord offered compensation of £38 (£10 and £2 for 14 days) to acknowledge the additional days outside the agreed 3 working days. It said the right to repair is normally categorised for repairs under the value of £250, but the repair to the boiler did not fall in this category. It said the value should be ignored for the purpose of the complaint. This suggests the policy or procedure relied upon to decide compensation did not apply in the case.
- However, the resident was inconvenienced during the 17 days she was unable to fully access hot water. This was partly due to the delay in advising her that she could use the immersion heater and in arranging the repairs for her. She incurred time and trouble in chasing up the repair to the boiler. She also expressed in her emails between 12 and 24 July 2023 that she had been having cold showers and incurred additional costs in travelling to family members to take showers. We have not seen evidence that the landlord considered this when it awarded compensation. This is unreasonable.
- The landlord acknowledged the failure in completing the repair within the published timescales. It apologised for the failure in communication and identified some learning, but its offer of compensation did not reflect the detriment due to these failures. The landlord appears not to have a compensation policy in place, but our remedies guidance (intended for our use, member landlords and residents) advises landlords to decide each case on its own merits and consider the use of discretion as appropriate.
- From the evidence seen, the landlord failed to take the full circumstances of the case into account when it awarded compensation. This caused the resident time and trouble in pursuing the matter with us. It is for this reason that we have found service failure. The landlord has not provided a copy of its compensation policy. We will use our remedies guidance in deciding the most appropriate remedy.
Determination
- In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports about the loss of hot water.
Orders
- Within 4 weeks of the date of this report the landlord is ordered to:
- Apologise to the resident for the failures identified in this report.
- Pay the resident £138 for the inconvenience and time and trouble due to the loss of hot water. This includes the £38 previously offered if it has not yet been paid.
Recommendations
- The landlord should produce a compensation policy if it does not have one in place.