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Haringey London Borough Council (202302313)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202302313

Haringey London Borough Council

1 May 2025


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of repairs to the communal roof.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case. This is because there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, it has been determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident is a leaseholder of a 3-bedroom, third–floor flat. The landlord is a local authority and the freeholder of the building. At the time of the complaint, the landlord held a selective property licence via the local authority and the flat was occupied by tenants who were paying rent to the leaseholder.
  2. The resident made a complaint to the landlord on 25 January 2023. He said that a leak from the communal roof had been ongoing since December 2020 and had caused internal damage to his property. He said the insurance provider had informed him that it could not visit the property to assess the damage until the landlord had provided a report on the cause of the leak and what action it had taken to resolve the issue. He was unhappy that the landlord had not provided him with an update since July 2022, and as such, the repairs to the inside of his property remained outstanding.
  3. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 9 February 2023. It provided a timeline of events, apologised to the resident and upheld his complaint. It said this was because it had caused a delay in providing him with information on what repairs had been undertaken to the communal roof. It confirmed that it had since provided its insurance team with the repair information, and they would be progressing the resident’s claim for the remedial works to be completed.
  4. The resident requested to escalate his complaint on 17 April 2023. He told the landlord that his tenant had ended their tenancy, and he was unable to re-let the flat due to its condition as result of the roof leak.
  5. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 28 September 2023. It said an inspection was undertaken on 25 July 2023 and the resident had confirmed that there were no further leaks. The landlord offered the resident £500 compensation and explained that this was in recognition of its failure to carry out the roof repair in a timely manner, which meant he was unable to let the property.
  6. We contacted both parties in April 2025 to obtain an update. The resident told us that the repairs had yet to be resolved, the property was uninhabitable and there was an ongoing legal claim. He said a court hearing was due to take place on 4 June 2025. Subsequently, he provided details of his claim against the landlord.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 41.c of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme says the Ombudsman cannot consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, “concern matters that are the subject of court proceedings or were the subject of court proceedings where judgement on the merits was given”.
  2. We have considered the details of the resident’s complaint, and the details of his disrepair claim submitted to the court. The claim concerns the landlord’s handling of roof repairs of the building dating back to 2021. It references damage to fixtures, fittings and damp and mould on the walls and ceilings of the property. The resident is seeking various financial damages, which include (but are not limited to) the cost of repairs to the property, legal costs, loss of earnings and rental income.
  3. The repairs in the complaint are the same as those that the court will consider in due course. In accordance with paragraph 41.c of the Scheme, the complaint relating to the landlord’s handling of the communal roof repairs at the property is not one which this Service can consider.