Haringey London Borough Council (202332464)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202332464

Haringey London Borough Council

23 June 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 a leak at the property.
2. The Ombudsman has also looked at the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

3. The resident is a leaseholder of the property since 2005. The property is a 2-bed ground floor flat.
4. The resident raised a repair on 21 November 2022. She said there was rainwater leaking into her living room. The resident complained to the landlord on 27 July 2023. She said water continued to leak into her flat when there was heavy rainfall.
5. On 10 August 2023 the landlord replied to the resident at stage 1 of its internal complaints process. It said it would arrange an inspection at the property.
6. The resident escalated her complaint on 21 September 2023. She said rainwater was still leaking into her property. On 25 October 2023 the landlord replied to the resident at stage 2 of its internal complaints process. It upheld the resident’s complaint and offered her £500 compensation.
7. The resident remained dissatisfied and brought her complaint to us. She said the leak still occurred at her property when it rains heavily. The resident said she uses buckets to catch the rainwater and has a plastic sheet over her carpet to protect it.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

8. The resident told the landlord the rainwater leak in the living room started when it replaced the windows at her property in 2016. We encourage residents to raise complaints with their landlords in a timely manner. This is so the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to consider the issues while they are still ‘live’, and the evidence is available to reach an informed conclusion on what occurred. Our Scheme says we may not consider issues not brought to the attention of the landlord as a formal complaint, within a reasonable period of the matters arising. As such, this report will centre on the landlord’s handling of issues from the resident’s reports of a leak on 21 November 2022. Any reference to events before this time are for context only.

The landlord’s handling of a leak at the property

9. On 21 November 2022 the resident raised a repair to the landlord. She said there was a leak around the window area in her living room which was beneath a flat roof.
10. The landlord inspected the issue on 8 December 2022 and arranged a follow up appointment. On 5 April 2023 the landlord attended the property. It applied a black liquid coating to seal the flat roof above the leak.
11. The resident’s leasehold agreement states the landlord is responsible for the maintenance of the structure, roofs and windows at the property. The landlord’s repairs policy states the following:
    1. Non-emergency repairs will be attended and completed within 28 days.
    2. Planned repairs will be inspected within 28 days. The resident will be told at the inspection when the job will be carried out.
12. A review of the landlord’s actions show that it inspected the repair within its repairs policy time. It also arranged a follow up appointment to complete the repair as per its policy.
13. The resident complained to the landlord on 27 July 2023. She said rainwater was still leaking into her living room and was damaging the curtains. The resident also said the landlord had “left black tar stuff” on the external windowsills and wall from when it resealed the flat roof above the living room.
14. On 10 August 2023 the landlord replied to the resident at stage 1 of its internal complaints process. It said it would arrange for a “post inspection quality check” at the resident’s property. The landlord said it was sorry the resident was unhappy with the service she had received.
15. A review of the landlord’s response shows it acknowledged the resident’s dissatisfaction with its handling of the repair. The landlord committed to undertake an inspection of its works. However, it did not provide timescales to the resident. The landlord was also not able to show us if it had provided the result of the inspection to the resident. Or what action it took to resolve the tar that had been left on the external walls and windowsills at the property.
16. The resident escalated her complaint on 21 September 2023. She said the leak was still occurring. The resident said the rainwater had damaged her curtains and carpet.
17. On 25 October 2023 the landlord replied to the resident at stage 2 of its internal complaints process. It said the following:
    1. It had inspected the windows the previous day and it would contact the resident with its findings.
    2. The landlord upheld the resident’s complaint and offered her £500 compensation.
18. The landlord’s compensation policy states:
    1. It can award up to £500 for a high impact on a resident.
    2. In exceptional circumstances it can award more compensation at the discretion of a senior manager.
19. At the time of the stage 2 response, it had been around 6 months since the landlord attended its planned repairs appointment at the property. Its response acknowledged its failings and offered compensation in line with a high impact on a resident, as defined by its policy.
20. The landlord’s records show it inspected the windows as per its stage 2 response. It noted the windows were sealed and in “good working order”. However, there is no evidence that it communicated these findings with the resident. There is also no record it further investigated the cause of the rainwater leak into her property.
21. The landlord told us following the window inspection it did not receive any further reports of the leak from the resident. However, the resident told us she had stopped reporting the leak to the landlord as the issue was not being resolved. She said the leak continues when there is heavy rainfall and has not been fixed.
22. In summary, the landlord repaired the flat roof to try to resolve the rainwater leak. The landlord subsequently inspected the windows as the resident was concerned they were the cause of the leak. The landlord appropriately recognised the delay the resident had experienced. It tried to put things right with an offer of compensation. These actions were reasonable.
23. However, there is no evidence it completed the post works inspection that it committed to in its stage 1 response, or that it made good the black tar left on external walls and windowsills.
24. After ruling out the windows as the cause of the leak it failed to conduct any further enquiries to ensure the issue was resolved. The landlord did not communicate its findings of the window inspection to the resident. These were unreasonable failures in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.
25. The evidence shows the resident did not report any subsequent issues to the landlord. However, she told us the matter is unresolved. She stated she had lost confidence in its ability to resolve matters. The evidence shows there were times where the landlord’s communication was not as good as it could be. As such, it could have contributed to the breakdown in communication between the parties.
26. When a failure is identified, as in this case, our role is to consider whether the redress offered by the landlord put things right and resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances. In considering this, we take into account whether the landlord’s offer of redress was in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: Be Fair, Put Things Right and Learn from Outcomes. As well as our own guidance on remedies.
27. The landlord’s offer of £500 compensation to the resident did not fully put things right for the distress and inconvenience caused by its failure to resolve the leak at the property. This has been made worse by the length of time the issue has remained unresolved.
28. The failure to resolve the issue, the failures in communication and the inability to provide appropriate compensation leads to a determination of maladministration. The landlord is ordered to pay £800 compensation. This award has been calculated in accordance with our remedies guidance where there has been a significant impact on the resident.

The landlord’s complaint handling

29. The resident complained to the landlord on 27 July 2023. The landlord responded at stage 1 of its internal complaints process, around 10 working days later on 10 August 2023. This was within the timeframe stated in its complaints policy.
30. On 21 September 2023 the resident escalated her complaint. The landlord responded on 25 October 2023 at stage 2 of its internal complaints process. This was a delay of around 4 working days beyond the requirement of its policy to respond at stage 2 within 20 working days. Although only a short delay the landlord did not acknowledge or apologise for this failing.
31. This leads to a determination of service failure. An order for £50 compensation to reflect the inconvenience and delay caused by the landlord’s complaint handling is set out below.

Determination

32. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of a leak at the property.
33. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

34. Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord must:
    1. Provide the resident with a written apology from a senior manager for the failures outlined above.  
    2. Pay the resident the following compensation:
       1. £800 for the distress and inconvenience caused by the landlord’s failure to resolve the leak at the property. It may deduct £500 previously offered to the resident if this has been paid to her.
       2. £50 for its complaint handling.
    3. Arrange for an appointment to assess the leak in the living room at the property and the black tar on external walls and window sills. Also provide us and the resident with a schedule of required works, with timeframes, to resolve the situation.
35. The compensation balance must be paid directly to the resident and not offset against a rent or service charge account.
36. The landlord is to provide evidence of compliance with the above orders to us.