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Karbon Homes Limited (202331768)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202331768

Karbon Homes Limited inc Byker Community Trust

26 September 2024


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 response to the resident’s requests for repairs in the bathroom.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord which is a housing provider that took over from a former housing association. The resident lives with his partner, who is a joint tenant, and his children in a 3-bedroom property. The original tenancy commenced in 2013. There are no vulnerabilities recorded for the household.
  2. On 25 January 2023 the resident asked for an inspection of the bathroom as it was in a bad state of repair. An inspection took place on 15 March 2023, which found repairs were needed to the floor tiles and bath panel, but no work orders were raised. The resident chased in July and September 2023, prompting the landlord to chase its surveyor, but no response was received.
  3. The resident raised a complaint on 10 October 2023 regarding the outstanding repairs and poor communication. A further inspection was carried out on 18 October 2023 and the landlord issued its stage 1 response on 25 October 2023. It apologised for the repair timescale and poor communication and offered £100 compensation. It set out work orders raised to complete the repairs, which were booked in from 31 October 2023.
  4. The contractor was unable to gain access on that date so the works were rebooked for 8 November 2023. On 1 November 2023 the resident emailed the landlord declining its offer of compensation and asking how to escalate his complaint, due to the lack of communication.
  5. The landlord logged the escalation and confirmed this with the resident on 6 or 7 November 2023, and invited him to discuss his concerns by telephone if he wished, which it then arranged as per their mutual availability. The landlord’s complaint records state that the resident was unhappy with the initial delay in the works to the bathroom, and disputed that an appointment was agreed for 8 November 2023. He sought a new bathroom as compensation, or if the repairs were to be completed then a higher level of compensation.
  6. Several work orders in November 2023 were not carried out due to lack of access. The landlord’s repair records state that access was attempted on 8 November 2023 but was unsuccessful as the resident said he had not been told of the appointment. The contractor agreed to reschedule the works with the resident’s partner but explained it could not do this immediately as it had to co-ordinate with all the relevant tradespeople. The resident called the landlord to chase the works on 21 November 2023, and the landlord reviewed its repair records and IT systems for details of the missed works and messages sent.
  7. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 8 December 2023 when it acknowledged and apologised for delays in its response. It could not offer a new bathroom due to the age and condition of the current one but did offer £150 compensation. It found that, from October 2023, it had made efforts to arrange and attend repairs appointments. If the resident believed that he had not received any notice of these appointments, it could look into this further, but it would also send notice by email in future.

Events after the end of the complaint process

  1. In the resident’s email of 8 December 2023, he stated that he had not received text messages about the November 2023 appointments, the stage 2 response was missing information, and he did not think it was impartial. In his email to the Ombudsman of the same day, he said the level of compensation was insufficient, had his children been injured it would have been more severe, the repairs were not carried out, and he was unhappy with the landlord’s communication.
  2. On 10 December 2023 the landlord emailed the resident a copy of its text message. It confirmed after speaking with him that it would contact the IT supplier to investigate this further, as its system showed the text message was sent on 3 November 2023. It also addressed his concern about impartiality and invited him to provide further details of the reported missing information so it could look into this further. The resident’s response has not been seen.
  3. Repairs were completed between 14 and 21 December 2023 based on the post inspection report and contractor records.

Assessment and findings

  1. The tenancy agreement states that, in accordance with section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the landlord will keep in repair the structure and exterior of the property (including drains, gutters and external pipes) and keep in repair and proper working order installations for heating. It has the right to access the property with 24 hours’ prior notice to inspect and repair.
  2. On floor coverings, the Repair and Maintenance Policy states that residents are responsible for costs associated with repairs to floor coverings (if the landlord has had to carry out repairs and removed them), and where residents have installed them themselves. In this case, there was an initial query about whether the landlord was responsible for the repairs, but it subsequently accepted responsibility, which was resolution focused. The landlord was transparent about the lack of clarity initially, and went on to offer compensation which the resident remained dissatisfied with.
  3. The resident reported damage in the bathroom on 25 January 2023. The landlord’s inspection of 15 March 2023 was 5 working days beyond the 30 day target timescale for standard repairs under its Repairs and Maintenance Policy. The landlord managed the resident’s expectation at the time and explained that this was the earliest available appointment for an inspection and it went on to inspect the property accordingly in the scheduled appointment, which was reasonable in the circumstances.
  4. However, the landlord then failed to address outstanding repairs until its repeat attempts from 31 October 2023 (and 8 November 2023). Though it chased the works internally following the resident’s contact in July and September 2023, it did not proactively manage this earlier, which it should have done. The actual repairs were completed in December 2023, 11 months after the first report, after there was a lack of access on 2 occasions in October and November 2023.
  5. The evidence shows that the landlord made reasonable efforts to engage with the repairs following the resident’s complaint. In response to the disputed communication about the appointments, the landlord reasonably relied upon the available records which showed the communication on its side. It was resolution focused by engaging with the resident’s persistent concerns that he had not receive these. It invited him to confirm if he wanted it to look into this further under its complaint resolution, and then followed up with its offer afterwards, which was reasonable. The outcome of this has not been seen. 
  6. The landlord apologised for its poor communication in the stage 1 response and it offered to discuss the issues by telephone as the complaint progressed. This demonstrated that it took steps to improve its communication having failed to update the resident on its repairs earlier in the year, which was reasonable.
  7. However, the repair timescale (following the established works in March 2023 to the attempted repair on 31 October 2023) was approximately 4 months beyond a reasonable timescale under the landlord’s Repairs and Maintenance Policy. The repair response was therefore not appropriate overall. The landlord did not dispute this, and went on to uphold this part of the complaint, apologise, and offer £150 compensation.
  8. This Service finds that the landlord’s offer of redress did not reflect the level of detriment caused in terms of the distress and inconvenience experienced by the resident in waiting for repairs following the inspection results of March 2023. He had explained his concerns about the health and safety risks the outstanding repairs posed to his children and the landlord should have taken this into account in its response.
  9. While the landlord was resolution focused and apologised for its identified failings, it did not ultimately offer redress which was proportionate to the impact of those failings (or in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance). As a result, a finding of service failure is made and the landlord is ordered to pay an additional £100 compensation to the resident.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s response to the resident’s requests for repairs in the bathroom.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report the landlord is ordered to pay the resident £100 (in addition to any redress already offered) for the distress and inconvenience associated with the delays in the landlord’s repair service.