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Lambeth Council (202212517)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202212517

Lambeth Council

22 December 2023


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:
    1. The landlord’s handling of repairs to the heating and hot water system.
    2. The landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord, a Local Authority. She resides in a 2 bedroom terraced property with her 2 daughters.
  2. On 2 December 2021 the resident contacted her landlord to report a loss of power throughout the property, including no heating or hot water. The landlord attended on the same day but was only able to restore power to the ground floor of the property. The resident chased the landlord on several occasions before it next attended on 15 December 2021. During this visit the power was restored to the entire property but the landlord was unable to repair the boiler, leaving the tenant with no heating or hot water.
  3. The landlord was due to attend again the following day, however the resident had to cancel due to an emergency. The landlord attended regardless and supplied 2 electric heaters. The resident says that she informed the landlord that the plugs on the heaters were getting extremely hot, therefore she did not want to risk using them. The landlord denies knowledge of this.
  4. Three further appointments were made for 22 December 2021, 23 December 2021 and 4 January 2022, all of which were subsequently cancelled by the landlord. The resident was not notified of the cancellations and waited in on each occasion. A survey was carried out on 7 January 2022 and the landlord confirmed that a new boiler was required.
  5. On 10 January 2022 the resident wrote to the landlord expressing her dissatisfaction regarding the delays and the cancelled appointments. She informed the landlord that the lack of heating and hot water had caused distress, exacerbated existing health conditions and resulted in a loss of income. There is no evidence to suggest that the landlord acknowledged or responded to this complaint.
  6. A new boiler was installed on 17 January 2022 and the heating and hot water was restored.
  7. The landlord’s contractor issued an initial complaint response on 17 May 2022 and offered £140.96 compensation, £20.00 per missed appointment and £3.52 per day in recognition of no heating or hot water. This was calculated at 3 missed appointments and 23 days without heating or hot water. The contractor stated that there were 7 days when the resident did not make contact with them, therefore she was not eligible for compensation for those dates. The resident did not feel that the response adequately addressed the points raised, nor did she feel that the compensation reflected the distress caused. The matter was further reviewed by the contractor, but the compensation amount was upheld.
  8. On 4 October 2022 the resident requested escalation to stage 2.  The landlord responded on 28 October and increased its offer of compensation to £310, £250 for loss of water and heating, and £60 for the three missed appointments.
  9. The resident remained unhappy with the landlord’s final response and contacted our Service. Following involvement from the Ombudsman both parties agreed to mediation. In May 2023 the landlord accepted the resident’s request for £1000 compensation in resolution of the complaint, this has not yet been paid to the resident.

 

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of repairs to the heating and hot water system.

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it has a responsibility to maintain the external and internal structure of its properties including fittings and services, and to provide tenants with a suitable warm and safe living environment. Following the resident’s initial report of a loss of power, heating and hot water the landlord appropriately categorised this as an emergency and attended within 24 hours as set out in its policy. During this visit they were unable to restore full power and the resident was left without heating or hot water.
  2. Following the initial visit on 2 December 2021 the resident telephoned the landlord on an almost daily basis. On each occasion she was told that the landlord would attend but this did not materialise, resulting in further inconvenience for the resident. There was a significant delay until the next appointment on 15 December 2021 when the power was eventually restored to the whole property. It would have been appropriate for the landlord to schedule an urgent appointment in line with its policy.
  3. The provision of temporary heaters was a reasonable measure for the landlord to take, however, it would have been more appropriate to make this offer at an earlier date as the resident had been without heating for 14 days at this stage. There is a discrepancy between the resident and the landlord regarding the functionality of the heaters.
  4. The failure to notify the resident of the appointment cancellations demonstrated poor communication from the landlord. The resident was inconvenienced as she had taken time off work to allow access on each occasion.
  5. A new boiler was installed on 17 January 2022, this amounted to an unreasonable delay as the resident was without heating or hot water for 29 working days during winter, taking into account the Christmas closure.
  6. Overall, the landlord failed to follow its own policy and procedures. The resident was without heating and hot water for a four week period and therefore the landlord failed to carry out its obligations under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act. This was extremely inconvenient and no doubt uncomfortable for the resident, especially given the Christmas period this timeframe spanned. In addition, the lack of communication surrounding the cancelled appointments added further uncertainty for the resident as she was left with the inconvenience of having to continuously chase the landlord.
  7. In determining whether there has been service failure or maladministration we consider both the events that initially prompted a complaint and the landlord’s response to those events. The extent to which a landlord has recognised any shortcomings and the appropriateness of any steps taken to offer redress are as relevant as the original mistake or service failure. In this case the landlord has acknowledged the delay in repairing the boiler and has agreed to the resident’s proposed settlement of £1000 during the mediation process, which fairly resolves the dispute.

 

The landlord’s complaint handling.

  1. The landlord’s complaint policy states that stage 1 complaints will be acknowledged within 3 working days and a full written response should be sent to the customer within 15 working days. The response should:
    1. Address all of the issues raised in the complaint. 
    2. Clearly state whether the complaint was upheld or not.
    3. Apply a suitable remedy.
    4. Advise the complainant of their right to escalate to Stage 2
  2. There is no evidence that the landlord acknowledged or responded to the resident’s initial complaint in January 2022, therefore, it did not follow its own policy and procedure. A response was not issued until 17 May 2022, 14 weeks after the complaint was raised. 
  3. The landlord’s complaint policy states that complaints about council contractors should be dealt with in the same way as complaints against the council. From the point-of-view of its customers, there is no distinction between the council and contractor when receiving a service. It is clear from the evidence provided that the initial complaint response was issued by the contractor rather than the landlord, this caused unnecessary confusion for the resident.
  4. Overall, the landlord failed to appropriately follow its own policy in the early stages of the complaint. The failure to acknowledge the initial complaint for 14 weeks resulted in the resident having to chase a response. It was not appropriate, nor in line with policy for the initial response to come directly from the landlord’s contractor. In addition, in its final complaint response the landlord failed to consider compensation for time and trouble, nor did it demonstrate learning for future complaint handling. However, the compensation amount agreed during mediation is sufficient to put right these failures as well as the repairing delays.

 

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53 (c) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint about the landlord’s handling of repairs to the boiler at the property.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 53 (c) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint about the landlord’s handling of the residents complaint.

 

Orders and recommendations

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord pay the resident £1000 as agreed during mediation in recognition of its handling of repairs to the heating and hot water system and the distress and inconvenience this caused, in addition to failures in its complaint handling.
  2. The landlord to review its complaint handling procedures and confirm how it will ensure it retains ownership of complaints about its contractors.