Lambeth Council (202402971)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202402971

Lambeth Council

16 December 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 handling of the resident’s reports about a leak.

Background

2. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord. The property is a 1-bedroom flat. The landlord has provided only limited information about the history of the repair issues involved in this complaint.
3. The resident complained to the landlord in August 2021 about leaks into his home from the roof. He said he had made multiple reports of the problem but it remained unresolved.
4. In June 2023 the resident complained again to the landlord. He said he had not had a response to his 2021 complaint, and that he had reported several times to the landlord in 2023 about further leaks into his home. It is not apparent from the evidence if these were new leaks or a continuation of the same problem the resident had reported in 2021.
5. The landlord responded at stage 1 of its complaints process on 30 June 2023. It upheld the resident’s complaint and apologised for the delayed repairs. It said it had raised a repair for the roof and this should be completed in 21 working days.
6. The resident escalated his complaint on 3 August 2023. He said the repairs had not been completed in the timeframe the landlord said they would be. He said the use of the living room had been impacted by the leak, and staining had appeared in other parts of the house. As a resolution, the resident wanted a 2-bedroom apartment and financial compensation.
7. On 11 September 2023 the landlord issued its final response. It apologised for not completing the roof repair works within the 21-day timeframe. It said the works were currently on hold due to a Section 20 notice served to the resident. It confirmed works would commence immediately once the Section 20 notice consultation period was over. The landlord’s evidence showed Section 20 notices were issued to leaseholders within the resident’s building about the roof repair works. This was due to the requirements under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 for landlords to consult with leaseholders prior to carrying out major works funded by leaseholder service charges.
8. The resident contacted this Service in April 2024 because he remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response. He said the leaks into the living room had continued and caused damages. The landlord did not fully respond to this Service’s requests for clarification of the repairs completed to the resident’s home.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation.

9. The resident raised during the complaint process that he had been reporting the leak to the landlord since October 2020. The resident raised a stage 1 complaint to the landlord in August 2021 about this. This Service has not seen evidence of this complaint having exhausted the landlord’s complaints process or contact to this Service at this time. Paragraph 42.a. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that: “The Ombudsman may not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, are made prior to having exhausted a member’s complaints procedure.” Because of that this investigation focuses on the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports which were considered in the resident’s complaint on 1 June 2023 and addressed in the landlord’s final complaint response on 11 September 2023. Reference to the earlier complaint is for background context only.
10. In raising his complaint to this Service, the resident referred to the impact of the repair issues on his family’s health. Whilst this Service is an alternative to the courts, it is unable to establish legal liability or whether a landlord’s actions, or lack of action, have had a detrimental impact on a resident’s health. This is because in line with paragraph 42.f. the Ombudsman may not consider matters where it considers it quicker, fairer, more reasonable or more effective to seek a remedy through the courts, other tribunal or procedure.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports about leaks.

11. The landlord has a statutory duty under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the property.
12. The landlord’s repairs and damp policy effective from August 2023 says it will fix routine repairs within 28 working days. It will complete planned repairs within 90 days. The landlord is also responsible for carrying out repairs and maintenance to parts of the external fabric of its housing blocks and estates. Its in-house repairs service is responsible for a range of communal repairs.
13. The landlord’s compensation policy says the landlord should consider offering a remedy, which can include financial redress, if after investigating a complaint it finds a service failure has occurred that has an adverse effect on a resident.
14. Clear record keeping and management is a core function of a repairs service, not only so that evidence can be provided to the Ombudsman when requested, but because this assists the landlord in its understanding of the condition of a property, enabling outstanding works to be monitored and enabling provision of accurate information to residents.
15. The landlord was unable on request, to provide records to allow the Ombudsman to consider the timeline of events relating to the remedial works on the resident’s home. The majority of evidence provided was in the form of internal emails. These lacked details on repair reports, dates of inspections, and details on the actual works carried out.
16. What can be seen from the information provided is that the landlord’s contractor provided an estimate for works to repair the roof in August 2022. The landlord has not provided evidence of it taking any subsequent action until it took steps to initiate the Section 20 process in December 2022. The resident’s complaint in June 2023 was that the leaks were continuing. In its response the landlord said nothing more than roof repair work had been arranged and would be complete within 21 days. It gave no indication of having fully considered the resident’s complaint or his concerns.
17. The resident escalated his complaint after the timescale promised for the repairs passed without the matter being resolved. The landlord’s final complaint response was only marginally more informative than its first one. It acknowledged the work had not been completed, apologised, and explained this was because of the Section 20 consultation process, which it said the resident was part of. It said works would start once that process was complete. It gave no indication of being aware the resident is a tenant, and therefore not part of the Section 20 process, nor did it give any consideration of how long the work had been outstanding and whether the resident had been kept up to date.
18. The evidence shows the Section 20 consultation was required because some of the resident’s neighbours were leaseholders, and therefore the consultation was a necessary step. However, that does not explain why the resident had not been told this in the landlord’s first complaint response, or separately as part of the steps the landlord should have been taking to manage his expectations in the circumstances of an ongoing unresolved leak problem.
19. The resident has reported to this Service, and to the landlord during the complaints process, that the leak had affected his use of the living room. This caused him distress and inconvenience as well as the loss of the full enjoyment of the property. The landlord has not provided evidence of any inspections of any internal damage from the leak, or of the ceiling repair mentioned in the resident’s complaint.
20. The landlord did not demonstrate a customer focused approach in its communication with the resident about the repair. It confirmed the repairs were to take place to the roof in its complaint responses. However, there was no evidence of the landlord providing the resident with prior or further updates on the repair.
21. The landlord’s records showed the roof of the resident’s building was repaired in January 2024. However the resident reported to this Service in April and November 2024 that the leaks and the damage from them have not been resolved. It is not clear if these are new leak problems, or a continuation of the previous ones. Nonetheless, the landlord has not provided evidence of a post-work inspection following the work, or of any correspondence with the resident about the completion of the repair it did in January 2024. This again showed poor oversight of the repair.
22. The complaint responses provided by the landlord lacked detail and contained incorrect information. The landlord did not provide the resident with any explanation of the reasons for the delay to the repairs at stage 1. Its final response stated the resident had been served a Section 20 notice. However, this was incorrect as the resident was not a leaseholder. The landlord confirmed to this Service that it had not issued a Section 20 notice to the resident.
23. In summary, while part of the delay to the repair of the roof was due to the Section 20 consultation, the landlord failed to provide evidence that it had taken timely action prior to this process, kept the resident updated, or managed his expectations about when the matter would be resolved and what it would entail. Furthermore, the landlord demonstrated poor record keeping on the repair, and failed to put things right when the resident complained. As such, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports about a leak.  
24. In January 2024, the Ombudsman published a special report following an investigation of the landlord’s complaint handling carried out under paragraph 49 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. Following this the Ombudsman made a number of recommendations, including for the landlord to review its process for recording completed repairs to ensure it has a clear repair record which the resident agrees with. These recommendations continues to be monitored by this Service. Therefore, no further learning orders for the landlord in regard to its recording of completed repairs.

Determination

25. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports about a leak.

Orders

Orders.

26. The Ombudsman orders the landlord to apologise in writing to the resident for the failings identified in this report.
27. The Ombudsman orders the landlord to pay the resident compensation of £800. This level of compensation is reflects the scale and length of the failings identified in this report. It is based on the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for findings of maladministration. It reflects the significant distress and inconvenience caused to the resident during the prolonged period the repair has remained outstanding. 
28. Compensation should be paid directly to the resident, and not offset against any arrears. Evidence of payment and the apology must be provided to the Ombudsman within 5 weeks of this report.
29. The current situation in the resident’s home at the time of this report is not clear. Within 8 weeks of this report the landlord must undertake an inspection to assess any leaks into the resident’s property. Based on its assessment it must either confirm there are no unresolved leak issues, or provide a schedule of works by which it will complete any outstanding work within 12 weeks of this report.
30. As part of its assessment the landlord must consider and address any remedial works (including decorating) needed to resolve any damage which can reasonably be said to have resulted from the delayed repairs to the resident’s home. If necessary and relevant this should include referring the resident to its insurers.
31. Evidence of compliance with these orders must be provided to the Ombudsman and the resident by the relevant deadlines.