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London Borough of Brent (202336766)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202336766

London Borough of Brent

31 January 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:
    1. repairs related to damp and mould.
    2. the resident’s request for heating in her WC.

Background

  1. The resident has been an assured tenant of the landlord since 1997. The property is a 2-bedroom flat. The resident lives at the property with her daughter who has represented her throughout this complaint. For the purposes of this report, the resident and her daughter will be referred to collectively as ‘the resident.’
  2. The resident emailed the landlord on 8 April 2022 to explain that she had unresolved damp and mould problems. The landlord inspected her property on 17 May 2022 and identified 16 repairs related to damp and mould. On 14 December 2022, the resident requested that her landlord fit a radiator in her toilet due to cold temperatures.
  3. The resident raised a stage 1 complaint on 15 August 2023 because the landlord had not yet completed repairs to her property or installed a radiator as requested. She explained that she kept taking days off work only for the landlord to cancel appointments. She also complained that the landlord had sent emails addressed to her father, who had passed away in 2019.
  4. The landlord provided its stage 1 response on 1 September 2023. It explained that it had been unable to complete repairs in 2022 due to its contractor being unable to gain access to the resident’s property. It explained what works it had identified from a subsequent inspection on 18 May 2023. It said that its contractor had booked an appointment for 4 September 2023. The resident responded to the landlord the same day asking for compensation. The landlord offered her £200.
  5. The resident escalated her complaint in early September 2023. She explained that she was unhappy with the landlord’s handling of the repairs and that the repairs required were due to it not tiling her bathroom correctly in 2019. She requested compensation of £30,000, which she said was equivalent to 6-years rent. She explained that she had been reporting damp and mould since 2017 and that her father had died in the property during this period.
  6. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 20 October 2023. It explained it would focus on events since April 2022 in line with its complaints policy. However, it said it had also taken into consideration some of the information the resident had provided about her home’s condition in 2019. It acknowledged that the work in 2019 had initially appeared to be successful, but had in fact not been, and had combined with leaks from an upstairs property to cause damp and mould to reoccur. It acknowledged that there had been an unacceptable delay completing the repairs, especially after the survey in May 2023, and missed appointments. The landlord offered the resident compensation of £5,000 in addition to the £200 already offered to reflect the scale of its delays. This was offered as a total amount. The landlord did not apportion it to any specific failings.
  7. The resident asked us to investigate her complaint. She explained that the landlord had completed repairs to a poor standard and she remains unhappy with the amount of compensation it had offered.
  8. The landlord has told us that the works it has completed have resolved the cause of damp. It has acknowledged that at the time of this report some work remains outstanding, such as completing the installation of a heater in the WC and some decorative repairs. It has explained that it has written to the resident to request access to remedy poor workmanship and to complete outstanding work.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. As part of her complaint to the Ombudsman the resident has said that her family’s health has been affected by the presence of damp and mould within her home and that it contributed to her father’s death in 2019. The Ombudsman is unable to assess the cause of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. The resident may be able to make a personal injury claim if she considers that her family’s health has been affected by the landlord’s actions or inaction. This is a legal process, and the resident may wish to seek legal advice if she wants to pursue this option. This has not been investigated in this report.
  2. Paragraph 42.c of the Scheme says the Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about issues which were not brought to the attention of the landlord as a formal complaint within a reasonable period which would normally be within 12 months of the matters arising. The resident’s complaint to the landlord and Ombudsman included a range of actions by the landlord dating back to 2017. She originally made a complaint to the landlord in 2019. The landlord responded, and the resident had the opportunity to exhaust the complaint process and bring her complaint to the Ombudsman at that time. There is no evidence she did so until she made her new complaint in August 2023. We have therefore not investigated matters back to 2019 or 2017.
  3. Following the landlord’s final response, the resident reported multiple further and new issues, some of which occurred while the landlord was completing the repairs. The resident raised a new complaint with the landlord about these further developments, to which it responded in April 2024. As these issues occurred after the complaint considered in this report they will not be investigated here. If the resident is dissatisfied with its responses to her new complaints, she has the option of asking the Ombudsman to start a new investigation.
  4. For clarity, we have only investigated matters from April 2022 up to the landlord’s final response in October 2023.

  The landlord’s handling of repairs related to damp and mould

  1. The landlord’s repair policy states that it aims to book a routine appointment within 28 calendar days, with it completing repairs within an average of 10-working days.
  2. The evidence is clear that the landlord did not arrange repairs within the timescales listed in its policy. The resident reported damp and mould problems on 8 April 2022, with it taking the landlord 39 days to complete an inspection on 17 May 2022. This identified 16 repairs. It then took the landlord a further 44 days until 30 June 2022 to arrange an appointment. The landlord booked three appointments between July and September 2022 without agreeing the date with the resident. These appointments did not go ahead at least partly because the landlord had not informed the resident of them beforehand.
  3. When the landlord did arrange an appointment for 20 January 2023, it only completed 1 of the 16 repairs, replacing the bathroom extractor fan. The landlord did not start any further repairs until September 2023, after it had completed a further inspection in May 2023. It then completed further repairs between October and December 2023.
  4. During these delays, the resident had to contact the landlord on numerous occasions to chase the repairs, experienced missed appointments, and had appointments booked without her knowledge. The resident explained in her correspondence with the landlord that these experiences caused her distress and upset.
  5. When failures are identified the Ombudsman’s 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 the Ombudsman takes into account whether the landlord’s offer of redress was in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: to be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes as well as our own guidance on remedies.
  6. In its stage 2 response, the landlord acknowledged and apologised for what it described as an “unacceptable delay” in arranging and completing the repairs. It acknowledged it had missed appointments and had booked appointments without confirming the resident’s availability. It said its repairs manager would contact the resident to confirm its plan to complete the repairs. In addition, it confirmed it had updated its records about her father.
  7. It was appropriate for the landlord to acknowledge and apologise for its mistakes. In addition, it was reasonable for the landlord to assign a repairs manager as a point of contact with the aim of putting things right going forward.
  8. The landlord offered the resident compensation totalling £5,200 for its poor repair handling and the wide-ranging impact that had on the resident. It acknowledged these impacts included long running distress and inconvenience, redecorating costs, and the fact that some of the recent repair issues had their origins several years previously. This amount was significant, and reasonably reflected the length of time the repair issues had continued unresolved and demonstrated the landlord’s appreciation of the scale of its failings and their impact on the resident.
  9. The resident has confirmed that most of the repairs were subsequently completed, although not to a standard she considered appropriate. That issue was part of her new complaint to the landlord in 2024 and is not considered here.
  10. Overall, the landlord has taken appropriate steps to acknowledge, apologise and put things right. The landlord’s recognition of the impact its failings had on the resident, along with its apology and financial redress, reasonably put things right and resolved the complaint.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for heating in her WC

  1. The landlord’s complaints policy states that some issues do not fall within the category of a complaint and are more appropriately dealt with as a service request. This can be in instances where the resident complains to report a repair request. These are requests to the landlord for it to take appropriate action.
  2. The resident told the Service that she complained to the landlord that there was no heating in her WC on 14 December 2022. She requested as a resolution that the landlord install a heater. The resident considers that the landlord ignored this complaint. The evidence shows that the landlord recorded this as a service request. As the resident was asking the landlord to take action, and this was a new request, it was appropriate for it to treat this as a service request rather than a complaint.
  3. The evidence shows that the resident chased the landlord on several occasions about the WC, such as on 26 April 2023. In its final complaint response, the landlord acknowledged that the resident had requested heating in her WC and apologised for the delays in its responses to all of the issues she had reported. It then arranged a heat loss survey, which it completed on 11 November 2023. This confirmed that a heater was required in the WC.
  4. The evidence shows that in the specific period considered in this investigation the landlord took appropriate steps to acknowledge and apologise for its 1-year delay. Following that the landlord arranged a heat loss survey within a reasonable timescale, and started work to resolve the issue. The landlord’s apology, its follow up action and the overall compensation it offered were reasonable remedies for its failing. Subsequent problems installing the WC heater formed an element of the resident’s 2024 complaint and can be considered by the Ombudsman in a new investigation if she would like the Ombudsman to do so.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord made an offer of redress which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion satisfactorily resolves the resident’s complaint about:
    1. Its handling of repairs related to damp and mould.
    2. Its handling of her request for heating in her WC.

Recommendations

  1. If it has not done so already the landlord should now pay the resident the £5,200 compensation it offered in its final complaint response.