London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) (202321865)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202321865

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q)

16 May 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 the resident’s reports about issues with the flower bed in her garden.

Background

2. The resident is an assured tenant of a 2-bedroom house owned by the landlord, which is a housing association. As part of the voids process, the landlord completed repairs to the resident’s back garden when she moved into the property in September 2021. In June 2022, it scheduled additional works.
3. On 30 August 2023, the resident made a formal complaint about the landlord’s handling of her garden repairs. She raised concerns about the safety of her flower bed.
4. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response on 31 August 2023. It apologised and stated it would investigate the issue and update the resident on the outcome.
5. The resident requested escalation of her complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaint process on 26 September 2023, expressing dissatisfaction with its lack of communication about the garden repairs.
6. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 24 November 2023. It stated it had inspected the flower bed and had no safety concerns. It acknowledged that miscommunication about the description of the resident’s flower bed contributed to the delay in resolving the issue. It confirmed that the maintenance of the garden, including the flower bed, was the resident’s responsibility. As a goodwill gesture, it raised a job to remove the rubble and bricks from the resident’s flower bed. It apologised for the distress and inconvenience caused and offered her £310 in compensation.
7. After concluding its internal complaints process, the landlord informed the resident on 10 January 2024 that, it had determined she was responsible for the maintenance of her flower bed. It stated it would not undertake any further work related to this matter.
8. The resident was unhappy about the landlord’s decision not to repair the flowerbed and brought her complaint to us. She wants it to remove the rubble and bricks from the flowerbed as promised in its stage 2 complaint response.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

9. The resident stated that she has reported issues with her garden for the past 3 years. The Ombudsman encourages residents to raise complaints with their landlord in a timely manner. This is so the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to investigate the issue whilst it is still ‘live’ and sufficient evidence is available to reach an informed conclusion. As issues become historical it is increasingly difficult for either the landlord, or an independent body such as an Ombudsman to conduct an effective review of the actions taken.
10. In view of the time periods involved in this case, considering the availability and reliability of evidence, this assessment does not consider any specific events prior to 31 August 2022. This is 12 months prior to the resident’s complaint to the landlord and any reference made to events prior to this date is for context only.

Reports of issues with the flower bed.

11. The landlord’s records do not show any evidence that it raised flower bed repair work or any requests from the resident for flower bed repairs between 31 August 2022 and her formal complaint on 30 August 2023.
12. In her complaint to the landlord, the resident expressed concerns about the safety of her flower bed wall and requested repairs. She said that large stones falling off the wall could hurt her child and visitors to the property.
13. According to the landlord’s repairs policy, the resident is responsible for maintaining the garden and its features and the landlord is responsible for repairing unsafe garden walls. The policy says it will complete routine repairs within 25 days.
14. After receiving the initial reports from the resident about her unsafe flower bed wall, the landlord should have inspected it and completed any necessary repairs within its repairs policy period.
15. When the resident chased this matter up in September 2023, the landlord again did not complete an inspection of the flower bed wall. It would have been reasonable for it have done so to check it was safe and confirm its position regarding completing any repairs. This would have helped manage the resident’s expectations regarding the specific repairs it could or could not undertake. The landlord failed to do so. This failing would understandably have led the resident to believe it was not taking her reports seriously thereby causing unnecessary distress and inconvenience.
16. The landlord’s records show it completed a safety inspection of the resident’s flower bed on 23 October 2023. During this inspection, the landlord determined that the flower bed was safe and did not conduct any repairs, including the removal of the loose slabs. It informed the resident that the maintenance of the flower bed was her responsibility.
17. It was reasonable of the landlord to conduct a health and safety inspection of the resident’s flower bed and confirm her responsibility for repairing the flower bed. However, it did not provide this information or complete the inspection until 25 October 2023, which was 54 days after she initially reported the issue. Also, it did not communicate with her or provide any reasons for this delay. This was a failing and would have added to her distress and inconvenience. It would have been reasonable to have managed her expectations earlier by informing her of her responsibility for flower bed repairs.
18. On 15 November 2023, the resident informed the landlord again that the loose slabs were falling out, she said it was not her responsibility to repair the flower bed as it was already falling apart when she moved into the property. She asked it to repair the flower bed.
19. In its stage 2 complaint response on 24 November 2023, the landlord stated:
    1. It had inspected the flower bed on 23 October 2023 and deemed it did not present a health and safety hazard.
    2. It apologised for the delay in responding to the resident’s repair requests, it stated this was due to miscommunication regarding the description of the resident’s flower bed.
    3. It confirmed it was the resident’s responsibility to maintain her garden, however as a goodwill gesture it would raise an order to remove the rubble and brick from the flower bed.
    4. It apologised for the distress and inconvenience it caused the resident and offered £310 total compensation broken down as £100 distress, £100 inconvenience, £60 time and effort and £50 delay in stage 2 response.
20. The landlord’s stage 2 complaint response was reasonable. It attempted to put things right for the resident by acknowledging and apologising for the delays and poor communication, it offered compensation in line with our remedies guidance and made a good will gesture to remove the brick and rubble from her garden. We would have found reasonable redress in this case if it had completed these action as promised.
21. Instead of removing the brick and rubble from the flower bed as promised in its stage 2 complaint response, on 5 December 2023, the landlord attended the property to complete another health and safety inspection and removed loose debris surrounding the flower bed. On 10 January 2024, it informed the resident that it would not be removing the bricks and slabs from her flower bed. It said this was her responsibility and it would not be completing further works regarding the flower bed.
22. Paragraph 7.3 of the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) states that any remedy the landlord proposed must be followed through to completion. In its stage 2 complaint response, the landlord said it would remove the bricks and rubble from the resident’s flower bed. Therefore, in accordance with the Code we would expect the landlord to follow through on that proposal. The landlord failed to act in accordance with the Code.
23. In conclusion, the landlord made a commitment to removing the bricks and rubble from the resident’s garden. We have seen internal landlord discussions about the potential cost of that work. However, the landlord should have considered the costs implication before committing to it. Furthermore, the resident has waited more than 17 months after its stage 2 complaint response for the landlord to resolve this issue. There was maladministration in its handling of the resident’s repairs. We have ordered the landlord to take action in line with its stage 2 complaint response and remove the brick and rubble from the resident’s flower bed. We have also ordered the landlord to pay the resident additional £150 compensation to reflect the impact of these shortcomings. This amount is within the range of awards set out in our remedies guidance for situations where there was a failure which adversely affected the resident.

Determination

24. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlords handling of the resident’s reports about issues with her flower bed.

Orders

25. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report the landlord must carry out the following orders and provide evidence of compliance to us:
    1. Apologise in writing to the resident for the failings identified in this report.
    2. Pay the resident the total sum of £460 compensation broken down as:
       1. £310 previously offered if not already paid.
       2. Additional £150 for any likely distress and inconvenience caused by the failures in its handling of reports about issues with the flower bed.
       3. This money should be paid directly to the resident and not offset against her rent account.
    3. Remove the brick and rubble from the resident’s flower bed.
    4. Inspect the flower bed after it has removed the brick and rubble to ensure there are no health and safety concerns.
    5. Share that inspection report with us and the resident.
    6. If the landlord is unable to meet this deadline the landlord must notify both the resident and us, providing a clear explanation for the delay and setting out its new timescales in writing.