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London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) (202400354)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202400354

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q)

22 April 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 repairs to the chimney.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured shorthold tenant with the landlord which is a housing association. The property is a 3–bedroom house.
  2. On 28 December 2023 the resident reported an issue with the chimney. He said it was crumbling and bricks were falling from it. The landlord arranged for an operative to attend the property and inspect the chimney.
  3. On 13 January 2024 an operative attended the property to inspect the chimney.
  4. The resident contacted the landlord on 15 January 2024 and raised a complaint about the inspection. He said the operative was late and had arrived on a moped scooter, without a ladder. The resident also raised concerns about health and safety as bricks had fallen from the chimney.
  5. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response on 16 January 2024. It said that an operative attended the property and submitted a quote for works. It apologised for the operative being late and not having a ladder and said it had sent them feedback.
  6. On 18 February 2024 a contractor attended the property to complete the repair works to the chimney.
  7. The resident contacted the landlord on 15 February 2024 to escalate his complaint. The resident said there was a breach of health and safety as the landlord had failed to ensure the chimney was safe until repairs were being completed.
  8. On 21 March 2024 the landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response and apologised for the delay in doing so. It said that the chimney works had been completed and offered £50 in compensation for its complaint handling.
  9. Unhappy with the response from the landlord the resident bought his complaint to us. The resident said the landlord’s repair process can take up to a year and without him following up, he might have been left with an unsafe chimney.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident has raised some concerns about how dealing with the complaint had affected his and his wife’s health. We are unable to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. Matters of personal injury or damage to health, their investigation and compensation, are not part of the complaints process, and are more appropriately addressed by way of the courts or the landlord’s liability insurer as a personal injury claim. However we can consider any distress and inconvenience the resident may have experienced as a result of errors by the landlord.

The landlord’s handling of repairs to the chimney

  1. The resident’s tenancy agreement says the landlord will make sure the structure and exterior of the home is kept repaired. This reflects the landlord’s obligations under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
  2. The landlord’s repairs policy says it is responsible for maintaining the structure and exterior of the home, including roofs. It aims to complete routine day–to–day repairs in an average of 25 calendar days. For emergency repairs, where there is an immediate danger to the occupant or members of public, it will attend within 24 hours.
  3. The repair log evidences the resident reported the chimney repair on 28 December 2023. It would have been appropriate for the landlord to have treated this as an emergency repair given the resident’s account that it was crumbling and bricks had fallen.
  4. It should have therefore inspected the chimney within 24 hours to ensure it was safe, given the potential risk posed to the resident and others. Failing to do this meant it did not act in line with its repairs policy.
  5. The first inspection took place on 13 January 2024 which is 27 days after the resident first reported the issue and is an unreasonable amount of time.
  6. The landlord did not take steps to reassure the resident about the safety, or otherwise, of the chimney prior to the contractor completing the repairs on 18 February 2024 some 34 days after the resident had reported the matter. That was a further failing.
  7. The resident said in an email to the landlord on 26 February 2024 that the contractors who completed the repairs turned up on a Sunday without him being notified of the appointment and who the contractors were.
  8. The landlord’s repairs policy says the follow-on repairs will be completed at the earliest mutually convenient appointment. It is unclear from the information provided why the landlord did not arrange the appointment with the resident or notify him of it. This was a service failure because the tenancy agreement says it will give residents at least 24 hours notice of a repairs appointment unless it is an emergency. However, it is noted from the evidence provided that the landlord apologised for this omission when the resident made it aware.
  9. Overall, the evidence provided shows that the landlord failed to take the appropriate action to ensure safety after the resident reported bricks falling from the chimney, despite the landlord being made aware of and acknowledging the resident’s safety concerns. It would have been appropriate for the landlord to treat the residents reports as emergency repairs, but it did not do this. As a result, a finding of maladministration has been made regarding the landlord’s handling of repairs to the chimney.
  10. Our role is to provide fair and proportionate remedies where we have identified maladministration or service failure by the landlord. In considering this we take into account our Dispute Resolution Principles: Be Fair, Put Things Right and Learn from Outcomes as well as our own guidance on remedies.
  11. We have ordered the landlord to pay the resident £150 for the inconvenience and distress caused to the resident by its handling of repairs to the chimney. This is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance which says such a sum would be appropriate where there was a failure which adversely affected the resident but was not permanent. This sum reflects the landlord’s lack of acknowledgement of the issues raised, as well as the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident by him repeatedly reporting safety concerns.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was maladministration by the landlord in relation to its handling of repairs to the chimney.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, the Ombudsman orders the landlord to:
    1. Pay the resident a total of £150 for the impact on him by its handling of repairs to the chimney.
    2. Provide the resident with a written apology for the failures identified by this investigation.