Northamptonshire Rural Housing Association Limited (202336828)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202336828

Northamptonshire Rural Housing Association Limited

11 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 the resident’s request for a boiler repair.

Background

2. The resident occupies a 2 bed property under an assured tenancy agreement. The property is owned by the landlord who outsources its management and complaints process to a managing association. For the purpose of this report, we will refer to the landlord and the managing association as the ‘landlord’.
3. On 18 October 2023 the resident reported to the landlord that his boiler was not fully functional. The contractor attended the property on 25 October 2023 and noted they had left the boiler ‘operational’. However, the resident explained that he would need to manually start the boiler if he wanted to use it.
4. Between 27 October 2023 and 13 December 2023, the landlord liaised with the contractor to repair/replace the boiler. On 22 November 2023 it was confirmed that a new boiler was needed.
5. The resident raised a complaint on 06 December 2023 as he was still waiting for a new boiler to be installed. He explained that he woke up to a freezing house and wanted compensation in addition to a new boiler.
6. The landlord sent its stage 1 response in which it:
   1. Acknowledged the delays in repairing the resident’s boiler.
   2. Advised that a new boiler was due to be installed on 22 December 2023.
   3. Apologised to the resident and offered £75 in compensation.
   4. Advised that it could consider reimbursement for any additional costs that the resident had incurred.
7. The new boiler was installed on 22 December 2023, but it was not properly working and later that day it flooded the resident’s kitchen. The water to the boiler was stopped by the resident which left him without heating and hot water until the contractor attended the property on 02 January 2024. However, the boiler was still not fully functional and the resident reported that he only had heating and lukewarm water downstairs.
8. On 02 January 2024, the resident escalated his complaint. He said that as a result of the boiler installation the toilet was leaking. He also explained his wife had moved out of the property and had to cancel his Christmas plans due to the boiler not fully working.
9. The landlord sent its stage 2 response on 18 January 2024 in which it:
   1. Acknowledged additional delays in replacing the boiler.
   2. Confirmed it would investigate how the delay occurred.
   3. Increased the original compensation offered to £304.
   4. Reiterated that it could consider reimbursement for any additional costs incurred by the resident.
10. The resident brought his complaint to the Service on 18 January 2024, in which he confirmed he was unhappy with how the landlord handled the repair of his boiler. The landlord’s file shows that it had completed the full boiler repair on 26 January 2024.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s boiler repair

11. The tenancy agreement states that it is the landlord’s responsibility to keep in repair and proper working order its own installations for supply of water, gas and space & water heating.
12. The landlord’s repairs policy states that emergency repairs will be completed within 24 hours and urgent repairs will be completed within 7 days. Additionally, total loss of heating and hot water repairs will be completed within 24 hours during 01 November and 30 April.
13. The resident reported the issue with his boiler on 18 October 2023. The contractor attended the property on 25 October 2023 and left the boiler ‘operational’. However, it was not fully functional and on 22 November 2023 the contractor confirmed that the boiler would need to be replaced. A new boiler was installed on 22 December 2023, 1 month later and outside of the landlord’s timescales of 7 days.
14. When the boiler was installed on 22 December 2023 it was installed incorrectly which caused flooding to the property and meant that the water supply was stopped. The resident was unable to use heating or hot water and also suggested that he was unable to flush his toilets without causing it to flood again.
15. At this point during the winter months the landlord should have completed the repair within 24 hours, but it did not do so until 26 January 2024. This meant that the resident was without a fully functional boiler for 5 weeks during the winter and Christmas period.
16. Throughout the complaints process, we have seen evidence that the landlord communicated appropriately with all parties to ensure that the issue was resolved. However, the evidence shows the issue stemmed from the contractor’s service. On several occasions it provided a poor level of service and delayed the repair:
    1. Not fully repairing the boiler on 25 October 2023 or advising the landlord that a new boiler was needed.
    2. Installing the boiler incorrectly on 22 December 2023.
    3. Not repairing the incorrectly installed boiler until 26 January 2024.
17. We have seen internal communication from the landlord that it could offer the resident some temporary measures, but we have not seen it made the resident aware of this. Given the issue occurred during the winter months, it would have been reasonable for it to have offered temporary heaters or a gym membership.
18. The landlord acknowledged its delay in repairing the boiler, it has taken learning and appropriate steps from this. We have seen evidence that it now no longer works with the contractor in question. It also offered compensation and apologised for the distress it had caused to the resident. While these were reasonable steps to take, the compensation offered did not reflect the full impact on the resident and the landlord did not acknowledge its failure to offer temporary alternative solution.
19. The landlord’s compensation policy gives an example very similar to this situation. It states that it will offer £200 goodwill gesture for no heating for 2 weeks over the Christmas period. The resident was without heating and hot water for 5 weeks over the Christmas period and the New Year. The landlord did not reflect this it’s the remedy offered and given the higher impact during these months it could have applied its discretion.
20. The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) 7.2 states that “any remedy offered must reflect the impact on the resident as a result of any fault identified”. Landlords are expected to adhere to the Code’s prescriptions.
21. In this case the compensation of £304 was insufficient. The resident was left without heating and hot water or any temporary solution for 5 weeks during the winter months, including Christmas and New Year. The landlord did not appropriately apply its compensation policy and consider the impact on the resident.

Determination

22. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in respect of the handling of repairing the resident’s boiler.

Orders and recommendations

23. The landlord is ordered to pay the resident a total of £454 compensation (including £304 which it offered during its complaint process), comprised of:
    1. £304 offered during its complaints process for loss of amenities and delays if not paid already.
    2. Additional £150 for the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident due to no heating and hot water during the Christmas period.
24. The landlord must provide evidence of compliance within 4 weeks of the date of this report.