Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) (202119317)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202119317

Notting Hill Genesis (NHG)

17 September 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

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
1. Rent account.
2. Request to keep a pet.
3. Complaint.

Background

The resident is a tenant of the landlord with the tenancy beginning September 1997. The property is a 1-bedroom flat. The landlord has said it had no recorded vulnerabilities in relation to the resident and her weekly rent is £125.59.
The resident’s tenancy agreement specifies that rent payments are due weekly in advance on the Monday of each week. This also included a fixed payment towards service charge. The rent is subject to review each year.
The resident contacted the landlord on 21 January 2022 requesting that rent statements were sent to her every quarter. She also wanted to know if she could keep a cat. The landlord has evidenced that it left a message for the resident on 26 January 2022.
The resident made several calls to the landlord to between 28 January 2022 and 7 April 2022 regarding rent arrears and requested her rent statement be sent more regularly. Around the same time, there was confusion as to who her housing officer was, and she advised the landlord she did not have access to the internet.
On 20 June 2022 the resident was sent a letter in relation to her rent being overdue. The rent statement showed the arrears to be £460.33.
On 30 June 2022 the resident requested to raise a formal complaint as she said she could not see any discrepancies with her rent account and requested that statements were sent to her more regularly than annually.
The landlord responded at stage 1 on 15 August 2022 and provided the resident with a rent statement with entries that it said showed where the rent arrears occurred. Furthermore, it would supply “semi regular” statements as per the resident’s request. It also requested to arrange a visit to “maintain open communication”.
On 30 August 2022 the resident requested to escalate her complaint to stage 2. She said that:
1. She was originally told the rent arrears occurred in October/November 2021. However, she had receipts for this payment.
2. She had telephoned in relation to the rent arrears but had no response.
3. She was also told “over the phone” that the rent arrears were from June 2022.
4. She requested quarterly rent statements.
On 7 September 2022 the landlord responded to the resident’s escalation request, however this does not appear to be a formal response. It said that:
1. It had discussed the issue in the past and acknowledged at stage 1 that the resident was making the correct payments towards her rent and her rent account was correct.
2. She had been making irregular payments on occasions.
3. The resident would continue to receive “automated letters” until her account was in credit. It said it could not do anything about this as it was a “system generated process”.
4. It again requested to arrange a time for to visit her.
On 8 September 2022 the landlord sent the resident a letter in relation to rent arrears. The resident sent a letter on 20 September 2022 saying that she received another “bullying letter”. She went on to say that:
1. She was first told that the rent arrears “go back to October/November 2021 and then to June 2022”.
2. The rent statements “do not make logical sense”.
3. Why did the landlord wait 2 years before informing her of the “£400” rent arrears.
4. She did not receive a response regarding her request to keep a cat.
The landlord sent its stage 2 response on 24 October 2022. It said that:
1. The complaint was reviewed by an independent manager.
2. It apologised if the resident felt harassed by the chasing of the rent arrears.
3. It wanted to arrange a home visit to discuss the inadequate response and any other issues the resident had.
4. It offered the resident £100 compensation broken down into:
  1. £50 for any inconvenience of raising the complaint
  2. £50 for the lack of clarity.
The resident’s complaint was accepted by this Service on 26 January 2024. She said that she would like her rent account reviewed to see why she was in arrears and asked that the landlord provide her rent statements more frequently than annually.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

The resident handbook says that:
1. The tenancy agreement will let residents know how much the rent is at the start of the tenancy. “This figure will change as we review your rent yearly”.
2. Residents must pay the rent each week or month in advance dependent on the terms of the tenancy agreement and they “must make sure your rent account balance is always one week in credit”.
3. It is a resident’s responsibility to make sure that the rent is paid regularly and on time.
4. At least once a year, the landlord will send residents a statement of what they have paid. Residents should check these against their own record of payments and raise any questions with the housing officer.
5. Residents will receive an automatic notification by text when the landlord has not received a payment.
6. If a resident has rent arrears (missed payments) and cannot pay these straight away, they may be able to make an arrangement to pay the arrears over a period of time.
The residential rents policy says that for all rent reviews, tenants are provided with one months’ notice of the new rent amount and effective date in writing.
The landlord’s website says that if a resident is having difficulty paying rent arrears, they should “tell the housing officer right away” and “may be able to make an arrangement to pay them over a period of time”.
The resident’s tenancy agreement section 3.7 under pets says:
1. Residents are to obtain the written consent of the landlord before keeping a dog or any other animal which might cause a nuisance to neighbours.
The landlord’s pet procedure says that:
1. If a resident requests permission to have a pet by contacting the Local Officer, the Local Officer will need to log the request on its systems.
2. The landlord should check the conditions of the tenancy agreement to determine whether or not permission can be granted.
3. The landlord should grant permission to all reasonable requests provided:
  1. The tenancy agreement does not prohibit the resident from keeping a pet.
  2. The property is suitable for the pet, for example the size of the property.
4. It should send a “Pet permission letter” to the resident informing them of the decision as soon as possible, usually within 14 days of the request being made.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s rent account.

It has been evidenced that the resident was in rent arrears during November 2021. The rent statement of 15 November 2021 shows the arrears to be £351.30 and the weekly rent to be £112.63. Whilst the resident has an obligation to pay her rent in accordance with the terms of the tenancy agreement, the landlord has an implied obligation to manage her rent account effectively and to have appropriate systems in place to enable it to do so.
The resident contacted the landlord 6 times between 21 January 2022 and 11 March 2022. The landlord responded 3 times leaving messages for the resident. However, it failed to provide details as to the content of the messages, meaning we are unable to conclude what action it took when responding to the resident.
On 11 March 2022 the resident advised the landlord she did not have access to the internet. Despite this, the landlord emailed her on 14 and 25 March 2022. This was not appropriate as the landlord would have been aware she would not be able to access the emails.
On 7 April 2022 the resident contacted the landlord requesting quarterly rent statements. The case notes say the landlord spoke with the resident over the phone and sent the most recent rent statement. Whilst it was appropriate that the landlord discussed the rent arrears with the resident, it took 76 days from her initial inquiry (21 January 2022) before she received a meaningful response.
The resident contacted the landlord on 30 June 2022 requesting to raise a formal complaint. The landlord sent its stage 1 response on 15 August 2022. It provided the resident with a rent statement and said it would like to arrange a visit to the resident in order to “maintain open communication”.
It was resolution focused to offer the resident a visit. A visit to the resident would be an opportunity to clearly explain where the rent arrears occurred, showing the documented evidence to her and allowing her to clarify any discrepancies.
Nevertheless, the response did not clearly outline to the resident where the rent arrears occurred, instead it said it had “discussed in the past” and directed the resident to look at the rent statement for “irregular” payments. Also, it did not address her concerns in relation to “a missing payment”. This was not appropriate.
Furthermore, the statements provided to this Service, only show the account in arrears. They do not show the first failed payment which caused her rent account to fall into arrears.
In order to clearly show the resident when the arrears began, the landlord should have also provided the resident with the statements just prior to arrears, when the account was in credit to demonstrate the point at which the first failed payment occurred.
On 30 August 2022 the resident requested to escalate her complaint to stage 2 as she was given conflicting information as to when the rent arrears occurred. She said she was first advised the arrears occurred in October/November 2021 and then she was advised it was June 2022.
The landlord sent its stage 2 response on 24 October 2022, apologising if the resident felt harassed by the chasing of arrears. It went on to accept that it had not explained matters clearly and offered the resident a total of £100 compensation.
Overall, the landlord failed to demonstrate it thoroughly investigated the circumstances of the rent arrears. The resident had said she was given conflicting information and the final response did not clearly outline where the rent arrears occurred.
The landlord’s website says residents should tell it “right away” if there are problems paying rent arrears. Nevertheless, whilst she raised concerns, it took 76 days to properly respond to her concerns of 21 January 2022.
Although the landlord sent the resident a rent statement in April 2022, it did not make an attempt to contact her until the arrears of 20 June 2022. While it is acknowledged that the resident was aware of the arrears, she had tried numerous times to clarify the arrears without any meaningful support from the landlord. This caused the resident distress.
The landlord had accepted that it had not explained matters clearly and offered £100 compensation. However this was not sufficient to put things right given the issue was ongoing for 5 months before she raised a complaint. Given these findings, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s rent account and £250 compensation has been awarded.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s request to keep a pet

The resident contacted the landlord on 21 January 2022 with the case notes saying she “would like to know if she can get a cat or not”. The case notes for 26 January 2022 say the landlord returned the call by leaving a message. No further details were provided as to the content of the message. This means we are unable to conclude what action it took when responding to the resident.
It is at this point the landlord should have logged the request on its system as per its policy. However, no evidence has been provided to demonstrate that this happened, which is not appropriate and contrary to its pet procedure.
The resident contacted the landlord on 20 September 2022 saying that she had previously asked for permission to keep a cat “but did not receive a response”.
Whilst the resident did not directly raise the matter as part of her stage 1 or as part of her escalation request to stage 2, she raised it prior to the landlord’s final response. Furthermore, the landlord acknowledged it in its stage 2 response. It outlined the resident ‘s concerns as “the lack of response regarding a previous request to keep a cat”. Despite this acknowledgement, it failed to respond to this point in its stage 2 response. This was not appropriate.
Furthermore, the landlord had not evidenced that it considered the request separately from the complaint, or confirmed with the resident that this was still something she wanted permission for. This was unfair to the resident.
The landlord’s pet procedure says following a request for a pet, the landlord should send a “pet permission letter” usually within 14 days of the request. The landlord failed to respond or provide a decision to the resident’s request of 21 January 2022 and her further request of 20 September 2022. This was not appropriate and contrary to its pet procedure.
There were no conditions outlined in the resident’s tenancy agreement that would prohibit her from keeping a pet, and even if there were, the landlord should have provided a decision either way.
In summary the landlord failed twice to respond to the resident’s request to keep a pet and thus failed to adhere to its pet procedure. Furthermore, it had delayed the resident in being able to keep a pet, which was unfair.
Therefore, there was maladministration by the landlord for its handling of the resident’s request to keep a pet and £100 compensation has been awarded. This is broken down into £50 for each failed response to her requests.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint

The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) sets out requirements for member landlords that will allow them to respond to complaints effectively and fairly. The purpose of the Code is to enable landlords to resolve complaints raised by their residents quickly. Also, to use the data and learning from complaints to drive service improvements.
The Code (April 2022) required landlords to respond at stage 1 within 10 working days of the resident’s complaint and to respond at stage 2 within 20 working days of the resident’s escalation request.
The resident sent a letter to the landlord on 30 June 2022 requesting to raise a formal complaint in relation to rent arrears. It has been evidenced that the landlord raised a formal complaint for the resident on 3 August 2022. This was 24 working days later and not appropriate.
The landlord sent its stage 1 response on 15 August 2022, which was 32 working days later and well outside of the timescale outlined in the code and the landlord’s complaint policy.
The resident requested to escalate her complaint to stage 2 on 30 August 2022. The landlord responded on 7 September 2022, but this was not a formal stage 2 response. This service complaint handling code says, “it is not appropriate to have extra named stages (such as ‘stage 0’ or ‘informal complaint’) as this causes unnecessary confusion.” It goes on to say that “a process with more than two stages is not acceptable under any circumstances as this will make the complaint process unduly long and delay access to the Ombudsman.”
The landlord’s complaint policy says it has a 2-stage complaint process. However, the informal response of 7 September 2022 was an additional stage and delayed progressing the complaint to the next stage of the complaint process.
The resident wrote 2 further letters to the landlord on 20 September 2022 and 19 October 2022 expressing her dissatisfaction. Yet a formal response was not provided at stage 2 until 24 October 2022, which was 38 working days later. Again, the response was sent significantly outside of the timescale outlined in the code and the landlord’s complaint policy.
In summary, the complaint responses were sent significantly outside of its 10-working day and 20 working day policy timescale. It was unfair to the resident that the landlord failed to adhere to its complaint policy with both responses being late, causing the resident distress and inconvenience.
The landlord failed to apologise for both delayed complaint responses and did not offer any compensation to put things right. As evidenced above there was maladministration by the landlord in its complaint handling. £150 compensation has been awarded to reflect the impact experienced by the resident.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was maladministration with the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
1. Rent account.
2. Request to keep a pet.
3. Complaint.

Orders

Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, the landlord is ordered to take the following action and provide the Ombudsman with evidence of compliance with these orders:
Pay directly to the resident compensation totalling £500 made up of:
1. £250 for the distress and inconvenience caused to her in relation to the landlord’s handling of her rent account. This can be reduced by the £100 previously offered to the resident if already paid.
2. £100 for the distress and inconvenience caused to her in relation to the landlord’s handling of her request to keep a pet.
3. £150 in recognition for the distress and inconvenience in relation to its response to the resident’s complaint.
The landlord to write to the resident to apologise for the service failures identified in this report, in line with this service’ apologies guidance. https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/centre-for-learning/key-topics/our-orders/apologies-guidance/
Write to the resident and this service providing a clear breakdown and explanation of how the rent arrears occurred. This should be accompanied with supporting evidence and not simply rent statements.
Offer to meet with the resident to go through the explanation in person and respond to any queries she has.
If appropriate, offer the resident the opportunity to pay the rent arrears off via a payment plan or similar.
Contact the resident to ascertain if she requires permission to keep a pet. Ensuring that a decision is provided in writing within its procedure timescale. A copy of the decision letter should also be provided to this service.
The Landlord should consider carrying out staff training in relation to the structure of rent accounts, so staff can provide accurate information to residents when requested.
The landlord should utilise the Housing Ombudsman’s Centre of Learning and give consideration to arranging staff attendance to its workshop on complaint handling.