One Housing Group Limited (202301094)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202301094

One Housing Group Limited

7 November 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

1. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of lack of heating and hot water.
2. The Ombudsman has also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

3. The resident is a leaseholder since 2010. The property is a 3-bedroom flat within a block, where the resident lives with his partner. The hot water and heating is supplied by a district heating system. This is managed by the freeholder who is a private company. However, the landlord is responsible for arranging the repairs to the district heating system.
4. The resident pays for hot water as part of his service charge. The flat has a heating interface unit (HIU) installed. It acts as a bridge between the central boiler and the flat to manage the heating and hot water. The landlord has said that leaseholders are responsible for arranging a heating engineer for issues within their flats.
5. The landlord is responsible for arranging the repair to the district heating system. The energy to the building is provided by an Energy Centre. This is managed by the energy company and is owned by the local authority which supplies the heating and hot water to the building.
6. On 6 June 2022, the resident reported to the landlord he had no hot water. Due to an access issue the landlord’s contractor attended on 17 June 2022. In a letter from the landlord dated 23 June 2022 the resident was offered compensation of £46 in respect of loss of hot water for one week. It reported the HIU was fully operational.
7. The resident reported again that he had no hot water on 27 October 2022.
8. During work by the water supplier a gas leak occurred. This caused the block to lose heating and hot water on 31 October 2022. The landlord arranged temporary heaters for residents. It kept the resident updated via email. That day it made staff available at the community centre during the afternoon and evening. On 1 November 2022, the landlord’s contractor also located a water leak during its own investigations. It arranged hot water urns and directed the resident to a leisure facility for showering facilities. The landlord explained to residents, it would reimburse for the loss of hot water, heating, and use of the leisure centre. On 30 November 2022 heating and hot water was restored after the gas pipe was replaced.
9. On 1 December 2022, the resident reported a loss of hot water. On 2 December, the landlord sent an emergency contractor to the block. On 4 December 2022, the resident made a complaint about the loss of hot water. He explained he had not received hot water for 3 weeks in 2022. The resident also complained about the landlord’s emergency lines not being open outside normal hours. He said he waited 30 minutes without any response.
10.  On 5 December, the landlord sent a contractor to the block.
11. The landlord contacted the resident on the 8 and 12 December 2022, to tell him it was aware of an issue with of the heating and hot water. It sent a contractor to attend both times to the block. This Service has not been provided with records of what the issue was.
12. On 14 December 2022, the resident contacted the landlord explaining he still had no hot water. The landlord informed him that a contractor would attend but records show a contractor did not attend that day. The resident complained to the landlord on 15 December about ongoing issues relating to his heating and hot water. On 19 December 2022, the landlord’s contractor attended the resident’s property and found the HIU was operating satisfactorily.
13. The landlord issued a stage 1 response to the resident on 18 January 2023. It said:
    1. A gas leak and water leak affected the heating and hot water for the block.
    2. It was aware of several outages in service due to faults found in the district heating system.
    3. The company that managed the district heating system would be contacting the resident about compensation.
    4. It acknowledged it could have acted more quickly to offer temporary fan heaters as an alternative heat source, following the earlier leaks from pipework.
14. On 19 January 2023, the resident escalated his complaint. He wanted the landlord to consider his lack of hot water prior to 31 October 2022. The resident requested £500 for the lack of hot water for 2 months.
15. On 16 February 2023, the landlord issued a stage 2 response. It said:
    1. It was unable to uphold the resident’s complaint.
    2. The water company arranged repairs, and the heating was restored on 19 December 2022.
    3. It cannot conclude that the resident was without hot water for 60 days.
    4. It considered it had acted on the resident’s reports within target timeframes.

Assessment and findings

Scope of Investigation

16. The resident raised complaints about loss of heating and hot water in May 2022 and January 2024. However, we have seen no evidence these complaints exhausted the landlord’s complaints procedure. This investigation will therefore focus on concerns raised between June and December 2022, which the landlord considered in its stage 2 response of February 2023. If the resident remains dissatisfied with the response he receives, he can bring the complaint to us once he has exhausted the landlord’s complaints process.

Landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of lack of heating and hot water.

17. The landlord’s repair policy shows a loss of heating and hot water between the months of 1 October to 30 April will be treated as an emergency repair. Emergency repairs will be responded to within 4 hours. In the landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy it says if the heating system breaks down it is partially the responsibility of the leaseholder and the landlord. We have used the relevant elements of the policy in assessing this case. The landlord’s compensation policy shows it offers compensation at £3 per full day where a resident is without heating or hot water. The landlord’s compensation policy will only pay compensation payments for the temporary loss of heating or hot water which is within its control.
18. On 6 June 2022, the resident reported he had no hot water. The landlord acted reasonably in dealing with the resident’s hot water issue. It sent a contractor to attend within the appropriate timeframes as a good will gesture.
19. The landlord’s records show that some of the issues resulting in the loss of hot water and heating were outside its control. The cut gas pipe, third party engineers and issues with the energy supply. It undertook mitigation measures for the heating and hot water by providing hot water urns, providing temporary heaters, and making the leisure centre available. The landlord communicated frequently with the resident during this period. It also made staff available. This shows the landlord was taking a reasonable approach to mitigate the impact of the issue. Its action was appropriate in the circumstances.
20. The resident explained he had no heating or hot water for 60 days. However, there is limited evidence as to whether the resident was without heating and hot water for the whole 60 days. It is unclear if it worked intermittently during this time. During 31 October to 30 November 2022 the heating and hot water was affected due to a damaged gas pipe. The landlord took steps to communicate and provide emergency provisions for the resident. The landlord acknowledges it delayed getting emergency heaters. On 1 November 2022, the landlord’s explained it would reimburse the resident for the loss of hot water, heating and use of the leisure centre. However, it was unclear whether this happened. Where a landlord makes a commitment it important that this is acted on to maintain a positive landlord resident relationship.
21. The landlord updated the resident about the actions it was taking with the heating and hot water issues. However, the resident told the landlord he was unable to contact it through its emergency line due to the hours it provided the service and the waiting times. This caused the resident distress and frustration. The landlord acknowledged and apologised for this. This was a reasonable response by the landlord.
22. The resident raised concerns to the landlord on 27 October 2022 he had no hot water. As a leaseholder he was responsible to arrange a heating engineer for issues within his flat. We cannot see that the landlord communicated this to the resident at the time of this report. The landlord should have responded to the resident to inform him was responsible to arrange his own engineer. On 16 December the landlord attempted to remedy this by requesting an emergency call out. However, the contractor did not attend, and this added to the resident’s frustration. On 19 December 2022, a contractor attended and found no issues with HIU. The landlord’s communication with the resident about the hot water and heating was therefore not consistent and it failed to manage his expectations. This compounded the resident’s dissatisfaction with the landlord.
23. In relation to the failures identified, the Ombudsman’s role is to provide fair and proportionate remedies where maladministration or service failure has been identified. In considering this, the Ombudsman considers our Dispute Resolution Principles: Be Fair, Put Things Right and Learn from Outcomes as well as our own guidance on remedies.
24. The landlord acted reasonably in dealing with the gas supply being damaged, which affected the buildings heating and hot water. However, it failed to respond to the resident’s email on 27 October 2022. The landlord went some way in remedying this by sending out a contractor to the resident’s flat as a good will gesture. The landlord apologised to the resident, but it did not go far enough in putting things right in a timely manner. There were delays in communication and this had an impact on the resident. The landlord should have offered compensation. The Ombudsman finds there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the heating and hot water issue. Considering the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance and the landlord’s compensation policy which we have taken into consideration, the Ombudsman has awarded £100 compensation. This is for the landlord’s delays in its communication with the resident. Our calculation reflects the evidence both parties provided.

Complaint handling

25. The landlord has provided us with a copy of its formal complaint’s policy. The policy shows it must issue a full response to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days. Where these timescales are not possible, it will communicate this to the resident.
26. The formal complaint’s policy states it defines a complaint as ‘any expression of dissatisfaction however made.’ On 4 December 2022, the resident submitted a complaint form about not receiving hot water for 3 weeks. There is no evidence the landlord raised this matter as a complaint at this time. Given that the resident had submitted a complaint form, it should have done so. If it was in any doubt about whether he wanted to make a complaint it should reasonably have checked this.
27. The resident complained to the landlord again on 15 December 2022 and it responded on 18 January 2023. It took 19 working days to respond at stage 1 and more than 29 days since his complaint of 4 December 2022. If the landlord was unable to respond within its target response time, it should have reasonably communicated this to the resident. That it did not do so was a failing.
28. In its complaint response, the landlord did not acknowledge or apologise for the delay in its stage 1 complaint response. It should have done so. Not doing so was a further failing. It was also contrary to the Ombudsman’s complaint handling code. The landlord’s stage 2 was within the timeframe.
29. Overall, there was service failure in respect of the landlord’s complaint handling.

Determination

30. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was service failure by the landlord in respect of its response to the resident’s reports of lack of heating and hot water.
31. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was service failure by the landlord in respect of complaint handling.

Orders

32. The Ombudsman orders the landlord, within 4 weeks of the date of this report, to:
    1. Apologise to the resident for the failures identified in this report.
    2. Pay the resident £150 comprising of:
       1. £100 for the landlord’s handling of heating and hot water system
       2. £50 for the landlord’s complaint handling
    3. Provide evidence of compliance with the above to this Service.

Recommendations

33. The landlord’s offer of compensation to the resident on 1 November 2022 should be paid if this has not already been done.