Onward Homes Limited (202221547)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202221547

Onward Homes Limited

19 April 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. The Ombudsman has investigated the landlord’s complaint handling in a complaint about roof leaks.

Background and summary of events

2. The resident was the leaseholder of a three-bedroom penthouse flat in a development consisting of 8 blocks. It was not disputed that the landlord was responsible for the roof and balconies, subject to payment of service charges by the landlord and whether this was a defect covered by warranty.
3. On 23 June 2022, the resident reported a leak into the corridor of his block.
4. In August 2023, there was a discussion about investigating the roof. A thermal scan was carried out on 16 August 2022 which identified a number of faults. The resident chased the report on 31 August 2022 and continued to chase. On 13 September 2022, the landlord informed the resident that there were several issues on the roof. The report advised it would need to replace the roofs in two blocks to stop the leaks. It had arranged for a full roof scan to all the blocks at to confirm whether the issues were affecting all the roofs which would determine whether the roofs would need to be replaced. It would then start the next stage of obtaining prices before carrying out a “section 20” consultation.
5. On 14 September 2022, the resident made a complaint regarding the lack of communication in regard to the roof survey of his block. The landlord had received some funding from NHBC in 2018. He asked for an update.
6. According to an internal email 17 October 2022, a further inspection took place on 6 October 2022. The resident confirmed there had been no water ingress to his property. The landlord was to consider major works in future. At that stage, the landlord saw no value in sharing the roofing report with leaseholders without a plan of works provisionally agreed. It had appointed contractors to undertake a temporary roof repair across the scheme. Water had been leaking from the balcony into the flat below. It had identified the cause. There had been a £4,000 previous repair funded by the NHBC. It was to appoint the contractors to undertake a temporary repair. It would update the resident that week after a further visit with the contractor had taken place.
7. The landlord wrote to the resident with a letter dated 18 November 2022. Judging by the date of the resident’s response, it appears that was not the correct date. It offered £50 in relation to its delay in its response.
8. On 20 October 2022, the resident wrote as follows:
   1. There was still no clarity to a number of issues including the date of the inspection of the balcony, timescales for the works to the balcony and temporary repair.
   2. He had been chasing “for the past 18 months” to resolve these issues. There had been a number of inspections of his balcony. The leak had caused him “significant distress”.
   3. He therefore declined the offer of £50 as these issues had not sufficiently progressed.
9. On 4 November 2022, the resident chased a response to his complaint, as well as dates for the works.
10. On 19 December 2022, the landlord acknowledge the complaint and offered £50 for delay in escalating the complaint. It would respond by 23 January 2023.
11. On 21 January 2023, the landlord wrote with its Stage 2 response as follows:
    1. The resident had asked to escalate the complaint because of the time taken to provide a resolution.
    2. Works were to be progressed to the balcony roof “as quickly as possible” and to commence on 6 February 2023. It was to undertake a full survey of all the balconies.
    3. It apologised for the time taken to respond to the resident’s complaint.
    4. It thanked him for his patience whilst it investigated his concerns.
    5. It offered £200 as compensation “in recognition” of the “delays and inconvenience”.
12. On 29 January 2023, the resident wrote that he was satisfied that his complaint had resulted in serious actions being taken. He accepted the landlord’s offer of £200. He offered to provide any additional information about payment. He said he believed that the landlord had his bank details and asked the landlord to include a specific reference in the payment.
13. The landlord wrote again on 21 February 2023 and 8 March 2023 chasing his email 29 January 2023
14. By 18 March 2023, the roof had been repaired.
15. On 31 March 2023, the resident reported a further leak, which was addressed in July 2023. On 26 July 2023, the resident wrote to this Service stating he was unhappy with the delays.
16. The landlord undertook remedial repairs which appeared to have been resolved in October 2023.
17. On 4 April 2024, this Service made enquiries from both parties for further information. On the same day, the resident informed this Service that he had still not received payment of the £200. He said he had previously contacted several individuals of the landlord including its Property Investment and Maintenance Director on 18 March 2023.
18. On 10 April 2024, the landlord informed this Service that it had not made payment because “there is no record that the resident accepted this and so the payment has not been made”. 

Scope of this Investigation.

19. The landlord’s internal complaints procedure was concluded on 21 January 2023. In some circumstances, the Ombudsman will consider events post conclusion to that procedure. In this case, there was a further roof leak. This may or may not be connected to the initial leak. There was also a delay to remedial works to the communal areas affected. The Ombudsman has concluded that it would not be fair to either party to investigate these events when the landlord has not had the opportunity to address the resident’s dissatisfaction. In the circumstances, this report will investigate events up to 21 January 2023. It is open to the resident to make a further complaint to the landlord about the events that took place in 2023, following the conclusion of this complaint.
20. The resident has stated that he is satisfied with the offer of £200 made by the landlord but was concerned payment has not been made and the landlord did not “honour” its offer. He asked this Service to investigate the non-payment. The Ombudsman will therefore investigate the landlord’s complaint handling.

Assessment and findings

21. It is noted that the landlord offered £50 in relation to the delay to the Stage 1 response and £50 for the delay in escalating the complaint. Delays in the complaints process delay resolution and do not demonstrate that the landlord has taken the resident’s issues seriously. They compound the initial issue. Both delays were of approximately two months. It was positive that the landlord recognised its own failings and promptly apologised and offered compensation. The Ombudsman considers those offers were reasonable. While the resident did not report that was the case, there was no evidence that the landlord made those payments. As a matter of caution, the Ombudsman will make an order that those payments are made, if the landlord has not done so already.
22. The evidence showed that the resident accepted and chased payment of the £200 offered in January 2023. The Ombudsman is concerned that the landlord did not adhere to its offer, that it did not properly check its records or respond to the resident’s acceptance of the offer and his chaser emails. This gave the impression that the landlord did not take the matter sufficiently seriously. It also impacted on the resident’s sense of confidence in the landlord. It incurred the resident in further time and trouble in addition to the frustration he had undergone in chasing information about the roof leaks. It did not demonstrate that the landlord had learned from the resident’s complaint about its lack of communication.
23. In the circumstances, the Ombudsman finds service failure in relation to the landlord’s complaint handling.

Determination (decision)

24. In accordance with Paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in relation to the landlord’s complaint handling.

Reasons

25. The landlord failed to pay the resident the payment of £200 it had offered in January 2023, despite the resident accepting the payment and subsequently chasing it.

Orders

26. The Ombudsman makes the following orders:
    1. Within 4 weeks, the landlord should pay the resident £400 in relation to its complaint handling, including the £300 that it had already offered, and comprising of as follows:
       1. £50 in relation to its delay to Stage 1 response, if it has not been already paid.
       2. £50 in relation to its delay in escalating the complaint to Stage 2 response, if it has not been already paid.
       3. £200 offered to the resident on 21 January 2023.
       4. £100 in relation to its overall complaint handling.
27. The landlord should confirm compliance with the above orders to the Housing Ombudsman Service within 4 weeks of this report.

Recommendations

28. The Ombudsman makes the following recommendations:
    1. The landlord should review its record keeping in the lights of the findings of this report.
29. The landlord should notify the Ombudsman of its intentions regarding these recommendations within 4 weeks of this report.