Onward Homes Limited (202312839)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202312839

Onward Homes Limited

24 February 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

The complaint is about:
1. The landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for a management move or a decant following his reports of a leaking soil pipe in the property.
2. The landlord’s response to a letter from the resident’s specialist nurse regarding the condition of the property.
3. The landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Background

The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord and moved into his current property on 10 December 2018. The resident has ongoing medical and mental health issues of which the landlord is aware.
The property is a one-bedroom, ground floor flat.
Following a determination by the Ombudsman on 15 March 2023 under case reference 202201976, the landlord wrote to the resident on 6 April 2023 to comply with the orders made in the report. The landlord’s letter provided information about its criteria for a management move and how the criteria had been applied to the resident’s request for a management move.
During May 2023, the resident and the landlord exchanged correspondence regarding his request for a management move. The resident requested further clarification about the criteria. He said his health had been at risk because of various repairs, including reports of a leaking soil pipe and he had provided the landlord with evidence confirming his medical health condition.
After contacting the Ombudsman, the resident wrote to the landlord on 22 June 2023 and requested the landlord to log a new stage one complaint regarding its management move policy. He stated that his increased risk of infection had warranted a management move or a decant due to the leaking soil pipe. The landlord replied on 5 July 2023 and stated:
1. That the previous determination by the Ombudsman had covered the resident’s request for an emergency transfer.
2. The landlord confirmed it had written to the resident on 6 April 2023 to comply with the Ombudsman’s orders and, as a result, the Ombudsman had closed the case.
3. The landlord confirmed it would not log a further stage one complaint as its complaint resolution policy stated that a request for information or an explanation of policy or practice was not considered to be a complaint. The landlord also said it would not log a new complaint because its decision not to offer the resident an emergency transfer had been considered by the Ombudsman and the case was now closed.
On 25 July 2023, the resident’s specialist nurse wrote to the landlord regarding concerns about the condition of the property and the impact this might have on the resident’s health. The landlord replied to the resident on 8 September 2023 and confirmed it had assessed the medical information. The landlord stated that the information related to the same issue on which the resident had previously requested an emergency transfer. The landlord offered to inspect the property for any outstanding repairs as the resident had advised one of the landlord’s housing officers that there were outstanding repair issues affecting his health.

Assessment and findings

Jurisdiction

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
On 15 March 2023, the Ombudsman issued a determination under case reference 202201976. The investigation had included the landlord’s response to the resident’s request for a managed move. Paragraph 42.l. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states: “The Ombudsman may not consider complaints, which in the Ombudsman’s opinion…seek to raise again matters which the Housing Ombudsman, or any other Ombudsman has already decided upon”.
In relation to the reported leak to the soil pipe, paragraph 42.e. of the Scheme states: “The Ombudsman may not consider complaints, which in the Ombudsman’s opinion…concern matters where a complainant has or had the opportunity to raise the subject matter of the complaint as part of legal proceedings”. In this case, a leak to the soil stack and other leaks were reported to the landlord in 2019-2020 and were part of a legal disrepair claim, which was concluded in September 2020. The resident has advised this Service that the soil pipe leak was resolved in 2020-2021.
Therefore, after carefully considering all the evidence, in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the following aspect of the complaint is considered to be outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction on the basis of paragraphs 42.e. and 42.l. of the Scheme:
1. The landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for a management move or a decant following his reports of a leaking soil pipe in the property.

Scope of investigation

The landlord sent its final reply on 5 July 2023 in response to the resident’s request on 22 June 2023 for it to log a new stage one complaint. The resident’s specialist nurse wrote to the landlord on 25 July 2023 and the landlord replied on 8 September 2023. Although these latter events occurred after the landlord’s final response on 5 July 2023 to the resident’s request for a complaint to be logged, the Ombudsman considers it fair and reasonable to consider the landlord’s response up to and including its letter dated 8 September 2023. This is because the landlord had a reasonable opportunity to respond in full to the information it had received from the resident’s specialist nurse.
The resident wrote to the landlord on 22 June 2023 and said that the landlord had placed him at risk at the time he had reported a soil pipe leak due to his medical condition. This Service is unable to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. This would be better dealt with as a personal injury claim through the courts. The resident may wish to consider taking independent legal advice if he wishes to pursue this option.

The landlord’s response to a letter from the resident’s specialist nurse regarding the condition of the property

The landlord’s emergency transfer procedure states: “The Neighbourhood Delivery Manager is responsible for assessing and approving or declining emergency transfer applications…”.
The resident’s specialist Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) nurse wrote to the landlord on 25 July 2023 and stated the following:
1. She had been advised by the resident that his property was substandard, there were defective waste pipes in the property and the property condition was increasing his anxiety.
2. The resident’s medical condition meant he was more susceptible to opportunistic infection.
3. The nurse stated that the standard of the resident’s property was putting his health at risk “immensely” and therefore the landlord should bring the accommodation up to standard as this may be causing his health to worsen.
4. She stated that if the resident is exposed to certain bacteria, his condition would worsen and this could be fatal, leading to “severe surgeries” or even life-threatening sepsis.
5. The nurse said she would be happy to discuss her letter with the landlord and said she had written in order to help the resident secure good quality living accommodation.
6. The nurse concluded by saying that the resident’s medical and mental health would be assisted if the landlord repaired and maintained the property.
After receiving the letter dated 25 July 2023 from the specialist nurse, the landlord responded to the letter on 8 September 2023. It had therefore taken the landlord approximately 6 weeks to respond to the resident regarding the nurse’s letter. It was a shortcoming on the landlord’s part that it had not responded to the resident sooner as the letter stated that the resident was anxious about the potential impact of the property condition on his health.
The landlord stated the following in its reply dated 8 September 2023:
1. It had assessed the information and found it related to the same issues for which the resident had previously requested an emergency move and about which the landlord had responded.
2. The landlord said it understood from the resident’s conversation and correspondence with the housing officer that there were outstanding repairs which were causing a risk to his health.
3. The landlord said that its housing officer had offered to arrange an inspection of the property to enable the landlord to identify any repairs and to arrange any necessary works.
4. The landlord said it would encourage the resident to allow the inspection as it was keen to ensure that any outstanding repairs were addressed. He should therefore contact the housing officer to book an appointment for the inspection if he wanted it to go ahead.
The specialist nurse’s letter did not specifically recommend a management move and instead focussed on the landlord repairing and maintaining the property. It was therefore reasonable for the landlord to suggest an inspection by its repairs staff. The inspection would enable the landlord to identify and then deal with any outstanding repairs.
Although the letter from the specialist nurse did not specifically request a management move or emergency transfer, the landlord was aware that the resident had previously requested such a move. Therefore, it was reasonable for the landlord to have assessed the information and commented on whether the letter provided any new information in relation to his previous application for an emergency transfer.
Under the landlord’s emergency transfer procedure, the Neighbourhood Delivery Manager is responsible for assessing applications for an emergency transfer. It was therefore appropriate that the assessment had been carried out by the Neighbourhood Delivery Manager and that he had responded to the resident on 8 September 2023.
The Ombudsman’s view is therefore that the landlord responded reasonably to the specialist nurse’s letter and there was no maladministration. The delay in the landlord responding to the letter did not materially affect the landlord’s decision or the final outcome for the resident.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint

The landlord operates a two stage complaints process, which states that it will respond to stage one complaints within 10 working days and stage two complaints within 20 working days.
The policy gives examples of enquiries that it will not treat as a complaint, one of which is “a request for information or an explanation of policy or practice”.
The policy also states: “If a complaint has previously been reviewed under our complaint resolution policy, unless new and/or additional information has been provided, we reserve the right to terminate the investigation and close the complaint. We will always notify the complainant if this is the case”.
The resident contacted the landlord on 22 June 2023 and asked the landlord to log a new stage one complaint about its managed move policy. He requested the landlord to provide clarification on its definition of “life threatening” in relation to the policy. He said he had spoken to the Ombudsman and had been advised to do so.
The landlord responded to the resident on 5 July 2023 and stated that it would not log a new complaint because:
1. Its complaint resolution policy stated that a request for information or an explanation about a policy was not considered to be a complaint.
2. It had already provided the resident with information about the criteria for an emergency transfer in compliance with the Ombudsman’s orders.
The landlord’s complaint resolution policy states that a request for information about a policy is not considered to be a complaint. Therefore, as the resident had requested information about the landlord’s policy, it was reasonable for the landlord to advise the resident that it would not treat his email as a formal complaint.
Furthermore, the Ombudsman has noted that the landlord’s complaint resolution policy states that it reserves the right to terminate an investigation and close a complaint if a complaint has previously been reviewed under the policy. Therefore, as the landlord had previously responded to a stage 2 complaint regarding the resident’s request for a management move (on 7 October 2021), it was reasonable for the landlord to refuse to log a new complaint about a management move. The decision was in line with the Ombudsman’s complaint handling code, which says “matters that have previously been considered under the complaints policy” may be excluded from the complaints process.
The landlord had written to the resident on 6 April 2023 and 19 May 2023 with information about the criteria for an emergency transfer. Therefore, it was also reasonable for the landlord to advise the resident that it had complied with the Ombudsman’s order to provide this information.
The resident requested the landlord to log a complaint on 22 June 2023 and the landlord sent its response on 5 July 2023. The landlord therefore took 9 working days to respond to the resident’s request. The time taken was reasonable as the landlord responded within the 10-working day timescale for replying to stage one complaints, even though the resident’s request was not treated as a complaint.

Determination

In accordance with paragraphs 42.l. and 42.e. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for a management move or a decant following his reports of a leaking soil pipe in the property is outside the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its response to a letter from the resident’s specialist nurse regarding the condition of the property.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s complaint.

Recommendation

The landlord should write to the resident to reoffer an appointment to inspect the property for any repairs that may be needed.