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Decisions

All our decisions are published here as part of our commitment to being open and transparent. The decisions are anonymised so residents’ names are not used, but landlords are named. The decisions date from December 2020 and are published three months after the final decision date. In some cases we may decide not to publish a decision if it is not in the resident’s or landlord’s interest or the resident’s anonymity may be compromised. You can read more in our guidance on decisions.

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Lewes District Council (202341266)

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s: reports of damp and mould reports of repairs to the shed roof complaint

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) (202322448)

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of heating and hot water repairs in the resident’s property. The Ombudsman has also considered the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint as the landlord: Did not respond to the resident’s stage 1 complaint of 2 May 2023 until 17 May 2023 which was 1-working-day later than its 10-working-day complaint policy response timescale. Did not fully address the resident’s stage 1 complaint such as by explaining why it had been unable to repair the boiler repair for 17 days. Additionally it did not address the resident’s complaint about its level of communication. This was not in keeping with paragraph 5.6 of the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the ‘Code’) in use at the time (April 2022). This says landlords must address all points raised in the complaint. Did not say if it had upheld the stage 1 complaint in line with paragraph 5.8 of the Code which says that landlords must confirm the decision on the complaint, and any reasons for the decisions made. Incorrectly addressed its stage 2 acknowledgement letter of 2 October 2023 to a different person. Did not issue its response to the resident’s stage 2 complaint of 18 May 2023, until 6 October 2023. This was 80 working-days later than its 20-working-day complaint policy response timescale. Did not fully address the resident’s stage 2 complaint such as by addressing his reference to heating and hot water faults as hazards, and the landlord’s repair response timescales. This was not in keeping with paragraph 5.16 of the Code which says landlords must address all points raised in the complaint. Did not say if it had upheld the stage 2 complaint in line with paragraph 5.16 of the Code which says that landlords must confirm the decision on the complaint, and any reasons for the decisions made. The landlord reviewed its complaint handling in its final complaint response. It recognised that it should have handled its communication more effectively and sooner. It also recognised that its poor complaint handling was likely to have caused inconvenience to the resident and it offered him £100 as compensation. The landlord’s compensation procedure says that it may offer compensation if it did not respond to or process a complaint within agreed response times and did not comply with the Code. It was therefore right for it to offer an award of compensation in recognition of the likely impact this had on the resident. However, its award was low and not in keeping with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance which suggests a range of awards where, like here, we have found maladministration that the landlord has not proportionally addressed. We have ordered the landlord to provide a further compensation award of £75, totalling £175, below in keeping with our remedies guidance for the detriment that its complaint handling failings may have caused to the resident. The landlord has provided evidence to the Ombudsman that shows its compliance with our order for it to carry out a review of its practices, processes, and procedures. This followed our special investigation of the landlord under paragraph 49 of the Scheme and included its complaints handling. We have however ordered it to write to the resident to apologise for its poor complaint handling. We have also recommended it to review the learning from this case and consider whether there are any other issues arising from it that require further action.

London Borough of Croydon (202405183)

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of reports of damp and mould and associated repairs. The Ombudsman has also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.