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Peabody Trust (202305369)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202305369

Peabody Trust

29 October 2024


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about:

 

  1. the landlord’s response to the resident’s request for a copy of a legionella testing report.
  2. the landlord’s response to the resident’s request for a copy of a roof maintenance report.
  3. the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about staff conduct.
  4. The resident’s reports of systemic complaint handling issues.

 

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. 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.

 

  1. After carefully considering all the evidence, this Service has determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to investigate.

Summary of events

  1. The resident is the leaseholder of a shared ownership property. The resident has occupied the property since 2013. The property is a flat in a purpose-built block.

 

  1. The resident raised a complaint with the landlord on 14 August 2022 about its failure to provide her with copies of a legionella testing report from October 2021 and a roof maintenance report from April 2022.

 

  1. The landlord responded on 7 March 2023, but the resident was unhappy with its response as she said that it did not address all the points in her complaint. She asked the landlord to escalate her request to stage 2 on 18 March 2023.

 

  1. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 21 April 2023.

 

  1. The resident was unhappy with the outcome of her complaint and referred her complaint to this Service for investigation.

 

  1. Prior to this investigation, the Ombudsman issued a determination for case 202220504 which considered matters raised by the resident in her complaint of 14 August 2022 and her complaint escalation request of 18 March 2023. 

 

  1. In a report dated 14 May 2023, the Ombudsman ordered the landlord to apologise to the resident and to pay compensation in relation to its handling of requests for copies of reports and its complaint handling. We also ordered the landlord to review its complaint handling of this case and confirm with this Service how it intends to improve it.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 42.l. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that 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.
  2. After reviewing the determination made in the above case, the resident’s complaint regarding the request for maintenance reports, staff conduct, and the landlord’s complaint handling has already been investigated by this Service.
  3. Therefore, after carefully considering all the evidence, in accordance with paragraph 42.l. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the complaint is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to investigate.