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Peabody Trust (202308551)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202308551

Peabody Trust

11 March 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

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of outstanding repairs and damage to the property following a long term temporary move to carry out major repair works.
  2. We have also considered the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

Background

  1. The resident has occupied the property, a 2 bedroom house, with her daughter on an assured tenancy since 2004. She is diabetic and has mental health issues. In March 2022, she settled a disrepair claim with the landlord.
  2. In October 2022 the resident was moved in to long term temporary accommodation in order for repairs to be carried out at the property. She moved home in March 2023. On 14 April 2023 she complained about the poor quality of the workmanship, damage caused, and that some repairs remained outstanding.
  3. In the landlord’s stage 1 response of 23 May 2023, it apologised for the delay in responding and set out the work that had been completed. It accepted the resident was not happy and wanted to be compensated for damages. It asked her for a date when she would be available for repairs to be done but explained “the other things you mentioned regarding the sofa, the chairs, the flooring, I have no solid evidence that this was the contractors”. It said it would clean paint off the carpet and a glass table, but there was a limit to the items she was claiming. However, once the repair works were complete, it would consider how she should be compensated.
  4. On 14 August 2023 the landlord acknowledged the resident wanted the complaint escalated to stage 2. A surveyor assessed the reported issues on 15 September 2023 and the landlord issued its stage 2 response on 19 September 2023. It noted the resident had complained about: a damaged kitchen unit; paint on walls /ceiling; paint on windows; paint on the stairs carpet; smoke alarms not fitted; ripped kitchen flooring; drawers hitting the oven knob; and kitchen cupboards were not sealed.
  5. The landlord acknowledged the resident had raised another complaint in May 2023 as she had not received a response to the one she sent in April 2023. It noted she had been contacted on 9 June 2023 by her Case Manager and given the chance to talk through the details of the complaint. It apologised for the delay in addressing it and said it had fed back as it is not the level of service it should provide. It said she had agreed for the deadline for the stage 2 response to be extended to allow it time for the survey to take place. It offered £400 compensation as follows:
    1. £250 compensation for the time, trouble and inconvenience due to the length of time the repairs took and some visits not happening.
    2. £150 for issues with its complaint handling.
  6. The landlord recognised the resident had a disability and found it hard dealing with things and apologised for the inconvenience. It would feed back to the contractors to prevent the issue happening again. It said the resident was entitled to further compensation and it would review that once the repairs were complete.
  7. The resident told the landlord on 25 September 2023 that she was concerned about the level of compensation and she explained why she expected more. The landlord sent her a list of works it needed to complete on 2 October 2023 and it was agreed they would be completed on 25 and 26 October 2023.
  8. The resident confirmed on 31 October 2023 that all work had been completed, but said this had taken a year. The surveyor signed off the works on 16 November 2023.
  9. On 4 December 2023 the landlord increased the offer of compensation by £250, meaning the total offered was £650.The resident accepted the offer the same day and sent the landlord her bank details for payment.
  10. The resident made a new complaint to the landlord on 15 November 2024 about its handling of her reports of issues she was having with her kitchen.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident settled a disrepair claim with the landlord in March 2022 and factored in to that settlement was the resident being moved to temporary accommodation while repairs were carried out. This investigation has therefore focused on the period from March 2023 onwards, when the resident returned to the property and raised the concerns detailed above.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of outstanding repairs and damage to the property following a long term temporary move to carry out major repair works

  1. The landlord was notified in April 2023 that the resident was unhappy with a number of repairs and damage caused to her property. It said it could arrange someone to attend and on 22 July 2023 the resident specifically asked for a surveyor to attend and assess the outstanding repairs and workmanship.
  2. The landlord did arrange a surveyor, but this was not until 15 September 2023, 5 months after the resident first reported an issue. The landlord rightly recognised this delay was unacceptable. It also accepted it could have been more proactive in arranging an earlier appointment and that some previous visits did not happen. To remedy the time, trouble and inconvenience caused due to the length of time the repairs had taken, the landlord offered the resident £250 compensation. Having identified a shortfall in its service, offering compensation was certainly appropriate in the circumstances.
  3. The compensation was not accepted by the resident at that time. The landlord sent a list of outstanding repairs on 2 October 2023 which were to:
    1. Redecorate ceiling to front section of living room.
    2. Make good decorations (minor) to wall and skirting board to front section of living room
    3. Renew floor covering to kitchen.
    4. Replace smoke detector in Dining Room.
    5. Redecorate ceiling to Dining Room.
    6. Make good decorations to walls in Dining Room.
    7. Make good decorations to hallway walls on ground floor.
    8. Make good decorations (minor) to hallway ceiling on ground floor.
    9. Decorate skirting boards to staircase.
    10. Fill gap to window architrave and make good decorations to rear section of the living room.
  4. Once the work was finalised, the landlord reassessed the level of compensation offered, having been challenged by the resident. Again, this was appropriate, as it was now able to more accurately assess how inconvenienced the resident had been. It acknowledged that, for the period 26 to 30 October 2023, the resident suffered disruption and was unable to prepare meals. Therefore, it offered compensation of £100 (£10 twice a day (£20) over 5 days).
  5. In terms of room loss, the landlord said it was hard to track accurately what disruption there had been and explained it paid an allowance for that, but it only became effective after an initial 48 hour period. That would mean the resident would receive only a nominal reduction to her rent for that period. Therefore, instead, it offered a further £150 to compensate for the additional time, trouble and inconvenience. So, in total, the landlord offered an additional £250 compensation linked to the October 2023 works. It therefore offered a total of £500 compensation for the delays addressing the repair works.
  6. The landlord’s Responsive Repairs Policy says that non urgent scheduled repairs should be completed within 28 calendar days. It is clear that the additional repairs were not completed within that timeframe. The landlord took too long to carry out the works and its compensation policy says, where there has been extensive disruption, compensation of between £451 and £650 should be considered. It says it should consider paying a resident £10 a day per adult when they cannot prepare a meal. In addition, if a room is unusable when work is done, for each unusable room after 48 hours, a resident can receive a percentage of weekly rent, up to a maximum of 50%.
  7. The landlord correctly acknowledged the resident had issues preparing meals, so offered compensation in line with its policy. There was no evidence entire rooms were unusable for more than 48 hours but it recognised that, even if there were, a rent reduction for just 3 days would be minimal. Therefore, it took a sensible approach by offering a lump sum instead, which she accepted.
  8. The £500 compensation offered by the landlord to remedy this part of the complaint is in line with both its compensation policy and our remedies guidance. It recognises there was maladministration which adversely affected the resident temporarily. It also takes in to account that, although there were flaws in its service, it took steps to put the matter right. Therefore, we find that the landlord has made an offer which is reasonable and proportionate to resolve this part of the complaint.
  9. In terms of the further issues the resident has had with her kitchen, she has said these have come to light over time and have been reported to the landlord, but she is unhappy with the way they have been dealt with. As the resident confirmed in October 2023 that all repairs were complete and the complaint was settled on that basis, it is right that any additional issues she has identified are addressed by way of the new complaint put to the landlord in November 2024. In the event the resident exhausts the landlord’s 2 stage complaints process and remains unhappy, she has the option to raise a new complaint with us in the future. Therefore, we have not commented on these issues here.

The landlord’s handling of the complaint

  1. The landlord’s complaints policy says it will issue its stage 1 response within 10 working days and provide its stage 2 response within 20 working days, and that it should not exceed a further 10 days without good reason. If an extension beyond 10 working days is required, it should be agreed by both parties.
  2. The landlord took 26 working days to respond at stage 1, so it failed to comply with its obligations. However, it acknowledged this in its response and not only apologised, but sought to put things right by arranging for reparation works to be carried out. It proposed compensating the resident once the additional works were completed which was appropriate, as this would ensure it could then measure how much additional inconvenience she had suffered.
  3. After escalating the complaint to stage 2, the landlord took a little longer than the target 20 working days to respond, but it did manage resident’s expectations. It agreed with her that it would arrange a survey before issuing its response by 19 September 2023 and it complied with this time frame.
  4. The stage 2 response apologised for its complaint handling failure including a delay escalating the complaint at stage 2, and £150 compensation was offered to recognise that. The landlord’s compensation policy states, where there has been a moderate failure in complaint handling, compensation of between £101 and £200 is reasonable.
  5. There was a shortfall in landlord’s handling of the complaint, but the offer made was in line with its compensation policy and our remedies guidance, as the landlord acknowledged failings and attempted to put things right. The compensation offered sufficiently addressed the modest detriment to the resident due to the delays. Taking that in to account, we find that the landlord has made an offer which is reasonable and proportionate to resolve this part of the complaint.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Scheme there has been reasonable redress by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s:
    1. Reports of outstanding repairs and damage to the property following a long term temporary move to carry out major repair works.
    2. Formal complaint.

Recommendation

  1. The landlord is recommended to pay the resident the £650 compensation offered (if it has not already). This recognised a deficiency in the way it dealt with outstanding repairs and damage to the property and genuine elements of service failure in its complaint handling and the reasonable redress finding is made on that basis.