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Places for People Group Limited (202228356)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202228356

Places for People Group Limited

18 December 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 complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of damp, mould and the living room being too cold.
  2. This Service has also investigated the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident has been an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association, since January 2006. The property is a 1-bedroom house. The resident has physical health issues including arthralgia in her back and knees, and chronic rhinitis. She was represented by her daughter throughout the complaints process, and both will be referred to as ‘the resident’ in this report.
  2. On 31 May 2022 the landlord attended the property to complete a mould wash and apply stain blocker. The landlord sent a complaint acknowledgment letter to the resident on 30 September 2022 following a call from the resident to chase a repair. There is no record of the content of that call or the original complaint. There are no further repair records until 13 November 2022 when the resident reported that her lounge was too cold. The landlord recommended she increase her thermostat and arranged an appointment for 28 November 2022.
  3. The resident’s GP provided a letter to the landlord on 21 April 2023 highlighting the resident’s medical information and advised that the resident felt her household conditions were negatively affecting her health. She made a formal complaint to the landlord on 28 April 2023 with the support of the Ombudsman, which it acknowledged by email.
  4. The landlord provided the resident with a formal acknowledgement of her complaint on 2 May 2023 with an expected date for a response set out as 17 May 2023. On the same day it raised a job for a damp and mould survey. The survey was conducted on 24 May 2023 and found:
    1. The kitchen radiator was too small and required upgrading, and there was no extractor fan.
    2. The radiator in the bedroom was too small and required upgrading.
    3. There was incorrect insulation in the loft, which had belongings stored on top of it.
    4. The bathroom had no extractor fan installed.
    5. The gutters required clearing and testing.
    6. There was no evidence of cavity wall insulation – a cavity inspection was recommended with a view to adding the property to the thermal upgrade programme.
    7. It recommended that a heating specialist assess the capacity of the boiler, calculate the size of radiators required to heat the rooms effectively, and determine whether a full heating upgrade was required.
  5. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 2 June 2023. It did not uphold the resident’s complaint as it found the last report of damp and mould was in September 2019. It found no evidence of service failure. It confirmed that it would review the damp and mould survey from 24 May 2023 and take any necessary action.
  6. The resident responded on 11 July 2023 to say that she had reached stage 1 of the complaints process twice due to poor communication, and felt she was back at the start of a “long winded” process. She did not feel that the landlord was taking her seriously and believed the low temperatures affected her health. A stage 2 acknowledgement email was issued on 17 July 2023, and the landlord confirmed it would issue a stage 2 response by 14 August 2023.
  7. The landlord’s records indicate that it spoke with the resident on 14 August 2023, and she confirmed that it had resolved the damp and mould, but the downstairs rooms were still too cold. It sent the stage 2 complaint response on 16 August 2023, partially upholding the complaint. While it did not find a full failure in service it stated that the resident had waited an unacceptable length of time for investigation into the matter. It confirmed that a thermal inspection would take place in October 2023, and it offered £50 compensation as a goodwill gesture in recognition of the delay in thermal investigations, and distress and inconvenience experienced by the resident.
  8. The thermal survey was conducted on 24 October 2023, and it found no structural defects linked with dampness at the property. On 7 November 2023 the landlord installed the extractor in the kitchen, and the bathroom fan was installed on 13 November 2023 as it required ducting to be added.
  9. On 28 November 2023 the resident asked for an update on the complaint, and the landlord sent the stage 2 letter to her again. The resident said that she felt that the landlord had taken no action since the thermal survey and that she was in the same position. Internal emails the following day show that the landlord maintained that no further action was required as the thermal survey showed no disrepair, and that a manager should discuss the possibility of a move with the resident.
  10. The gutters were cleared on 6 January 2024. The landlord’s records state that in April 2024 a gas engineer confirmed that the boiler was sufficient to heat the property. It installed a larger radiator in the lounge on 14 May 2024.
  11. The resident remains dissatisfied with the landlord’s response to her reports that the property is too cold.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. This Service has seen evidence that there were reports of damp and mould in 2019 however we will be focusing our investigation on the period between April 2022 and December 2024. Paragraph 42.c. of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not investigate complaints which were not brought to the attention of the member as a formal complaint within a reasonable period which would normally be within 12 months of the matters arising. The resident made her complaint in April 2023.
  2. Throughout the period of the complaint the resident has reported that the situation has impacted her health. The Ombudsman does not dispute this however we are unable to decide about any causal link between the property and the resident’s health. However, we will assess the overall distress and inconvenience that any issues in this case may have caused.

Damp, mould and low temperature in the living room

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that repair response times are categorised as:
    1. 24 hours for emergency repairs, defined as a sudden unforeseen issue which immediately puts the resident’s health and safety at risk or is causing uncontrollable damage to the property.
    2. 28 days for repairs which can prevent damage to the property.
    3. 90 days for planned repairs which are non-urgent.
  2. When the resident reported that her house was too cold in November 2022, the landlord attended within the timescale for a non-emergency repair. It was reasonable that it adhered to this timescale as there was no evidence that there had been a full breakdown of heating, more that the property was not maintaining the temperature.
  3. Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (LTA 1985), landlords have a statutory duty to ensure that space heating installations are kept in good repair. Section 10 of the same act states that landlords must ensure its properties are fit for human habitation in respect of freedom from damp and having adequate ventilation.
  4. The landlord also has a responsibility under the Housing, Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), introduced by The Housing Act 2004, to assess hazards and risks within its rented properties. The landlord has a responsibility to keep a property free from category one hazards, including excess cold. The guidance explains that excess cold can be caused by several factors including:
    1. Inefficient heating systems.
    2. Excessive damp which reduces thermal insulation.
    3. Poor insulation.
  5. Preventative measures listed in the HHSRS include an appropriate, properly installed heating system, appropriate levels of thermal insulation and both rapid and background ventilation.
  6. The damp and mould survey completed on 24 May 2023 identified several repairs which would improve ventilation, but there was a considerable delay before they were implemented:
    1. Kitchen fan – 118 working days.
    2. Bathroom fan – 122 working days.
    3. Gutter clearance – 158 working days.
  7. There were no works highlighted in the resident’s lounge on the damp survey, however it is unclear whether this was because there were no issues or because the surveyor did not check it. The survey does not state specifically that the lounge was assessed, and a year later it was highlighted by another contractor that the radiator was too small for the room. This should have been noted and actioned during the survey and instead caused a delay with getting a more appropriate radiator installed.
  8. The landlord’s compensation policy allows it discretion to make goodwill payments in cases of service failure. There is no evidence that it considered offering compensation for these delays, or that it recognised them at all.
  9. Despite the recommendation from the damp and mould surveyor there is no evidence that a British thermal unit (BTU) calculation was completed to ensure that the radiators were appropriate for the room size. There is also no evidence to show that the landlord followed the recommendations relating to the upgrading of the bedroom and kitchen radiators. The landlord had a duty to ensure that the radiators were sized appropriately to ensure an efficient heating system, as part of its responsibilities under the HHSRS.
  10. The survey from May 2023 found that there was no evidence of cavity wall insulation and recommended a cavity inspection. A thermal survey was completed in October 2023, but there is no evidence that it included a physical inspection of the loft insulation or cavities. The report stated that there were no defects, but this appears to have been based solely on thermal imaging rather than a physical or visual inspection. The landlord should have followed the original recommendation to check the cavities and assessed whether it could install cavity wall insulation as part of its cyclical works programme.
  11. Throughout the complaints process the resident told the landlord that she was worried about how the temperature in the property may affect her health. It issued her with a condensation leaflet giving tips on how to reduce damp and mould, but did not give any other practical advice on how to maintain a warm home. It should have provided her with this information or referred her for appropriate support.
  12. The Ombudsman finds that there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the damp, mould, and low temperatures. While it is positive that it conducted the mould survey, the follow up work was unreasonably delayed with no explanation given to the resident. The thermal inspection was not thorough enough, and leaves doubt regarding the current level of insulation.

Complaint handling

  1. The landlord has a 2-stage complaints policy. It promises to respond within 10 working days at stage 1, and 20 working days at stage 2. It directs residents to the Ombudsman if they are unhappy with the outcome of the complaint. It also states that it will provide a complaint response to the resident when the answer to the complaint is known, not upon completion of the outstanding actions required to address the issue. It promises to track and action outstanding actions, and provide the resident with appropriate updates.
  2. The stage 1 response was issued 36 working days after the complaint acknowledgement which is not compliant with its policy timescales. It did not recognise this at either stage of the complaints process, and it did not award compensation for this failure.
  3. The resident also made a complaint in September 2022 which the landlord acknowledged on 30 September 2022. There is no record of the content of the original complaint or any stage 1 response. In subsequent communications the resident indicated that this complaint had reached stage 1 however, it is not clear to this Service whether this is due to a failure to keep appropriate records, or a failure to follow the complaints process.
  4. The resident expressed her frustration at the landlord’s communication and its handling of her complaint as she felt it did not take her concerns seriously. It is understandable that the resident was concerned about how the temperature in the property may affect her health given her medical diagnoses. The landlord did not acknowledge those concerns in either of its complaint responses.
  5. In November 2024 the landlord completed a review of its complaints process at the request of the Ombudsman. It has since implemented a new complaint handling structure and provided additional training to its complaint handlers. For this reason, the Ombudsman will not make any review orders or recommendations in relation to complaint handling.
  6. The Ombudsman finds that there was service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling. The landlord did not issue its stage 1 response within the appropriate timescale, and did not offer any redress for this. The resident informed the landlord that she had raised complaints previously which had not been progressed, and the landlord did not provide an explanation or response to this. The process left the resident frustrated and feeling like her concerns had not been taken seriously.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of reports of damp, mould and the living room being too cold.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

  1. Within 6 weeks of this report the landlord must:
    1. Apologise to the resident for the failings identified in this report. The apology should come from a senior manager.
    2. Pay the resident compensation comprising of:
      1. £500 for time, trouble, distress, and inconvenience experienced by the resident because of the delays in works relating to the damp and thermal surveys. If the £50 offered to the resident during the complaints process has already been paid to her, it can be deducted from this amount.
      2. £100 for time, trouble, and inconvenience because of the landlord’s complaint handling failures.
      3. The landlord must pay the compensation directly to the resident unless she specifically requests that it is paid to her rent account.
    3. Complete a BTU calculation for all rooms in the property to ensure that the radiator sizes are appropriate for the room size – if any radiators are insufficient, the landlord should upgrade these within an additional 4 weeks. The landlord must provide a copy of the calculation results to the Ombudsman as proof of compliance.
    4. Proof of compliance with all the above orders must be provided to the Ombudsman within 6 weeks of this report.
  2. Within 8 weeks of this report the landlord must complete a survey of the insulation in the property to confirm:
    1. What insulation is present and if there are any defects which may impact its effectiveness.
    2. Whether any additional insulation, such as internal wall insulation, will be installed to improve the conditions for the resident.
    3. If the landlord identifies that additional insulation may improve the temperature of the property, it must provide a timescale for this to be installed. If the landlord decides not to install additional insulation it should provide an explanation to the resident and the Ombudsman.
    4. The landlord must provide a copy of the survey to the Ombudsman within 8 weeks of this report as proof of compliance.

Recommendations

  1. As an interim measure the landlord should provide the resident with information on:
    1. How to install additional heat saving methods such as radiator reflectors and draught excluders.
    2. Any funding sources which may support her to obtain heat saving devices.
    3. Energy advice schemes.