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Places for People Group Limited (202234509)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202234509

Places for People Group Limited

27 June 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 that the central heating thermostat and timer were not functioning.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. The property is a 1-bedroom flat. The tenancy commenced in February 2017.
  2. There were 4 appointments made directly between the resident and the landlord’s contractors on the following dates:
    1. 21 December 2021
    2. 4 January 2022
    3. 6 January 2022
    4. 7 January 2022
  3. On 7 September 2022 the resident submitted his complaint directly to the landlord’s staff member by email. He said he was raising a formal complaint regarding inadequate central heating from October 2017 to December 2021. He asked the landlord to be recompensed a portion of the rent for lack of central heating and reimbursed for the cost of buying an electric heater. He also wanted the landlord to clear outstanding debt to his energy provider. He added he delayed making this complaint until a decision about a different matter from the Housing Ombudsman was reached.
  4. Following the resident’s complaint, the landlord attended the property on 28 September 2022 with its contractor. After inspecting the property, it established the heating was working and issues were because of user error. It observed that a user guide was in the property.
  5. The landlord called the resident on 6 October 2022, and it did not uphold his complaint. It followed up in writing on 7 October 2022. It told the resident that in its visit of 28 September 2022, it considered the issue was because of user error. The resident was previously provided a user manual for the central heating, which it observed at the visit. It also said that from 1 September 2017 until 6 September 2018, the resident had made 8 calls regarding heating and hot water. From these calls, 4 resulted in engineer visits resolving the issues. The other 4 appointments were cancelled by the resident. From 6 September 2018 until the time of its response, no other repairs had been reported to the landlord as instructed in the tenancy handbook. From 21 December 2021 until 7 January 2022, its contractor made 4 visits to the property for the installation of parts. It concluded it had not identified any service failures.
  6. On the phone call of 6 October 2022, the resident was dissatisfied with the landlord’s stage 1 complaint response and escalated his complaint.
  7. In the landlord’s final response of 13 December 2022, it upheld the resident’s complaint. It identified service failure stemming from the resident’s call of 6 September 2018. The appointment offered to the resident was outside its 28-day window for priority 3 repairs, which the resident cancelled on 11 October 2018. Aside from this event, no further service failures were identified. To put things right, the landlord offered a total of £208 in compensation, comprised of:
    1. reimbursement cost of an equivalent electric heater valued at £50
    2. payment for additional electricity used equating to £108 (calculated at £3 per day for 36 days)
    3. £50 for the time and inconvenience experienced by the resident
  8. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s final response and referred his complaint to this Service on 29 March 2023, and asked us to investigate his concerns.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. Paragraph 42c of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion were not brough to the attention of the landlord as a formal complaint within a reasonable period. Under the Scheme, a reasonable period would be within 12 months of the matters arising.
  2. Residents are expected to raise complaints with their landlords in a timely manner, so that the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to consider the issues. This also means evidence is available to reach an informed conclusion on the events that occurred.
  3. The resident did not raise his concerns to the landlord until 7 September 2022. There is also no evidence or record that the resident made a formal complaint prior to 7 September 2022. In his complaint, he specifically mentioned the period between October 2017 until December 2021 and choosing to delay making his complaint.
  4. Therefore, this Service will consider the actions or inactions by the landlord from 7 September 2021 until the resident exhausted the landlord’s internal complaints procedure. Events prior to 7 September 2021 considered by the landlord were all historical and do not form part of the scope of this investigation. As such, this Service will not comment on actions or inactions by the landlord prior to 7 September 2021 regarding the central heating system.
  5. Similar to the above, the landlord admitted failings in its service delivery prior to 7 September 2021 and made an offer of compensation. There is no proportion of this compensation provided that takes into account the scope of this investigation. Therefore, this Service will only acknowledge that the landlord had previously made an offer.

The landlord’s policies and obligations

  1. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 places statutory obligations on the landlord. It is to keep in repair and proper working order, the installations in the property that supply heating and hot water. Under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), introduced by The Housing Act 2004, the landlord is to assess hazards, which includes personal hygiene and sanitation. Excess cold is a potential hazard under HHSRS. Therefore, the landlord is required to consider whether loss of heating and hot water in its properties amount to a hazard and require remedying.
  2. The landlord operates different tiers under its responsive repairs policy. Emergency repairs are to be attended to within 24 hours. Appointable repairs will be attended to within 28 calendar days. Planned repairs will be attended to within 90 calendar days.

Central heating thermostat and timer not functioning

  1. From the evidence provided, from 7 September 2021 onwards the landlord had not received any reports of issues from the resident until he complained on 7 September 2022.
  2. Instead, the resident had called the landlord’s contractors directly. It is unreasonable to expect the landlord to have known about any issues or repairs required during this time period, if the resident had not reported issues to it. The landlord has confirmed to this Service that it requires residents to notify it of any problems as part of the tenancy handbook, which is appropriate.
  3. It is evident that the landlord’s contractors had diagnosed issues at the resident’s property on 21 December 2021. However, it was unclear when the resident first contact the contractor about this directly. The contractor diagnosed there were 2 faulty port valves not opening and new batteries were required for the room thermostat. Follow-on works were arranged for 4 January 2022 to add thermostatic radiator valves. The resident asked the contractor to leave on the appointment of 6 January 2022. In a return visit on 7 January 2022, the contractor had resolved the faults to heating system and advised the resident how to use it. At that stage, the landlord remained unaware of the repairs required as it did not facilitate these appointments. Regardless of this, following diagnosis on 21 December 2021, the repairs were completed within its 28 calendar days timescale for appointed repairs, which was appropriate.
  4. The landlord used its discretion after it received the resident’s complaint and arranged an appointment with him to inspect the property on 28 September 2022, alongside its contractor. The landlord and its contractor at the visit found no issues with the central heating, offered to show the resident how to use the controls for the heating, and observed a user guide was in his possession. It is reasonable the landlord relies upon professional opinion and us no faults were found, and the resident had not reported any new issues to the landlord, there was no service failure by it.
  5. After carefully considering all the evidence, the landlord had not failed in its service delivery from 7 September 2021 until 13 December 2022. It reasonably offered support in using the controls and no issues were identified by it following the repairs made in January 2022. As such, this Service finds no maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports that the central heating thermostat and timer were not functioning.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports that the central heating thermostat and timer were not functioning.