Sanctuary Housing Association (202320521)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202320521

Sanctuary Housing Association

1 April 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 hot water system repairs and replacement.

Background

2. The resident previously occupied the property under an assured shorthold tenancy with the landlord. This was a one bedroom first floor flat in a block. The landlord was aware the resident has mental health issues.
3. On 22 June 2023, following the resident’s hot water repair report on 13 June 2023 and a contractor’s visit the next day, the resident raised a complaint with the landlord. She said she was unhappy that:
   1. She had no hot water again and this has been an issue a number of times over the last 2 years.
   2. It had taken 9 days for her to receive communication about this from the landlord and this had caused her anxiety and she had mental ill-health.
   3. She had back and forth communication with the landlord and the contractors.
4. The landlord issued a stage 1 response on 23 June 2023, offering total gesture of goodwill compensation of £127 to the resident. In its stage 1 complaint response, the landlord said it:
   1. Apologised for the issues that were brought to its attention by the resident regarding no hot water at the property.
   2. Had booked appointments on 14 June 2023 for a contractor to repair the hot water system, but they were unable to complete this repair due to parts not being available.
   3. Had the appointment rearranged for 23 June 2024 to complete the repairs.
   4. Offered £100 compensation for the overall inconvenience caused and a further £27 for the loss of facilities of hot water for 9 calendar days.
5. On 13 July 2023, following the renewal of her thermostat by the landlord’s contractor on 23 June 2024, the resident requested it escalate the complaint to stage 2, as there were no more updates on the hot water repairs or appointment dates. Its contractor then attended the property on 3 August 2023 to investigate fitting a new thermal store unit.
6. In its stage 2 complaint response dated 22 August 2023, the landlord:
   1. Offered a sincere apology for the inconvenience caused to the resident.
   2. Acknowledged it should have managed the process better and the delays experienced by the resident were from additional repairs, numerous visits to identify cause of the fault, receiving extra work from its contractor, approving the quotes, and poor communication from its contractor. It acknowledged this was not the standard it would expect.
   3. Acknowledged the repairs were yet to be completed, even though a solution had been identified to carry out the work.
   4. Identified there had been several failures since the stage 1 response.
   5. Identified there was a delay in dealing with the stage 2 response.
   6. Acknowledged the resident has been travelling 20 miles twice a week to her brother’s home to bathe.
   7. Confirmed the complaint was upheld, offering total compensation of £447, which included £100 for how the complaint was handled, £297 for the resident being without hot water for 99 calendar days (including future days) and £50 for trouble and distress.
7. After the landlord offered the resident alternative bathing facilities and a decant elsewhere on 19 September 2023 that she agreed to use the next day, a further final response dated 22 December 2023 was issued to the resident. In its response, the landlord said:
   1. The issues with the lack of hot water in the property were escalated to its Head of Gas Operations. A decision was made to cancel the works with its contractors and for the work to be completed by its Property Services. There was a 15–working–day lead time on the new hot water tank being available.
   2. A replacement hot water tank was installed on 11 October 2023 and the works were completed.
   3. An apology was issued for the delays and the number of visits to complete the repair.
   4. Total compensation of £853 was offered, which included: £100 for how the complaint was handled at stage 1, £303 for being without hot water for 101 calendar days, £50 for time and trouble, £100 for the delay in issuing the final response, and £300 for the overall disruption caused.
8. The resident then complained to the Ombudsman that, while she accepted and received the compensation offered by the landlord, she still wanted us to investigate its handling of her hot water system repairs and replacement. This was because she had no hot water for 4 months, felt down by its lack of service, had a negative experience that significantly affected her mental and physical health, and so she was unhappy at the property and had moved home. The resident also asked us to consider whether the level of compensation offered was satisfactory to resolve her complaint.

Assessment and findings

9. The landlord was required by the resident’s tenancy agreement to keep the installations for the supply of hot water at her property in repair and proper working order. Its repairs and maintenance procedure and repairs handbook define:
   1. Emergency repairs as any repairs necessary to remove a serious threat to the health and safety of the service user, members of their household, visitors, or the structure and fabric of their home. For all emergency repair requests, the landlord is to attend and make safe the property within 24 hours of receipt of the repair request.
   2. Appointed repairs as all non-emergency repairs for which access to the property is required that should be completed within 28 calendar days.
   3. Flexibility for vulnerable service users asl making sure that its repairs service is flexible towards the needs of vulnerable service users. Where additional flexibility to repair priorities and services is required, it will take into account service users’ needs and the severity of the situation, and appropriate action will be identified on a case by case basis.
10. The landlord attended the resident’s property within 24 hours of the loss of hot water repair being logged on 13 June 2023 by arranging a contractor’s visit on 14 June 2023, which was in line with its repairs and maintenance procedure’s and repairs handbook’s timescale for it to do so. These state a second appointment may be required to complete all works following an initial attendance. The resident said she was therefore told someone will contact her when they got to the office to inform her of the next process, as parts were not available to complete the repair on the above date, but this did not happen.
11. Although an engineer attended the property within 24 hours, the landlord should have also been flexible towards the vulnerable resident’s needs, kept her updated, and considered offering her the alternative bathing facilities it later offered her at the time if it was unable to restore her hot water shortly. Therefore, the procedure and handbook were not fully followed.
12. The resident said on 22 June 2023 it had instead taken 9 days for the landlord to give her further communication about the repair. Furthermore, there were numerous amounts of back and forth communication from the resident to the landlord chasing this repair, including on 13 July, 3 August, and 1 and 18 September 2023, and from the landlord to the contractors to do so, including on 31 July, 7, 11, 15, 18, 23 to 25, 27 and 31 August, and 5 and 15 September 2023. There were a number of visits to the resident’s home too over several months without the work being completed. These included a contractor renewing her thermostat on 23 June 2023 and investigating fitting a thermal store unit on 3 August 2023.
13. This was not appropriate. This is particularly because the landlord only offered the resident alternative bathing facilities and a decant elsewhere on 19 September 2023, which was 98 calendar days after she reported being without hot water on 13 June 2023. The Ombudsman expects landlord’s to be able to identify reports of repair and replacement works and respond to them in a timely manner. The landlord acknowledged this failing in its complaint responses.
14. There were inconsistencies in communication between the landlord and its contractors about the hot water system repair and replacement, resulting in its above chasing, which caused substantial delays for the resident. The resident said this had a major impact on her mental ill-health and triggered her anxiety.
15. The repair works were completed on 11 October 2023, which was 120 calendar days after resident reported the repair on 13 June 2023. In its complaint responses, the landlord has acknowledged service failure and poor communication between all parties.
16. The landlord offered the resident, in its final response dated 22 December 2023, £653 compensation for the delay in carrying out the repair works. This was made up of £303 for being without hot water for 101 calendar days until it gave her alternative bathing facilities, £50 for time and trouble, and £300 for the overall disruption caused. Considering all the circumstances, in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance, the compensation offered was not reasonable.
17. This is because the resident was left without any hot water or alternative bathing facilities for an inappropriately lengthy period that had a significant effect on the vulnerable resident, who reported her mental and physical ill-health being affected. Our remedies guidance recommends awards of up to £1,000 in such circumstances, and so the landlord is ordered below to apologise to and pay the resident another £347 to reach this total to proportionately recognise this.
18. Therefore, there was failure by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s hot water system repairs and replacement. The landlord unreasonably delayed in carrying out effective repairs and offering alternative bathing facilities to the resident, which contributed to significant delays in the repairs being resolved, for which the resident ought to be compensated.
19. Overall, in the Ombudsman’s opinion there was maladministration in the landlord’s response about the resident’s hot water system repairs and replacement. Although the landlord tried to put things right and acknowledged its failures, the landlord should have communicated more clearly and kept the resident informed. While daily updates were provided in September 2023, as this was initially attended by the landlord as an emergency repair, the resident ought to have been updated regularly since the start of logging this complaint. The landlord failed to demonstrate that commitments to carry out hot water system repairs were effectively met and monitored, leading to delays in the completion of this, and in offering the resident alternative bathing facilities.
20. The Ombudsman previously ordered the landlord to carry out reviews of its policy and practice in relation to responding to repairs, works by its contractors, and customer vulnerabilities. Some of the issues identified in this case are similar to the cases already determined. The landlord has demonstrated compliance with our previous wider orders, so we have not made any orders or recommendations as part of this case that would duplicate those already made to landlord. The landlord itself should consider whether there are any additional issues arising from this later case that require further action.

Determination

21. In accordance with paragraph 52. of the Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s hot water system repairs and replacement.

Orders

22. The Ombudsman orders the landlord to, within 28 days of the date of this determination:
    1. Write to the resident to apologise for the further failures identified by this investigation, take responsibility for these, acknowledge their effect on her, and explain how it will prevent them from happening again in the future.
    2. Pay the resident £347 additional compensation for the further failures identified by this investigation.