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South Tyneside Council (202306402)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202306402

South Tyneside Council

6 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:
    1. The landlord’s handling of door repairs.
    2. The landlord’s response to reports of leaks in the property.

Background

  1. The resident holds a secure tenancy for a house since 1998. The property is owned by the landlord, a local authority. The resident has reported suffering with mental health issues.
  2. The resident requested an inspection of the front and rear doors at the property on 23 November 2022. The landlord advised that new doors were required on 14 December 2022. 
  3. The resident submitted a complaint on 18 April 2023 and said that she had a leak under her home and was still waiting for a survey date for the doors.
  4. In its stage 1 complaint response on 3 May 2023, the landlord said that the leak had since been repaired and a contractor would make contact to survey the doors.
  5. The resident escalated the complaint on 22 May 2023.   She said the back door had been replaced but did not close properly, and water was leaking through and under both doors.
  6. In its stage 2 complaint response on 26 June 2023, the landlord said that the water supplier and landlord resolved the leak under the property on 21 April 2023. It said new doors would be installed on 18 July 2023. It apologised and offered £30 for the time taken, which it said was due to a delay in the contractor arranging the survey.
  7. In her complaint to this service, the resident remained dissatisfied with the delay in completing the repairs. In resolution of her complaint, she wanted the landlord to offer further compensation.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident has told this Service that she had concerns about the standard of drinking water. This followed a plumber fitting a stop cock outside in May 2023.The landlord has commented that at no time has it had any concerns in relation to the safety or quality of water to the resident’s home.
  2. The issue of the water quality was not raised as part of the formal complaint process which is investigated here. The landlord has not therefore had an opportunity to respond to the resident’s concerns. If the resident remains dissatisfied on this issue, she should raise a formal complaint and if necessary, may return to this Service as appropriate. It falls outside the scope of this investigation.

The landlord’s handling of door repairs

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it is responsible for repairing and maintaining the structure of the property, including the doors, door frames, and glazing.
  2. The repairs policy also states that:
    1. urgent repairs should be completed within 3 working days
    2. non-urgent repairs should be completed within 20 working days
    3. planned repairs should be completed within 3 months
  3. The resident reported a repair to the front and rear doors on 23 November 2022. An appointment appears to have been made for 15 December 2022 but was then cancelled, although no reason has been given. 
  4. There were multiple calls from the resident chasing the repair between February 2023 and April 2023. The resident said that she was losing heat from the ill-fitting doors and that she was struggling with various things including her mental health. She wanted to know when the doors would be fixed.
  5. In its complaint response dated 3 May 2023, the landlord said it had asked the contractor to arrange a survey and the resident should advise if contact had not been made by 19 May 2023. A survey of the doors was undertaken on 18 May 2023 which was 5 months after the landlord had identified that the doors were in need of replacement. There is no evidence on which the Ombudsman could conclude that this delay was either reasonable or unavoidable. This was a failure by the landlord.
  6. On 26 May 2023, the resident told the landlord that there was water and drafts coming through the doors, and puddles on the kitchen floor when it rained.
  7. The landlord completed the repairs to the doors on 18 July 2023, which was 53 days later. This was not appropriate, as it was not consistent with the landlord’s policy. There is no evidence on which the Ombudsman could conclude that this delay was either reasonable or unavoidable.
  8. In its stage 2 complaint response on 26 June 2023, the landlord offered £30 compensation for the delay in the doors being fitted. It said it had learned from the complaint, and that due to an area surveyor leaving, the repair was not followed up. As a result, centralised records had now been set up and surveyors assigned to oversee and monitor the progress of orders, to ensure this was not repeated.
  9. The Ombudsman welcomes the landlord learning from complaints and taking steps to improve areas of the repair process to avoid the same issues in the future. However, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, the compensation offered by the landlord was not reasonable to resolve the resident’s complaint. This is because the landlord’s offer was not consistent with this Service’s guidance on remedies.
  10. The resident has reported that the doors were causing water and drafts to enter the property, and it is reasonable to conclude that this would have a detrimental effect on her enjoyment of her home. She also spent time chasing the repair and had to raise a complaint before the issue was progressed.
  11. Considering all the circumstances it is the Ombudsman’s opinion that there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the door repairs, in that the landlord unreasonably delayed replacing the doors and carrying out the subsequent repairs.
  12. The Ombudsman orders the landlord to pay the resident £300 compensation for the unreasonable delay in completing the repairs to the doors, the time spent by the resident trying to progress the repairs with the landlord, and the distress and inconvenience caused. This order is inclusive of the compensation previously offered by the landlord. Therefore, the landlord may deduct from this total any compensation it may already have paid in relation to this complaint.

 

 

The landlord’s response to reports of leaks in the property

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that the landlord is responsible for repairing and maintaining the structure of the property, including repairing leaks.
  2. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it will attend to emergency repairs within 4 hours to make safe. It also states it will attend urgent repairs within 3 working days. 
  3. The landlord says the resident complained on 18 April 2023. There are no notes confirming the issues raised beyond the details quoted by the landlord in the stage 1 response dated 3 May 2023, which said this concerned a leak under the property. 
  4. In its stage 1 complaint response, the landlord said that the leak had been repaired and pipework reinstated on 21 April 2023. Although the landlord has not provided any evidence to verify this statement, this has not been disputed by the resident. It is also noted that the resident did not include the leak under the property in her complaint escalation.
  5. Therefore, it took the landlord 3 days to respond to the leak. This was appropriate, as it was consistent with the landlord’s policy.
  6. The resident advised this Service of a leak into her property from drainage issues, on 22 May 2023, but it not clear when or if this was reported to the landlord. The landlord listed various concerns discussed with the resident on 26 May 2023, when water ingress was mentioned, but only with reference to the ill-fitting doors which were awaiting repair at that time.
  7. The landlord’s final response on 26 June 2023 again confirmed said that the leak underneath the property was rectified by the water authority and its own contractors on 21 April 2023.
  8. Considering all the circumstances, it is the Ombudsman’s opinion that there was no maladministration by the landlord in its response to a leak at the property. This is because the evidence indicates that the landlord attended to repair the leak within a reasonable time.
  9. However, it is the Ombudsman’s opinion that the landlord’s records in relation to this complaint were poor. The Ombudsman therefore recommends the landlord consider what it can do to strengthen its record keeping practices in future.

 

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was maladministration by the landlord in respect of its response to the door repairs in the resident’s property.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of its response to repairs to leaks in the resident’s property.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, the landlord must pay the resident £300 compensation for the unreasonable delay in completing the door repairs, the time taken by the resident to progress the repairs with the landlord, and the distress and inconvenience caused.
  2. The order for compensation is made inclusive of the compensation previously offered by the landlord. Therefore, the landlord may deduct from this total any compensation it may already have paid in relation to this complaint.
  3. All financial payments on the order should be made directly to the resident and should not be added to the rent account.
  4. The landlord should provide evidence to this Service that the above orders have been complied with, within 4 weeks of this determination.

Recommendations

  1. The Ombudsman recommends that the landlord review this Service’s spotlight report on knowledge and information management (KIM) and consider what it can do to strengthen its record keeping practices in future.