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Southern Housing (202331211)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202331211

Southern Housing

23 June 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 concerns the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s windows.

Background

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy with the landlord, which is a housing association. The property is a 1-bedroom first floor flat.
  2. The landlord’s records show on 30 December 2022 the resident reported water ingress from her kitchen and lounge windows and that it was attempting to resolve them with a range of repairs.
  3. The evidence shows the resident raised a complaint on 12 April 2023 about the delays resolving the window repairs and having to chase the landlord to progress the repair.
  4. The landlord issued a stage 1 complaint response on 25 May 2023. It said it would arrange an inspection (by a contractor) to consider if the windows should be replaced. It apologised for its repairs handling and offered compensation of £150.
  5. The resident remained dissatisfied and escalated her complaint in July 2023 due to the lack of repair progress and the failure to update her after the inspection. The landlord issued a stage 2 complaint response on 23 August 2023. It apologised for the delays, said it had now referred the window replacement issue to the relevant team, and it would update her by 31 August 2023. It offered £105 compensation.
  6. The resident brought her complaint to the Ombudsman on 8 November 2023 seeking additional compensation from the landlord and for it to carry out its repair obligations to a higher standard.
  7. Information from the landlord and the resident shows it has arranged window repairs up to the time of this report.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident has told to the Service that in January 2025 she raised a new complaint about her new kitchen window leaking. She has explained she received an initial complaint response from the landlord, but she had not escalated the complaint to the final stage. This new complaint is not something the Service can investigate at this stage. Once the resident has exhausted the landlord’s complaints process and if she remains dissatisfied, she can bring the new matter to the Ombudsman for consideration.

Handling of window repairs

  1. The landlord’s responsive repairs policy states responsive repairs are intended to maintain a property until the next planned upgrade cycle. It states it will complete non-emergency repairs in “as little time as possible”. It says it is responsible for keeping the property structure in a reasonable state of repair and proper working order. This includes the outside walls and window frames.
  2. On 12 April 2023 the resident complained about the delays resolving the window repairs after originally reporting the issue in December 2022. She said she had also had to chase the landlord to progress the repair.
  3. The landlord initially responded to the complaint on 25 May 2023. It said it had arranged for an inspection to consider if new windows were needed. It also apologised for repair delays and offered £150 for service failure, inconvenience caused and poor communication. After the resident’s escalation about not having an update about the inspection, it issued its final complaint response on 23 August 2023. It said it had failed to make a window replacement referral following the inspection, which it said it had now done, and she would be updated by 31 August 2023 by a designated officer about the referral. It apologised for its poor service, the inconvenience caused and offered £105 (for service failures and inconvenience).
  4. The evidence shows the landlord raised a job on 3 May 2023 for an initial inspection to consider if the windows should be replaced and it also indicated on 8 August 2023, it made an internal referral for the windows to be replaced.
  5. The landlord acknowledged the repair delays and its poor communication. It also set out actions to progress the matter in the form of an initial inspection and then promising to update the resident post-referral. It apologised for its failings and offered compensation in both the complaint responses. This was appropriate and showed it had accepted its failings which it was trying to put right.
  6. In its final complaint response, the landlord committed to updating the resident about the progress of the referral for the window replacements. While the evidence indicates a task to do this was completed on 1 September 2023, there is no evidence of how and when this was done. During this period, there is a call record dated 21 September 2023 when the resident chased the outcome of a contractor’s visit of 29 August 2023. The lack of evidence does not support the completion of this outcome and undermines the robustness of its otherwise reasonable response.
  7. There is no evidence of the inspection report arranged following the initial complaint response. However it does show on 20 June 2023 its contractor recommended window replacements and on 10 October 2023 5 windows were replaced. The resident had told the Service the kitchen and lounge windows were replaced on 8 April 2024. The evidence also indicates the landlord had to address significant lintel issues prior to replacing these windows. While the delays would have been understandably stressful for the resident, the time taken to replace the kitchen and lounge windows reflected the complexity of the repairs involved.
  8. Overall, the landlord appropriately apologised, committed to action to progress the repair, such as the window replacement referral, and offered compensation. However, the Service has not seen evidence it updated the resident after it said it would do so following the referral for replacement windows. This meant the complaint was not resolved. An order has been made that the landlord pay £75 compensation in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance to reflect the inconvenience, frustration, and time and trouble caused to the resident.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s windows.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord must pay the resident £75 for its handling of repairs to the resident’s windows as well as the distress and inconvenience caused. This is in addition to the £255 already offered to the resident by the landlord for its repair handling failures. Evidence of compliance with the order must be provided to the Service.