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Southwark Council (202320609)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202320609

Southwark Council

23 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:
    1. Boiler repairs.
    2. The resident’s associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord. Her tenancy at the property began in 1985. The property is a 2 bedroom first floor flat with a residential block.
  2. On 5 December 2022, the resident emailed the landlord to report that she had no heating or hot water in the property. The landlord’s contractor attended the property on 23 December 2022 but had to order replacement parts for the boiler. It returned on 11 January 2023 to complete the repair.
  3. The resident says that within half hour of the landlord’s contractor leaving on 11 January 2023, the boiler failed again. The landlord raised a recall to its contractor on 13 January 2023.
  4. The resident made a complaint to the landlord on 23 January 2023. She complained that she had been without central heating since 5 December 2022 and the landlord’s contractor had not offered her temporary heaters. She asked for the landlord’s contractor to offer her temporary heaters and an emergency appointment to repair the boiler. She also requested that the landlord compensate her for the distress and inconvenience caused.
  5. On 16 February 2023, the landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response. It said that:
    1. After it had recalled its contractor, it had made an appointment with the resident for 26 January 2023. This had been rescheduled for 30 January 2023 as the engineer was unwell.
    2. On 30 January 2023, the contractor “wasn’t provided access” to the property because the resident “didn’t like the way the engineer knocked/rang [her] door”.
    3. Its contractor had been trying to contact her since to arrange a further appointment.
    4. It was offering her compensation of £3 per day for being without heating and hot water between 23 December 2022 and 11 January 2023.
    5. It would not offer her any compensation after this date as she had refused its contractor access, and it had been unable to contact her to make a further appointment.
  6. The resident emailed the landlord on 20 February 2023. She said that she ‘did not accept’ that she should not be awarded compensation due to the landlord’s contractor being unable to contact her. She said she had only had one missed call from the contractor, on 15 February 2023, which she had returned the following day. She pointed out that the landlord had not acknowledged that its contractor had failed to offer her temporary heaters, or the time and trouble she had expended chasing the repair.
  7. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 7 June 2023. It said that:
    1. It was satisfied with the conclusions of its stage 1 response.
    2. Its contractor had restored the resident’s heating on 17 May 2023.
    3. The delays between its stage 1 response and the heating being restored were “not caused nor could they have been prevented by Southwark Council or their contractors”.
    4. Its contractor should have offered the resident temporary heaters, and it apologised that it did not do so.

Events since the landlord’s stage 2 complaint response

  1. On 14 August 2023, the resident referred her complaint to us. She expressed dissatisfaction with the delays in the landlord providing its stage 2 complaint response, its assertion that the delays in the boiler repairs were beyond its control and the level of compensation it had offered her.

Assessment and findings

Boiler repairs

  1. The landlord has provided us with a copy of its ‘repairs guide’. This says that although tenants can report repairs to it by email “this should not be used for emergency or urgent requests”. The resident first reported that she had no heating and hot water by email on 5 December 2022. Whilst the landlord took until 8 December 2022 to log a repair with its contractor, this was likely due to the email not being processed until that date, which cannot be considered a failing.
  2. The landlord’s repairs guide says that its contractor will attend emergency repairs within 24 hours. This includes “total or partial loss or heating or hot water between 1 October and 31 March”. Despite this, there is no evidence that the landlord’s contractor attempted to contact the resident and make an appointment until 13 December 2022. The landlord did not acknowledge this failing in either of its complaint responses.
  3. On 13 December 2022, the landlord’s contractor was unable to reach the resident or leave a voicemail. Despite this, and the fact it knew she was without heating or hot water, it did not try to contact her again until 20 December 2022.
  4. On 20 December 2022, the contractor made an appointment with the resident for 23 December 2022. This again failed to show due regard for the landlord’s requirement to attend within 24 hours.
  5. The contractor attended as scheduled on 23 December 2022. It found that the boiler needed parts, which it had to order. It is unclear exactly when the parts arrived, but in her complaint the resident said the contractor phoned her on 3 January 2023 to inform her the parts were delayed. It contracted her again on 10 January 2023 and made an appointment to fit the parts the following day. This was an appropriate effort to complete the repair as soon as possible.
  6. The contractor returned on 11 January 2023. According to the landlord’s stage 1 response, its engineer “drained the boiler system and successfully removed and replaced the pump, refilled, tested and reported the boiler to be working again”. However, the resident has said that within half an hour of the engineer leaving the property, she found the boiler was not working. We are unable to determine whether this was a workmanship issue, for which the contractor was at fault, or a separate unforeseen issue.
  7. On 13 January 2023, the landlord appropriately recalled the contractor to the resident’s property. The contractor contacted the resident and made an appointment for 26 January 2023. This was almost 2 weeks later, an unreasonable length of time to leave the resident with no heating and hot water. The resident made her complaint the same day.
  8. The landlord’s contractor contacted the resident on 26 January 2023 to postpone the repair due to staff sickness. Whilst this was beyond the contractor’s control, considering the repair was subject to a complaint and the length of time the resident had been without heating and hot water, it would have been appropriate for it to divert other resources to the repair to ensure it was attended as scheduled.
  9. The contractor rebooked the repair for the 27 January 2023, however it contacted the resident on this day and rebooked the repair again for 30 January 2023. The landlord’s repairs guide refers only to offering compensation where it ‘does not turn up’ to repair appointments without ‘reasonable excuse’. However, it would still have been appropriate for it to acknowledge the distress and inconvenience these postponed appointments caused. It failed to do this in its complaint responses.
  10. On 30 January 2023, the contractor attended the property. The resident refused to give its engineer access due to being dissatisfied with their manner and attitude. Whilst the resident was entitled to do this, it must be acknowledged that it contributed to the delay in restoring the boiler to working order.
  11. The landlord contacted the contractor on 2 February 2023 as part of its complaint investigation. The contractor advised it that it had closed the repair due to the resident refusing access. It told the landlord it would need to raise a new repair for it to reattend. Despite this, the landlord took until 7 February 2023 to raise this further repair. The landlord has not provided any explanation for this delay.
  12. The contractor recorded that it attempted to phone the resident to make an appointment on 15 and 16 February 2023. This was over a week after the landlord had raised the new repair order and represented a further unreasonable delay.
  13. On 16 February 2023, the contractor made an appointment with the resident for 28 February 2023. The landlord’s records show that when doing so, the resident asked the contractor not to send the engineer that had attended on 30 January 2023. Despite this, the contractor allocated the same engineer to the job and therefore had to cancel the appointment on the day due to this.
  14. The landlord’s records do not show any further contact between its contractor and the resident until 14 March 2023. On that date the contractor booked an appointment with her for 20 March 2023. As with all previous appointments, this failed to reflect the urgency of the resident being without heating or hot water. This appointment went ahead as scheduled and the contractor recorded that it left the boiler in working order.
  15. The resident reported that the boiler had failed again on 28 March 2023. The landlord’s contractor attended the same day, in keeping with its repairs timescales, and restored the boiler to working order.
  16. On 11 April 2023, the landlord raised a repair for its contractor to “Investigate constant boiler break down. On two occasions a job has been raised and attended to and shortly after the boiler will break down. This is a persisting issue.” It is unclear whether this was in response to a further breakdown, or just a proactive investigation. However, as the landlord referred to its contractor attending to ‘fix the boiler’ following this, we find the former option appears the most likely.
  17. The contractor made an appointment with the resident for 25 April 2023. However, it failed to attend this and there is no evidence it informed the resident in advance. The landlord failed to acknowledge this in its stage 2 complaint response or offer the resident the £50 compensation its repairs guide says is applicable to missed appointments.
  18. The landlord’s records show that the contractor spoke to the resident on 26 April 2023 to apologise for the missed appointment. However, it took until 5 May 2023 for it to book a further appointment with her. This was scheduled and attended on 17 May 2023 and finally resolved all issues with the boiler.
  19. In its stage 1 complaint response, the landlord offered the resident £3 per day for leaving her without heating or hot water. This was in keeping with its compensation policy. However, the landlord only offered this amount for 19 days between 23 December 2022 and 11 January 2023. It said that “no compensation after this date will be awarded as you refused access on one occasion and [its contractor] have tried to call on multiple occasion to bring this matter to a resolution.” Its stage 2 complaint response upheld this decision.
  20. The landlord failed to acknowledge that its contractor should have attended the property within 24 hours of the repair being raised. This meant it would have been appropriate for it to compensate her from 9 December 2022, the day after it raised the repair.
  21. Its decision not to offer any compensation after 11 January 2023 was also unreasonable. Whilst there were some delays due to the contractor being unable to contact the resident, these appear to have been limited to a couple of days at a time. This was a minor factor in the further 4 months she was without heating and hot water.
  22. This also applies to the resident refusing access to the contractor’s engineer on 30 January 2023. Had the landlord appropriately reraised the repair on 2 February 2023, and its contractor attended within the required 24 hours, this would have only caused a delay of a few days. The landlord’s position that there was nothing it or its contractor could have done to avoid these delays was unreasonable and the evidence provided to us does not support this conclusion.
  23. Due to this it is our view that it would have been reasonable for the landlord to offer the £3 per day compensation through the entire period the boiler was out of service.
  24. As part of her complaint, the resident also expressed dissatisfaction that the landlord’s contractor failed to offer her temporary heaters whilst it worked to repair the boiler. In its stage 2 complaint response, the landlord acknowledged that “contractors should leave residents with temporary heaters on occasion where heating is not reinstated during the visit”. It apologised for this failure and said it would learn from it.
  25. Internal landlord emails show that it decided not to offer any compensation for this failure. This was because the resident had confirmed she already owned suitable mains powered heaters and had not incurred the expense of buying these. It said that “The £3 per day is to cover for the extra fuel costs of running the heater” and therefore an apology for the failure to offer the resident heaters was sufficient.
  26. Whilst this was a reasonable position, it highlights that the landlord’s £3 per day compensation offer was solely to reflect costs borne by the resident in using alternative heaters. The landlord therefore failed to consider a further offer to reflect the distress and inconvenience caused by being without central heating or hot water over such an extended period. Due to this, and the landlord unreasonably refusing to extend its offer of compensation to cover beyond 11 January 2023, we make a finding of maladministration.
  27. As well as extending the period for which the landlord will compensate the resident £3 per day, we order it to pay an additional £300 compensation for distress and inconvenience. This has been calculated at £50 per month between December 2022 and May 2023. The total amount is in keeping with our remedies guidance for instances of maladministration where a landlord’s failures adversely affects a resident with no permanent impact.

Complaint handling

  1. The landlord’s complaints policy at the time of this complaint said that it would acknowledge receipt of a complaint within 3 working days. It said it would provide its stage 1 complaint response within 15 working days and its stage 2 response within 25 working days.
  2. The resident replied to the landlord’s stage 1 complaint response on 20 February 2023. She expressed dissatisfaction with its response. On 21 February 2023, the landlord appropriately told the resident it would escalate her complaint to stage 2. However, it took until 28 February 2023 to formally acknowledge her stage 2 complaint.
  3. The landlord failed to provide its stage 2 complaint response until 7 June 2023. This was 67 working days after it had acknowledged her stage 2 complaint and 73 working days after she had made it.
  4. The landlord has not provided any evidence that it agreed an extension to its 25 working day timescale with the resident, or that it advised her of any anticipated delay. It also failed to acknowledge the delay within the stage 2 complaint response itself or to offer any apology or redress for this.
  5. Due to this we make a finding of service failure and order £100 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident.

Determination

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

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination we order the landlord to:
    1. Pay the resident compensation of £858 composed of:
      1. The £57 compensation offered in its stage 2 complaint response (£3 per day for the period 23 December 2022 to 11 January 2023).
      2. A further £351 (representing £3 per day for the periods 9 December 2022 to 22 December 2022, 12 January 2023 to 19 March 2023 and 11 April 2023 to 16 May 2023).
      3. A further £50 for its contractors missed appointment of 25 April 2023.
      4. A further £300 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its maladministration identified by this investigation.
      5. A further £100 for the delay in providing its stage 2 complaint response.
    2. Apologise to the resident for its maladministration identified by this investigation.
    3. Review its process for logging repairs for loss of heating and/or hot water to ensure these are attended within its required timeframes.
  2. The landlord should provide evidence of its compliance with these orders to us.