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Sovereign Network Homes (202321413)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202321413

Sovereign Network Homes (Former Network Homes)

31 March 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 repairs to the front of the building.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. She has lived at the property, which is a ground floor flat since 1990.
  2. On 24 July 2023, the resident reported loose brickwork above the first-floor window of her property. She requested that the landlord complete a repair. The landlord completed an emergency appointment and reported that there was loose render. The resident continued to request that the landlord make the area safe following the appointment. The landlord attended again on 25 July and 26 July 2023. It reported that it needed scaffolding to complete a repair.
  3. The resident raised a stage 1 complaint with the landlord on 26 July 2023. She explained that she was unhappy with the landlord’s handling of the issue. She said that it had not completed a repair or made the area safe. The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 9 August 2023. It acknowledged that there was a delay in it completing a repair and failures in its handling of the issue. The landlord explained that it would attend on 10 August 2023 with a scaffolding contractor to complete an inspection. It apologised for its failures and offered compensation of £72.
  4. The resident escalated her complaint with the landlord on 11 August 2023. She said that no one attended on 10 August 2023. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 18 September 2023. It acknowledged that no one attended on 10 August 2023. It also acknowledged that it had failed to complete an emergency repair or safety assessment despite several visits. The landlord said it had arranged for a surveyor to attend on 20 September 2023. It increased its compensation offer to £177. It said that it would review this figure once the repairs were completed.
  5. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response. She asked us to investigate her complaint in October 2023. She explained that the landlord had not completed a repair or made the area safe. We contacted the landlord on 4 March 2025 to ask if it had completed the repair. It responded on 5 March 2025 to confirm that it completed repairs on 9 January 2025. The landlord contacted the resident on 5 March to apologise for the delay and to increase its compensation offer to £1,878.

Assessment and findings

Policy and procedure

  1. The landlord’s repair policy states that for emergency repairs, it aims to attend within 4 hours and make safe. For routine repairs, it aims to attend within 2 weeks and complete repairs within 1 month. For complex repairs, such as when it needs to use a specialist contractor or carry out surveys, it aims to complete within 90 days.

The landlord’s handling of repairs to the front of the building.

  1. When investigating a complaint, the Ombudsman must first consider whether a failing on the part of the landlord occurred and, if so, whether this led to any adverse effect or detriment to the resident. If it is found that a failing did lead to an adverse effect, the investigation will then consider whether the landlord has taken enough action to ‘put things right’ and ‘learn from outcomes.’
  2. The evidence shows that the landlord’s inspections in July and September 2023 identified that repairs were required to the resident’s brickwork. It reported that it required scaffolding to complete a closer inspection and repair. The landlord received quotes to erect scaffolding in September 2023. However, it is unclear why the landlord did not proceed with arranging this at that time.
  3. The landlord acknowledged to the resident on 5 March 2025 that it did not manage the repair. It said that it only completed the repair due to the resident raising this again with it on 17 October 2024. It acknowledged that there was a further delay in it completing the repair following this report, as it did not complete this until 9 January 2025. It apologised for not managing the repair.
  4. The landlord in its complaint responses acknowledged failures in its repair handling. It acknowledged that it did not complete an emergency repair or complete a safety assessment, despite completing multiple visits. It was appropriate for the landlord to acknowledge and apologise for its failures in its complaint responses and email on 5 March 2025.
  5. While the landlord acknowledged the failures in its repair handling in its complaint responses, it did not go on to effectively manage the repair, which caused a significant delay in it completing this. It took the landlord around 76 weeks to complete the repair, which was considerably outside of its published repair timescales.
  6. The landlord offered the resident compensation of £177 in its final complaint response. It said it would review this figure once it had completed the repair. However, it only did so after the Service contacted it after starting our investigation, increasing its compensation to £1,878.
  7. This amount is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for complaints such as this where there have been significant failings, which have had a significant impact on the resident. It reasonably reflects the length of time the repair issues had continued unresolved and demonstrate the landlord’s appreciation of the scale of its failings and their effect. Nonetheless, it was done after prompting by our investigation, and the landlord did not at any stage explain what it had learned from the complaint or what it would do to ensure it did not repeat its poor service. That was counter to the Dispute Resolution Principle of learning from outcomes.
  8. Overall, the landlord took appropriate steps to acknowledge and apologise for its failures. However, it has not demonstrated any learning from its failures, and it only put things right after we started our investigation.

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 front of the building.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord is ordered to pay the resident compensation of £1,878 it offered on 5 March 2025 for failures in its handling of the repairs to the front of the building.
  2. Within 8 weeks, the landlord must review the case to see what learning it can take to prevent similar failings in carrying out repairs occurring in the future and provide a copy of its findings to the Ombudsman.