Sovereign Network Homes (Former Network Homes) (202308840)
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REPORT
COMPLAINT 202308840
Sovereign Network Homes
29 May 2024
Our approach
What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this.
In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.
The complaint
- The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of disrepair including damp and mould.
Determination (jurisdictional decision)
- When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
- After carefully considering all the evidence, it is determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
Summary of events
- The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, which is a housing association. Since her tenancy commenced in 2022 the resident has reported multiple repair issues to the landlord including damp and mould throughout the property. The resident is disabled and her son is vulnerable.
- In February 2023 the resident raised a complaint about the repairs and explained the impact they were having on her family. The landlord issued its stage 1 response in March 2023, when it acknowledged unacceptable delays in completing necessary repairs and detailed the works it intended to undertake.
- The resident submitted a stage 2 complaint on the basis that the property was uninhabitable, and the landlord issued its stage 2 response in April 2023. It detailed its plans to progress the repairs and decant the resident while the necessary works were completed.
- The resident brought her complaint to the Ombudsman for investigation in June 2023. Whilst the case was awaiting investigation by this Service, the resident advised, in November 2023, that she had received legal advice and had been pursuing the landlord under the disrepair pre-action protocol since September 2023.
- On 29 January 2024, a Claim Form was issued to the landlord through the County Court with the Particulars of Breach detailing the disrepair since 2022. The resident’s claim was for a breach of housing conditions, repairing covenants, statutory duty and the losses suffered.
Reasons
- Paragraph 53(a) of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman may determine the investigation of a complaint immediately if satisfied that the complaint is no longer within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
- When the resident escalated her complaint to this Service in June 2023, it fell within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman to consider and was duly progressed for investigation. Following a period of collecting evidence and waiting for the case to be allocated to an Adjudicator, the investigation began in April 2024. In May 2024 it became apparent that a Claim Form had been submitted by the resident in January 2024, thus initiating legal proceedings.
- As the resident has made a claim against the landlord in respect of the disrepair, including the damp and mould, this matter will no longer be considered by the Ombudsman. This is in accordance with paragraph 42(e) of the Scheme, which says the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which concern matters where the resident has or had the opportunity to raise the subject matter of the complaint as part of legal proceedings.
- The resident will have the opportunity to raise her concerns about the conditions within the property, the landlord’s repairs service, and the impact of this on her and her family through those proceedings. As the court will be considering these matters, there is no benefit to the Ombudsman also investigating the same issues.
- Therefore, in accordance with paragraph 53(a) of the Scheme, the complaint about the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of disrepair including damp and mould is no longer within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman, and will not be investigated further.