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The Guinness Partnership Limited (202226704)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202226704

The Guinness Partnership Limited

26 March 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 the resident’s reports of repairs required to her windows.
    2. The Ombudsman has also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy for the property since 19 December 1994. The property is a 3-bedroom, end of terrace house owned by the landlord. The landlord does not have any vulnerabilities listed on its systems for the resident.
  2. The resident contacted the landlord on 9 April 2021 to report that three double glazed windows in her property had condensation between the panes. An appointment was booked for the landlord’s contractor to attend on 26 April 2021. The landlord’s contractor identified three panes had to be replaced, these were ordered and the appointment rebooked for 19 May 2021. However, the appointment could not go ahead as the landlord had not received the panes from its supplier. The repairs were rescheduled for 14 June 2021 and then 7 March 2022 but again could not go ahead as the relevant panes had not been received.
  3. On 8 March 2022 the resident submitted a formal complaint to the landlord about its handling of the repair. The landlord responded, at stage one of its complaints process on 30 March 2022. It apologised for the delays in the window panes being replaced and for its failure to keep the resident updated. The landlord said it would contact the resident by the end of the following week with a date to undertake the repair. The repair was rescheduled for 27 April 2022, however, did not go ahead. On 6 June 2022 the landlord replaced two of the three panes. The final pane was scheduled to be replaced on 12 July 2022, 21 September 2022 and 18 October 2022 however none of these appointments went ahead.
  4. The resident contacted the landlord to escalate her complaint to stage two on 23 September 2022. The landlord provided its final response on 19 October 2022. The complaint was upheld with the landlord offering the resident £350 compensation for delays, stress, inconvenience and poor communication. It offered an appointment for 3 November 2022 for the final pane to be repaired. The final pane was installed on 23 January 2023.
  5. In bringing her complaint to this Service the resident has said:
    1. The final pane of glass installed is a different design of privacy glass to the rest of the window.
    2. She waited two years for this repair to be completed.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that “We categorise repair requirements as either ‘emergency’ or ‘routine’ … Emergency repairs address an immediate health and safety risk … We will either complete a repair or carry out a temporary repair to make the situation safe within 24 hours of the repair being reported … Routine repairs are those which are not emergencies. If the reported issue does not require an emergency repair we aim to get it fixed within 28 calendar days, and sooner if we can.”
  2. The landlord’s repairs policy also states that “If we need to change agreed arrangements, we will contact the customer as far in advance as possible to advise them. We will communicate with the customer clearly at all times.”
  3. The landlord’s complaints policy states that it will “acknowledge the complaint within 2 days of receiving it”. At stage one it confirms that it will respond “within 10 working days of the date the complaint is logged” unless “there is a good reason, we may take longer than this, but we will explain this to the complainant, but it will not exceed a further 10 working days unless an additional extension is agreed by both parties”.
  4. The landlord’s complaints policy also states that at stage two it will respond “within 20 working days from the request to escalate the complaint” unless “there is a good reason, we may take longer than this, but we will explain this to the complainant, but it will not exceed a further 10 working days unless an additional extension is agreed by both parties.”

Repairs to the windows

  1. On 9 April 2021 the resident contacted the landlord to report condensation between the panes of three double glazed windows. The landlord attended on 26 April 2021, identified 3 new window panes would be required and its notes indicate these were ordered. This was a reasonable response to the resident’s reports undertaken inside the landlord’s timescale for a routine repair.
  2. The repair was arranged for 19 May 2021 however on this date the resident received a text message rearranging the appointment. This was due to the panes not being available with the supplier.
  3. The repair was rearranged for 14 June 2021 and, on this date, the resident received two text messages confirming the landlord was on its way. However no one attended the resident’s property. The resident contacted the landlord by phone to report that no one had arrived and was informed the panes of glass were still not available.
  4. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it will “contact the customer as far in advance as possible to advise them” of changes to appointments. The missed appointment on 19 May 2021 was largely outside the landlord’s control as it had been let down by its supplier. However, given the landlord knew the resident had been caused time and trouble at the previous missed appointment, the landlord should have been more proactive in ensuring either the glass was available for the appointment on 14 June 2021 or the appointment was rearranged as far in advance as possible. That it did not was a failing in the landlord’s record keeping and information management which caused time and inconvenience to the resident and was not in line with the landlord’s policies.
  5. Further appointments were arranged for the repairs to take place on 7 March 2022 and then on 27 April 2022. However, the repairs did not go ahead on either of these dates as the landlord was awaiting the required materials. The resident was not informed that the appointments would not go ahead prior to the day of the appointments. This was unreasonable, not in line with the landlord’s policies and caused frustration and inconvenience to the resident.
  6. On 6 June 2022 the landlord attended and replaced two of the three panes of glass which required replacement. This was 60 weeks after the resident had first reported the issue to the landlord and represents a delay of roughly 55 weeks against the landlord’s target of completing routine repairs in 28 calendar days. This was unreasonable and resulted in inconvenience to the resident.
  7. An appointment was arranged for 12 July 2022 for the final pane of glass to be replaced. However, the landlord did not attend and did not inform the resident. The next day the landlord contacted the resident to inform her the appointment was missed due to the final pane having not come in. This was unreasonable and not in line with the landlord’s policies.
  8. There were further missed appointments by the landlord on 21 September 2022 and 18 October 2022 before the final pane was replaced on 23 January 2023. This represents a total delay of 20 months against the landlord’s routine repairs timescale of 28 calendar days. This was unreasonable and caused inconvenience and frustration to the resident.
  9. On 21 February 2023 the resident contacted the landlord to report she remained dissatisfied with the repair as the privacy glazing on the upper half of one window was different to the bottom half. The landlord responded to the resident on 16 March 2023 confirming no further works would be taking place.
  10. The Ombudsman has carefully considered the resident’s comments that the landlord should have provided privacy glass with a matching design. However, whilst having sympathy for the resident’s position, as the windows are water tight and functioning, the landlord had met its obligations to ‘keep in good repair’ the windows at the property. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for the Ombudsman to order the landlord to ensure the designs matched.
  11. In the landlord’s final response to the resident on 19 October 2022 it has acknowledged and apologised for a number of the failings identified in this report. It has accepted it had “massively let you (the resident) down” and apologised for the “extremely poor customer service” the resident experienced. It has also offered the resident a total of £350 compensation for delays, stress and inconvenience, poor communication and broken promises. However, it is the Ombudsman’s opinion that the redress offered initially did not go far enough in acknowledging the resident’s experience and is not in line with the landlord’s compensation policy.
  12. On 13 March 2024, after the resident’s complaint had been duly made to the Ombudsman, the landlord wrote to the resident advising it had reviewed her complaint. It said that there were significant failures in how it handled the resident’s complaint and the delays the resident experienced were unreasonable. It offered the resident a further £550 compensation in relation to the unreasonable delays in repairing the windows and poor communication, in addition to the £350 already offered.
  13. The landlord’s subsequent decision to complete a further review of the resident’s complaint did indicate a willingness to learn, in line with the Dispute Resolution Principles. The landlord’s subsequent offer of compensation (£900) was within a range the Ombudsman would recommend for long-term failings that have had a significant impact on the resident. However the offer was not made until some 16 months after the time of the resident’s complaint. Therefore the landlord failed to effectively put things right, and missed the opportunity to learn lessons from the outcome at the time of its original investigation. Given this, we have therefore found there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the residents reports of repairs required to the windows.
  14. Overall, the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of repairs required to the windows were characterised by delays, poor communication, record keeping and information management. Had the landlord not acknowledged, apologised and offered some redress for its failings as part of its complaints process it is likely the Ombudsman would have found severe maladministration in this case.

Complaint handling

  1. On 8 March 2022 the resident contacted the landlord by phone to submit a formal complaint abouts it handling of repairs to her windows. The landlord responded, at stage one of its complaints process, on 30 March 2022 which was 6 days outside of its stated timescale of 10 working days. The landlord did not inform the resident that their response would be delayed which was unreasonable, not in line with the landlord’s policies or the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
  2. Following the stage one response there was no appropriate follow up which demonstrated a number of missed opportunities. It would have been reasonable, given the assurances made at stage one, to ensure communication improved. This demonstrates that there was a lack of learning from the stage one on behalf of the landlord.
  3. The landlord responded at stage two of its complaints process on 19 October 2022. The landlord’s stage two response was more detailed and acknowledged failings on the landlord’s behalf. However, it is silent on the delays at the first stage or its lack of appropriate follow up.
  4. In its letter to the resident of 13 March 2024, the landlord has acknowledged the delays in responding to the resident’s complaint at stage one and delays in escalating the resident’s complaint to stage two. It has offered the resident a further £200 compensation in relation to this. This is within the range the Ombudsman would recommend for this type of failing. Whilst it is welcome the landlord revisits its complaints, the offer was not made until 16 months after the resident completed the landlord’s complaints process. Therefore, the Ombudsman has found there was service failure in respect of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the residents reports of repairs required to her windows.
  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. The landlord should take the following action within the next four weeks and provide evidence of compliance with these orders to the Ombudsman:
    1. Pay the resident the sum of £1100 which the landlord has previously offered in respect of this case. (Please note if compensation offered during the landlord’s complaints process has been paid this can be deducted from the total)
    2. Apologise to the resident in person. At this time, the landlord should also take the opportunity to confirm its position on the mismatched windows to the resident.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord should review this case against the Housing Ombudsman’s recent spotlight report on attitudes, respect and behaviours.