The Riverside Group Limited (202321149)
REPORT
COMPLAINT 202321149
The Riverside Group Limited
18 November 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
- The resident’s complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
- Damp and mould in the property and associated remedial repairs.
- His request for reimbursement of energy costs.
Background
- The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. His tenancy at the property began on 21 January 2019. The property is a 2 bedroom first floor flat. The resident has a respiratory health condition.
- On 3 December 2022, the resident reported damp and mould in the property to the landlord. The landlord attended on 13 December 2022 to inspect. It raised an order to install a positive input ventilation (PIV) system.
- On 4 January 2023, the resident reported damp in the property again. The landlord attended on 18 January 2023. It diagnosed that the property needed:
- Mould washes to the bathroom and back door.
- An inspection of the gable end cavity wall and insulation.
- Front and back guttering cleared.
- Loose bricks to the rear of the property addressing.
- Replacement of the front door weather bar.
- Repointing of the roof.
- The resident made a complaint to the landlord on 30 March 2023. He complained that:
- The landlord had treated the damp in the property, but the cavity wall was not dry.
- He had been running a dehumidifier in the property for 4 years. He had submitted a claim to the landlord for the costs of this but had not heard back.
- The PIV system was noisy, when he had been told by the landlord it would be quiet. He was also unhappy with the costs of running this.
- His health had deteriorated due to the issues with the property.
- The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 31 March 2023. It said that:
- It had completed works to the property, apart from renewing the cavity wall insulation which would commence from 3 April 2023.
- It had raised a claim with its insurance company in January 2023, after the resident requested reimbursement for the dehumidifier costs. It would chase its insurance team for an update on this.
- It apologised that the resident was finding the PIV system noisy, but this was required for the property and could not be removed.
- The resident would need to log a personal injury claim for any impact on his health.
- It had asked the resident to provide a compensation figure he was “looking for” for distress. It understood he wished to wait until the works were completed to provide this.
- The landlord escalated the resident’s complaint to stage 2 of its process on 28 April 2023. The resident said that all works to the property had still not been completed and he was seeking £20,000 in reimbursement for increased energy costs.
- The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 31 May 2023. It said that:
- It had now completed all damp and mould repairs, apart from installing the new cavity wall insulation.
- It was waiting for the cavity wall to dry out before it fitted the insulation and expected to do this by the end of June 2023.
- The resident had confirmed its insurers had been in touch about his claim for energy costs and were investigating this.
- It had referred his concerns about the cost of running the PIV system to its ‘affordable warmth’ team, which would contact him directly.
Assessment and findings
Scope of investigation
- As part of his complaint, the resident told the landlord that his health had deteriorated due to the conditions and issues in the property. The Ombudsman is unable to establish liability for, or whether a landlord’s actions or lack of actions contributed to, ill health. These matters are better suited to consideration by a court or personal injury claim. In its stage 1 complaint response, the landlord appropriately told the resident he would need to log a personal injury complaint for this element of his complaint.
Damp and associated repairs
- The resident made a report of damp and mould in the property on 3 December 2022. The landlord attended to inspect the property on 13 December 2022. It raised an order to install a PIV system the same day.
- The resident made a further report of damp on 4 January 2023. Although it had not yet installed the PIV system, the landlord reasonably inspected the property again on 18 January 2023. It diagnosed multiple repair issues during this inspection. The landlord has not provided an explanation for why it failed to identify these issues during the previous inspection. This represented a missed opportunity for it to raise the repairs a month earlier than it eventually did.
- The landlord raised works orders for the repairs on 26 January 2023. It is unclear why the landlord delayed for over a week after the inspection before raising the required repairs.
- The landlord’s responsive repairs policy says that it will complete routine repairs within 28 days. The landlord installed the PIV system into the property on 24 February 2023. Although this was well beyond its 28 day target, the landlord’s records indicate that it was waiting for ‘materials’. These did not arrive until some time after 30 January 2023, the delay therefore appears to have been unavoidable. However, the landlord has not provided any evidence to demonstrate that it communicated with the resident about this.
- The landlord and its contractors completed all the routine repairs logged on 26 January 2023 within 28 days of that date. Due to the scale of the works and resources required, renewal of the cavity wall insulation could not reasonably be considered a routine repair which could be completed within this time scale.
- The landlord’s contractor attended and removed the existing cavity wall insulation on 5 April 2023. This was in keeping with its stage 1 complaint responses commitment to start works “from” 3 April 2023. The landlord’s stage 2 complaint response said it was waiting “8-10 weeks” for the cavity to dry out before fitting the new insulation “by the end of June”. The landlord met this target, and the new insulation was installed on 28 June 2023.
- It is apparent that the landlord decanted the resident into a hotel from 12 April until 21 April 2023. The reasons for this are unclear from the information provided to this Service. The landlord completed a mould wash to the resident’s bedroom wall on 13 April 2023. Considering the resident’s respiratory condition and the chemicals used in mould treatments, it was reasonable for the landlord to avoid him sleeping in the bedroom during this period. However, it is unclear whether the resident could have used the second bedroom in the property instead and avoided the inconvenience of a decant.
- The landlord’s records show that after completing all works it carried out a damp and mould inspection on 2 August 2023. This inspection, which involved it using a damp meter, found no evidence of any issues with damp and mould in the property.
- In its stage 1 complaint response, the landlord included within its complaint definition that the resident had asked for “Compensation for destress [sic] this has caused”. It said that “regarding the destress, as advised we would ask you for a figure you were looking for. You have advised you currently do not wish to put through as works are on going and this is something you will raised once works are completed next week.”
- It was unreasonable for the landlord to ask the resident to define his own compensation amount. It is for the landlord, via its complaint investigation, to determine whether there has been any failure in its service provision and offer compensation commensurate to this. There is no evidence within its stage 2 complaint response, or elsewhere in the landlord’s records that it addressed this matter following the completion of the works.
- In summary, the landlord failed to identify significant repair issues contributing to damp and mould on its first inspection of the property. In its stage 1 response the landlord indicated that it would consider awarding the resident compensation for distress, however it unreasonably put the onus on the resident to request an amount and failed to provide a final position on this. Due to this, the Ombudsman makes a finding of service failure.
Request for reimbursement
- It is apparent that the resident first told the landlord he wished to be reimbursed for the energy costs of running his dehumidifier in the property in January 2023. The landlord agreed to raise an insurance claim for this. The landlord has not provided any evidence that it contacted the resident and provided an update on the claim prior to him making his complaint on 30 March 2023.
- Within its stage 1 complaint response, the landlord said that “a compensation claim was submitted to our insurance company to the sum of £4,500. As advised on 31.3.23 I will email the insurance team and ask them to contact you regarding an update.” The landlord has not provided any evidence that it contacted its insurance team to chase an update for the resident. Nor that it did so after 20 April 2023, when it again told the resident it would do this.
- The landlord’s records indicate that, at some point prior to 27 April 2023, it made the resident aware he needed to produce supporting information for his insurance claim. By this point the claim had been open approximately 3 months already. It would have been appropriate for the landlord to have requested this information from the resident far earlier in the process.
- In its stage 2 complaint response, the landlord stated that the resident had advised that its insurers had been in touch and were investigating his claim.
- Emails provided by the landlord show that the resident supplied it with copies of utility bills to support his claim in October 2023. Following this, the landlord’s insurance team wrote to the resident and requested further bills. It said that it had reviewed his claim internally and “based upon the evidence provided we would value the energy usage over the time period to total circa £2000.00”. It was unclear whether the landlord was prepared to offer the resident this sum to settle his claim. This Service has not been provided with any information subsequent to this letter.
- The Ombudsman notes that the resident also requested reimbursement for the costs of running the PIV system installed in the property in February 2023. The landlord declined to consider this and instead referred him to its ‘affordable warmth’ team to assist him with the costs. This was reasonable. The PIV system was required in order to managed condensation within the property and there was no obligation on the landlord to contribute towards the costs of running it.
- In summary, the landlord failed to appropriately communicate with the resident, update him on his claim or request supporting evidence in a timely manner. There is no evidence the landlord has provided its final position on the resident’s claim, almost 2 years after he submitted it.
Determination
- In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of damp and mould in the property and associated remedial repairs.
- In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s request for reimbursement of energy costs.
Orders
- Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, the Ombudsman orders the landlord to:
- Pay the resident £200 compensation composed of:
- £100 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its handling of damp and mould in the property and associated remedial repairs.
- £100 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its handling of his request for reimbursement of energy costs.
- Write to the resident providing:
- Its/its insurers current position on his claim for reimbursement of his energy costs, based on the information he has provided to date.
- Any further information it may require from him to fully assess his claim and provide its final position.
- Pay the resident £200 compensation composed of:
- The landlord should provide evidence of compliance with these orders to this Service.