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Torus62 Limited (202313367)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202313367

Torus62 Limited

17 February 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. The resident’s personal information. This includes the associated complaint handling.
    2. Reports of antisocial behaviour (ASB).

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. Her tenancy started on 12 October 2022. The property is a 1 bedroom flat. The resident no longer lives at the property related to this complaint. She transferred into a different property with the same landlord in April 2024.
  2. The landlord received reports of ASB about the resident’s music during February and March 2023. It opened an ASB case on 9 March 2023. It wrote to the resident to inform her that it had received complaints and to give the resident the opportunity to respond to the allegations. The landlord spoke to the resident on 14 March 2023 and it issued an ASB warning letter on 15 March 2023.
  3. The landlord opened a separate ASB case on 14 April 2023 following reports of verbal abuse from a neighbour towards the resident.
  4. The resident raised a formal complaint with the landlord on 14 April 2023, about the way it had dealt with reported incidents of ASB. The landlord sent the resident a stage 1 response on 27 April 2024. It said it found no service failures in the way it had dealt with the reports of ASB.
  5. Following the resident’s escalation to stage 2 on 10 May 2023, the landlord sent the resident a stage 2 response on 14 June 2023. It again said it found no service failures in the way it had dealt with the reports of ASB.
  6. The resident submitted a further complaint to the landlord on 30 August 2023. She believed that it had shared her personal information with a third party and contacted another third party without her permission. This complaint is outside of our jurisdiction and does not form part of this investigation. The reasons for this are explained below.
  7. The resident was dissatisfied with the landlord’s response to her complaints, so referred her case to the Ombudsman.

Assessment and findings

Jurisdiction

  1. What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). 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, or part of a complaint, will not be investigated.
  2. Paragraph 42(j) of the Scheme says we may not consider complaints that “fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body”.
  3. Part of the resident’s complaint is that she believes the landlord provided information to a third party and contacted a third party without her consent. After carefully considering all the evidence, the landlord’s handling of the resident’s personal information sits outside of our jurisdiction. This is because we cannot determine whether the landlord was entitled to contact third parties or pass information about the resident to third parties. This would be a matter for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
  4. As we are unable to investigate the resident’s concerns of a data breach, we are also unable to assess the landlord’s handling of the second complaint. This is because reports of alleged data breaches do not relate to the landlord’s provision or management of social housing.

Reports of antisocial behaviour (ASB)

  1. The purpose of this investigation is for us to decide whether, in response to reports of ASB, the landlord acted in line with its policies and procedures. We will also look at whether its actions were fair and reasonable. We will not decide whether ASB took place, or which party in the neighbour dispute was responsible.
  2. The landlord received reports from a neighbour in February 2023 of loud music coming from the resident’s property. The neighbour provided recordings of the loud music to the landlord. The landlord opened an ASB case against the resident on 9 March 2023. It sent a letter explaining that complaints of ASB had been made against her. It explained that it would be investigating the complaints and to give the resident the opportunity to respond, it had arranged to call her on 14 March 2023.
  3. The landlord spoke to the resident on 14 March 2023. The resident told the landlord that she did play music during the day on a tablet, but she disagreed that it was loud. She also told the landlord that she thought the reports were malicious. The landlord gave the resident general advice and asked her to play her music at “more reasonable levels”. It followed up the telephone call by sending a warning letter to the resident on 15 March 2023.
  4. The landlord’s ASB policy says noise nuisance/loud music is conduct that could cause nuisance or annoyance. It also says it will address ASB as early as possible as this may prevent situations from escalating and may stop ASB. Therefore, by opening an ASB case and addressing the reports of loud music with the resident, the landlord acted in line with its ASB policy.
  5. The resident raised counter allegations with the landlord on 27 March 2023. She said her neighbour was “constantly stomping on the floor” above her. She also made allegations that her neighbour was listening at her door. The landlord told the resident, in an email dated 11 April 2023, that she could use the Noise App to record the noise from her neighbour. It said it would open a case once the evidence had been provided. This was an appropriate response and in line with its ASB policy.
  6. The resident reported an incident of verbal abuse from her upstairs neighbour to the landlord on 13 April 2023. She also raised a formal complaint on 14 April 2023. Her complaint was about how the landlord had dealt with the reports of loud music against her. She said that the dispute between the neighbours had escalated to “face to face conflict” which had been reported to the police. She said she believed that this could have been avoided if the landlord had dealt with the reports of loud music appropriately.
  7. The landlord contacted the resident by email on 20 April 2023. It asked the resident if she had a recording of the incident that took place on 13 April 2023. It also asked whether the police were investigating her report and whether the resident would consider mediation with her neighbour. The resident responded on the same day and refused mediation. She told the landlord that she had a short recording of the incident. The landlord asked the resident to send the recording and full details of the incident. It also asked the resident to attend its offices the following week to discuss the case.
  8. The landlord spoke to the resident on 27 April 2023 to discuss her formal complaint. During the conversation the resident confirmed she would not be giving the landlord the recording of the incident that took place on 13 April 2023. She said she would deal with the issue herself via the police and legal channels. The resident agreed to meet with the landlord on 11 May 2023 at its offices. She agreed that the landlord could contact and challenge her neighbour, but only after the planned appointment.
  9. The landlord sent the resident a stage 1 complaint response on 27 April 2023. It said it had opened an ASB case against the resident on 9 March 2023 following allegations of noise nuisance/loud music. It said it wrote to the resident informing her of the allegations in line with its ASB policy. It said the case officer spoke to the resident on 14 March 2023 and gave general advice about being mindful of noise from music travelling to other properties. It said it was sorry that the resident felt she had not been listened to and that her concerns had not been taken seriously. It acknowledged that the resident felt this had resulted in an incident of verbal abuse.
  10. The landlord reassured the resident that it could support her with her complaint of ASB in line with its ASB policy. It said it was reviewing its ASB procedure, and this would include a review of the ways it contacted customers. It said it would ensure her feedback was taken into consideration. However, it found no service failure in the way it had managed the reports of ASB.
  11. The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 on 10 May 2023 as she was unhappy with the landlord’s response.
  12. The landlord met with the resident at its offices on 11 May 2023. The landlord asked the resident to provide the footage of the incident of verbal abuse involving her neighbour. The resident refused to provide the footage as the police were dealing with the incident. The landlord told the resident that it would close the ASB case as it could not take any action against the alleged perpetrator without evidence. The resident showed the landlord a small clip which showed a different neighbour swearing at the alleged perpetrator, who appeared calm. The landlord agreed with the resident that it would ask the police for an update on their investigation. It also offered the resident mediation in an attempt to resolve the issues between the neighbours. The resident agreed that she would take part.
  13. The landlord’s ASB policy says, when supporting complainants, it will agree an action plan where appropriate. It will also risk assess and use physical measures in appropriate cases to reassure complainants or witnesses.
  14. It is clear from the evidence provided that the landlord agreed an action plan with the resident, in line with its ASB policy, which was appropriate in the circumstances. However, it is unclear from the evidence provided as to whether it considered the case an “appropriate case” and completed a risk assessment based on the resident’s circumstances.
  15. Although this is not a service failure, it should be noted that the Antisocial behaviour powers – statutory guidance for frontline professionals (revised in March 2023) says “it is good practice for agencies to assess the risk of harm to victims, and any potential vulnerabilities, when they receive a complaint about anti-social behaviour. This should be the starting point of a case-management approach to dealing with anti-social complaints”.
  16. The landlord referred the case to its mediation service on 11 May 2023. This was reasonable in the circumstances, as the resident had not given the required evidence to the landlord to allow it to challenge the neighbour directly. The footage that was provided did not support the resident’s report.
  17. The landlord sent the resident a stage 2 complaint response on 14 June 2023. It said it was sorry that the issue had escalated. It made assurances that it aimed to proactively investigate and deal with anti-social behaviour using a range of remedies. However, it maintained its position that there had been no failures in its service.

Events following the stage 2 response

  1. The landlord closed the ASB case against the resident on 7 August 2023, as there had been no further reports of ASB.
  2. The landlord’s mediation provider informed the landlord on 9 August 2023, that it could not continue with the mediation process due to non-engagement of the parties.
  3. The landlord closed the ASB case against the resident’s neighbour on 29 August 2023, as there had been no further reports of ASB.
  4. In summary, the landlord responded to complaints about the resident’s music in line with its ASB policy. It responded appropriately, and in line with its ASB policy, to complaints made by the resident about her neighbour. It also made an appropriate referral to its mediation provider as it was unable to directly challenge the resident’s neighbour. As a result, the Ombudsman finds that there was no maladministration by the landlord in this case.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 42(j) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the resident’s complaint concerning the landlord’s handling of her personal information is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in its handling of reports of antisocial behaviour.