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Town and Country Housing (202317167)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202317167

Town and Country Housing

13 March 2024


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman 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

  1. The complaint is about:
  1. The landlord’s handling of repairs to the boiler.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. 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.

 

  1.  After carefully considering all the evidence, it has been determined that the     complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident is a fixed term tenant of the landlord since September 2022. Shortly after the tenancy started the resident complained about the boiler at the property. Specifically, that it did not work properly since the start of the tenancy, was not providing enough hot water and the performance of the boiler was making it difficult to look after her disabled child. The resident was dissatisfied with the landlord’s response to her complaint. On 18 December 2022 she escalated her complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaint process. On 20 December 2022, the landlord provided its final response. The resident remained dissatisfied and in September 2023, escalated the complaint to this service.

 

  1. After this, on 19 October 2023, the resident made an online civil money claim against the landlord for £9500. Within the claim form she stated this amount was being claimed as compensation for boiler breakdowns, time spent without heating and water, the landlord’s refusal to acknowledge the family’s welfare and disability needs, and potential damage to her health.

 

  1. On 12 March 2024, the landlord informed this Service that in December 2023 it had entered a defence to the resident’s claim.

 

 

 

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 41(c) of the Scheme states “The Ombudsman cannot consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, concern matters that are the subject of court proceedings or were the subject of court proceedings where judgement on the merits was given”.
  2. When the resident escalated her complaint to this Service on 7 September 2023 (prior to submitting her legal claim), it fell within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman to consider and was duly progressed for investigation. It was then on 19 October 2023 that she submitted her legal claim, which can affect the Ombudsman’s ability to investigate a complaint.
  3. This Service has considered the details of the resident’s complaint and the details of her legal claim. The residents legal claim is in respect of the landlord’s handling of repairs to the boiler as well as other related issues. As the Court will be considering the matters in due course, the resident will have the opportunity to raise her concerns about the issues and the impact of these on her.
  4. In accordance with paragraph 41(c) of the Scheme, the complaint relating to the landlord’s handling of repairs to the boiler is not one which the Ombudsman can investigate further.