Wandle Housing Association Limited (202016009)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202016009

Wandle Housing Association Limited

11 February 2022

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 level of the resident’s service charge.
   2. The landlord’s handling of external repair and decoration work.

Jurisdiction

2. What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is governed by the Housing Ombudsman 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 will not be investigated.
3. After carefully considering all the evidence, in accordance with paragraph 39(g) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the following aspect of the complaint is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction:
   1. The level of the resident’s service charge.
4. The substance of the resident’s service charge complaint is about her liability for being charged for communal services provided by the landlord. Paragraph 39(g) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that the Ombudsman will not consider complaints which concern the level of rent or service charge or the amount of the rent or service charge increase. Complaints that relate to the level, reasonableness, or liability to pay rent or service charges are within the jurisdiction of the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) and the complainant would be advised to seek independent legal advice in relation to how to proceed with a case.

Background and summary of events

5. The resident is a tenant of the landlord. The property is a first-floor flat.
6. The resident made a stage one complaint to the landlord on 22 April 2021 in which she relayed that she had enquired a year ago about external decoration of the building which was not completed. She received a reply on 25 January 2021 to inform her that her email had been forwarded to the landlord’s surveyor and she had heard nothing since. The resident wanted to know when the work would be completed as she had received no updates about this.
7. The landlord responded to the resident’s stage one complaint on 26 April 2021 and explained that it had encountered difficulties in carrying out the works due to access issues. It also explained that the impact of the corona virus pandemic led to it having difficulty in arranging works with contractors and that it was focusing only on carrying out emergency works at the time. The landlord advised that it would make an appointment with her for its surveyor to inspect the works that it had carried out in 2019 and produce an action plan to address any outstanding works. It apologised for the delay.
8. The resident emailed the landlord on 28 June 2021 to escalate her complaint to the final stage of its complaints process as it had not made an appointment for her to meet the surveyor to inspect the works. She had been informed that the surveyor had inspected the works in her absence and considered that no further work was required. The resident wanted a second opinion and for someone to make an appointment with her to inspect the building. She highlighted that although exterior work had been done at the front of the property, no work had been completed at the rear.
9. The landlord and the resident corresponded on 29 June and 1 July 2021 when she informed it that were issues with the decoration to the front of the building.
10. The landlord issued its final stage complaint response to the resident on 29 July 2021 and confirmed that it had previously inspected the exterior of the property on 28 May 2021 when it found that all necessary works had been completed. It acknowledged that it did not adequately address her concerns at stage one of her complaint. The landlord proposed to arrange an appointment with her for another surveyor to check the work and arrange to complete any outstanding works.
11. The landlord carried out an inspection on 20 August 2021. Its report on this noted various external repairs to paintwork, rainwater goods, the front door and the rear wall were required. The landlord acknowledged that these repairs had been carried out a year ago and were prematurely in need of renewal. Its recommendation was to carry out the repairs identified.  
12. The resident informed the Ombudsman on 3 October 2021 that she continued to be dissatisfied as the landlord had inspected the property and identified that repairs were required. It had since been six weeks and she had not heard about when these repairs would be carried out; she added that the landlord had not replied to her calls and messages.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

13. The landlord’s tenancy agreement with the resident confirms that it is to keep the structure and exterior of the property in good repair. This includes the walls, doors, drains gutters and external pipes. landlord The is also to keep the exterior of the property in good state of decorative repair.
14. The landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy classifies repairs to guttering and downpipes, doors (when there is no security risk), and external walls as routine appointed repairs. These are to be completed within 28 days unless the resident is unable to agree an appointment within this timeframe.
15. The landlord’s complaints policy provides for a two-stage complaints process. At stage one of this process, a response is to be provided to the resident within ten working days; at the final stage the landlord is to respond within 20 working days. At both stages, if it is unable to provide its responses within these timeframes, it is to explain why to the resident and may extend the timeframe by no more than a further ten working days.
16. As confirmed by the tenancy agreement and the landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy above, it had a responsibility to repair and maintain the rainwater goods, the doors and the walls in the property. As these were considered to be routine repairs, it should have completed these within 28 days.
17. When a landlord a receives a report of a repair, its first response should be to inspect the issue. While it did carry out an inspection after the resident’s stage one complaint, it did not keep to its proposal of contacting her to arrange a joint appointment for the inspection. This led to further involvement being required of her to highlight the repairs required and escalate her complaint. This was a failing on the part of the landlord which led to the delayed resolution of the issue.
18. After the resident’s escalation of the complaint, it was reasonable for the landlord to comply with her request for an inspection to be carried out by a different member of staff, with her in attendance. This inspection identified the outstanding repairs which the resident had reported and it was evident that she was satisfied that these had been identified correctly. This indicated that the landlord had responded reasonably to the escalation of the resident’s complaint at this point.
19. However, once the outstanding repairs had been identified, there was no evidence that the landlord carried these out. The landlord should have completed the repairs within 28 days and its failure to do so was not in accordance with its repairs and maintenance policy. While it may have acted according to the resident’s wishes in her complaint escalation, it cannot be considered that it ultimately acted reasonably if it failed to act on the repairs which it had identified within a reasonable timescale.
20. The resident relayed to this Service on 3 October 2021 that the repairs had yet to be completed; this was 30 working days after the landlord’s inspection on 20 August 2021. There was no evidence that it had attempted to make an appointment with her to carry out the repairs and, to date, there is no evidence these have been completed. This was therefore a failure on the landlord’s part to comply with its repairs policy.
21. The landlord, therefore, unreasonably delayed the resolution of the repair issues reported by the resident which necessitated further involvement on her part to attempt to resolve the issues. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance (published on our website) provides for compensation of between £50 and £250 to be awarded when there has been a failure by the landlord to meet service standards for actions and responses but where the failure had no significant impact on the overall outcome of the complaint. Given the length of delay experienced by the resident up to the point of the complaint being brought to this Service, compensation of £250 should be paid to her. However, the landlord should monitor the progress of the repairs and consider payment of further compensation if the repairs continue to be delayed.

Determination (decision)

22. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of external repair and decoration work.

Reasons

23. The landlord did not make an appointment to carry out its inspection after the stage one complaint, which led to further involvement by the resident, and it did not complete the repairs identified within a reasonable time after the inspection. It is not clear from the information provided to the Ombudsman whether the repairs have now been completed.

Orders

24. Within 28 days, the landlord should:
    1. Pay £250 compensation to the resident for its delays in handling the repairs to the exterior of her property.

Recommendations

25. The landlord should:
    1. Ensure that the repairs identified in its inspection on 20 August 2021 are carried out as a priority, unless these have already been completed.
    2. Review its management of repairs to ensure that residents are kept informed about repairs and that these are carried out within the timeframes specified in its policy.