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Woking Borough Council (202336419)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202336419

Woking Borough Council

16 January 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 repairs to the resident’s boiler.

Background

  1. The resident is the secure tenant of the property, a 3-bed semi-detached house owned by the landlord. She lives alone and has ongoing health issues.
  2. The resident reported numerous issues with her heating to the landlord between 2019 and 2022. It attended the property in response to her reports on multiple occasions.
  3. The resident complained to the landlord on 11 May 2021 following missed appointments by its contractors and claimed that she could not afford to heat her home. It did not provide a formal response to this complaint but did investigate the issues and booked works. With the help of a solicitor, she pursued a claim under the pre-action protocol on housing conditions but agreed a financial settlement with the landlord in May 2022.
  4. The resident brought her complaint to this Service almost 2 years later in early 2024 and we prompted the landlord to provide her with a complaint response on 12 March 2024. It detailed its response to the boiler issues and confirmed the settlement amount of £1,000. It offered to pay an unspecified amount of compensation in line with its loss of heating and hot water policy for the period after the settlement, between 1 August 2022 and 31 January 2023, when it completed repairs.
  5. On 27 April 2024, the resident requested that the landlord escalate her complaint to stage 2 as she said that the heating was still not working properly. It responded on 24 May 2024 and provided a log of its visits between March and May 2024. It felt that its stage 1 response was adequate but stated that it would like to arrange a full property inspection to gain an overview of the property condition and plan any required renewals.
  6. The resident remained unhappy with the landlord’s response to her complaint and requested investigation by this Service.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. Throughout the period of the resident’s complaint, there is mention of rent arrears in relation to the cost of heating the property. The landlord has started possession proceedings. Under paragraph 42.f of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme), the Ombudsman is unable to assist with any possession claims and the resident may wish to seek legal advice about her rights in relation to this matter.
  2. While the resident complained in 2021 and the landlord did not provide a formal response to this, there is no evidence to demonstrate that she made any further complaints until contacting the Ombudsman in January 2024. The landlord settled the resident’s claim for the housing issues, which included heating problems, on 6 May 2022 with a payment to her of £1,000.
  3. As such, under paragraph 42.c. of the Scheme, which states that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints that were not brought to the attention of the member as a formal complaint within a reasonable period which would normally be within 12 months of the matters arising, this Service will assess the landlord’s complaint responses for any matters relating to the heating system from January 2023, alongside any matters ongoing at the time of her complaint. Any further mention of historical events prior to this is for context only.

Boiler repairs

  1. Following settlement of the resident’s claim for housing issues in 2022, the landlord completed works to repair the heating in the property in January 2023. However, she reported further issues with the living room radiator via her solicitor on 17 February 2023. The landlord’s contractors reported that they had attempted to visit the property but could not gain access. It asked that she call it to arrange this.
  2. The resident made no further reports of issues with the heating until 28 June 2023. In this report, she stated that the landlord was not fixing her heating problem, and she had stopped cooking to save money due to gas costs. It has not provided any evidence to show that it responded to this. This was not appropriate when considering the history of the issue.
  3. The landlord spoke to the resident about its intention to take legal action for rent arrears on 20 September 2023. She told it that she would not be paying any rent until it fixed her heating. It has provided no evidence to show that it investigated her claim that the heating was not working after this conversation. This was again, not appropriate, when factoring in the history of the heating issues.
  4. The landlord completed the required annual gas safety check at the resident’s property on 8 November 2023. The property passed and it required no further action. The resident then made no further reports of broken heating ahead of her complaint to the Ombudsman in January 2024.
  5. On the 7 February 2024, the landlord made an internal referral to its own resident support services for the resident. There is no evidence that it was aware of her complaint to this Service at this time. It visited her on or before 21 February 2024, but she declined to speak to the support officers. Its support team contacted her again on 26 February 2024 to explain their role. She declined their support until it fixed the heating. Its decision to offer her support demonstrates that it was alert to her vulnerabilities.
  6. The landlord received the resident’s complaint on 27 February 2024. In its stage 1 decision on 12 March 2024, it referred to the financial settlement of 6 May 2022. It noted that she had reported intermittent issues with the heating between August 2022 and January 2023. It apologised for its insufficient communication at the time and stated that it would pay compensation in line with its loss of heating and hot water policy for the period of 1 August 2022 to 31 January 2023. Although it should have specified the amount it would pay, this was a good response to the historic issues. Its apology and offer of compensation for this was reasonable.
  7. In its complaint response, the landlord also confirmed that it had completed works to drain the resident’s heating system on 11 March 2024 and left the system working at full capacity. It said that it had requested for a senior gas engineer to reattend on 15 March 2024 to check how the heating system had been running since this. Overall, the landlord’s stage 1 complaint response was fair and reasonable.
  8. The resident requested that the landlord escalate her complaint to stage 2 of its complaints process on 27 April 2024 as she stated the heating was still not working properly. It responded on 24 May 2024 and explained that it remained happy with its stage 1 response. It said that its contractor had confirmed that they resolved the heating issue, and they left the system fully functioning on 10 May 2024. It provided a list of the contractor’s attendance at the property and notes from these visits. It stated that it would like to arrange a full inspection of the property to assess the condition of the property and its installations.
  9. Overall, the landlord’s stage 2 complaint response was fair and factual. It provided important information to the resident and its offer of a full property inspection was appropriate in the circumstances. The resident confirmed that the landlord had tried to arrange this with her during a telephone conversation with this Service on 6 January 2025 and that she intended to contact it to arrange a new date for this.
  10. In conclusion, the landlord appropriately acknowledged its historic failings within its complaint responses. It did fail to respond to the resident’s reports of heating issues in June and September 2023, however, she did not chase this and when further issues became apparent in March 2024, it completed repairs. Its offer of compensation for the period between August 2022 and January 2023 was fair and its request to complete a full property inspection was appropriate. The landlord should note that it would have been best practice for it to have included its calculations of the total amount for its compensation offer in the complaint response.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Scheme, the landlord has offered redress to the complainant, which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint about the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s boiler satisfactorily.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord should pay the resident the previously offered compensation for loss of heating and hot water between 1 August 2022 and 31 January 2023, if it has not done so already. It should calculate this in accordance with its policy for heating and hot water refunds. This offer recognised genuine elements of service failure, and the sufficient redress finding is made on that basis.
  2. The landlord should consider contacting the resident to rearrange the full property inspection it included as a remedy within its stage 2 complaint response.