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Nottingham City Council (202431372)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202431372

Nottingham City Council

31 July 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 the resident’s reports of leaks into the property and associated repairs.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, which is a local council. She is elderly and lives with her husband. Her family provide care for her. A third party is representing her in bringing the complaint to this Service. For convenience, we will refer to both the resident and her representative as ‘the resident’ in this report.
  2. The resident reported a leak from the wet room on 23 January 2023. The landlord raised multiple works to rectify this. It raised works to remove the ceiling below to fix the leak on the same day. On 4 July 2023, she reported the same issue. On 7 July 2023, it raised works to remove the ceiling so it could fix the leak. She reported issues with the front guttering leaking on 24 October 2023. It raised works to renew the fascia on 7 November 2023.
  3. On 10 February 2024, the resident complained to the landlord about its handling of the ongoing leaks and damage inside the property from this. She said it had stalled and given excuses about a lack of funding and service cuts. She described damp and mould in the property and damage to the hallway ceiling.
  4. The landlord sent its stage 1 complaint response to the resident on 14 February 2024. It apologised for the length of time taken to complete repairs and said its records showed “numerous” orders raised to resolve the leak which was still occurring. It raised works for 21 February 2024 to resolve the internal leak. It said it would then raise works to put right the ceiling after this.
  5. The resident requested escalation of her complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaint process on 10 May 2024. She said although it cut part of the ceiling out, it had not done anything since to rectify the ongoing leak. She asked it to resolve the issue as a priority.
  6. The landlord sent its stage 2 complaint response to the resident on 22 May 2024. It said it attended on 21 February 2024 as planned but extended the period of works due to needing scaffolding to replace the guttering and fascia. It said it did not organise this correctly which caused further delays and apologised for this. It booked these works for 21 May 2024 and 24 May 2024.
  7. On 29 July 2024, the landlord offered compensation of £150 to the resident as a goodwill gesture following a review of its repair history and her complaints. It said this was not an admission of liability. It processed this on 2 August 2024 and noted it had completed leak repairs.
  8. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s approach to works as internal repairs remained outstanding. She brought her complaint to this Service for investigation. She is looking for it to complete repairs and replastering works to the affected ceilings, decoration vouchers once work is complete and compensation for the distress and inconvenience.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The evidence provided shows that the resident has reported issues with water ingress and leaks between 2018 and 2023. We may not consider complaints which 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. As such, we will not consider anything prior to the report of a leak in January 2023 in this report.
  2. The resident has reported further issues with all complaint elements after the landlord’s stage 2 response. We will not investigate these matters, as we have not been provided with evidence that the landlord has dealt with these as a formal complaint. Our position is in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman Scheme which says that we may not consider complaints which are made prior to having exhausted a member’s complaints procedure. This is because the landlord needs to be given a fair opportunity to investigate and respond to any reported dissatisfaction with its actions prior to the involvement of this Service.

Leaks in the property

  1. The landlord has provided repair records to this Service. It has 5 categories for the status of ongoing repairs which include closed, cancelled, and completed. It has not marked any works relating to leaks as completed. Context shows that it has completed repairs to resolve the leak, which indicates it did not update its records.
  2. Following the resident’s report of a leak from the shower waste pipe in the wet room on 23 January 2023, the landlord raised works to take down the ceiling below to fix it. Its repairs service standards outline it will treat minor leaks as a priority repair for completion within 7 and 30 working days. There is no evidence that it completed these works within this timescale. That was a failing.
  3. The resident reported the same issue on 4 July 2023. The landlord again raised works for the removal of the ceiling to fix the leak. However, it cancelled these works on 15 and 18 of August 2023. It has provided no explanation for these cancellations.
  4. On 24 October 2023, the resident reported blocked guttering at the front of the property causing a leak. On 3 November 2023 it raised works to fix this and on 7 November 2023, it raised works to renew the fascia at the front of the property. It gave a target date of 18 September 2024 for the fascia works. This was not appropriate as it gave a 10-month target date which exceeded its repairs service standard timescale of 90 working days for planned works.
  5. In the resident’s complaint to the landlord on 10 February 2024, she said it had been over a year since she reported a leak in and around the bathroom and hallway ceiling. She reported this had caused a “sizeable” damp patch and mould. The said the damage to the hallway ceiling from this had caused mouldy plaster to fall. She said after several months the landlord agreed the leak was originating from damage on the external fascia boards which previously held the guttering. She was concerned about structural damage and electrical faults if it did not resolve the leaks.
  6. In its stage 1 complaint response of 14 February 2024, the landlord apologised for the length of time taken to complete repairs to resolve the leak. It again raised works to resolve the leak by way of chopping out a section of the ceiling. It gave a date of 21 February 2024 for this appointment. It said it would raise an order for to put right any ceiling repair once it resolved the leak.
  7. At this stage, over a year had passed since the resident first reported the leak. This far exceeded its repairs and maintenance service standard of a maximum of 30 working days. While leaks can be difficult to find and rectify, the landlord’s complaint response did not reflect this being the case. Nor did it reflect the severity of this delay. Its discretionary compensation policy says it will consider offering compensation in any case where it has failed to meet its own service targets. It made no such offer in its response. It would have been good practice to consider this option alongside the provision of a repairs appointment and apology.
  8. In her complaint escalation request of 10 May 2024, the resident said the landlord had cut out a section of the ceiling but had not fixed the leak. This was now 16 months since her first report. It investigated this internally and found it had failed to liaise with the internal planned works team after sending its stage 1 complaint response. It rescheduled the erection of scaffolding for 21 May 2024 and works for 24 May 2024.
  9. The landlord apologised further in its stage 2 complaint response of 22 May 2024. It said it did not coordinate works with the correct team for scaffolding and working at height and acknowledged its mistake. It provided the appointment dates of 21 and 24 May 2024 for scaffolding and repairs. It said it would contact the resident to ensure full completion of works and that she was happy with the outcome. It said it had discussed the learnings from the complaint internally with the relevant teams.
  10. The landlord’s complaint response again failed to reflect the delay in repairing the leak. It made no offers of redress.
  11. Following the landlord’s final response, it made an offer of £150 compensation on 29 July 2024. While it was appropriate that it considered offering redress, it should have done this as part of its stage 2 response. However, its offer was not proportionate to the delays experienced by the resident.
  12. There were clear failures in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of leaks into the property. While it has not provided evidence of the resident chasing it for updates during the complaint period, it is difficult to assess whether this was the case due to its minimal record keeping for repairs.
  13. The landlord took over 18 months to fix the leak and its complaint responses did not reflect this nor did it offer reasonable redress to put this right. It exceeded all its repairs timescales. It also failed to follow through on its proposed action to raise an order to repair the internal ceilings following repair of the leak at stage 1. Therefore, a finding of maladministration is appropriate.
  14. We will make orders to reflect the severity of the issue and outstanding works, along with orders relating to its repairs processes and record keeping.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of leaks into the property and associated repairs.

Orders

  1. Within 28 days of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Pay the resident compensation totalling £750 for the failures identified in its handling of repairs, comprising:
      1. £150 previously offered on 29 July 2024 if it has not paid this already.
      2. £600 for the distress and inconvenience of repair delays.
    2. Write a full apology to the resident for the failures identified in this report.
    3. Provide proof of compliance with the above orders to this Service.
  2. Within 6 weeks of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Complete a full inspection of the resident’s property.
    2. Provide a timetable for the completion of any outstanding works, including redecoration of any plastering works.
    3. Provide proof of compliance with the above orders to this Service.
  3. Within 10 weeks of this report, the landlord is ordered to review its approach to repairs, considering the failures identified in this case. Particularly:
    1. Ensuring it has effective procedures for recording and storing repair information accurately. This includes monitoring repairs for follow-up actions and completion.
    2. Ensuring there is effective internal communication and that teams are aware of their roles in keeping residents updated and recording the communication.
  4. The landlord must provide of compliance with the above order to this Service.