Southern Housing (202336546)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202336546

Southern Housing

2 September 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

The resident’s complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
1. Her service charge queries.
2. Her request to change the communal lights.
We have also assessed the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

The resident is the leaseholder of the property. She purchased the lease in 2021. The property is a 1 bedroom first floor flat. It is one of 4 flats in a converted building.
The landlord is the freeholder of the building. It is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the structure of the building and communal areas. It recharges the cost of this to leaseholders through a service charge. The landlord also collects money for a ‘reserve fund’ through the service charge. This fund is held by the landlord and used to pay for larger non-routine works.
On 13 October 2022, the resident contacted the landlord about the lights in the communal area of the building. She said that these were constantly on, which was wasting electricity and disturbing her during the night. She asked the landlord if it could change the lights so that they operated on a movement sensor.
The resident made a complaint to the landlord on 27 March 2023. She expressed dissatisfaction with:
1. The scope and cost of cyclical decorative works it proposed to carry out to the building.
2. The lack of progress or update on changing the communal lights to sensor lights.
3. The fact that her service charge for the new financial year was increasing significantly.
The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 11 April 2023. It said that:
1. It had reviewed the scope of the cyclical works after considering the resident’s comments. It had removed some items as a result.
2. It would carry out a further consultation of residents. This would give them the option of proceeding with the reduced works or delaying them for a minimum of 3 years.
3. It had requested quotes to change the communal lights in October 2022. However, it had not chased these up until March 2023. It apologised for the delay and said it would consult residents about the works once it received the quotes.
4. The largest increases in the resident’s service charge were due to building insurance and communal electricity costs. These had risen due to market forces outside of its control. It was seeking to procure alternative arrangements in the future which it hoped would reduce costs.
An internal landlord email of 25 May 2023 indicates that the landlord met with the resident, and 2 of her neighbours, on 16 May 2023. It said that during this meeting she asked to escalate her complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s process.
On 1 June 2023, the landlord wrote to the resident. It informed her that residents of the building had voted to delay the cyclical decorative works.
The landlord also emailed the resident on this date. It said it had been made aware she remained dissatisfied with its stage 1 complaint response and asked for details of why. The resident responded the same day. She said she wanted the landlord to review her service charge as she believed the reserve fund contribution was too high and she was being charged for maintenance of areas which she should not be. She requested copies of the service charge accounts and invoices for the previous financial year. She also asked the landlord to change the communal lights at its own cost due to the lengthy delay in it doing so.
The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 19 July 2023. It said that:
1. It would review the resident’s lease and obligation to pay charges. It believed it was correctly charging her, but if it found any incorrect charges, it would remove these and refund her anything paid towards them. It said it would complete the review by the end of August 2023.
2. It would send her a link to the invoices for the previous financial year by 11 August 2023. It apologised it had not done this more promptly.
3. It would be sending an electrician to the block to look at a solution for the lights. This included disabling any that were “in excess”. It would not be recharging residents for the cost of the works “by way of apology”. It aimed to complete them by 8 September 2023.

Events since the landlord’s stage 2 complaint response

On 5 October 2023, the landlord informed the resident that it had reviewed her lease and service charges. It said it had found it was incorrectly charging her costs associated with an area of land that was not included within her lease. The landlord said it would “credit back” the incorrectly charged money and reissue the 2022-2023 year end accounts to reflect this.
On 16 November 2023, the landlord replaced the lights in the communal area of the building with sensor lights.
The resident referred her complaint to us on 17 January 2024. She expressed dissatisfaction that she was still waiting for the landlord to confirm full details of its service charge review and amend her account accordingly.
The landlord amended the resident’s service charge account to credit the incorrectly charged money on 4 April 2024. On 8 April 2024 it sent her the revised 2022-2023 year end accounts reflecting this. It also amended her charges for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 financial years.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

The resident has expressed continued dissatisfaction with the level of her service charge, and particularly the contribution to the reserve fund. The Housing Ombudsman Scheme establishes that we are unable to consider complaints which “concern the level of rent or service charge or the amount of the rent or service charge increase”.
This investigation will focus on the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about her service charge. This includes whether it responded to them appropriately and communicated with her reasonably. Should the resident wish to pursue concerns about the level of her service charge further, she may wish to consider making an application to the First Tier Tribunal. This is the appropriate body to determine such matters.
In her email of 1 June 2023, the resident told the landlord that she was “satisfied with the cyclical decoration response”. As a result, this matter did not feature in her stage 2 complaint, and we will not consider it as part of this investigation.

Service charge queries

In her complaint of 27 March 2023, the resident raised concerns about the increase in her service charge for the forthcoming financial year. She asked the landlord to review the service charge and discuss the increase with residents.
The resident also asked for the landlord to provide her with a copy of the building insurance. The landlord appropriately sent her its current buildings insurance policy on 28 March 2023, the day after she made her complaint.
In its stage 1 complaint response, the landlord explained that the largest increase in the resident’s service charge was due to increases in the cost of insuring the building and communal electricity. It explained that this was due to external market forces, but that it was seeking alternative options which it hoped would reduce costs. This was a reasonable response which addressed the resident’s concerns.
Following this, the resident raised further queries with the landlord about her service charge. These concerned certain charges which she felt should not be applicable to her property. When escalating her complaint, she also asked the landlord to provide her with copies of “the accounts and invoices for the past year”.
In its stage 2 complaint response, the landlord reasonably agreed to review the resident’s lease and her obligation to pay the charges that she had queried. It said that it would complete its review by the end of August 2023.
The landlord also said it would provide the resident with a link to copies of the service charge invoices for the previous financial year by 11 August 2023. The landlord has not provided any evidence that it did this. However, we note that in its email of 5 October 2023 it responded to specific queries the resident had raised about individual invoices – indicating that she had received them.
We have not seen any evidence that the landlord contacted the resident to provide an update on its service charge review until 5 October 2023. This was over a month after the date it had committed to completing the review by.
On 5 October 2023, the landlord told the resident that it had identified charges within her service charge which her lease did not allow it to collect. These related to the repair and maintenance of an area of land not included within the title deed. It wrote “I am also reviewing your current service charges and will update you on my findings and if any adjustments can be made by Wednesday 11 October 2023. I’ll also update you on the adjustments we’ll make to the 2022/2023 account.”
On 11 October 2023, the landlord responded to some further queries from the resident. It advised that it was “still reviewing the service charges for the current year” and apologised that this was “taking longer than anticipated”. On 16 October 2023, the landlord acknowledged a further email from the resident and said it would respond by 19 October 2023.
Following this, the resident repeatedly contacted the landlord between 20 October 2023 and 5 January 2024 seeking the outcome of its service charge review. On 8 January 2024, the landlord responded. It told the resident that the member of staff she had previously been corresponding with had left its employment. The fact that the landlord had failed to contact the resident for almost 3 months indicates that there was no handover of the case and it would not have been followed up on without her perseverance.
The landlord wrote to the resident on 5 March 2024, repeating the findings it had advised her of on 5 October 2023. This again indicates a lack of handover, causing the landlord to reinvestigate the matter following its staff member’s departure. This further delayed the resident in receiving an outcome.
The landlord took until 4 April 2024 to amend the resident’s service charge account to reflect the findings of its review. It sent her the revised documentation 4 days later. This was over 7 months after the date by which it had said it would complete the review in its stage 2 complaint response.
The landlord credited the incorrect charges back to the resident’s service charge account, dating back to when she purchased the lease. We note that although it was only legally required to credit charges for the previous 6 years, it reasonably agreed to do so as far as its records allowed for more longstanding residents affected. This was good practice to help restore the landlord-resident relationship.
In summary, the landlord reasonably agreed to review the resident’s service charge in response to the queries she raised. As a result of its review, it identified and rectified errors – including crediting back incorrectly charged funds.
However, the landlord exceeded the date by which it said it would complete its review by over 7 months. This appears to have been due to a lack of handover and oversight of the case following a staff member’s departure. This caused the resident time and trouble in repeatedly contacting it to pursue updates. It also led to her referring her complaint to us – which may have been avoided had the landlord provided a timelier resolution.
Due to this, we make a finding of service failure and order the landlord to pay the resident £100 compensation for her time and trouble.

Communal lighting

The landlord’s records show that the resident first contacted it on 13 October 2022 about the communal lights. She requested for it to change them to sensor activated lights to reduce electricity costs. The landlord sent an internal email on 20 October 2022 asking to obtain quotes for the work. It has not provided any evidence that it updated the resident that it had done so.
On 8 March 2023, the resident contacted the landlord again about the lights. She said that she had requested this “on several occasions” and this was now “the 4th time”. The landlord responded on 20 March 2023. It told the resident it had requested a quote to change the lights and would “look into the possibility of going ahead with the works”.
In its stage 1 complaint response on 27 March 2023, the landlord apologised that it had failed to follow up on its original request for quotes for the work in October 2022. It said it was still “waiting for quotes to be finalised” after which it would consult residents.
The landlord has provided no evidence that it updated the resident following this. On 1 June 2023, after escalating her complaint, the resident requested for the landlord to carry out the works at its own cost due to the lengthy delay and the excess electricity this had cost residents.
In its stage 2 complaint response, the landlord included that the resident felt the building also “has far too many lights in the common parts” as part of the complaint definition. It said that it would “have a suitably qualified electrical engineer visit your block and suggest a way to reduce the number of common area lights such that the common parts remain lit to acceptable standards for health and safety”.
The landlord said its target date to complete work to the lights was 8 September 2023. It also reasonably agreed to do the work “free of charge to leaseholders”, as the resident had requested.
The resident contacted the landlord on 24 August 2023 seeking an update. On 7 September 2023, the landlord told her it was still awaiting a second quote for the work so that it could “consult the homeowners on site regarding the prospective cost”. This was a confused response, with the landlord having already agreed to do the work at its own expense – meaning there was no need to consult residents about cost. However, it was still reasonable for the landlord to obtain a second quote and seek value for money.
The landlord’s records show that it failed to request the second quote until 13 September 2023. By this time, its target date to complete the work had already passed.
On 19 September 2023, the contractor providing the second quote emailed the landlord. It said a resident had approached it, whilst it was in the building, to discuss reducing the number of communal lights. The contractor said it agreed the lights could be reduced but was unclear of the scope of work the landlord wanted it to quote for.
The landlord sent the contractor details of the first quote it had obtained. This involved replacing all existing lights with sensor lights. The contractor then provided its own quote on this basis, which the landlord accepted. The landlord therefore failed to follow through on its stage 2 commitment to review the amount of lighting in the communal area.
The contractor completed the work on 16 November 2023, over 2 months after the target date the landlord had provided to the resident. The landlord has not provided any evidence that it communicated with the resident about this delay. This would have been appropriate considering the work formed part of a complaint commitment.
Due to the landlord’s failure to meet the commitments of its stage 2 complaint response, we make a finding of maladministration. We note that the cost of the works totalled £1,095. Each resident’s share of this cost, which the landlord waived, would have been £273.75. This amount is in keeping with our remedies guidance for instances of maladministration. However, we believe it is appropriate to order a further £50 compensation to reflect the time and trouble the resident incurred pursuing the matter.

Complaint handling

The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 11 April 2023. An internal landlord email of 25 May 2023 indicates it met with the resident, and other residents of the building, on 16 May 2023. In the email, the landlord notified its complaints team that during this meeting, the resident asked to escalate her complaint to stage 2 of its process.
The landlord’s complaints policy says that it will acknowledge a stage 2 complaint within 5 working days. The landlord had already missed this target by the time it informed its complaints team of the resident’s request to escalate her complaint. It did, however, acknowledge the complaint on 1 June 2023 – 5 working days after its complaints team became aware of the escalation.
At the time of this complaint, the landlord’s stage 2 complaint process involved a ‘review meeting’ which it invited residents to attend. The landlord took until 15 June 2023 to provide the resident with details of the review meeting. It then held the meeting on 5 July 2023 and provided its stage 2 response 2 weeks later.
The landlord’s complaints policy says that it will provide its stage 2 response within 20 working days of its acknowledgement. In this case, it took 48 working days. Its policy does allow that “if, for any reason, we need more than 20 working days to respond to your complaint, we’ll explain why and agree the response date with you.” However, the landlord has provided no evidence that it did so. Nor did it acknowledge the delays in acknowledging and responding to her complaint at stage 2 within the response itself. Due to this, we make a finding of service failure and order the landlord to pay the resident £50 compensation.
We note that the landlord has removed the review meeting from its current complaints policy, which will hopefully avoid future delays of this nature.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s service charge queries.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request to change the communal lights.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

Within 4 weeks of the date of this determination, we order the landlord to:
1. Pay the resident compensation of £200 composed of:
  1. £100 for the time and trouble caused to her but its handling of her service charge queries.
  2. £50 for the time and trouble caused to her by its handling of her request to change the communal lights.
  3. £50 for the delays in its complaint handling.
2. Write to the resident apologising for its failings identified by this investigation.
3. Have a suitably qualified electrical engineer inspect the communal lighting at the building and determine whether this can be reduced. The landlord should write to all residents of the building informing them of the outcome of this inspection and consulting with them on any available options.
The landlord should provide evidence of its compliance with these orders to us.