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The Riverside Group Limited (202347969)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202347969

The Riverside Group Limited

15 August 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 we have 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:
    1. Repairs to the underfloor heating system.
    2. The associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. The property is a 2-bedroom flat in a sheltered scheme.
  2. The resident complained to the landlord in early 2023 after raising several repair jobs due to faults with the heating system and no lasting solution found.
  3. The landlord was unable to resolve the issue due to waiting for parts. The resident was unhappy with this and asked the landlord to escalate her complaint on 24 March 2023.
  4. The landlord did not provide a stage 1 decision but responded at stage 2 of its complaints process on 16 May 2023. It said the issue was resolved. It offered the resident £335.60 in compensation. This was broken down as £285.60 to cover the cost of temporary heating and £50 for the inconvenience caused.
  5. The resident bought her complaint to this Service as she remained unhappy following further issues with the heating system. She is seeking further compensation.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident said she has been reporting issues with the underfloor heating system since moving into the property. The landlord’s records show she reported an issue on 25 November 2022. There are no records to show she reported any issues prior to this or that she raised a formal complaint until early 2023. This Service has time limits and we expect complaints to be raised within a reasonable time, usually within 12 months of an issue occurring. Therefore, the scope of this investigation will focus on the handling of repairs to the underfloor heating system from November 2022 to May 2024. We have not assessed historical matters going back to 2021.

The underfloor heating system

  1. The tenancy agreement states that it will keep in repair and working order the installations for room heating.
  2. The landlord’s responsive repairs policy states that it will respond:
    1. Within 12 hours for emergencies.
    2. Within 5 days for urgent.
    3. Within 28 days for routine.
  3. The resident contacted the landlord on 25 November 2022 to report she had no heating. It said a contractor would attend that day but no one turned up. She made two further reports in December 2022. The landlord has not provided us with sufficient evidence in relation to its records of the repairs. This has affected our ability to effectively assess the events and suggests a record keeping failure.
  4. When raising her complaint, the resident told the landlord that the heating had only been partially working since December 2022. Two rooms had no heating, the remaining rooms were too hot and she was unable to turn the heating down. She asked for the outstanding repair to be fully resolved.
  5. The landlord conducted an inspection to fully assess the heating system. This took place over a month after the resident’s complaint was made. It identified the issue and noted “subcomponents need replacement or extensive repairs.” It also states, “maintenance schedule is interrupted by more frequent breakdowns.” When the repair was still not complete 92 working days after the initial report, she escalated her complaint requesting the outstanding parts be fitted urgently.
  6. The landlord confirmed in the stage 2 response that the repair was complete, and the heating was working. The reason for the delay was due to waiting for parts, this was out of the landlord’s control. It offered compensation of £285.60 for the cost of running an electric heater plus £50 for inconvenience. This is in line with its financial redress and compensation procedure, we recognise the offer of compensation demonstrates the landlord’s willingness to ensure a good relationship with the resident. However, the landlord should have included clarification on actions to take should further issues occur, as well as a long-term plan to monitor the repair. This would have been appropriate given that the breakdown of the system had been recurrent, and the findings identified during the inspection.
  7. The landlord’s response included inaccurate information. It states the first reported date of this issue as being in 2023, this is a future date. It is important that landlords ensure accuracy of the facts presented in their complaint responses.
  8. Following the landlord’s final response the resident reported further issues with the heating a week later. Its repairs records show that it attended and there were no further reports until October 2023. This was 5 months later, suggesting that it resolved the issue in May 2023. However, this was over the summer period and it was likely the heating was not in use.
  9. The evidence shows the resident made 6 further reports between October 2023 and March 2024. Its records show there were missed appointments and occasions where it attended late in the day, stating it was unable to complete the work. This caused further delays in completing repairs and likely added to the resident’s frustration. This does not demonstrate effective planning or communication.
  10. The landlord’s records show it completed the repairs on 14 May 2024, 2 months after her last report.  We conclude that the landlord’s actions to resolve the matter were inadequate. It failed to offer a lasting solution for any further possible breakdown and although the later breakdown occurred after its final complaint decision, we have seen no evidence that it offered further compensation after previously awarding £335.60 for a 19-week period in November 2022 to April 2023. We have made an order for additional compensation for the period October 2023 to May 2024. We are aware that the issues were intermittent and the evidence does not indicate total loss of heating. As such we have not calculated compensation in the same manner.

Associated complaint

  1. The landlord has a 2-stage complaints process. It responds to stage 1 complaints in writing within 5 working days and completes any actions within 10 working days. It deals with escalations to stage 2 within 10 working days. This is compliant with the Complaint Handling Code (the Code).
  2. The landlord did not dispute that there were failures with its complaint handling. The date of the resident’s initial complaint is unknown. The landlord provided limited evidence in relation to its complaint handling. This has affected our ability to effectively assess the timeline of events and as previously mentioned suggests a record keeping failure. Clear record keeping ensures that landlords can provide evidence of events and actions taken when requested for investigation. It is important the landlord considers measures it should take with respect to effective information management.
  3. The landlord provided no stage 1 written response to the resident’s complaint. This is a clear breach of its process which states it is mandatory to provide a written response to all stage 1 complaints unless there are exceptional circumstances.
  4. The resident requested escalation of the complaint during a telephone call on 24 March 2023. The landlord did not provide a written response until 34 working days later. This is significantly longer than the timescales set out in its policy. It has not made an apology or an offer of compensation for this delay.
  5. Overall, we find that there were failings in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint which it did not acknowledge and regarding which it offered no redress. We have therefore made an order for compensation in line with our remedies guidance and recommendations for improvement in its complaint handling practices.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme:
    1. There was service failure in the landlord’s handling of repairs to the underfloor heating system.
    2. There was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. The landlord is ordered to pay the resident the total sum of £635 within 4 weeks of the date of this report and provide evidence of its compliance. This sum should be paid directly to the resident and not used to offset any monies she may owe the landlord. It is broken down as follows:
    1. An additional £200 in compensation for the further delays with finding a lasting solution to the heating issues for the period October 2023 to May 2024. This brings the total for delays to £535.60 including its previous offer of £335.60.
    2. Pay the resident £100 for time, trouble, distress and inconvenience for its failures and delay in responding to the complaint.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord:
    1. Reviews its staff’s training needs regarding record keeping and complaint handling. Consider assessing itself against the recommendations in the Ombudsman’s spotlight report on Knowledge and Information Management.
    2. Arranges for staff who deal with complaints to access our learning hub and complete the e-learning modules on complaint handling.