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London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202222648)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202222648

London & Quadrant Housing Trust

30 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

  1. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of repairs related to replastering and a leak from the toilet.
  2. We have also investigated the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, which is a housing association. She has lived at the property, which is a 2 bedroom house since 2010.
  2. In September 2022, the landlord recorded it needed to replaster the resident’s living room due to damaged caused by a leak. In November 2022, it booked an appointment to replaster the living room wall on 19 January 2023. On 20 December 2022, the resident reported a leak from the toilet. The landlord arranged a repair for 24 January 2023.
  3. The resident complained to the landlord on 23 January 2023. Her complaint was about delays in it completing repairs related to replastering her living room wall and fixing a leak on the toilet.
  4. The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 2 February 2023. It explained it had completed the toilet repair on 24 January 2023 and rearranged to complete the plastering works on 16 February 2023. It offered compensation of £20 and said it would monitor the works until completion.
  5. The resident was dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and escalated her complaint on 6 February 2023. She said her toilet was still leaking. During the period February to April 2023, the landlord completed further visits and works related to the toilet leak and plastering. In May 2023, it offered different amounts of compensation which ranged from £250 to £840. The resident rejected the landlord’s offers. It proceeded with escalating the complaint to stage 2.
  6. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 23 January 2024. It acknowledged and apologised for delays in it completing repairs to the toilet and plastering work. The landlord offered compensation of £920, which included £180 for complaint handling failures.
  7. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and asked us to investigate her complaint. She said requested compensation of £3,500 to resolve her complaint.

Assessment and findings

  1. As part of her complaint to us the resident said that her health has been affected by the presence of damp and mould within his property. We are unable to assess the cause of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. The resident may be able to make a personal injury claim if she considers that her health has been affected by the landlord’s actions or inaction. This is a legal process, and the resident may wish to seek legal advice if she wants to pursue this option.
  2. Our Scheme states we may not investigate matters which were not brought to the landlord as a formal complaint with the landlord in a reasonable period, which would normally be within 12 months of the matters arising.
  3. We encourage residents to raise complaints with their landlords in a timely manner, so that the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to consider the issues while they are still ‘live,’ and while the evidence is available to reach an informed conclusion on the events which occurred. As the substantive issues become historical it is increasingly difficult for either the landlord, or an independent body such as the Ombudsman, to conduct an effective review of the actions taken to address those issues.
  4. In her correspondence with us and the landlord, the resident raised issues with damp that began in 2019. The resident told us the damp had damaged her living room walls and it took the landlord 4 years to resolve the issue. We have seen no evidence that the resident complained to the landlord within 12 months of the matter arising. Therefore, this investigation will focus on the landlord’s actions between September 2022 and January 2024. This being the date of the subsequent repair request that gave rise to the complaint that was raised with the landlord, through to when the landlord issues its stage 2 response.

The landlord’s handling of repairs related to replastering and a leak from the toilet.

  1. The landlord’s repair records show it noted on 23 September 2022 it needed to plaster the living room walls. This was following a leak that had caused damage to the walls. It is not clear from the landlord’s repair records whether this information was recorded in response to a repair request from the resident.
  2. In October 2022, the landlord arranged and completed asbestos tests on the living room walls and ceiling. It then booked a job to complete plastering in November 2022 for 19 January 2023. We do not have information to show the exact date the landlord arranged the repair in November 2022.
  3. The resident reported a slow leak from underneath her toilet on 20 December 2022. The landlord arranged a repair for 24 January 2023.
  4. The landlord’s repair policy states for routine repairs it aims to complete a repair in an average of 25 calendar days. The evidence shows the landlord failed to arrange the required appointments within the average timescales provided by policy.
  5. The resident complained to the landlord on 23 January 2023. She said the plasterer had attended on 19 January 2023, but they did not complete the plastering work. She said they only completed ‘half a job’ and had arranged another appointment for 16 February 2023. She said she was unhappy with the length of time it was taking to complete the works, and the issue had been ongoing for 3 years. She said she was still waiting for it to fix the leak on the toilet.
  6. The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 2 February 2023. It said it had fixed the leak from the toilet on 24 January 2024. It said the plasterer could not complete the work on 19 January 2023 as the ‘bonding was too wet to plaster on that day’. The landlord said it was currently unable to bring forward the follow on appointment unless it received a cancellation. It offered the resident a £20 voucher as a gesture of goodwill for the delay in fixing the toilet leak. The landlord said it would continue to monitor the works until completion.
  7. The resident was dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and requested her complaint be escalated on 6 February 2023. She was unhappy with the appointment date for the plastering and £20 compensation offered. She said her toilet was still leaking.
  8. The evidence shows the landlord initially arranged a repair for the toilet for 15 February 2023. However, it rearranged this for 3 March 2023 as the resident was not available on the first date. The landlord did not complete the plastering work on 16 February 2023. It arranged another appointment for 8 March 2023 and completed the works on that day. It then booked a job to paint the plastered walls, which it completed on 26 April 2023. During this period, the resident continued to correspond with the landlord about its delay to complete the work.
  9. In May 2023, the landlord emailed the resident to confirm it had completed all repairs. It said it resolved the issue with the toilet in January 2023 because its operative failed to see evidence of an ongoing leak in their inspection in March 2023. It acknowledged a delay in completing plastering work. It offered compensation totalling £250. It calculated part of the compensation at £20 a month for 5 months for the time taken to complete the plastering between November 2022 and March 2023. The resident disputed the amount and said the issue had been ongoing since 2019. She asked for £5,000 compensation.
  10. In response, the landlord increased its total offer to £840. It said its maintenance history showed there was an issue with the down pipe, which it considered was linked to the damp within the property. It said this issue was reported to it in August 2020 and it had recalculated the £20 per month compensation from this time. This totalled £640. The resident rejected the landlord offer. On 25 May 2023, the landlord advised the resident it had escalated her complaint to stage 2.
  11. The resident told us when the landlord attended to repair the toilet leak in March 2023, it identified no leak from the toilet. However, it identified some water was pooling under the toilet due to the wet room floor being uneven. As such, the evidence shows the issue in relation to a potential leak from the toilet had been resolved. The landlord has indicated there is no additional measures it could reasonably take to resolve the pooling of the water in the wet room.
  12. The evidence shows there was a minor delay in the landlord completing repairs to the toilet, as it did not complete repairs within the average timescale of its policy. However, there was a significant delay in it completing the plastering repairs from September 2022. The length of time taken was unreasonable and caused the resident distress and inconvenience.
  13. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 23 January 2024. It acknowledged that it took multiple appointments to complete the repairs and that the resident had to spend time chasing it for updates. It said it should have communicated better with her. It apologised for the delay in it completing repairs and for failures in its communication. The landlord offered the resident compensation totalling £720 for failures in its repair handling.
  14. When a failure is identified, as in this case, our role is to consider whether the redress offered by the landlord put things right and resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances. In considering this we take into account whether the landlord’s offer of redress was in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: Be Fair, Put Things Right and Learn from Outcomes as well as our own guidance on remedies.
  15. It was appropriate for the landlord to acknowledge and apologise for the delay in it completing repairs and for its poor communication. It offered the resident compensation of £740 for its failures. This amount was proportionate to the levels of failing by the landlord and demonstrated its appreciation of the effect of those failings upon the resident. The compensation offer was in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance where there was a failure which had a significant impact on the resident.
  16. Overall, the landlord has taken appropriate steps to acknowledge what went wrong with its handling, apologise and put things right. The landlord’s recognition of the impact its failings had on the resident, along with its apology and financial redress, reasonably put things right and resolved the complaint. This leads to a finding of reasonable redress, in that the landlord has made an offer of compensation which satisfactorily resolves the complaint.

The landlord’s complaint handling.

  1. The resident escalated her complaint on 6 February 2023. In line with the landlord’s complaint policy, the landlord should have acknowledged the complaint within 5 working days. It should then have responded within 20-working days of its acknowledgment. However, the landlord advised the resident in February 2023 it had a backlog of cases, and it would be “sometime” before it could review her case. In May 2023, it told her it would be at least 6-months before it would review her complaint at stage 2 of its process.
  2. The landlord did not provide its stage 2 complaint response until 23 January 2024, 244 working days after the resident escalated her complaint. While the landlord set the resident’s expectation there would be a delay in its response, the length of time taken for it to respond was excessive and unreasonable.
  3. In its stage 2 response, the landlord offered compensation of £180 for the delay in its response. It was appropriate for the landlord to acknowledge the delay in its stage 2 complaint response. Its offer of £180 compensation was in line with an amount which would be calculated using our remedies guidance where there has been a failure that adversely impacted the resident. The amount offered by the landlord reasonably reflected the delay in its complaint responses and demonstrated the landlord’s appreciation of the effect of its failings on the resident. This leads to a finding of reasonable redress, in that the landlord has made an offer of redress which resolves the complaint satisfactorily.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord made an offer of redress which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion satisfactorily resolves the resident’s complaint about the landlord’s handling of repairs related to replastering and for a leak from the toilet.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord made an offer of redress which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion satisfactorily resolves the resident’s complaint about the landlord’s complaint handling.

Recommendations

  1. If it has not already done so, the landlord should pay the resident the £920 it offered in its stage 2 complaint response.