Sovereign Network Group (202337749)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202337749

Sovereign Network Group

31 October 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 resident’s complaint is about the landlord’s handling of a leak.

Background

2. The resident is a shared owner of the property with the landlord, under a lease dated 13 February 2015. The property is a flat on the ninth floor of a 10-storey building.
3. The resident reported a leak coming through the master bedroom ceiling in February 2023. He raised a formal complaint about the landlord’s handling of the leak on 30 October 2023. The leak was not fixed, and he felt that the landlord was not being proactive. He said the landlord told him it would reimburse him for the private plumber he hired, but he had not received this.
4. The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 14 November 2023. It said that:
   1. It had established that the leak was coming from the balcony of the upstairs flat and that it was responsible for this.
   2. The same issue had occurred with a neighbouring balcony, and it would be completing works on that property in November 2023. The landlord said it would wait to ensure that fixed the problem before scheduling the same works for the balcony above the resident’s flat.
   3. The time taken to conduct the repairs fell below its expected time scales. It acknowledged that there was a lack of communication to the resident.
   4. It offered £143 for the delay in the repair, based on its compensation policy.
5. The resident requested to escalate his complaint on 24 November 2023. He reported that the complaint response did not recognise the history of the issue. He said that the leak was getting worse and spreading into the ceiling of the second bedroom. He said there was not a clear plan on how the landlord would fix it. He had not been reimbursed for the plumber’s fee as agreed.
6. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 5 January 2024. It apologised that the stage 1 response did not correctly acknowledge when the issue started. It said it had contacted the relevant teams to complete the work to fix the leak in the resident’s property. It offered £906 in compensation, made up of £50 for complaint handling and £856 for repair delays of 47 weeks. It said once the leak was fixed it would consider additional compensation.
7. The resident brought his complaint to this service on 25 January 2024. He was not satisfied with the landlord’s response as the leak was not fixed, there was not a clear plan to fix it, and there was poor communication from the landlord. He said the issue was preventing him from selling the property.

Assessment and findings

8. The landlord’s repairs policy says it will aim to complete complex repairs within 90 days. A delay in repairs is not always considered a failure, particularly when the issue is complex. However, the landlord would be expected to proactively manage the repair and complete it as soon as practically possible. It would also be expected to update the resident and manage their expectations.
9. The landlord’s compensation policy says it will pay a weekly amount separately for delays, distress, and time and trouble based on the level of impact.
10. The resident first reported water entering his home in February 2023. The landlord says a similar leak was reported from the neighbour’s property in January 2023. At the landlord’s suggestion, the resident hired a private plumber who inspected his flat and the flat above. The plumber attended on 10 March 2023 and determined the leak was not internal to either property. They suggested it may be coming from the balcony above and said the landlord should investigate further. This information was shared with the landlord, and the evidence shows it agreed to reimburse the resident for cost of his hiring a plumber.
11. The landlord did not provide evidence to show the exact date the work on the upstairs balcony was completed to stop the leak. The information we have shows a job was raised on 3 October 2024 to repair and paint the ceilings in two bedrooms of the property. This indicates the leak was repaired before this date, which is why a follow up job was raised to then repair the damage from the leak. The records of when the upstairs balcony area was fixed have not been provided to us. Given this it is reasonable to conclude that the leak was fixed by 1 October 2024. The repair records show the ceilings were repaired on 27 March 2025.
12. It took approximately 18 months for the landlord to fix the leak and a further 6 months to repair the damage from the leak. This period of over 2 years is an excessive amount of time and was not reasonable. During this period, the landlord:
    1. Went back and forth with the contractor who built the property to determine who was responsible to fix the balcony area. The evidence shows gaps in some of this communication and these likely caused further delays.
    2. Did not use the information it had from the neighbouring property and the private plumber to promptly identify and fix the cause of the leak.
    3. Did not keep the resident informed about what was going on including when the work on the upstairs balcony was complete, meaning he kept chasing the landlord.
13. During this period, the resident was caused distress and inconvenience as he:
    1. Lived with leaks in the ceiling of two bedrooms when it rained, including periods where he could not use the master bedroom as the bed was soaked. He lived with damaged ceilings, including bubbling staining, and mould.
    2. Spent time trying to investigate the issue himself by speaking with neighbours and contractors, which is something the landlord should have done.
    3. Worried that the ceiling would come down as the damage continued to worsen over time and he was aware of ceilings coming down in other parts of the building.
    4. Spent time chasing the landlord to try to get the leak fixed.
    5. Spent time chasing for the £108 reimbursement for the private plumber that the landlord agreed to pay.
    6. Was not told when the leak was fixed, meaning he continued to worry about what would happen to his property when it rained.
14. In its complaint responses, the landlord acknowledged the delay in fixing the leak and offered compensation, which was a positive action to take. It offered a total of £906 in compensation and the resident said he accepted this for the period the amount covered. This amount was for delays up to 27 November 2023 based on its compensation policy. The landlord said it would consider additional compensation once the repairs were completed.
15. The landlord offered further compensation of £2,124 in May 2025. This was based on the delay, distress, and time and trouble up to when the leak and ceiling were fixed. The resident accepted this and confirmed it has been paid. He also confirmed the landlord has reimbursed him £108 for the cost of his hiring a plumber.
16. Where there are admitted failings by a landlord, the Ombudsman’s 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 doing so, the Ombudsman considers where the redress was in accordance with the Dispute Resolution Principles; be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes.
17. Given the extent of the landlord’s failures and the impact, we are satisfied that the compensation offered by the landlord was fair and reasonable. Whilst the final offer was made some time after the landlord’s stage 2 response, the landlord had committed to reviewing its position on compensation after the repairs were done. This was a sensible approach to take, as part of the actions it took to put matters right.
18. The resident has not received a formal written apology from the landlord, and this is something he still wants, which is understandable. As there is an outstanding issue of the apology in order to put things right for the resident, we have found service failure in the landlord’s handling of the leak in order to fully resolve the resident’s complaint, we will order the landlord to provide a written apology from a senior member of its staff.
19. .
20. In addition to the two balconies causing leaks described in this report, the resident has told us that there are other residents on the estate who are having the same issue. He said the other residents were told their leaks were an isolated incident even though there are multiple properties being impacted.
21. Whilst we have not seen the relevant evidence and the matter of whether there is a wider issue for properties on the estate was not part of this investigation, we recommend the landlord contacts the residents who live under a balcony to see if there have been leaks and to inspect all balconies on the estate.

Determination

22. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the leak.

Orders and recommendations

Order

23. Within 28 calendar days of the date of this report, the landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure:
    1. The apology is provided by a senior member of staff.
    2. The apology is specific to the failures identified in this decision, meaningful and empathetic.
    3. It has due regard to our apologies guidance.

Recommendations

24. We recommend that the landlord contacts residents on the estate who live in a flat under a balcony to enquire if they have had any similar leaks to the ones described in this report.
25. We recommend the landlord inspect all balconies in the estate considering the information the resident has reported that other residents are being impacted by the same issue.