Rooftop Housing Association Limited (202416217)

Decision
Case ID	202416217
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Rooftop Housing Association Limited
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Shared Ownership
Date	23 October 2025

Background

1. The resident is the shared owner of the property under a lease agreement. The property is a 2-bedroom semi-detached bungalow built in 2018. The resident has a health condition which causes her to have anxiety. The landlord has no vulnerabilities recorded for the resident. The resident complained that the landlord delayed in completing repairs to prevent damp patches on an external wall. The resident asked us to investigate because she was not satisfied with the landlord’s final response.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
   1. Report of damp patches on an external wall and the associated repairs.
   2. Associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s report of damp patches on an external wall and the associated repairs.
4. There was maladministration with the landlord’s complaint handling.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

5. In summary, the Ombudsman found that the landlord:

Report of damp patches on an external wall

1. Failed to respond to the resident’s report of a repair in March 2023 within its repair timescales.
2. Did not take ownership of the resident’s repair in a timely manner, causing a delay.
3. Delayed in arranging an inspection of the property.
4. Delayed in updating the resident and providing a copy of the surveyor’s report following the inspection in September 2023.
5. Delayed in clearing the gutters and roof valley.
6. Delayed in repointing the mortar to the external wall.

Complaint handling

7. Delayed in acknowledging the resident’s complaint at both stages of the complaint process.
8. Failed to provide a stage 1 complaint response.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

Order	What the landlord must do	Due date
1	Apology order  The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure: The apology is provided by a manager. The apology is specific to the failures identified in this decision, meaningful and empathetic. It has due regard to our apologies guidance.	No later than 20 November 2025
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £850 made up as follows: £600 for the landlord’s handling of the resident’s report of damp patches to an external wall and the associated repairs. £250 for the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint. This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date. The landlord may deduct from the total figure any payments it has already paid.	No later than 20 November 2025

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.

Our recommendations
The landlord should update its systems to reflect the resident’s vulnerabilities, subject to the resident agreeing.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
13 March 2023	The resident reported damp patches on an external wall caused by rainwater. The landlord logged the repair with a target date of 20 March 2023.
10 July 2023	The resident complained to the landlord that the issue was outstanding and the mortar on the affected wall was cracking and needed repointing.
12 September 2023	The landlord told the resident it would send an independent surveyor to inspect the property. It acknowledged the resident’s complaint on the same date and said it would provide her with a response within 10 working days.
25 September 2023	The landlord informed the resident that it would need to extend the timeframe for its stage 1 complaint response to 9 October 2023 due to it waiting to receive the inspection report.
24 October 2023	The landlord informed the resident it had reassigned her complaint to a new case manager, due to the original case manager being absent from the business. It also confirmed it had escalated her complaint to stage 2. It acknowledged it had extended the resident’s stage 1 complaint response timeframe twice, which was outside its policy and apologised for this. It said it had still not received the surveyor’s report and therefore it could not provide a response to her complaint at that time.
14 March 2024	The landlord sent its stage 2 complaint response. It accepted there had been failures in its handling of the resident’s reports. This included a delay in it instructing a surveyor, delays in it completing the repairs, poor communication, lack of updates given to the resident, and poor complaint handling. It apologised and offered £550 compensation which it broke down as follows: £100 – delay in instructing the surveyor £100 – delay in completing the repairs £100 – poor communication and lack of updates £150 – poor complaint handling The landlord said its repair manager would oversee the works identified by the independent surveyor and would keep the resident updated.
Events after stage 2	The landlord cleared the gutters and roof valley in May 2024. It completed further inspections to the roof and roof valley around June 2024. Following this it agreed to complete further works to the roof, which it completed around July 2025.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s final response and brought the complaint to us. She told us the landlord did not complete the repointing to the affected wall until approximately July 2025. She told us that she suffers from anxiety, which is linked to her health condition, and the stress caused by the time taken to complete the repairs, over 2 years, had caused her anxiety to worsen. As an outcome she would like the Ombudsman to assess the amount of compensation offered in relation to the distress and inconvenience the landlord’s handling of the issues had caused.

 

What we found and why

The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that’s happened or comment on all the information we’ve reviewed. We’ve only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

Complaint	Report of damp patches on an external wall and the associated repairs.
Finding	Maladministration

6. When the resident brought the complaint to us, she told us about repairs which the landlord identified after its stage 2 complaint response. We have looked at the issues raised by the resident in her initial complaint up to when the landlord completed the recommended repairs and actions in the surveyor’s report from September 2023. If the resident is unhappy with how the landlord has dealt with any repairs after the stage 2 response she should discuss these with the landlord and raise a new complaint, if needed.
7. The resident said the situation affected her health and wellbeing. Questions about illness or personal injury need to be decided in court, where medical experts can give independent evidence and witnesses can be questioned. The Ombudsman cannot look at health impacts, but we have considered the distress and inconvenience the resident has experienced because of any failures by the landlord.
8. The landlord’s repair policy says it will respond to and complete non-emergency repairs within 28 calendar days. Although the landlord logged the resident’s repair in March 2023 and marked it complete on 18 May 2023, there is no evidence to show it took any action at this time. This was not compliant with its policy.
9. Between May 2023 and July 2023 there was internal communication between the landlord’s repair and development teams as to which team was responsible for the repair. This was because the resident’s property was a new build property but she reported the repair outside the defect period. However, in June 2023 the landlord recognised other properties on the estate had the same issues and it needed an independent survey to establish if the issues were due to a hidden defect from when the property was built.
10. It is normal that landlords have separate teams who deal with repairs to new buildings. However, landlords must make sure teams work together and know who’s responsible for what, so repairs go to the right people quickly and get done properly. The failure to take ownership of the resident’s report between March 2023 and July 2023, caused a further delay for the resident.
11. In July 2023 the landlord arranged for an independent surveyor to inspect the property. The surveyor completed the inspection on 19 September 2023 and recommended the following repairs:
    1. Clear the gutters and roof valley.
    2. Rake out and repoint the mortar on the affected external wall.
12. The surveyor also recommended the landlord carry out further inspections of the roof and address any identified repairs.
13. Following receipt of the survey report we would expect the landlord to raise any recommended repairs within a timely manner and provide an action plan to the resident setting out what works it would complete and timescales. Between October 2023 and January 2024 the resident contacted the landlord on at least 5 occasions requesting a copy of the surveyor’s report and a plan of action. In October 2023 the landlord told the resident it would send the report to her when it received it. The landlord received the report in December 2023 but did not send a copy to the resident until she requested it again in January 2024. There was then a further delay in the landlord confirming to the resident which repairs it would complete, which it sent on 10 April 2024.
14. On 23 January 2024 the resident reported a leak from her kitchen ceiling. The landlord attended on the same date and raised follow on works which it completed on 4 April 2024. The records state the leak was from the ‘gully’. The landlord has not provided a post works inspection report and therefore, based on the information we have, we cannot say the blocked gutters caused the leak.
15. Whilst the landlord cleared the gutters and inspected the roof in May 2024 and June 2024, it did not complete the repointing until July 2025. This was 2 years after the resident first reported the issue. This was not compliant with its repair policy.
16. In its stage 2 complaint response the landlord said the delays in it completing the resident’s repairs had been partly due to several staff members unexpectedly leaving the business. Whilst we appreciate the landlord could not have foreseen this, it should have systems in place to deal with such issues when they arise. The fact that it did not have such a system in place resulted in it not being able to comply with its own policy and unreasonable delays for the resident.
17. We can also see there were delays after stage 2 due to the landlord grouping the resident’s repairs with works identified on other properties and obtaining value for money quotes. Whilst it was reasonable that the landlord should do this, we cannot say that this mitigated the delay of 2 years in it completing the repointing to the resident’s property.
18. The landlord has attempted to put things right by completing the repairs, apologising and offering compensation of £300 (£100 for the delay in instructing a surveyor, £100 for the delay in completing the repair, and £100 for poor communication and lack of updates). This does not reflect the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident, who had to repeatedly chase the landlord for updates. Due to this and the additional distress and inconvenience caused after the stage 2 response, we have found maladministration and have ordered the landlord to increase its offer of compensation to £600.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Maladministration

19. The Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (‘the Code’) sets out when and how a landlord should respond to complaints. The relevant Code in this case is the 2022 edition (April 2022). Our findings are:
    1. The landlord has a published complaints policy which complies with the terms of the Code in respect of timescales.
    2. The landlord should have acknowledged the complaint by 17 July 2023. It did not acknowledge it until 12 September 2023, which was a delay of 41 working days. This was not compliant with the Code.
    3. The landlord contacted the resident on 25 September 2023 to arrange an extension to 9 October 2023 due to it awaiting the surveyor’s report. It said it could not provide a complaint response at that time. However, it should have sent its stage 1 response stating that it was awaiting the surveyor’s report and provided a timescale when it expected to receive it. This was not compliant with the Code.
    4. Due to its failure to provide the stage 1 response, the landlord took reasonable steps and escalated the complaint itself. It then should have acknowledged the stage 2 complaint by 31 October 2023. It did not send its acknowledgement until 29 February 2024, which was a delay of 84 working days. This was not compliant with the Code.
    5. The landlord sent its stage 2 complaint response within 10 working days of its acknowledgment, which was compliant with the Code.
20. It took around 8 months for the resident’s complaint to complete the landlord’s complaint procedure. This will have delayed the resident from bringing the complaint to this Service for investigation. Due to this, we have found maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint. Whilst the landlord attempted to put things right by apologising and offering compensation of £150, this does not reflect the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident, who had to repeatedly chase the landlord for updates. We have therefore ordered the landlord to increase its offer of compensation for its complaint handling to £250.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

21. The landlord marked the resident’s initial repair complete in May 2023, when it had not taken any action. This indicates a record keeping failing.
22. The landlord’s systems should enable them to keep accurate and accessible records of repair reports, responses, inspections, and investigations. This means keeping everything in one central place, not saved on individual computers. The landlord was unable to access information when staff members left the business which caused significant delays in this case. This indicates a record keeping failing.

Communication

23. The resident had to repeatedly chase the landlord for updates in relation to the repairs and her complaint. Whilst the landlord responded to some contacts, its communication and updates could have been better. The landlord should ensure it identifies complex cases, such as this, at an early stage and has a strategy in place for keeping residents informed.