London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202431732)

Background

1. The resident lives in a 2-bedroom flat. The resident is elderly and vulnerable, and has language and physical support needs. The resident experienced recurring issues with the property’s heating and hot water system for several years and the landlord completed multiple repairs. The landlord decided to replace the water cylinder and thermostat after the resident reported a total loss of heating and hot water in August 2024. The resident was unhappy with the time it took to complete the repair and to restore heating and hot water to the property, and with the level of compensation offered. Throughout this report, references to actions taken by the resident include actions taken by her daughter on her behalf.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about:
   1. the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s heating and hot water system.
   2. the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. We have found that:
   1. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s heating and hot water system.
   2. There was maladministration in the landlord’s complaints handling.
4. We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of repairs to heating and hot water system

5. The landlord did not proactively co-ordinate or properly escalate the repair, resulting in an unreasonable and avoidable delay beyond the timescales set out in its policies. Its record keeping and communication with both the resident and its contractor was poor, which caused confusion about the status of the repair, unnecessary appointments and further delay. The landlord failed to assess or adequately respond to the resident’s needs. The resident experienced significant distress, inconvenience and loss of dignity, being without hot water for 5 months and reliant on temporary heaters for an extended period. The landlord failed to grasp the urgency of the situation. It did not respond appropriately and within a reasonable timeframe, to mitigate the impact on a vulnerable resident.

The landlord’s complaints handling

6. The landlord appropriately investigated the complaint, identified some service failure and took some action to put things right. There was a long, avoidable delay in the landlord escalating the complaint to stage 2. Its stage 2 response showed empathy but failed to recognise the real human impact of its failings. The complaints process missed opportunities to review the resident’s needs and focussed too heavily on calculating financial compensation. The landlord did not follow up after the final complaint to make sure the repairs were completed, which was essential as this formed part of the complaint resolution.

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.

Recommendation

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

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

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.

What we have not looked at

7. The resident has told us that delays in repairing the heating and hot water system seriously impacted her health, made her medical conditions worse, and put her under emotional strain. It would be fairer, more reasonable and more effective for the resident to make a personal injury claim for any injury caused. The courts are best placed to deal with this type of dispute as they will have the benefit of independent medical advice to decide on the cause of any injury and how long it will last. We’ve not investigated this further. We can decide if a landlord should pay compensation for distress and inconvenience.

Repairs to heating and hot water system

8. The resident’s tenancy agreement confirms the landlord’s obligations under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to keep all fixtures and fittings for electricity, space and water heating in good repair and working order. The landlord’s repairs policy says emergency repairs will be attended within 24 hours and routine repairs will be completed within 20 working days. “Minor works” to replace something that cannot be fixed may take longer. “Emergency repairs” are defined as repairs that, if not attended to, could pose a high safety risk to the health of the resident.
9. The landlord’s compensation policy says it will pay discretionary compensation if services, including heating and hot water, are not restored within its timeframes. The repairs policy does not specify a response time for total loss of heating and hot water but we would expect a landlord to treat this as urgent, especially in colder temperatures or when the resident is vulnerable. If minor works are required, we would expect a landlord to consider how to meet the household’s needs and minimise any impact while the work is outstanding.
10. The statutory Right to Repair scheme sets deadlines for completing some repairs, after which tenants can claim compensation. It does not cover every tenancy but it gives a helpful benchmark for reasonable response times. For total or partial loss of heating or hot water, the scheme requires the landlord to attend within 3 working days when reported between 30 April, and within 1 working day when reported between 31 October and 1 May.
11. The landlord’s notes show it raised a job on 8 August 2024 and an operative inspected on 9 August 2024. We cannot confirm from the landlord’s records when the loss of heating and hot water was first reported but correspondence suggests that the resident had already been without heating and hot water for some time.
12. During the time period covered by this investigation, the landlord failed to keep clear and adequate records. Several appointments referred to in communications were not logged on the landlord’s system, or were recorded without enough detail. The landlord has not recorded all correspondence with its contractor and the resident about these issues. The landlord must keep full, accurate and easily accessible records. Its failure to do so has hindered our ability to fully investigate the complaint. The lack of adequate records may have contributed to the delay, as some jobs were not picked up or cancelled, and the resident complained about multiple, unnecessary inspections.
13. After the landlord logged a job on 8 August 2024, an operative attended within 24 hours, which was appropriate because the resident was vulnerable. The landlord raised a job to replace the water cylinder on 12 August 2024 but that job was later cancelled. The appointment was only rearranged for 5 September 2024 after the resident complained. By then, the resident had been without heating and hot water for at least 29 days, which is unacceptable. Communication between the landlord, the resident and its contractors had broken down. The landlord did not have adequate processes in place for following up to make sure the issue was fully investigated and the repair completed.
14. The 5 September 2024 appointment was cancelled and the landlord did not raise another job until 11 September 2024, after the resident escalated her complaint. The resident should not have needed to complain, or to escalate her complaint, for the repair to be progressed. The landlord’s records dated 16 September 2024 say its contractor was trying to contact the resident to book an appointment, but there are no details of those attempts. The landlord next attended on 14 October 2024, when the contractor said the required parts would take 4-6 weeks to arrive.
15. The landlord did not actively manage the repair. This meant that it did not identify the cause or how long the repair would take until 68 days after it first raised a job to investigate. This delay was unreasonable, avoidable, and far longer than the landlord’s deadlines for emergency and routine repairs.
16. In its stage 2 complaint response of 22 October 2024, the landlord estimated that the job would be completed by 30 November 2024, by which time the resident would have been without heating and hot water for 115 days. The only steps the landlord took to reduce the impact on the resident were to provide a £20 voucher and to offer reimbursement for heaters purchased by her daughter, which it initially capped at £200.
17. The landlord should have done more to restore heating and a hot water supply to the property. When the issue was first reported, we would expect a landlord to consider supplying another space heating source, and whether it was possible to restore a hot water supply. It should have kept reviewing the household’s needs as the situation continued. At the point that the landlord expected a long-term loss of heating and hot water, it should have considered whether a move to temporary accommodation was appropriate, and discussed that option with the resident.
18. In the circumstances, the landlord did not do enough to reduce the impact on the resident. Although the loss of heating and hot water was first reported outside of the winter months, the landlord should not have assumed it did not need to provide extra heating. We would expect a landlord to consider household needs and vulnerabilities, as well as actual temperatures, when deciding what to do. Once it learned it would take 4-6 weeks to get the required parts, it should have reviewed the resident’s needs and escalated its response. It was unacceptable that an elderly, vulnerable resident was left without hot water, and with only temporary heaters, including during winter.
19. The records sent to us show that when the resident reported loss of heating on a previous occasion, the landlord arranged for temporary heaters to be delivered to her property. The landlord has not explained why it did not apply the same policy on this occasion. Its stated limit of £200 reimbursement for costs incurred is not set out in the landlord’s policies. It is unclear why this amount was communicated to the resident, although it did later reimburse her for the full cost of the extra heaters.
20. The landlord recorded that the resident was vulnerable on its system and in its repairs notes but there is no evidence that it genuinely considered the household’s needs when deciding how to act, or that it kept this under review. The landlord’s vulnerable residents policy requires it to “think, record, respond”. In this case, the landlord failed to respond appropriately.
21. Between the final complaint response of 22 October 2022 and completion of the repair on 7 January 2025 there were further, avoidable delays, and the landlord did not keep the resident informed. The resident was not told that only the thermostat would be replaced on 8 November 2024 and she had to call for updates. After that, there was confusion about whether the water cylinder would be replaced. The resident was told the repair would be completed by 3 December 2024 but she was not sure what work the landlord would complete. Frustrated by the lack of progress, she referred her complaint to us on 19 November 2024. Poor communication between the landlord, the resident and its contractor increased her frustration and caused further delay.
22. During its complaints process, the landlord accepted that the resident was without heating and hot water between 9 August 2024 and 7 January 2025. The evidence says that heating was restored on 8 November 2024. This means the resident was without a hot water supply for a total of 153 days. She was initially without heating for approximately 37 days, until her daughter purchased a temporary heater. She was reliant on temporary heaters for a further 56 days.
23. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s heating and hot water system. The landlord failed to put things right within a reasonable time, and it failed to consider appropriate ways to reduce the impact on a vulnerable resident. The evidence shows that the resident experienced significant distress and inconvenience, as she was without hot water for 5 months and reliant on heaters provided by her daughter. The resident experienced additional discomfort and a loss of dignity, as she had to perform religious ablutions in cold water.
24. When we have identified failings, we will consider whether the redress the landlord offered was enough to put things right and resolve the complaint. The landlord paid the resident total compensation of £2,057.99, which included £20 for poor complaint handling. The amount included reimbursement of the purchased heaters, a sum towards additional electricity costs, compensation for loss of services, and discretionary compensation for distress and inconvenience.
25. Overall, the amount of compensation provided by the landlord was reasonable and in line with its compensation policy. In line with our remedies guidance, we award compensation of over £1,000 in cases where we have identified serious failings that have had a highly detrimental effect on a resident over a significant period of time, as happened here. In this case we have made a finding of maladministration instead of severe maladministration because the landlord recognised some of its failings and attempted to provide redress by offering compensation in excess of £1,000.
26. In the circumstances, we will not award additional compensation but we have made orders that the landlord apologise to the resident, and that it take action to learn from the outcome of this complaint. The landlord is ordered to carry out a learning review of the failures identified in this report. Its report should outline the steps the landlord will take to make sure these failings are not repeated in the future. The landlord must provide a copy of its report to us within 6 weeks of the date of this report.
27. After the landlord made its final offer of compensation, the resident asked it to increase the amount offered for increased electricity costs. The landlord asked the resident to provide a bill from the same month in the previous year, to evidence the increase. There is no evidence that the resident responded to this request. We recommend that the landlord contact the resident and invite her to provide this evidence, and that it considers whether additional compensation should be paid to her to reimburse these costs.

28. The landlord has a 2 stage complaints process. The landlord will acknowledge complaints and escalations within 5 working days. At stage 1, it will respond within 10 working days and at stage 2 it will respond within 20 working days.
29. Our complaint handling code focusses on the landlord’s overall approach to its complaints handling. We consider whether a landlord conducted its complaints investigation in a thorough and impartial manner, and made fair and appropriate findings in the circumstances. Where something has gone wrong, we expect a landlord to acknowledge this, and to set out the actions it has already taken, or that it intends to take, to put things right. We also expect a landlord to say how it will learn from any failings it has identified.
30. When the landlord received the resident’s complaint on 3 September 2024, it took reasonable steps to investigate. It found the work had not been done and contacted the relevant team to book an appointment for 5 September 2024. The landlord acted quickly to resolve the complaint to the resident’s satisfaction. It provided a written complaint response on 4 September 2024 but it would have been better to wait until after the appointment on 5 September 2024. If it had waited, it would have seen that the appointment did not go ahead and could have taken further action to keep the repair on track before issuing the response within its 10 working day timeframe.
31. After the landlord provided its stage 1 response, the resident said she wanted to escalate the complaint on 6 September 2024 because of the missed appointment. The resident repeated her escalation request on 13 September 2024. The landlord did not acknowledge the resident’s complaint escalation until 7 or 8 October 2024, which was over a month later. The landlord failed to meet the requirements of its complaints policy.
32. The landlord took a sensible and proportionate approach to calculating compensation, in line with its compensation policy. It was reasonable to base its offer on the estimated completion date, so the resident received some redress within its complaints timescales. After the repair was completed, it calculated additional compensation up to 7 January 2025, showing it aimed to reach a fair outcome for the resident.
33. The stage 2 complaint response was too focussed on providing financial redress and it failed to adequately address the underlying issue, which was the resident’s frustration at being left without heating and hot water for a significant period. Beyond expressing regret at the time it was taking to complete the repair, the landlord could have used the complaints process to consider other options to reduce the impact on the resident. Its statement that it hoped the extra heater and blanket would help the resident to keep warm failed to reflect the significant human impact of being without heating and hot water for a considerable period of time.
34. When fixing the problem is part of the complaint resolution, the landlord’s complaints team should follow-up to make sure the work is completed and keep the resident updated. There is no evidence the landlord did this. The complaints team missed an opportunity to review the situation, check the resident’s needs and to help resolve the core issue.
35. In its final complaint response of 22 October 2022, the landlord apologised and offered £20 compensation for providing incorrect information about its escalation process. The landlord recognised service failure and took steps to put things right. We have found maladministration in the landlord’s complaints handling, as we have identified further failings. We have ordered the landlord to pay an £80 compensation to recognise the adverse effect on the resident of its poor complaints handling.
36. This takes the total amount paid to the resident for complaints handling failings to £100, This is in line with the amounts set out in our remedies guidance where a failure has adversely affected a resident and the landlord’s offer was not proportionate to the failings identified by our investigation.

Learning

37. We completed a special investigation into the landlord in July 2023. The wider investigation was prompted by concerns we had over the landlord’s handling of complaints and disrepair, in particular from vulnerable residents. Our report, published on 27 July 2023, found that the landlord’s handling of additional needs was often “wholly inadequate”, and that “this aggravated the distress and inconvenience experienced by some of its most vulnerable residents”. Although the landlord has taken steps to improve its service since that time, in line with the recommendations made in the special investigation report, we have made a learning order to help the landlord to reflect on whether these changes are being implemented and have resulted in a better standard of service.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

38. There were gaps in the landlord’s record keeping, including missing details of appointments and insufficiently detailed notes. This has made it difficult for us to fully investigate the resident’s complaint and to make findings about the action the landlord took.

Communication

39. The landlord’s communication with the resident and its contractor could have been better. It missed opportunities to co-ordinate the repair, to update the resident, and to make sure that its contractor had enough information to identify and resolve the problem.