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Southwark Council (202441489)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202441489

Southwark Council

29 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. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of loss of heating and hot water.
  2. We have also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The resident is on a secure tenancy with the landlord. She lives in a 2 -bedroom flat with her 3 young children, 2 of which are vulnerable. She was pregnant with her third child at the time of making her complaint.
  2. The resident reported that the heating was not working in the living room, bedroom and kitchen on 8 December 2023. The landlord attempted to attend on 8 January 2024 but the resident missed the appointment. The landlord said it would attend again on 11 January 2024, although it missed this appointment and rescheduled for 12 February 2024.
  3. The resident reported that she had no hot water on 27 March 2024. The landlord attended on 27 March 2024 and found issues with the radiators which required new parts.
  4. On 23 April 2024 the landlord restored the hot water. On 31 May 2024 the landlord restored the heating to the living room bedroom and kitchen.
  5. The resident complained to the landlord on 5 July 2024 that she had been without heating for some time and this had impacted her and her children’s health. The resident on 28 August 2024 requested escalation of the complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s process as she had not heard from the landlord.
  6. On 18 September 2024 the landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response. It said that the property should have been inspected sooner and its delays had contributed to the prolonged outage. It offered £629 total compensation. This was broken down into £429 for 143 days without heating and hot water, £100 for inconvenience, and £50 as a good will gesture for the delay in responding to the complaint. On the same day, the resident escalated her complaint. She remained unhappy with the repair delays, poor communication, and complaint handling. She said the compensation was insufficient for these reasons.
  7. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 15 January 2025. The landlord acknowledged the service failures from its repairs team and its heating contractors. It also recognised its poor communication and poor complaints handling. The landlord increased its compensation offer to £1,149. This included £150 for time and trouble and complaint handling, £150 for inconvenience, £250 for distress, £170 for delay in restoring heating and hot water. The £429 for lack of heating and hot water remained the same.
  8. When the resident approached us she said all the issues had been resolved, but she was seeking more compensation for the issues she had experienced.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. In her communication with the landlord, the resident referenced how this situation impacted the health of her and her children. It is beyond our remit to draw conclusions on the cause of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. This is more appropriate to be dealt with through the courts as a personal injury claim. Nonetheless, we have considered the general distress and inconvenience which the situation may have caused the resident. 

The landlord’s handling of reports of loss of heating and hot water

  1. The landlord’s repair policy says that it is responsible for heating and hot water repairs, and that these will be classified as an emergency between 1 October and 31 March. This means the landlord must attend to the repair within 24 hours.
  2. The landlord’s compensation policy says that where there is a heating and hot water outage the landlord will pay £3 per day for the duration of the outage. This payment captures reasonable costs incurred by residents in relation to additional electricity.  
  3. The resident reported lack of heating on 8 December 2023 but the landlord did not attempt a repair until 8 January 2024 (booked 4 January 2024). The landlord failed to meet its repair obligations under its policy of attending to a heating failure in 24 hours between 1 October and 31 March. It is also not apparent from the evidence that the landlord attended within 24 hours to the resident’s later report of no hot water on 27 March 2024. The landlord attended to the hot water repair on 23 April 2024. This was 27 days after the resident’s initial report. These delays were unreasonable.
  4. Both the landlord and resident have acknowledged they both contributed to delays in the landlord initially attending to the heating repair. The resident missed the first scheduled appointment of 8 January 2024. The landlord missed the second appointment of 11 January 2024, and the resident requested the 12 February 2024 to be rescheduled. Although, once the landlord was able to attend and investigate further on 25 March 2024, it acted promptly to order the parts required for the heaters. It also acted to complete the repairs to the hot water the following month, and the heating in May 2024.
  5. The landlord in its stage 1 and 2 responses recognised the delays in restoring the heating and hot water, in particular its actions to cancel the 11 January 2024 appointment caused prolonged delays. It also appropriately offered compensation for these delays.
  6. There was evidence of poor communication. The resident said in her escalation request and prior, that she had not heard from the landlord about her complaint. On 28 August 2024 and across 13 September 2024 to 18 September 2024 she requested updates from the landlord. Although the landlord did not supply an update until its stage 1 response of 18 September 2024. The landlord did however in its complaint responses acknowledge service failures in respect of its communication. It also offered compensation for the time the resident spent contacting it and its contractor to provide updates. This was a reasonable action to try and put things right.
  7. The landlord’s internal notes of 10 January 2024 say that if the resident did not have heating it could provide fan heaters. However, it is not apparent from the evidence that heaters were provided to the resident. The resident said to us that she had to buy fan heaters to heat the property. Given the absence of evidence here, we can only come to the conclusion that the resident did not receive temporary heaters from the landlord. This was a missed opportunity for the landlord to alleviate her concerns until the heating could be restored.
  8. The landlord at stage 1 recognised the loss of heating and hot water. It offered compensation to recognise the additional power usage across the full 4 months the resident was without heating and 1 month without hot water. It was reasonable for it to recognise the full extent of the outage, even where it was not fully responsible for the extent of the delays. It aimed to cover reasonable additional power costs incurred by the resident in making its compensation offer of £429. This was appropriate and in accordance with its compensation policy of £3 per day across 143 days (4 months).
  9. The resident told us that she had been spending more on power bills across the 4 months without heating and the 1 month without hot water. However, we have not seen evidence of this being raised with the landlord. Although the landlord could have explored any increase in bills further, it would be at its discretion to consider compensation additional to its policy which normally covers for the time period of an outage and captures reasonable costs incurred.
  10. It is also not apparent that evidence of elevated bills were supplied by the resident to the landlord in support if this claim for it to consider. We are only placed to review the landlord’s actions across its complaints process and this is based on the evidence available to it at the time of making its decision/s. Therefore we are unable to make a further assessment in this respect, but we will consider the overall compensation offered by the landlord.
  11. The resident reported impact to her family over the winter months where she was without heating and hot water. She reported that she had given birth to a baby on 22 March 2024 at the flat. She also said this was unsettling as the living room was cold resulting in the paramedics wrapping the baby in foil and they had to rush to the hospital. She had 2 vulnerable young children in her care who had become ill across this time without heating and she had to heat one bedroom with fan heaters she had purchased in order to stay warm.
  12. At stage 2 the landlord acknowledged the inconvenience and distress caused to the resident. It recognised it was a particularly challenging time with her vulnerable children and with the birthing and caring for her new born baby. The landlord took into account the loss of service over the winter months and the vulnerabilities of her family. In addition to the £429 it offered £400 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused and £170 for delays in repairs. It was appropriate for the landlord to recognise the additional burden and distress to the resident and compensate her for this significant disruption.
  13. The landlord also at stage 2 further reflected on its approach taken at stage 1. It appropriately analysed its repairs history and acknowledged where it had gone wrong. We have seen evidence supporting the landlord’s statement and showing the landlord fully acknowledged the delays and impact on the household. These were appropriate actions to take to recognise the extent of the impact to the resident and to learn from its failures.
  14. The landlord offered appropriate total compensation to the resident to recognise the delays, poor communication, and the distress and inconvenience caused. The total compensation of £999 is in accordance with our published remedies guidance for a severe maladministration finding. This is the highest level of maladministration and recognises the failings had a seriously detrimental impact on the resident. Given the resident was impacted across winter for 4 months and had vulnerable children to care for as well as a newborn, it was appropriate for the landlord to recognise this as a significant failure in service. Therefore, we consider the offer of compensation was proportionate to the severity of the situation and the failings identified by this report.
  15. Overall, while the landlord could have acted sooner to attend to the repairs and provide temporary heaters to the resident, it did act to recognise the delays and its poor communication across the complaint. It acted to recognise the full extent of distress and inconvenience to the resident and her family. It also offered an appropriate amount of compensation to recognise severe or significant failings. For these reasons we consider the landlord’s actions were sufficient to put things right, and we make a finding of reasonable redress.

Complaint handling

  1. The resident raised concerns in her escalation request of 18 September 2024 about the landlord’s delay in responding to her complaint of 5 July 2024.
  2. The landlord issued its stage 1 response to the resident’s complaint on 18 September 2024. This meant it took the landlord 49 working days to supply its stage 1 complaint response, which is well beyond its policy timeframe of 10 working days. However the landlord in its complaint response acknowledged this delay and offered £50 compensation. While it could have explained the reason for the delay, it was an appropriate action to take to recognise the delay and inconvenience to the resident in supplying its stage 1 response.
  3. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 15 January 2025. It took 83 working days from the date of the resident’s escalation to supply this complaint response. This timeframe is beyond the landlord’s policy timeframe of 20 working days. However, the landlord did act to recognise the further delays and increased it compensation offer to £150 for the resident’s time and trouble in pursuing the complaint, and for its poor management of the complaint. This was a reasonable action for it to take in the circumstances.
  4. While there were delays in the landlord supplying its stage 1 and stage 2 complaint responses, it acted to later acknowledge these delays and offered compensation to the resident for the inconvenience caused. This was an appropriate step to take to put things right.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Scheme there was reasonable redress offered by the landlord in respect of its handling of the resident’s reports of loss of heating and hot water.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Scheme, the landlord provided reasonable redress in respect of its handling of the associated complaint.

Recommendations

  1. We recommend the landlord pay the resident the £1149 it offered during its complaints process, if it has not already done so.
  2. We recommend the landlord reflects on how it can improve its responsiveness to repairs, in particular where temporary measures may be required to alleviate resident’s concerns.