The Guinness Partnership Limited (202429317)

Background

1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. The property is a 2-bedroom maisonette.

The landlord is aware the resident has autism and dyslexia.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about:
   1. The landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about heat loss in his property due to draughts through his windows and the lack of insulation on his heating pipes.
3. We have also considered how the landlord handled the complaint.

Our decision (determination)

4. We have found that:
   1. There was maladministration by the landlord in its response to the resident’s concerns about heat loss in his property due to draughts through his windows and the lack of insulation on his heating pipes.
   2. There was service failure by the landlord in how it handled the complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

5. Given the overall delays in the landlord carrying out remedial works to the resident’s windows, and providing a resolution to his concerns regarding the insulation on his heating pipes, we are not satisfied that the £100 offered by the landlord for the time, trouble and inconvenience to the resident, as well as to cover his heating bills, was sufficient to resolve the complaint.
6. The landlord acknowledged and apologised to the resident for the delay in its stage 1 response however, this was not sufficient to satisfactorily resolve the complaint or to put things right.

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.

Recommendations

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 investigated

7. In its complaint responses the landlord offered the resident £39 for the 13 days he was without heating whilst his boiler was being replaced. As this was not a matter that formed part of the resident’s complaint to the landlord, nor was it a matter raised by the resident when he referred his complaint to us, this will not be referred to any further in this report. Nevertheless, a recommendation has been made for the landlord to now pay the £39 to the resident if it has not done so already.

What we have investigated

Draughts through windows

8. On 4 December 2023, the resident reported he was experiencing draughts through his windows. Having been advised of the resident’s concerns, the landlord would have been expected to inspect the windows to establish what if any repairs were needed and to complete the repairs within a reasonable period of time. As a routine repair, and in accordance with its repairs policy, the landlord would have been expected to do this within 20 working days.
9. The landlord attended the resident’s property within this timeframe, on 15 and 20 December 2023, but failed to carry out any works to the windows.
10. The landlord acknowledged this failure in its stage 1 response, on 10 January 2024, for which it apologised. However, it did not then book another appointment until 29 January 2024, a further 10 working days later, and 37 working days after the resident had initially reported the repair.
11. At the time of its stage 2 response, the landlord had attended on 29 January 2024 as promised but this was only to assess what materials were needed. The landlord said in its response that a further appointment had been booked for 15 February 2024. The repair was completed on that day.
12. The landlord said that this was within its 20-working day timescale, however, that was evidently not the case given the repair was initially raised on 4 December 2023, 50 working days earlier.

Lack of insulation on heating pipes

13. On 16 November 2023, the resident called the landlord to report a leak from his boiler.
14. On 24 November 2023, the landlord emailed its heating and hot water team to advise the resident had raised concerns about heat loss due to his heating pipes going outside his property into the cleaning cupboard and riser.
15. A new boiler was installed on 29 November 2023. However, the heating pipes to the cleaning cupboard and riser were not insulated at that time.
16. The heating pipes in the cleaning cupboard were then not insulated on 18 December 2023. To date, no insulation has been added to the heating pipes that pass through the riser.
17. The landlord apologised for the delay in insulating the heating pipes in its stage 1 response of 10 January 2024. However, it only referred to the cleaning cupboard, not the risers. This was flagged by the resident in his escalation request.
18. The landlord did make reference to the heating pipes that pass through the riser in its stage 2 response. However, it failed to acknowledged that these had not been insulated and simply referred to ‘the insulation’ on 18 December 2023, which only related to the cleaning cupboard pipes.
19. What the landlord failed to share with the resident was that it had been advised by its contractor on 18 December 2023 that it was not possible to insulate the heating pipes in the risers. The contractor told the landlord they were ‘deemed unsafe and inaccessible unless you abseil down them from the roof’. The landlord’s failure to be transparent with the resident about this matter was not reasonable nor was it in accordance with our Complaint Handling Code (the code). This is because the Code states landlords must address all points raised in the complaint and provide clear reasons for any decisions. The Code also states the landlord should provide a response to a complaint when the answer is known.
20. When he referred his complaint to us, the resident said he had been informed by the landlord, from a visit around the beginning of 2025, that it had a proposed solution to the issue of the heating pipes that went through the riser. However, he was still waiting for the landlord to confirm what its proposed solution was or when any works would be carried out.

Conclusion

21. Given the delay in the landlord carrying out draught proofing works to the resident’s windows and the failures identified with regards to the insulation of his heating pipework, we are not satisfied that the £100 compensation offered was proportionate to the level of its failure. As a result, the landlord has been ordered to pay the resident an additional £300. This brings the total payable to £400.
22. A further order has also been made for the landlord to provide the resident with an update with regard to any proposed resolution to the issues with his heating pipework that passes through the riser.

23. 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 (March 2022).
24. The landlord had a published complaints policy which complied with the terms of the Code 2022 in respect of timescales.
25. The landlord has since updated is complaints policy in line with our 2024 Code (April 2024).
26. The resident made his complaint to the landlord on 11 December 2023. His Customer Liaison Manager discussed the resident’s concerns with him on that day. The landlord then provided its stage 1 response on 10 January 2024, 19 working days later (taking into account the 3 bank holidays during that period of time).  This was not in accordance with either the landlord’s complaint’s policy or our Code at that time. Both state the landlord should provide its response within 10 working days from the date the complaint was logged.
27. It is noted that on 15 December 2023, the landlord contacted the resident to advise that it would not be able to provide its complaint response until 10 January 2024. Whilst both the landlord’s complaints policy and the Code at that time state that the landlord can take up to 10 working days longer to provide its response, they both also state the landlord must explain the reason for this to the resident and the reason for doing so must be ‘good’. We are not satisfied that either of these applied in this case.
28. The resident escalated his complaint on 11 January 2024. The landlord then provided its stage 2 response on 30 January 2024, within 20 working days (11 to 30 January 2024). The landlord therefore acted in line with its policy and the Code.
29. It is welcome the landlord acknowledged and apologised to the resident for the delay in its stage 1 response. However, this was not sufficient to satisfactorily resolve the complaint or to put things right.

Learning

30. In its complaint responses the landlord acknowledged the need to learn from its complaints and said it had given feedback to its repairs team to ensure that when issues were reported they were addressed within targeted timescales. This has been highlighted as a reminder to the landlord to take this forward.
31. The landlord should also remind its complaint handlers of the need to address all points raised in a complaint and provide clear reasons for any decisions.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

32. We identified no recording keeping issues when investigating this complaint.

Communication

33. We identified no communication issues when investigating this complaint. We did however note good practice in that the landlord called the resident to discuss his complaint rather than asking to put his concerns in writing.