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Vivid Housing Limited (202400024)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202400024

Vivid Housing Limited

12 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 resident’s complaint is about the landlord’s handling of her concerns about cleaning and maintenance of the communal windows.
  2. The landlord’s complaint handling has also been investigated.

Background

  1. The resident and her husband have a joint shared ownership lease with the landlord. The property is a flat in a converted building. The resident’s service charge includes payments towards the cost of caretaking and window cleaning. The landlord employs a contractor to clean the outside of all of the building’s windows, and the inside of the windows in the communal areas.
  2. On 6 January 2023 the resident expressed concern regarding the standard of communal window cleaning, and asked who was responsible for cleaning the inside of the windows. The landlord said it used a contractor to clean the inside and outside of the communal windows, and would carry out an inspection after the next clean.
  3. In March 2023 the resident reported that the window cleaners had attended but the porch windows and inside of the communal windows were not adequately clean. The landlord inspected and said the inside of the windows met the agreed standard. It agreed to trim foliage outside the porch windows to enable the contractor to clean them.
  4. The resident and landlord communicated further about the cleaning and maintenance of the communal windows in September and October 2023. The resident complained about the standard and completeness of the window cleaning, in particular in relation to the porch windows. She said she was concerned the landlord was not adequately maintaining the windows to ensure their lifespan was not cut short. The landlord carried out an inspection, agreed to trim the foliage outside the porch windows, and talk to the contractor.
  5. On 9 January 2024 the resident raised a formal complaint that:
    1. Not all of the communal windows were being regularly cleaned on both the outside and inside.
    2. The landlord was not regularly inspecting or maintaining the windows.
    3. As a result some of the windows were rotting and had condensation trapped in the glass.
    4. She wanted reassurance that the landlord would not charge residents to replace the windows.
  6. The landlord provided a stage 1 response on 22 January 2024. It said the contractor cleaned the windows on 18 December 2023. It would inspect the communal windows to identify any disrepair on 5 February 2024.
  7. On 26 January 2024 the resident asked for her complaint to be escalated to stage 2. She said the landlord had misunderstood her complaint, which was about the standard of the window cleaning, and what she perceived as a lack of regular inspection and maintenance, to ensure the longevity of the windows.
  8. The landlord provided a stage 2 response on 1 March 2024. It acknowledged that the windows were not being cleaned to the standard expected, and there were repairs required to the windows. It explained the remedial actions it would take and offered £30 compensation.
  9. The resident asked this Service to investigate on 3 April 2024. She said she was not reassured that the windows were being adequately maintained. The resident has reported that the landlord has recently agreed to do repairs to the windows at no additional cost to residents.

Assessment and findings

Scope

  1. In her correspondence the resident has referred to issues with the windows going back many years. This Service expects residents to raise complaints within a reasonable time, usually within 12 months of an issue occurring, and for landlords to respond within appropriate timescales. This is because with the passage of time, evidence may be unavailable and personnel involved may have left an organisation, which makes it difficult for a thorough investigation to be carried out and for informed decisions to be made.
  2. The resident complained about the window cleaning and maintenance on 18 September 2023. Taking this into account, and the availability and reliability of evidence, this assessment has focussed on the period from 18 September 2022 to 1 March 2024, when the stage 2 response was issued.

Windows

  1. The resident’s service charge covers a charge for caretaking and window cleaning. As part of this investigation the landlord was asked to provide its relevant policies and procedures. The landlord provided an Estates Caretaking Service document which said it would clean the inside and outside of the communal windows every 3 months. On 13 December 2022 the landlord told the resident it used a contractor to clean the windows, and this was done 4 times a year.
  2. The landlord’s records indicate that the contractor attended every 3 months between September 2022 to March 2024.
  3. It was appropriate that the landlord:
    1. Replied to all of the resident’s correspondence about the windows within a reasonable amount of time.
    2. On 24 January 2023, advised that the window cleaning contractor cleaned the inside and outside of the windows every 3 months.
    3. On 7 March 2023, inspected the windows together with the resident, so that she could point out her concerns. After this it cut back foliage in front of the porch windows to enable the windows cleaners to access and clean them.
    4. Inspected the windows in response to her 27 March 2023 report that the porch windows, and inside of the communal windows were not clean. On 3 April 2023 it advised that the inside of the windows had been cleaned to the agreed standard, and the porch windows would be cleaned in June 2023 now that the foliage had been cut back.
    5. On 21 September 2023, carried out a further inspection of the windows, and visited the resident to discuss her concerns. However, the landlord’s records are unclear what actions, if any, it took in response to this.
    6. Arranged for the resident to accompany its neighbourhood officer on their inspections of the estate again, which took place on 21 December 2023.
  4. However, the landlord’s response fell short, in that it did not fully engage with, and provide reassurance in relation to the resident’s stated concerns, and perception that there was a lack of regular inspection and maintenance of the windows, which negatively impacted the longevity of the windows. It acknowledged within its stage 2 response that its stage 1 response misunderstood the resident’s complaint, and agreed that the windows were not being cleaned to the expected standard, and needed repairs. It explained the remedial actions it would take:
    1. It had asked the contractor to re–clean the windows, and ensure they were cleaned to the expected standard in future.
    2. It would do more through inspections after the contractor clean in future.
    3. It had asked the caretaker to clean the windows, if dirty, in between contractor cleans.
    4. It had secured a contractor to carry out window repairs.
  5. However, it would have been best practice for the landlord to have provided further explanation and reassurance to the resident regarding:
    1. Its procedure for regular inspection of the windows to gauge cleansing standards, and its intervention process where standards seen fell short of the service specification.
    2. The role of the caretaker.
  6. As a result of the shortfall in the landlord’s response outlined above, the resident experienced inconvenience and expended time and trouble communicating with the landlord about this. The Ombudsman has therefore made a finding of service failure in relation to the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns in relation to the windows.

Complaint handling

  1. The landlord’s complaints policy current at the time of the resident’s complaint defined a complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the landlord, its staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents. The policy said should the landlord not be able to resolve the dissatisfaction when a resident first reported this, and further investigation was needed or requested, it would handle this through its complaints process.
  2. The policy said the stage 1 complaint investigator would aim to make personal contact with the resident by close of business the working day following the complaint, to help them understand or resolve the issues raised. They would carry out a full investigation and communicate the findings in writing within 10 working days. The policy said the landlord would acknowledge requests to escalate to stage 2 within 5 working days, and respond in full within a further 20 working days.
  3. The landlord has since updated its complaints policy to bring it into line with the Housing Ombudsman Service Complaints Handling Code.
  4. The resident’s 18 September 2023 correspondence to the landlord was clearly a complaint, as defined by the policy. The resident’s dissatisfaction was not resolved when first reported, so the landlord should have dealt with this under stage 1 of its complaints procedure. That it did not do so was poor complaint handling.
  5. The resident complained again on 9 January 2024. While the landlord’s records say it acknowledged the complaint on 11 January 2024 (2 working days later), it has no record of any attempt to make personal contact with the resident, or any written acknowledgement of the complaint. Had the landlord have contacted the resident about the complaint, or provided a written acknowledgement with a complaint definition, it may have avoided its misunderstanding of the complaint, and failure to address the resident’s concerns in its 22 January 2024 stage 1 response.
  6. The stage 1 response was, however, provided 9 working days after the resident’s complaint, as required by its policy.
  7. The resident requested escalation to stage 2 on 26 January 2024. The landlord acknowledged this in writing 5 working days later, and responded in full 20 working days after that, as required by its policy.
  8. As a result of the landlord’s failure to deal with the resident’s 18 September 2023 complaint under stage 1 of its complaints process, and lack of evidence of acknowledgement and definition of the 9 January 2024 complaint, an opportunity was missed for an earlier resolution and avoidable time and trouble was required of the resident. The Ombudsman has therefore made a finding of service failure in relation to the landlord’s complaint handling.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in relation to the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about cleaning and maintenance of the communal windows.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in relation to the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report:
    1. A management officer of the landlord must apologise to the resident for the impact of its failures, having regard to the Ombudsman’s apologies guidance.
    2. The landlord must provide the resident with clear information regarding its processes and procedures for window cleaning, inspection and maintenance, including:
      1. Window cleaning service standards.
      2. Material specifications and methodology for window cleaning.
      3. Programmed dates for window cleaning.
      4. Its procedure for regular inspection of the windows to identify inadequate cleaning, and signs of wear and tear, or disrepair, including how often this takes place and who is responsible for this.
      5. How it ensures it has adequate confidence in the efficacy of its planned inspection regime by a suitable means e.g. random spot inspections.
      6. The role and functions of the caretaker as well as any engaged contractors.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that relevant staff involved in this complaint undertake complaint handling learning from our Centre for Learning (https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/centre-for-learning/key-topics/complaint-handling/).
  2. It is recommended that the landlord consider the introduction of opportunities for residents to participate in inspections