Great Places Housing Group Limited (202308486)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202308486

Great Places Housing Association

30 May 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:
    1. The resident’s reports about an increase in his energy bills.
    2. Contractors accessing the property roof without prior notice.
    3. The resident’s request for a rent refund and the associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident was the tenant of the landlord between 2018 and 2023. The property is a one-bedroom second floor duplex apartment in a converted grade II listed building.
  2. During the course of the year 2021/2022 the landlord undertook repairs to the property caused by a roof leak in late 2021. The resident complained to the Ombudsman about delays and poor communication related to these repairs. We issued a report in April 2023 addressing those issues.
  3. At some point before July 2023, (we have not seen a copy of the complaint) the resident complained again to the landlord. He said that during the works to his flat he had to stay at a friend’s house. He said the landlord should pay for his rent during that period.
  4. In a separate complaint that the landlord has said it received on 31 July 2023, the resident complained that a landlord operative had invaded his privacy by accessing the roof space at the property without notice. In a further complaint on 3 August 2023 the resident complained that the works at the property had increased his energy bills.
  5. On 31 July 2023 the landlord responded at stage 1 of its complaints process to the resident’s complaint about an operative accessing the roof space. It apologised and said it had taken steps to ensure this would not happen again. It is unclear if it responded to the other 2 issues at stage 1 of its process.
  6. On 4 August 2023 the resident asked to escalate his complaint. While we have not seen its stage 1 response to his complaint about energy bills, he said it had asked to see his bills, which he said was “dismissive” and ignored the “root cause” of the issue. He provided correspondence from his energy bill company which indicated that the increase in his bills could be attributed to a leakage. He said he did not accept its apology about the operative’s access on the property roof.
  7. On 4 September 2023 the resident reminded the landlord that he had asked it to pay his rent during the 17-week period he had to stay at a friend’s house.
  8. On 28 September 2023 the landlord responded at stage 2 of its process to all of the issues raised by the resident. It did not change its position on the operative accessing the property roof, it repeated its request to view his energy bills and it said that it had already addressed his request for a rent refund in separate correspondence in June 2023. (We have not seen this correspondence). It apologised for the delay in registering his stage 2 complaint and offered £100 compensation for that failure.
  9. After the end of the internal complaints process, the landlord held a meeting with the resident to discuss the issues further. The outcome was that it offered to pay him £7452.63, which represented a 50% rent rebate over a 3-year period.
  10. When we asked the resident if there were any outstanding issues with his complaint, he said the landlord had still not resolved the issue with his energy bills.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

  1. When the resident came to us, he said the issue with his energy bills had still not been resolved. The rules we follow mean that we cannot comment on the landlord’s actions after the end of the complaint’s process. We note that the landlord had asked the resident to produce more detailed bills following a meeting in December 2023. If the resident provided the extra detail sought by the landlord and he remained unhappy with the landlord’s response, he can raise this as a separate complaint.

Handling of the resident’s reports about an increase in his energy bills.

  1. In the resident’s complaint escalation on 4 August 2023, he sent the landlord a copy of a message from his energy company. The company said that his bill was now over £5000 and that his direct debit would have to be significantly increased. It asked the resident to ask the landlord to check if there was something wrong with the meter and send a report to the energy company so that it could investigate. It said, “if it’s not a faulty meter, the landlord will need to sort any leakages as this may cause the bills to be high.” It added that any leakages could be “detrimental” to the resident saying, “this needs to be checked urgently!”
  2. However, in its 28 September 2023 stage 2 response, the landlord did not address these points. Instead, it asked the resident to provide copies of his energy bills. It said that until it received these, it would consider the matter closed.
  3. It was reasonable for the landlord to ask to see the resident’s energy bills, as that would allow it to fully assess the situation. The evidence shows he provided some bills, but this was on 4 October 2024, after the internal complaints process had been concluded.
  4. However, while nothing in the evidence shows the resident previously informing the landlord of problems with his gas supply or meter, the information he provided from his energy company suggested the possibility of a leak or fault. There is no evidence of the landlord acting on it in any way. The landlord was aware that the resident suffered from anxiety and was distressed by situation. The energy company had advised of a possible safety risk. In those circumstances the landlord’s lack of action was not reasonable.
  5. Overall, while it was reasonable for the landlord to request copies of energy bills to investigate how they had increased, its failure to investigate a potential safety issue at the property was not.

Contractors accessing the property roof without prior notice.

  1. In its stage 1 and stage 2 complaint responses, the landlord explained that its systems had been set up so that if the resident raised any works, an alert would show any operatives who were allocated the repair. However, as the works to the roof were raised by a neighbour, it did not inform him. It said that following his complaint, it had extended the alert so that it would be visible for any repairs raised for the block. It said it had taken that step to make sure the resident was not disturbed in future.
  2. The resident’s correspondence with the landlord shows his distress from an operative knocking on his window asking for access. However, the landlord’s response to his complaint was appropriate. It apologised, took steps to ensure that the problem would not occur again and explained what it had done to improve its processes. Its complaint response appropriately remedied the complaint.

On the resident’s request for a rent refund and complaint handling

  1. The records show the landlord provided a stage 1 complaint response to the resident’s request for a rent rebate on 7 June 2023. A copy of that response has not been provided. The landlord said it considered this had already been investigated by us in another report and at stage 2, it therefore said it would not investigate. However, while our earlier investigation dealt only with the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of repairs at the property. It did not address any request for a rent rebate. The landlord should therefore have considered this part of the complaint.
  2. The resident had demanded the landlord pay the sum of £1695.24 to cover the period in question. In January 2024 it paid the resident over £7000, representing a 50% reduction of his rent over a 3-year period. This offer was made after the resident had brought his complaint to us, and not through the operation of its internal complaints process. Usually, a landlord is expected to resolve complaints at an early stage.  Offers made after the process would not generally be considered to represent reasonable redress.
  3. However, in this case, the landlord responded to the resident’s October 2023 request to reopen its case, met with the resident and made a significant offer of compensation to resolve his concerns. That significantly exceeded what might usually have been considered reasonable redress for the complaint. It also resolved the resident’s request in October 2023, that clearing the debt on his account would “contribute towards a resolution of all the issues and neglect I have encountered during my time as a tenant.”
  4. In relation to the other claimed complaint handling failures, the landlord’s offer of £100 to acknowledge its delay in progressing the stage 2 complaint, was reasonable. The landlord’s remedies and resolutions policy sets out that where it considers the impact of a service failure to fall under the category of “short term”, it can offer between £50 and £150 compensation. The sum of £100 falls within this range. 

Determinations

  1. On consideration of the complaint the Ombudsman has found, in accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme:
    1. There was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports about his increased energy bills.
    2. There was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of contractors accessing the property roof without prior notice.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Scheme, the landlord has offered redress to the resident prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, satisfactorily resolves the complaint about the resident’s request for a rent refund and complaint handling.   

Order

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord must pay the resident £200 compensation to acknowledge the failings found in this report.