Southwark Council (202339206)

Background

1. The resident moved to the property, a maisonette which forms part of a block, in September 2022. The gas boiler was not operational, and the gas appliances had not been tested. After contractors visited to commission the boiler and test appliances, the resident noticed a gas leak. The gas had to be turned off by the network supplier until the leak could be fixed.

What the complaint is about

2. The landlord’s handling of:
   1. Gas safety in the property.
   2. The associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of gas safety in the property.
4. There was service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

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

Summary of reasons

5. The landlord failed to ensure the gas safety requirements were met, and the heating and hot water were functioning, prior to the start of the tenancy. There were then failings in its gas repairs service.
6. The landlord’s stage 2 response did not comply with its complaint policy timescales, and it failed to acknowledge or remedy this within its response.

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.

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.

7. In her contact with us, the resident has also raised concerns about a separate gas leak from the cooker in June 2023, and the repair of a hole in the wall which had been outstanding for 2 years. However, these issues did not form part of the complaint which was raised with the landlord and is the subject of this investigation. Therefore, they are not considered further in this report. The resident should first raise these issues with the landlord as a formal complaint, and then refer it to us if she remains dissatisfied.
8. The landlord has a legal responsibility to maintain the heating, hot water and internal pipework which is noted in its repairs policy. Even where that work is carried out by a contractor on behalf of the landlord, the responsibility remains with the landlord. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulation 1998 outlines the landlord’s duties to make sure all gas appliances, fittings, chimneys and flues are safe and working efficiently. The landlord also has a responsibility to provide a new tenant with a Landlord Gas Safety Report (LGSR) before they move in.
9. There is no evidence of an up-to-date LGSR at the start of the tenancy on 19 September 2022. Therefore, the landlord failed in its duty to provide the resident with an LGSR confirming the installations had passed all relevant tests.
10. When the resident detected a gas leak on 26 September 2022, after the landlord’s contractors had attended earlier in the day, she telephoned the gas supplier. It turned the supply off the same day and identified the leak was coming from behind the boarded-up fireplace. The landlord’s contractors completed the necessary repairs 2 days later (although these visits are not logged on the repairs record).
11. Previously, a void gas check had been completed on 12 December 2021 and noted: the boiler needed replacing; the fire surround needed to be removed so the gas fire could be capped and removed; and the gas hob needed to be removed. The boiler was replaced, and a gas installation report was completed on 14 January 2022. This noted contractors were unable to commission the boiler as there was no gas meter and the boiler was capped. They were also unable to test the gas fire as there was no gas. The gas installation tightness failed and there was an action to recall when the gas was connected.
12. There is no reference in later records to either the gas fire or the hob being removed as recommended. In August 2022 a gas meter was fitted, and a void property inspection was completed. The inspection report noted that plasterboard had been applied to the side of the fireplace, indicating the gas fire was boarded over without being removed. Therefore, the landlord did not follow its own contractor’s recommendations.
13. The landlord normally expected its contractor to provide it with a completed LGSR prior to a tenancy sign-up. In this case, the contractor said it would complete checks at the ‘turn on and test’ appointment, once the resident had moved in. The landlord pushed back on this and highlighted that the gas meter was in place and had credit, but the contractor reiterated that the test would happen later. The landlord should have been more robust with its contractor to ensure it was compliant with its own obligations to the resident. The regulations are in place to ensure the safety of residents, and it is ultimately for the landlord to satisfy itself that it has met the requirements.
14. While the landlord was aware the resident did not have a working boiler at the start of her tenancy, it appears to have made her responsible for arranging the ‘turn on and test’ appointment. The evidence indicates she was not clear on what the expectations were or how to do this. This demonstrates the landlord was not meeting its own standard of “treating residents as if they were a valued member of our own family”.
15. As a result of these failings, the records indicate that the property had no heating or hot water from 19 September (the start of the tenancy) to 29 September 2022 (when the gas supply was restored). Tests were then carried out and the resident was advised how to put credit on the meter. The landlord’s repairs policy says a loss of heating and hot water would be classed as an urgent repair and should be attended within 3 working days. Therefore, the landlord failed to meet its policy timescales, and this was distressing and inconvenient for the resident.
16. While we acknowledge a 7-day delay in the landlord addressing the lack of heating and hot water, we also find that it was right to not uphold the resident’s complaint that she was without these amenities for a month. The evidence does not support this position. Therefore, no further remedy is required in that regard.
17. In her initial complaint of 29 September 2022 the resident raised urgent concerns about the lack of heating and the gas leak. She said she had bought a gas detector for her safety. The landlord immediately discussed with its contractor how it could have concluded tests on the property in which a gas leak was detected later the same day. This shows it took its responsibility for gas safety and oversight of its contractors seriously. However, the outcomes of these enquiries were not shared with the resident, which was a missed opportunity to demonstrate that it was taking her complaint seriously.
18. The landlord also told its voids team that staff must insist to contractors on completion of work and a ‘pass’ certificate of gas safety before a property could be let. This is positive and demonstrates learning from the resident’s complaint, in line with our dispute resolution principle of ‘learning from outcomes’. However, given the importance of gas safety measures, and the potential implications of non-compliance, this approach should have been standard practice already.
19. In its stage 2 response, the landlord upheld the complaint about the gas leak. It apologised the leak had not been identified sooner, offered £200 for the distress caused, and said it would ensure the necessary checks would be completed before agreeing a tenancy in future. However, the response did not go far enough to identify the specific service failings, explain how they had occurred, or recognise the impact of them on the resident. 
20. We therefore order the landlord to pay £400 compensation (inclusive of the £200 previously offered). This is in line with our remedies guidance for cases where the landlord has acknowledged failings and made some attempt to put things right, but the offer was not proportionate to the failings identified by our investigation. This award reflects that the landlord resolved the substantive issue quickly, attempted to remedy the situation, and has taken learning from the complaint. It also acknowledged internally that its gas check process had failed and that the resident had been allowed to move into a property which had the potential to be dangerous.

21. The landlord has a 2-stage complaints process. At the time of the complaint, it was not aligned to our Complaints Handling Code. It aimed to acknowledge both stages within 3 working days. It aimed to respond at stage 1 within 15 working days and at stage 2 within 25 working days of the acknowledgement. The landlord’s complaints and compensation policies relevant at the time of the complaint did not generally offer compensation for complaint handling failures, only where there was material loss, and where the complaint investigation had identified maladministration.
22. At stage 1, the complaint was acknowledged the same day. The landlord responded on 12 October 2022, followed by a formal response on 21 October 2022. The full response was slightly outside the target, but there was no significant delay. It referred to the earlier email but did not include the text. It contained an apology for the incident and information on how to escalate the complaint. It did not offer any compensation. This was a missed opportunity to acknowledge that, on this occasion, the landlord’s management of gas safety had been inadequate, as it was aware of its failure to provide a LGSR at the start of the tenancy.
23. The resident escalated the complaint on 7 November 2022. The landlord sent a holding response on 20 December 2022 and an acknowledgement on 25 January 2023, 55 working days after the complaint was made. This was considerably outside the 3-day target timeframe.
24. The final review response was provided on 22 February 2023, more than 2 months after the complaint was escalated. The landlord acknowledged and apologised for the delay in providing the response and for the experience the resident had had. It offered a limited explanation of the cause of the leak but no further information on why it was not identified when the boiler was commissioned. It did not explicitly recognise its failing regarding not having had the gas appliances fully tested before the start of the tenancy.
25. The delay in providing the final response did not impact the overall outcome of the substantive issues, but did cause frustration and uncertainty to the resident. Therefore, we order the landlord to pay £100 compensation in recognition of its failings.

Learning

26. The landlord should ensure it follows through with its assurance that it will no longer allow tenancies to commence before all gas safety testing has been fully carried out.
27. Our investigation identified gaps in the landlord’s repairs and maintenance records. There was a lack of records of contractor attendances and the completed LGSR of 28 September 2022. The landlord should ensure its repairs and maintenance records are accurate, up to date, and accessible for each property.
28. The landlord should ensure it maintains an accurate and accessible record of all tenancy information, including the occupancy agreement.