One Housing Group Limited (202341847)

Decision
Case ID	202341847
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	One Housing Group Limited
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	24 November 2025

Background

The resident lives in a block of flats. There is a single communal lift serving all residents in the block. She reported ongoing problems with the lift since November 2023. She was dissatisfied because no lasting repair had been made. She asked us to investigate whether the landlord had acted reasonably in the circumstances.

What the complaint is about

The complaint is about the landlord’s response to:
1. Lift repairs.
2. The complaint.

Our decision (determination)

We found that there was maladministration in the landlord’s response to:
1. Lift repairs.
2. The complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

Lift repairs

The lift was repeatedly out of service over 12 months causing distress and inconvenience to the resident.
The landlord missed opportunities to identify a recurring theme of lift faults and undertake investigations into the root cause of the failures.
The landlord did not evidence it had acted on recommendations to replace the lift causing uncertainty to the resident.

Complaint handling

The landlord appropriately communicated with the resident about its delay at stage 1 of the complaint process.
The landlord significantly delayed its stage 2 response without explaining the delay, revising the timescale, or acknowledging the failure in its final response.
The landlord did not take into account the full timeline of events, including repeated lift failures, missing an opportunity to acknowledge impact and learn from the situation.

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.

Order	What the landlord must do	Due date
1	Apology order The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure: The apology is provided by a senior member of the repairs department. The apology is specific to the failures identified in this decision, meaningful and empathetic. It has due regard to our apologies guidance.	No later than 22 December 2025
	Specific action order: repairs The landlord must write to the resident to confirm: Whether it intends to repair, replace, or upgrade the lift. If it does not intend to replace the lift, it must explain its decision making. Whether it intends to put in place a maintenance schedule in to improve the lift reliability.	No later than 22 December 2025
	Specific action order: complaint handling The landlord must evidence it has completed complaint handling training in the last 6 months for relevant staff members. Alternatively, it must now conduct training. This must cover: Response times and practices when there are delays. Keeping a full audit of its complaint correspondence and sharing this with us, when applicable. Putting things right. The landlord must provide the following evidence: A copy of its training pack. When the training was delivered.	No later than 22 December 2025
	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £400 made up as follows: £250 for the distress and inconvenience of its handling of repairs to the lift between September 2023 and August 2024. £150 for the distress and inconvenience of its complaint handling. This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date. The landlord may deduct from the total figure any payments it has already paid.	No later than 22 December 2025

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.

Our recommendations
Specific action recommendation: record keeping We advise the landlord to assess its record keeping for the repairs investigated in this report. This should include: Identifying the minimum standards that ought to have been recorded in its repair log. Which of these standards it failed to adhere to, and why. An assessment of working practices relating to tracking and monitoring repeat repairs and how it will keep residents informed during period of prolonged repairs or outages. The landlord may wish to provide us and relevant team members with a written report detailing its findings and any wider learning it has identified. It may also wish to consider our Spotlight Report on ‘Knowledge and Information Management’ with reference to the recommendations 3,7, and 8.

Our recommendations

Specific action recommendation: record keeping

We advise the landlord to assess its record keeping for the repairs investigated in this report. This should include:

Identifying the minimum standards that ought to have been recorded in its repair log.
Which of these standards it failed to adhere to, and why.
An assessment of working practices relating to tracking and monitoring repeat repairs and how it will keep residents informed during period of prolonged repairs or outages.
The landlord may wish to provide us and relevant team members with a written report detailing its findings and any wider learning it has identified.

It may also wish to consider our Spotlight Report on ‘Knowledge and Information Management’ with reference to the recommendations 3,7, and 8.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
Between 6 September 2023 and 8 December 2023	There were 4 reports made about the lift including water leaks, flooding, pipework issues, and the lift being out of service. It is unclear what action the landlord took in response.
14 December 2023	The resident complained that the lift had been out of service for a month with little update beyond a parts delay. She said this had disrupted her mother’s appointments, as she relied on the lift to get in and out of the building. She asked the landlord to fix it and put a plan in place for future breakdowns.
Between 21 December 2023 and 16 January 2024	There were 6 reports about the lift including breakdowns. The landlord noted it had to break into a motor room between 4 and 5 January 2024 to enable it to complete repairs. Beyond this, it is unclear what action the landlord took.
16 January 2024	The landlord issued its stage 1 response. It said the motor room door had been vandalised, delaying access and repairs. It fixed the door, ordered a special circuit board on 7 December 2023, and fitted it on 19 December 2023, followed by reprogramming. It said it sent email updates to residents throughout December 2023. It acknowledged the inconvenience but said it acted within expected timeframes, so it did not uphold the complaint. The resident escalated her complaint the same day explaining the lift was still out of service and the issue had not been resolved.
Between 30 January 2024 and 12 August 2024	There were 30 reports about the lift being out of service, including emergencies, technical faults, and water damage. The landlord marked 27 jobs as complete or closed, and 3 as cancelled or under review. It said it fitted parts, fixed faults, removed water, and responded to emergencies. There is a lack of detail in the contemporaneous records about what action was taken, and when.
12 August 2024	The landlord issued its stage 2 response. It re-explained the events that occurred during January 2024 and said the lift was now working. It partially upheld the complaint because the lift was still out of service when the resident escalated her complaint, but that this was resolved 3 days later.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident referred her complaint to us because she was concerned that the lift was unreliable. She wanted the landlord to fix it and clearly explain what action it would take and when, including if it intended to replace it.

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.

Complaint	The landlord’s response to lift repairs
Finding	Maladministration

The landlord is responsible under the tenancy agreement for maintaining communal lifts and ensuring they are in “reasonable repair” and fit for use for tenants, occupiers and visitors to the building. Its repair policy commits to responding to emergency repairs within 4 hours, make them safe within 24 hours, and to complete routine repairs within 28 calendar days.
Between September 2023 and August 2024 there were approximately 40 reports concerning lift failures. These included mechanical faults, instances of residents becoming trapped, leak investigations, and door-related issues. The landlord raised several jobs in response, addressing faults such as defective circuit boards, door mechanism failures, power interruptions, and water ingress into the lift pit.
We cannot confirm if the resident made all the reports in the landlord’s log or if the landlord responded appropriately or in a timely manner to each report. This is because its records only showed when issues were raised, not when they were resolved. The repairs log did not categorise reports by urgency, and in most cases, did not specify who made the reports and what action it took in response. This lack of detail reflects poor record keeping and prevented us from assessing the landlord’s response to individual reports made by the resident.
Nonetheless, the lift experienced ongoing and frequent service disruptions, requiring repeated interventions. For example, there were instances in April 2024 where the lift was noted as out of service for up to 33 days. This ongoing unreliability caused inconvenience and distress to the resident over a period of 12 months. It is unclear why the landlord did not acknowledge the frequency of the issues being reported and consider whether more detailed investigations were needed. As a result, it missed an opportunity to investigate and address the root cause sooner, which delayed fixing the problem. This unnecessarily prolonged the resident’s inconvenience.
The landlord said it gave lift repair updates in December 2023 but did not provide evidence of this. It also did not show it had engaged with the resident about the repairs throughout the complaint. This poor communication caused avoidable distress, made worse by the outages disrupting her mother’s appointments.
A lift condition survey was appropriately carried out after the complaints process ended in September 2024. It recommended the lift be replaced and was only suitable for short-term use. The resident told us she continues to report the lift is out of service. At present, there is no evidence to confirm that the lift has been replaced in accordance with the contractor’s recommendations. We understand the landlord is not bound to act on all contractor recommendations. However, given the ongoing concerns, it should provide an update to the resident because she is unaware of the landlord’s intentions regarding the next steps and associated timeframes.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Maladministration

The Complaint Handling Code (‘the former Code’) published in 2022 applied when the resident made her complaint. The landlord’s complaint policy at the time was compliant with the former Code.
The landlord issued its stage 1 response 20 working days after receiving the complaint. This should have been issued within 10 working days. However, we recognise the landlord appropriately engaged with the resident, explained is delay, and provided a revised response time that it adhered to. This was reasonable in the circumstances.
The landlord issued its stage 2 response 146 working days after the escalation request. This was a significant delay given it should have been issued within 20 working days. It also did not evidence it explained its delay or communicated a revised timescale to the resident in line with the former Code. Further, it did not acknowledge these failures during its final response, so it did not take any action to put things right.
We recognise the landlord’s complaint responses assessed the events immediately leading up the resident’s complaint and escalation request. However, landlords should look beyond the circumstances of the individual complaint and consider whether anything needs to be ‘put right’ in terms of process or systems to the benefit of all residents.
It missed an opportunity to consider the full events that had transpired between January 2023 and August 2024 as part of its response. It would have been fair to have acknowledged its records showed the lift had been repeatedly out of service throughout the duration of the complaint and what it intended to do about this. Because of this it did not reflect on how it could learn from outcomes or try to put things right. Nor did it fully recognise the inconvenience caused or offer to remedy this.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

The landlord’s repair records were unclear and incomplete because they lacked completion dates, urgency categories, links between reports and works, and reporter details, meaning we could not fully assess its response.
The landlord kept incomplete complaint records, with no date on its stage 1 acknowledgement letter. We had to ask for the stage 2 response date. It should improve how it maintains its records.

Communication

The landlord did not adequately evidence in its records it had communicated with the resident about the lift repairs and what it was doing to resolve them.