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Clarion Housing Association Limited (202311901)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202311901

Clarion Housing Association Limited

1 December 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 repairs to address a roof leak at the property and replacement of a dormer window.
  2. The Ombudsman has also investigated the landlord’s complaints handling.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord’s at the property, which is a 2-bedroom maisonette. The landlord has no vulnerabilities recorded for the resident. Her husband is recorded as disabled on its systems.
  2. The resident first reported a leak from the flat roof of the property into her living room to the landlord on or around 28 August 2018. The resident also reported leaks from the roof terrace in October 2018, June 2019, and September 2021. In September 2021, the resident contacted the council’s environmental health team about the landlord’s failure to deal with the damaged roof. She also referred to issues with heat loss due to the replacement of the heating system and lack of adequate insulation. The landlord confirmed that it was only able to complete temporary repairs, as it had to obtain planning permission for more extensive works, due to the property being listed and in a conservation area. The resident made a formal complaint, and the landlord provided a formal response in 2022 informing her that it was preparing a planning permission application for works to resolve the issue.
  3. The resident made a second formal complaint to the landlord on 2 March 2023 about its failure to replace the property’s flat roof and dormer access window. She said that the landlord had told her that works would begin in August 2022, then February 2023 but this had not happened. The resident complained about heat loss in the property since the landlord had replaced the heating system, and that it had told her it could not improve the insulation in her home until the works were completed. The resident complained of poor communication and missed appointments.
  4. The landlord provided a stage 1 complaint response on 29 March 2023. It said that works to replace the flat roof and dormer window were now part of a major planned investment programme involving multiple properties. It was currently scoping and specifying the works before submitting its planning application. The landlord said that it had completed responsive repairs to the roof as and when requested over the last 8 years. It had contacted the resident on 28 March 2023 to offer an appointment to seal the roof with a new membrane, but the resident said that she was having an operation and declined works at that time.
  5. The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 on 11 April 2023. She said that she was dissatisfied with the landlord’s response. The resident said she had been told the landlord had started the planning process, when it had not done so, noting that it could take 4 to 6 months for the planning application to pass. The resident complained about multiple inspections and that the landlord had not resolved the issues, which it had admitted had been live for 8 years. She asked why no progress had been made. The resident wanted the landlord to complete the works and to insulate the property so that she could redecorate.
  6. The landlord provided a final response at stage 2 of its complaints process on 29 June 2023. It apologised for the delay in providing a complaint response. The landlord noted that the issues had been the subject of a previous complaint, and it apologised that it had not yet submitted the planning application. The landlord explained that the scope of the project had increased, to include multiple properties of varying need, making the situation more complex. The landlord estimated that the planning application would be ready to submit by the end of June to early July if no further changes were needed. It said that once the application was agreed and the project began, works would take 6 to 8 months to complete. The landlord offered £200 compensation for the continued delay and £50 for the delayed complaint response.
  7. After the final complaint response, the landlord submitted the planning application on 23 October 2023. The council advised this was inadequate, and the landlord submitted a new application on 30 April 2024. The resident contacted us on 2 May 2024. She told us that she wanted the landlord to replace the roof, insulate, and provide compensation for redecoration and for the stress and inconvenience she had experienced. The landlord has confirmed that it erected scaffolding on 21 October 2024, and the resident has told us that works were completed around June 2025.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident previously submitted a complaint to the landlord about delays in completing permanent repairs to the roof and dormer window, and it provided a final response in 2022. We have not been provided with a copy of the complaint correspondence, and the resident did not escalate her complaint to the Service at that time. The evidence the landlord has sent to us suggests that a stage 2 response to the resident’s first complaint was provided around March 2022. For this reason, our investigation has focussed on the events since April 2022.

Roof leak and dormer access window replacement

  1. The resident’s tenancy agreement confirms the landlord’s repairs obligations under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. These include that it will keep the structure and exterior of the property, which includes the roof, in good repair.
  2. The landlord’s Responsive Repairs and Maintenance Policy says that it will arrange non-emergency repairs within 28 calendar days of the first report. Major replacements, including of roofs, are not responsive repairs and it will refer these to the planned investment team to be delivered through planned programmes. The policy says that before the referral, “all repairs needed to keep an item safe and serviceable should be completed.”
  3. The landlord informed the council on 9 May 2022 that it had completed temporary repairs to the resident’s property and to neighbouring properties. It said that it had added renewal of the roof, dormer access window and insulation at the resident’s property to the planned works programme. The landlord’s communal repairs records show jobs raised on 10 March 2022 and 31 March 2022, marked as completed on 12 May 2022. The evidence suggests that the landlord followed its policies to repair the flat roof at the property, while progressing the permanent repair.
  4. There is no evidence that the landlord updated the resident between 9 May 2022 and 2 March 2023 when the resident complained about the lack of progress. The landlord’s internal emails from 5 October 2022 record that it had not yet submitted the planning and conservation approval applications, and that works were unlikely to begin for another 6 months. There is no evidence that it communicated this to the resident.
  5. We recognise that landlords must plan works in a way that is efficient and cost-effective, and acknowledge that some timescales, such as determination of planning applications, are beyond the landlord’s control. We would, however, expect the landlord to provide residents with regular updates, and to inform them of any changes to previously communicated timeframes, which did not happen in this case. This increased the resident’s frustration, particularly as the delays had already been the subject of a previous complaint.
  6. The landlord’s records from 3 October 2022 refer to “continuous leaks” at the properties, which were “getting repaired as they present”. There are no details of reports of leaks at the resident’s property during that time and correspondence from the resident on 24 March 2023 noted that the roof had not leaked for “a while”. In response to the complaint, the landlord offered to lay a new membrane and to seal the roof but, according to its records, the resident declined works at that time as she was about to have an operation and her recovery could be affected by dust in the property. The landlord acted appropriately to attempt to resolve the complaint by offering additional temporary repairs to prevent further leaks. It should be noted the resident disputes the offer by the landlord, asserting the offer was for the plaster to be removed and replaced within the living room.
  7. In response to the complaint the landlord raised a job on 16 March 2023 to investigate a widening crack in the property’s ceiling, which was possibly connected to the roof issues. This was marked as complete on 20 March 2023, but it is not clear whether the operative completed any works at that visit. As this appeared to be a new issue, the landlord did the right thing by raising a job to investigate but as there is no record of the outcome of the inspection, or any works completed, we cannot conclude that it acted appropriately to resolve this issue. The landlord is reminded of the need to keep clear, accurate and sufficiently detailed repairs records.
  8. The landlord’s initial response to the complaint focussed on the fact that it had met its repairs obligations by adding the roof and window replacement to its planned works programme, completing temporary repairs, and offering further repairs. While this was a reasonable response to the complaint about its failure to complete the works, the landlord failed to investigate, respond to, or apologise for, delays beyond the timescales indicated in its previous complaint response. The landlord should have acknowledged the additional delay and identified that its communication with the resident had been poor. This may have resolved the complaint sooner.
  9. The stage 1 response of 29 March 2023 also failed to address resident’s concerns about heat loss. The landlord should have investigated the temperature within the property and considered what action it could take if this was below the minimum temperature for maintaining a healthy living environment.
  10. At stage 2, the landlord did acknowledge that the planning application was still outstanding, and it apologised for the inconvenience caused, which was appropriate in the circumstances. The landlord explained the reasons for the delay and gave an estimated timeframe for submission of the application. We have seen evidence that the delays were in part due to work pressures within the organisation, and there are periods where there is little or no evidence that the landlord was taking action to progress the works. The landlord’s complaint responses failed to identify where it could have improved its service to reduce the delays.
  11. The landlord’s stage 2 response should also have recognised its failure to provide adequate updates about the progress of the works, apologised, and considered how to put things right by improving its communication in the future. The landlord did commit to “contact all residents affected before works are due to begin” but in our view more regular updates would have been appropriate, given the history of the issues and the previous complaint.
  12. After the final complaint response, the evidence shows that the landlord did not submit the planning application by early July 2023, as it had advised in the stage 2 response. According to the evidence, the landlord did not contact the freeholders about the planning application until 26 September 2023. The landlord has not explained the delay, and the Ombudsman cannot conclude that this was reasonable. During this time, the leak had reoccurred, and the resident was in conversation with the landlord about temporary repairs. The landlord missed an opportunity to reassure the resident that it was actively working on a permanent solution.
  13. The landlord submitted the planning application on 23 October 2023 but there is no evidence that the landlord contacted the resident to provide updates between July 2023 and October 2023. This was unacceptable. The landlord also had to resubmit its planning application because the plans submitted with the initial application were inadequate. It submitted the revised application submitted on 30 April 2024. This means that the landlord did not submit an acceptable planning application until over 9 months after the early July 2023 estimate provided in its stage 2 response. The Ombudsman cannot conclude that the delay was reasonable based on the information provided. Once planning was approved, sometime after August 2024, the landlord does appear to have progressed and completed the works within a reasonable timeframe.
  14. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s roof and dormer window. In our view, the £200 offered by the landlord in its final response did not adequately recognise the stress and inconvenience the resident experienced because of the ongoing delays, which were poorly communicated and could potentially have been reduced. In its complaint responses, the landlord also failed to recognise the resident’s concerns about heat loss. We consider that an additional sum of compensation is due for avoidable delays and a lack of updates after the final complaint response. In our view, a further apology and compensation of £750 is appropriate in the circumstances. This sum is in line with the amounts set out in our remedies guidance, where a resident has been significantly adversely affected by a landlord’s lack of action.
  15. The order for compensation replaces any offer of compensation made to the resident during the landlord’s internal complaints process. The landlord may deduct any compensation already paid to the resident in respect of the complaint from the sum ordered.
  16. We have also recommended that the landlord review its planned works processes, to make sure it provides updates and communicates appropriately with residents about changing timescales.

Complaint handling

  1. The landlord’s Interim Complaints Policy from the time of the complaint had 2 stages. At stage 1, it would aim to acknowledge the complaint within 10 working days and to provide a full response within 20 working days of the complaint being logged. At stage 2, it would acknowledge complaints within 10 working days and aim to respond within 40 working days.
  2. As the resident’s previous complaint to the landlord had completed its internal complaints process in 2022, the landlord focussed its investigation on the events since its final response. This was appropriate in the circumstances, as it had already investigated events before that time, and the resident had not escalated her complaint to us.
  3. At both stages, the landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint within 10 working days, in line with the requirements of its policy. After the resident complained on 2 March 2023, the landlord contacted her by telephone to discuss her concerns. This demonstrated that it was keen to understand the history of the complaint and the outcome the resident was seeking.
  4. The landlord apologised for a delay in providing its stage 1 response, which was dated 29 March 2023. The Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) says that stage 1 responses should be provided within 10 working days, however, the landlord’s interim complaint policy referred to a 20-working day timeframe. As the landlord received the complaint before the Code became a statutory requirement, we are satisfied that there was no service failure, as the landlord responded within its own published timescales in use at that time.
  5. The resident escalated her complaint on 11 April 2023, but the landlord did not provide a stage 2 complaint response until 29 June 2023, which was 54 working days later. This was 14 working days over its published timescale of 40 working days. It offered compensation of £50 in recognition of the adverse effect on the resident of the delay. In our view, this sum was appropriate compensation to recognise the adverse effect of the short delay. The amount falls within the range set out in our remedies guidance, where a resident has been adversely affected by the landlord’s poor complaints handling. We therefore find that the landlord has made an offer of redress to the resident that satisfactorily resolves this aspect of the complaint. It is recommended that the landlord re-offer the £50 compensation to the resident, if this has not already been paid to her.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52. of the Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s roof and replacement of a dormer window.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress to the resident that in the Ombudsman’s opinion satisfactorily resolves the complaint about its complaints handling.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Apologise to the resident for the failings identified in this report.
    2. Pay the resident £750 compensation to recognise the stress and inconvenience she experienced because of avoidable roof and window delays and poor communication.
  2. The landlord may deduct any sum already paid to the resident in respect of the roof and window complaint from the amount ordered at paragraph 34.b.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord review its processes for communicating with residents about planned works, to make sure that it is providing regular updates and notifying residents about changes to previously communicated timescales.
  2. It is recommended that the landlord re-offer the £50 offered to recognise the adverse effect of its complaint handling delays, if this has not already been paid to the resident.