Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTV) (202432397)

Decision
Case ID	202432397
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTV)
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	3 December 2025

Background

1. In 2023 the resident reported several repairs issues to the landlord. She said the flush on the only toilet in the property was not working. She said she was having to manually flush the toilet using water from a bucket. She also reported that a window in her bedroom was stuck open. She said this was making the room cold, the flat difficult to heat and affecting her sleep due to noise pollution from a nearby road.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
   1. Repairs to the toilet flush.
   2. Repairs to the bedroom window.
   3. The resident’s complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3.               We found service failure in:
   1. The landlord’s handling of repairs to the toilet flush.
   2. Repairs to the bedroom window

4.       We found reasonable redress in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

Toilet flush

4. There were significant errors in the landlords stage 2 complaint response. This resulted in it not offering a reasonable response or redress for further failings it failed to identify.

Window repair

5. While works to the window took a significant amount of time to raise, and then complete, the landlord recognised some of its failings in its responses. However, it failed to recognise all of its failings or explain how it had learnt from the complaint.

 Complaint handling

6. The landlord appropriately addressed its complaint handling delays in its responses and offered reasonable redress for its failings. It also kept the resident regularly updated on the delays throughout the internal complaints procedure.

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	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £200 to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by further toilet repair delays it failed to identify in its Stage 2 response and failure to respond to resident’s concerns about accuracy of repair records.   This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date.	No later than 12 January 2026
2	Review Order In line with the findings and outcomes of this investigation the landlord must complete a review into its handling of: The toilet flush repair Repairs to the bedroom window.   The review should consider how the landlord handled each issue, identify all failings and outline its learnings from both issues.   A copy of the review should be sent to both the resident and the Ombudsman.	No later than 12 January 2026

 

Recommendations

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

Our recommendations
The landlord should respond to the resident’s concerns that parts of the repair records for her property have been deleted or amended.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
23 May 2024	The resident raised a stage 1 complaint. She said: She had been requesting repairs to the toilet flush and bedroom window for the past year without response from the landlord. She wanted it to complete the necessary repairs.
10 June 2024	The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint and said it aimed to respond within 10 working days.
21 June 2024	The landlord issued its stage 1 response. It: Said records showed the resident first reported the toilet flush issue in October and November 2023. Arranged repairs for June 2024. Explained delays were due to changing its repairs provider in June 2024. Apologised for the delays, distress, and inconvenience, and acknowledged complaint handling delays. Offered £720 compensation.
25 June 2024	The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2. She: Said the landlord’s response was inaccurate as the repairs had not been completed. Felt it had recently deleted the repair records for her property from its system to hide the significant repair delays. Pointed out it had missed an appointment in December 2023 that it had not acknowledged.
26 June 2024	The landlord acknowledged the resident’s escalation request and said it aimed to respond within 20 working days.
23 July 2024	The landlord said it was still gathering information for its stage 2 response and needed to extend its deadline by a further 20 working days.
18 September 2024	The landlord said it had encountered a delay in its complaint investigation. It said it need to extend its deadline by a further 20 working days.
17 October 2024	The landlord issued its stage 2 response. It: Said the toilet flush repair was raised in June 2024 and completed in July 2024. This was within its repairs service level agreement. Said emergency works to make the window safe were raised in July 2024, but then raised with a different contractor in October 2024. Said the delay was caused because the window was a Velux, which the first contractor did not deal with. Was waiting on a quote to replace the window. Apologised for the further delays to the window repairs and its stage 2 response. Offered a total of £400 compensation, in addition to the £720 it offered at stage 1. Gave information on how to escalate a complaint to the Ombudsman.
17 January 2025	The landlord offered the resident a further £350 compensation for ongoing delays to window repairs. This brought the total compensation offered to £1470.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident brought her complaint to the Ombudsman in February 2025. She said: While the toilet flush had been repaired, the window repair was still outstanding. The window issue has affected her health and her ability to effectively heat her home. She wanted it to compensate her for the additional energy costs she has accrued due to the open window.
7 March 2025	The landlord said the repairs to the window were now complete.

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	Toilet flush repairs
Finding	Service failure

7. The resident’s tenancy agreement says the landlord is responsible for toilet repairs.
8. The landlord’s repairs policy defines a repair into three categories. These are:
   1. Emergency, to repair, or make safe, within 24 hours.
   2. Routine repairs within 28 calendar days.
   3. Bespoke repairs that it aims to complete within 90 working days.
9. The landlord’s compensation policy says it can offer compensation for poor service, time and trouble, distress and inconvenience and poor complaint handling. It offers compensation based on the level of impact caused to the resident:
   1. For low impact, it can offer up to £100.
   2. For medium impact it can offer up to £250.
   3. For high impact it can offer up to £500.
10. Across both stages of her complaint the resident said she had been reporting to the landlord the toilet problem since 2023. She said it had failed to respond to her repair request. She said she had been forced to manually flush the toilet using buckets of water and this had caused her embarrassment. At stage 2 she also said it had deleted records of this repair from its system as she felt it was trying to cover up the delays.
11. In the landlords response it explained the first request to fix the toilet flush was made on 12 October 2023. It said the repair was delayed because it switched to a new contractor in June 2024. However, at stage 2, it said it raised works on 7 June 2024 and completed the repair on 12 July 2024, which it felt was within its service standards. Nevertheless, it acknowledged delays overall, apologised, and offered £350 compensation, comprising of £150 for inconvenience and £200 for service failures.
12. The landlord took 190 working days to complete the repair, far exceeding its longest repair deadline of 90 days. In its response, it acknowledged repairs delays, apologised and offered £350 compensation.
13. However, the landlord attributed the repair delay on it changing contractors in June 2024 but did not explain why it had taken no action between the first report in October 2023 and June 2024. This was not appropriate as it failed to recognise a significant delay prior to the change in contractor.
14. The landlord incorrectly stated the toilet repair was first raised in June 2024, completed the following month and was therefore within service level standards. The resident first raised the repair in October 2023, and it only raised works in the June 2024. When it finally completed works it had taken 190 working days to do so, which far exceeded its service level standards. It did not acknowledge these failings, apologise or offer extra compensation in its response, which was not reasonable.
15. Furthermore the landlord ignored the resident’s concern about possible changes to the repair history for her tenancy. Not responding to this element of her complaint was not reasonable as it was not in line with its complaint policy..
16. Overall there were significant delays in the landlord arranging, and completing, the repair to the toilet flush. While it was appropriate for it to apologise, its response failed to fully recognise the extent of the delay, its own failings and offer appropriate redress.

Complaint	Window repair
Finding	Service failure

What we did not investigate

17. As part of the resident’s complaint she said the issues with the window had impacted her health.
18. Although the Service can consider the general distress and inconvenience of the situation on the resident, we cannot assess the cause of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. The resident may be able to make a personal injury claim if she considers that her health has been affected by the landlord’s actions or inaction. That is a legal process, and the resident may wish to seek legal advice if she wants to pursue the option.

What we investigated

19. The same landlord policies for repairs and compensation stated above apply to this issue.
20. The resident’s tenancy agreement says the landlord is responsible for all window repairs in her property.
21. The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code says a landlord’s complaint response should be fair, put things right and learn from the outcomes.
22. Across both complaint stages the resident said a window in her bedroom had been stuck open since 2023. She complained that the landlord had failed to raise a repair or complete any necessary inspections in order to resolve the issue. She said the issue impacted her ability to heat her home effectively and had made sleeping in her bedroom impossible due to the cold, and noise from a nearby road.
23. At stage 1 the landlord said the resident had first reported the window issue on 10 November 2023. It said it had raised a repair to take place on 17 June 2024, apologised for the delay and attributed this to change in its repairs provider in June 2024. It apologised and offered £150 for the time and trouble caused and £200 for service failure because of the repair delays.
24. At stage 2 the landlord said emergency works to make the glass in the affected window safe had been raised in July 2024. However the contractor the works were first given to was unable to complete this work as the window was a Velux window, which they do not work on. As such the job had to be given to a new contractor in October 2024, who then made the glass safe. It said it had arranged for an inspection of the window later that month with a view to replacing the window. It apologised for the delays in resolving the issue and offered the resident £100 compensation for this, along with £100 for her time and trouble.
25. The landlord’s response to the complaint failed to acknowledge when the resident first reported the window issue, the delay in arranging the initial repair, and that the repair was never completed. Instead, it focused on emergency works organised in July 2024 and a planned inspection, without recognising the issue remained unresolved and further delays had occurred.
26. The landlord also did not acknowledge that it took three months to raise an emergency glass repair with a second contractor, despite its policy requiring such repairs to be made safe within 24 hours.
27. In January 2025 the landlord offered the resident a further £350 compensation for the ongoing delays to resolving the window issue. This was in addition to the £550 it had previously offered, taking the total to £900. Despite it not acknowledging all of its failings, the compensation it offered was still reasonable as it was line with its compensation policy.
28. However, it was not reasonable for the landlord to not explain how it had learned from its failings regarding the window repair. This is because it goes against the Code which states it should outline what it has learnt from its outcomes in its response. Not outlining its learning was a missed opportunity.
29. The landlord replaced the window in March 2025.
30. Overall, while the window was eventually repaired, the landlord failed to fully acknowledge the extent of its delays. It offered a significant and reasonable amount of compensation despite not identifying all of its failings. However, it failed to outline what it had learnt from the complaint.

Complaint	Complaint handling
Finding	Reasonable redress

31. The landlord’s complaint policy, valid from September 2020 to November 2024, said it aimed to respond to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days of receipt. For stage 2 complaints it said it aimed to respond within 20 working days. It says if it is unable to provide either response within the timeframes set it will keep the resident informed and agree a new response deadline. The policy was in line with our Complaint Handling Code (the Code) at the time.
32. For stage 1 the landlord took 22 working days to provide its response. This was 12 working days over the timeframe set out in its policy. There was no evidence it agreed an extension to respond with the resident. However, when it acknowledged her complaint it explained there may be some delay to its response due to a high workload. It recognised the delay in its response, apologised and offered £20 compensation. This was reasonable given the delay caused and the impact on the resident.
33. For stage 2 the landlord took 83 working days to provide its response. This was 63 working days over the timeframe set out in its policy. While this delay was significant, it kept the resident regularly updated on the reasons for the delay and when it aimed to provide a response. If further delays occurred it informed her before the agreed deadline passed. This was appropriate as it was in line with its policy.
34. The landlord also acknowledged the delay in its response, apologised and offered her £200 in addition to the £20 it offered at stage 1. This was also reasonable as it acknowledged its failings, apologised and offered compensation that reflected the impact on her.
35. Overall, while there were delays at both stage of the internal complaints procedure, the landlord handled these delays in line with its policy. It apologised in both its responses and offered reasonable compensation for the delays.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

36. Overall the landlord’s record keeping was good. It kept thorough records of repairs and correspondence.

Communication

37. Across the landlord’s complaint responses it often failed to fully explain its failings or recognise delays it caused. Likewise it also failed to respond to certain elements of the resident’s complaint. While this did not seem to impact any redress it offered, offering a clear and full response is part of the Code. The landlord should look to ensure it provides full responses going forward.