Sanctuary Housing Association (202439697)

Background

1. The property receives heating and hot water from a communal boiler, maintained by the landlord. The communal boiler failed on 29 October 2024.

What the complaint is about

2. The landlord’s handling of:
   1. Repairs to the heating and hot water system.
   2. The complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. The landlord made a reasonable offer of redress for its handling of repairs to the heating and hot water system.
4. There was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

Handling of repairs to the heating and hot water system

5. The landlord’s offer of compensation reasonably reflected its limited failings and the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident by the loss of heating and hot water, which led to her being moved into alternative accommodation.

Complaint handling

6. The landlord’s stage 1 and stage 2 responses were provided outside of its policy timeframes, however the delays were minimal and caused no adverse effects.

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.

What we have not looked at

7. The resident has mentioned that the lack of heating and hot water has caused detriment to their health. This is not something we can consider. It would be fairer, more reasonable and more effective for the resident to make a personal injury claim for any caused. The courts are best placed to deal with this type of dispute as they will have the benefit of independent medical advice to decide on the cause of any injury and how long it will last. We’ve not investigated this further. We can decide whether a landlord should pay compensation for distress and inconvenience.
8. While the resident wants the landlord to move her as a resolution, this is not something we would order. We do not have the authority to require the landlord to move the resident to another property. Decisions about rehousing are better dealt with by the local council.

What we have looked at

9. The resident’s tenancy agreement, sets out that the landlord will maintain installations it has provided for heating and water heating. After the loss of heating and hot water on 29 October 2024, the landlord provided temporary heaters to the resident on 4 November 2024.
10. The landlord’s repair policy says it will attend all emergency repairs within 24 hours and “make safe”. This includes heating repairs (during the winter season) where there is no other heating. It would have been appropriate for the landlord to have provided the temporary heaters within this timeframe. Instead, it took 6 days to do so, leaving the resident with no heating source during this period.
11. The landlord also reimbursed the cost of heated blankets purchased by the resident and offered to install a water heater under the sink to provide hot water in her kitchen – which the resident declined. We note the resident had access to hot water for bathing purposes due to the presence of the electric shower. These were appropriate steps to provide the resident with access to heating and hot water whilst the communal boiler was undergoing repair.
12. The landlord’s displacement policy states: “An emergency displacement occurs when a situation has arisen which makes the property uninhabitable or unsafe and therefore immediate alternative accommodation is required. Typically, this is because of a specific event such as a fire, flood, or breakdown in key services such as heating during winter or utilities.”
13. The landlord said in its stage 2 response that it would not usually offer hotel accommodation unless there were exceptional circumstances. In an email of 18 November 2024, the resident referred to concerns about the living conditions in the property which had been raised by both social services and medical professionals (during her hospital admission). Based upon these, it was reasonable for the landlord to provide the resident with alternative accommodation following her discharge from hospital.
14. The resident moved into alternative accommodation in 2 different hotels from 16 November 2024. She remained there until 6 December 2024, the communal boiler having been restored to working order on 5 December 2024. This represented a period of 38 days to complete the repairs. While this is outside of the landlord’s 28 day timeframe for appointed repairs, it is evident from the landlord’s stage 1 complaint response that the delays were due to the complexity of the repairs and investigative works required – rather than any failing on the landlord’s part.
15. The displacement policy states that the landlord should be sensitive to its customers diverse needs. This includes the landlord trying to make reasonable adjustments to make sure households’ physical and dietary needs are met and to minimise the effect on them. In its stage 2 complaint response, the landlord explained it had offered to move the resident to a room with a fridge to store her daughter’s milk in. It said it had also offered to pay her a “meal supplement” allowing her to source food better suited to her family’s dietary needs, rather than eating at the hotel. These were reasonable and in keeping with its policy.
16. On 16 December 2024, the landlord wrote to all residents affected by the communal boiler failure. It said it would be crediting £544 to their rent accounts. This represented £10 per day for the cost of running the electric heaters it had provided and £6 per day for the loss of heating and hot water. The landlord has told us the resident received this full amount, despite not residing in the property for the full duration of the boiler failure.
17. In summary, the landlord delayed unreasonably in providing the resident with temporary heaters after the communal boiler failed. However, it then took reasonable steps to provide heating and hot water to the property whilst repairs were ongoing. It also reasonably agreed to provide alternative accommodation for the resident’s family after professionals raised concerns about their living conditions and offered reasonable adjustments for their needs.
18. We find that the landlord’s offer of £544, credited to the resident’s rent account, represents reasonable redress for the distress and inconvenience she experienced due to the loss of heating and hot water for 38 days. There is no evidence of any unreasonable delay or other failing in the landlord’s handling of the repairs themselves which would necessitate any further compensation.

19. The landlord has a 2-stage complaints process, in keeping with our Complaint Handling Code. Its complaints policy says it will respond to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days. For stage 2 complaints, it will respond within 20 working days of the complaint being escalated.
20. The landlord sent its stage 1 complaint response on 14 November 2024, 12 working days after the resident made her complaint. It sent its stage 2 response on 18 December 2024, which was 24 working days after the resident’s escalation request. Both responses were therefore outside its policy timeframe.
21. Although the landlord’s responses were sent outside the relevant timeframes, as this was only slightly outside, it did not have an adverse effect on the resident. As a result, we make a finding of no maladministration.

Learning

22. The landlord should ensure it provides its complaint responses within the timeframes required by its policy.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

23. The landlord should keep records of how many temporary heaters have been provided and which flats have electric showers in order to minimise finding out information it should already have.