Great Places Housing Group Limited (202431933)

Background

1. The resident lives in a 2 bedroom house with her daughter who is neurodivergent. The resident states she has contacted the landlord several times since November 2022 about a cold bedroom in the property. The landlord investigated the issue in November 2023. Following this, the resident raised a complaint about the way the landlord responded to her report about the issue.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
   1. Reports of a cold bedroom.
   2. The complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the reports of a cold bedroom.
4. There was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of the reports of a cold bedroom

5. The landlord did not complete the radiator replacement within 20 working days as per the repairs policy. The landlord offered compensation for the delay in replacing the radiator which was appropriate in the circumstances. However, the landlord’s redress is not proportionate to the time it took to investigate the issue. The landlord also did not record the household’s vulnerabilities despite the resident making it aware of these during complaint.

The landlord’s complaint handling    

6. The landlord did not provide its stage 2 response within the timescale set out in its policy and the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code). It did not inform the resident of the delay or offer any redress in recognition of the delay.

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.

Recommendations

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

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 did not investigate

7. The resident has raised complaint issues which have occurred since the complaint exhausted the landlord’s complaint procedure. We have no power to investigate complaints which the landlord has not had the chance to put right first. The resident explained that the carpet in her daughter’s room has been damaged by the landlord. There is no evidence that this complaint has completed the landlord’s internal complaint process. Therefore, we have no power to investigate issues relating to that complaint.
8. The resident explained that the cold bedroom impacted her daughter’s health. It would be fairer, more reasonable and more effective for the resident to make a personal injury claim for any injury 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 if a landlord should pay compensation for distress and inconvenience.

What we did investigate

9. The resident told us she raised repair requests and sent emails to the landlord about the cold bedroom since she moved into the property on 3 November 2022. The repair history shows the resident initially reported the cold bedroom on 14 December 2022. The repair job appears to have been completed by the landlord on 12 January 2023, but the landlord has not provided details to confirm what action it took. As the resident raised the issue again, it appears the matter was not resolved correctly by the landlord which is a failing.
10. Following the resident’s report about the radiator on 16 November 2023, the landlord raised a repair to check the radiator size in the bedroom. The landlord’s repairs policy states that routine repairs are carried out within 20 working days. The contractor attended on 21 November 2023 and recommended the radiator was replaced. While the landlord attended the initial appointment within timescale, the work to replace the radiator was not completed within 20 working days. This is a service failure by the landlord.
11. When investigating complaints, we look at all the evidence to decide if the landlord followed our dispute resolution principles to be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes. The landlord’s complaint responses showed it acknowledged some of its failures and it addressed the delay with the installation of the replacement radiator between 21 November 2023 and 22 December 2023.
12. The evidence provided suggests that the resident made herself available for multiple appointments relating to repairs to the cold bedroom. In her email to the landlord on 20 December 2023 the resident expressed her frustration after the landlord missed an appointment that morning. The landlord’s stage 2 response did not provide an explanation or apology for this.
13. To put things right, the landlord increased its offer of compensation for the delay in replacing the radiator to £250. It also confirmed it had raised the issues with the contractor to ensure this did not happen again.
14. The landlord did not fully put right its failures in handling the resident’s reports of a cold bedroom. The resident appears to have first raised this issue on 14 December 2022 however this was not addressed. The resident reported the issues again in November 2023 but was not kept up to date by the landlord in relation to the repair so raised a complaint. She also told us she had emailed the landlord to accept the compensation offer but did not hear back or receive the payment.
15. The landlord informed us it was not aware of any vulnerabilities in the household, however the resident details this information in her escalation email. The resident informed us that she explained in detail her daughter’s needs to the call handlers on several occasions. This does not appear to have been updated to the system in a timely manner. The landlord’s communication with the resident was poor and we have recommended this is improved.
16. The landlord’s remedies and resolutions policy allows it to offer a higher level of compensation than the amount offered to the resident. For long term issues that take over 6 months to resolve it states that it will consider compensation of over £700. Our remedies guidance recommends between £600 to £1000 compensation is appropriate when there has been significant and a physical or emotional impact on the resident.
17. In this case the landlord’s compensation offer is not proportionate to the extent of the delay in responding to the resident’s concerns. The evidence shows that it took the landlord around a year from the initial report to investigate the report and implement actions to address the issue. In addition to the distress and inconvenience caused by the cold room, the resident also spent considerable time and effort repeatedly reporting it to the landlord.
18. We have therefore found maladministration, and we have ordered that the landlord provides a compensation payment of £700 as per its policy in resolution of the service failures addressed above. This is to include the £250 previously offered to the resident.

19. The landlord has a 2-stage complaints process. Its policy is in line with our Complaint Handling Code (the Code). The Code says that landlords should acknowledge complaints and escalations within 5 working days. The landlord should provide a stage 1 complaint response within 10 working days and a stage 2 response within 20 working days.
20. The resident raised a complaint with the landlord on 29 November 2023. This was acknowledged by the landlord on 4 December 2023. The landlord provided its stage 1 response within timescale on 14 December 2023.
21. The resident escalated her complaint on 20 December 2023. This was not acknowledged by the landlord until 5 January 2024. Taking into consideration the public holidays this was 5 working days outside of the required timescale. The stage 2 response was issued 19 February 2024. This was 15 working days outside of the required timescale. The landlord has not provided any evidence that it made the resident aware of an extension to its response timescale. It also did not address the delay in the complaint handling or offer any apologies for these in the stage 2 response.
22. We have therefore found a service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling and have ordered the landlord to pay the resident £50 in compensation for these. Our remedies guidance considers this level of compensation appropriate where there has been a minor failure that the landlord did not properly acknowledge.

Learning

23. The landlord should ensure that complaint responses are issued within the timeframes set out in its policy. Where this is not possible, the landlord should ensure it provides notice of any delays to the resident, as required by the Code.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

24. The landlord’s record keeping needs improvement as it did not update the vulnerabilities in the household when the resident provided these.

Communication

25. The landlord’s communication with the resident could be improved as it did not keep her updated in relation to the repairs arranged.