Legal and General Affordable Homes Limited (202436224)

Background

1. In April 2022 the resident asked the landlord’s managing agent to help her resolve an electricity billing issue. She complained to the landlord in September 2024 saying it had switched the electricity supplier and put the account in its name. She said she had not been able to resolve the issue with the supplier and was not receiving electricity bills. She remained dissatisfied at the end of the landlord’s complaint process because the billing issue was not resolved and it had not agreed to pay the electricity costs.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about electricity billing for her home.
3. We have also assessed the landlord’s complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

4. There was reasonable redress in the landlord’s:
   1. Response to the resident’s concerns about electricity billing for her home.
   2. Handling of the complaint.

Reasons

5. The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that happened or comment on all the information we reviewed. We have only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

Response to the resident’s concerns about electricity billing for her home

6. We can only investigate the landlord’s actions or omissions, or what its agents did (or did not do) on its behalf. We have no power to investigate the actions of independent third parties which the landlord had no control over. In this case the electricity supplier’s apparent lack of responses to the landlord and its billing agent were not omissions by the landlord. This means we have no power to investigate this part of the complaint.
7. We looked at what the landlord and its former managing agent did when the resident raised concerns. We considered if the landlord took reasonable steps to try to resolve the billing issue and if its offer of redress was reasonable.
8. The resident first raised concerns about her electricity billing with the landlord’s former managing agent in February 2022. We can see she called the managing agent several times but its records do not detail the queries and concerns raised. Nor is it clear what action the managing agent took or if it investigated why the supplier had been changed or who by.
9. The resident told us the managing agent advised her she was responsible for resolving the billing issue. The advice given was in line with the resident’s tenancy agreement which confirms she is responsible for the utility bills. However, it would have been reasonable for the managing agent to have investigated if the landlord or its agents had switched the supplier.
10. The resident explained to us she was unable to resolve the billing issue because the supply had been switched to a different supplier. She explained the new supplier would not discuss the account with her because it was not in her name.
11. In September 2024, the resident received a letter from the electricity supplier. This led her to complain because it was addressed to the landlord. She told the landlord it had put the electricity supply in its name. She felt it should pay for the electricity use and resolve the billing issue.
12. We can see the landlord investigated and concluded its utility billing agent had switched the electricity supply in error around January 2022. It appropriately asked its billing agent to evidence the steps it had taken to resolve the issue. While the billing agent confirmed it had asked the supplier to put the account in the resident’s name in February 2022 it was not able to provide evidence of this due to a “system change”. The billing agent did send the landlord evidence it had asked the supplier to put the account in the resident’s name again in October 2022 after it received a bill in the landlord’s name.
13. The landlord’s evidence shows it raised the billing issue with the supplier on 20 September 2024 after receiving the complaint. The supplier told the landlord it had been sending bills to the property. The resident disputes this and told us she has not received any bills from the supplier at all.
14. It was reasonable the landlord instructed its billing agent to write to the supplier again to confirm the resident’s occupancy and that it was not responsible for paying utility bills for an occupied property. On 7 October 2024, the billing agent told the landlord the supplier had not responded. The evidence suggests the landlord made further attempts to resolve the matter with the electricity supplier after 7 October 2024 but did not receive any responses.
15. The resident told us she had followed the electricity supplier’s advice in not accepting the account being transferred into her name. She explained this was because she did not want to be liable for the electricity costs from January 2022.
16. Through its complaint responses, the landlord acknowledged the mistake by its billing agent had initially caused the billing problem and apologised for its former managing agent not helping her to resolve it at the time. It explained how the mistake happened and what its billing agent had done at the time to resolve it at the time. It confirmed the further steps it had taken to try to resolve the issue with the supplier since she complained.
17. It said it would not pay the full cost of the resident’s electricity use since January 2022. This was reasonable because there was no dispute that the resident had used the electricity and she is responsible for paying the bills under her tenancy agreement. It also advised the resident that, once the account was in her name, she could complain to the supplier about any billing errors, charges or discounts she had missed. This was reasonable advice and would allow the resident to refer a complaint about the supplier’s actions or omissions to the Energy Ombudsman.
18. In its stage 2 complaint response of 17 December 2024, the landlord offered £150 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by the billing issue and £225 towards the cost of her electricity between January and October 2022.
19. In our view, the landlord took reasonable steps to try to resolve the billing issue. Its apology, explanation and compensation offer were sufficient redress for the failings we have identified.

Handling of the complaint

20. The landlord handled the complaint in line with its Complaints Policy and the Complaint Handling Code (the Code) at stage 1.
21. It acknowledged the resident’s escalation request on 11 October 2024 and wrote to her to extend its response timescale on 7 November 2024. Its acknowledgement and extension were in line with its policy and the Code.
22. However, it did not give its stage 2 response within the extended timescale it gave. We can see the landlord was keeping the resident updated with its progress and when to expect its response. In its stage 2 response it offered £50 compensation to acknowledge the 8 day delay. In our view, this was a reasonable sum given the level of failing.

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.

Recommendations

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