Your Housing Group Limited (202332667)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202332667

Your Housing Group Limited

21 August 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 response to the resident’s concerns about the fire doors in communal areas of his building being left open at night.

Background

2. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. He has lived in the ground floor studio flat in a housing scheme for over 55’s since 2018. The resident has not disclosed any vulnerabilities to the landlord.
3. According to independent reports assessing fire safety measures in the resident’s building from 2015, 2023, and 2024 the landlord has fire doors that are held open in the communal areas. These are, based on the findings of the report, held open with magnetic locks and close automatically when the fire alarm is triggered. The reports state the landlord checks the fire alarm system every week.
4. The resident contacted the Ombudsman about concerns he had with the landlord. It was unclear to us if he had already made a complaint, so we referred the details of the resident’s complaint to the landlord on 21 July 2023. The resident later clarified the issues in a phone call with the landlord’s officer in early August 2023. He said he was unhappy that:
   1. the fire doors did not close.
   2. a hole in a communal area had not been repaired.
   3. his boiler did not have a thermostat.
5. The landlord responded on 10 August 2023. It said:
   1. the fire doors were regularly checked, including on the day of the response, and no faults were identified.
   2. a repair order was raised on 31 May 2023 for the hole in the communal area to be filled but it exceeded its 21-day timescale.
   3. the resident’s concerns about the thermostat had been addressed in an earlier complaint response.

The landlord apologised for the delay in the communal repair.

6. On 2 October 2023, the resident asked to escalate his complaint. He said this was because he was still unhappy the fire doors were kept open. The resident later added that the fire doors had previously closed automatically at night. He was concerned that this no longer happened and that this posed a fire safety risk. To resolve his complaint the resident said he was seeking for the fire doors to close at night.
7. The landlord responded at stage 2 on 19 October 2023. It said it had not identified any failings or fire safety issues because:
   1. its specialist contractor had assessed the fire doors in April 2023 and confirmed they were working correctly.
   2. the system was tested weekly and the fire doors closed automatically when the alarm was activated as they should do.
   3. the most recent fire risk assessment in March 2023 reported that “the fire doors were appropriate and in good condition.”
   4. the resident had confirmed the magnetic locks on the doors were working.
   5. closing the doors at night would not be appropriate for tenants with mobility problems.

The landlord offered to arrange for the resident to be present when the fire alarm doors were tested.

8. Shortly after the complaints process ended, the resident referred his complaint to this Service. He said he was unhappy with the landlord’s response because he believes the fire doors are faulty because they no longer close at night. The resident advised us that he is seeking formal action to be taken against the landlord and to ensure it is compliant with fire regulations.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

9. In his referral to us, the resident said he was also unhappy that the landlord had changed the signs on the fire doors. He said he believed this was to hide that the doors were not operating as they should be. In the interest of fairness, we have limited the scope of this investigation to the issues raised during the resident’s formal complaint. This is because the landlord needs a fair opportunity to investigate and respond to any reported dissatisfaction with its actions prior to the involvement of this Service. The resident may wish to raise any new issues with the landlord and may then refer his complaint to us after completing its process.

Fire doors

10. The landlord’s fire safety policy recognises its legal obligations to carry out Fire Risk Assessment’s (FRA’s). This is a requirement under the Regulator Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Its policy states it will “employ suitable, qualified, and competent contractors” to complete the FRA’s. The evidence shows the landlord’s response that an independent fire safety specialist assessed the system in March 2023. It therefore met its obligations and followed its policy.
11. The assessor who completed the FRA recorded their observations of the fire doors in the communal area. This included that:
    1. they were linked to the fire alarm system and self-closed when it was set off.
    2. the fire system was tested weekly.
    3. they were working and in “good condition.”

The assessor also noted that the doors in the communal areas were left open at night to “allow the free movement of the residents.” They did not report any safety concerns about this. As such, the landlord’s response that independent contractors found the fire door system was appropriate and functioning was factual.

12. In its final response, the landlord said that closing the doors at night could make it difficult for residents with mobility problems. Its fire safety policy states that the landlord is required to “ensure means of escape can be safely and effectively used”. The response was therefore in line with its policy to consider the vulnerabilities of other residents in the building.
13. We recognise the resident has concerns about the safety of the landlord’s fire safety system because he believes it has changed. The landlord did not state whether the doors used to close at night in its response. And it was unclear from the available evidence if this was the case. The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code 2022 (the Code) required that all complaint responses “must address all points raised in the complaint and provide clear reasons for any decisions”. It would have been better if the landlord had engaged with the resident’s concern about the fire doors previously closing at night in its stage 2 response. Because he raised this when the landlord spoke to him to understand his remaining concerns. It was a shortcoming that it did not provide a direct response in relation to this specific concern. However, it addressed the resident’s main concern that the fire doors were unsafe and gave a clear decision about why they were not. As such, the response met the standard of the Code.
14. As explained, the evidence supports that the doors have been assessed by an independent specialist and no issues were identified with the doors being kept open. It also shows the landlord checked the doors were working on 7 and 10 August 2023, in response to the resident’s complaint. It offered the resident the opportunity to attend one of its safety checks. These actions and explanations were appropriate and clearly aimed at offering the resident reassurance about fire safety in his building.

Determination

15. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the fire doors in communal areas of his building being left open at night.