Abri Group Limited (202211391)

Decision
Case ID	202211391
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Abri Group Limited
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	31 March 2026

Background

The resident contacted the landlord in March 2022. He said he did not receive any services covered by the service charges he paid. The landlord told him that the service charges applied to the estate, which a management agent managed. The resident brought the complaint to this service because he said his property was outside the estate boundary and no works took place on his road.

What the complaint is about

The complaint is about the landlord’s:
1. Handling of the resident’s concerns that he is paying a service charge for services he does not receive.
2. Complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

We found service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns that he is paying a service charge for services he does not receive.
We found reasonable redress in the landlord’s complaint handling.

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

Summary of reasons

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

As part of his complaint, the resident has raised that he considers the increase of the service charge to be excessive. We did not consider the level or reasonableness of service charges because the first-tier tribunal or court is best placed to consider these matters.
The resident told our services on 31 August 2023 that the landlord had told him that service charges would only apply during the first year of his tenancy. There is no evidence he raised this issue with the landlord as a complaint. The landlord must have the opportunity to respond and potentially resolve concerns before we investigate. The resident must raise this as a complaint and complete the landlord’s complaint process before we can comment on it.

Handling of concerns that the resident pays a service charge for services they do not receive.

The resident contacted the landlord on 18 March 2022 about service charges and said he had received no response for 4 weeks. He asked to make a formal complaint, which the landlord acknowledged on the same day. The landlord did not contact him again until 4 April 2022, when he expressed continued dissatisfaction with the lack of communication. The landlord could have avoided escalation if it had communicated more promptly with the resident.
The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 13 April 2022 and did not uphold the complaint. It said the service charge applied to land managed by a management company, covering the upkeep of the courtyard and the surrounding area which all properties in the area had to pay for. It said this information would have been given to the resident when he moved into the property. The next contact was on 24 June 2022, when the landlord said the weekly service charge of £8 covered landscape maintenance, insurance, repairs and maintenance. This matched page 8 of the lease, which gave a detailed breakdown of the service charges that the resident had to contribute towards. These included maintaining the grounds, including grassed areas, shrub beds and car park along with management and administration costs.
The resident requested escalation in July and October 2022. He complained as part of a group and said the tenancy agreement made no reference to service charges. He also said he had received inconsistent information about what the charges covered and queried the increasing amounts. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 28 September 2023. It said the tenancy agreement dated 9 October 2020 confirmed service charges were variable charges for services, repairs, maintenance, improvements, insurance or management costs. The tenancy agreement we have seen confirms this.
The landlord provided a breakdown of the anticipated service charges for 2023 and a map showing the areas they applied to. The landlord’s explanation about the service charge was reasonable because it detailed what the charge covered and why it applied to the property.
The resident escalated the complaint to our services on 10 May 2024. He said the map provided by the landlord showed his house was outside the estate boundary on the opposite side of the road. He highlighted a property on the map, but we found the highlighted property was number 34 and not his home. His property faced the highlighted one and was within the estate boundary.
After completing the complaint process, the landlord contacted the resident on 28 April 2025. It said it had reviewed the case and identified that it could have explained the service charge more clearly when he signed the lease in 2020. It also apologised for the failure to respond to his February 2022 service charge query. It awarded £100 for the lack of clarity and communication. This was a reasonable amount given the issue, however this came too late.
The lease specifies that the resident is responsible for maintaining the grounds, including grassed areas, shrub beds and car park along with management on the estate. The lease gave a clear breakdown of the various applicable service charges. The landlord provided a clear and detailed response explaining what the service charges were in relation to and the anticipated charges for 2023. In addition, the landlord acknowledged the initial limited response provided at stage 1 and awarded compensation to acknowledge the previous failings. However, the landlord should have done more to recognise that the substantive issue could have been managed better by the time of the final response.

Complaint Handling

The landlord’s complaint policy requires stage 1 responses within 10 working days and stage 2 responses within 20 working days. The resident made the complaint on 18 March 2022 which the landlord acknowledged on the same day. It provided the stage 1 response on 13 April 2022. This did not meet the timescale of the landlord’s complaint policy. There was no acknowledgement of delays within the stage 1 response.
The resident made a complaint as part of a group about the same issue that should have escalated his complaint on 25 July 2022. There was no response to this and on 10 October 2022, the resident made a formal escalation request. Within this request he noted he had also attempted to escalate the complaint in August 2022, though we have not seen evidence of this. The resident requested assistance from our service to escalate the complaint on 10 July 2023. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 28 September 2023. This did not meet the timescale of the landlord’s complaint policy. The landlord acknowledged this and awarded £150 in compensation in relation to complaint handling and delays. This amount is in line with our remedies guidance. We therefore consider there to have been reasonable redress for the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

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	Apology order The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure: The apology is specific to the failures identified in this decision, meaningful and empathetic. It has due regard to our apologies guidance.	No later than 28 April 2026
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident the £100 offered in its review in April 2025. It must provide evidence that the payment has been made.	No later than 28 April 2026
3	Action order The landlord must contact the resident to offer an in-person meeting to discuss the resident’s concerns about the service charges.	No later than 28 April 2026

Recommendations

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

Our recommendations
If it has not already done so, the landlord should pay the resident the £150 offered previously in its stage 2 complaint response. Our finding of reasonable redress for its complaint handling is made on the basis that this compensation is paid to the resident.