Your Housing Group Limited (202403777)

Decision
Case ID	202403777
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Your Housing Group Limited
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	21 April 2026

Background

1. The resident reported “bubbling” on her kitchen wall and a smell in her kitchen after it had been newly fitted. She also reported issues with her toilet. The landlord raised repairs and completed works before issuing its stage 2 response. The resident felt the landlord delayed repairs and missed appointments.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
   1. Repairs to the kitchen and toilet.
   2. The complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. We found:
   1. Reasonable redress in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s repairs to the kitchen and toilet.
   2. Maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

Repairs to the kitchen and toilet

4. The landlord acknowledged, apologised and reasonably compensated the resident for its delays in dealing with the repairs and for its poor communication.

Complaint handling

5. The landlord unreasonably delayed in acknowledging the resident’s complaint and escalation request and issuing its stage 2 response.It missed an opportunity to reflect on these failures and put things right for the resident.

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 19 May 2026
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay £100 to the resident for the distress and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling failings. This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date.	No later than 19 May 2026

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
12 December 2023	The resident complained by telephone. She said: The contractor cancelled her repairs appointment, and she felt like no progress was being made.  She lost work time waiting at home when no one attended. Delays risked causing further damage to her property. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint on 18 January 2024.
23 January 2024	The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response. It said: The resident reported plaster damage to her kitchen and toilet wall on 17 August 2023. It attended on 29 August 2023 and said further work was needed. It made an appointment for 17 November 2023 but was unable to carry out the work to the “bubbling” walls, as the resident was not told about the appointment. The landlord cancelled an appointment on 15 December 2023 because only one operative was available for a 2‑person job. It made an appointment for a plumber to attend on 5 February 2024 and plasterers on 7 and 8 February 2024. It apologised for delays, inconvenience, and poor communication and offered £150 compensation. It also said it had taken steps to learn and improve its services.
19 February 2024	The resident asked for her complaint to be escalated, as she did not feel that her complaint had been resolved. The landlord acknowledged the escalation on 11 March 2024.
15 October 2024	The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response. It said: It referred to a letter it wrote to the resident in April 2024 where it acknowledged she was unhappy with delays, the repair timescale, and its responses. After this it paid her £300 compensation. The resident reported a foul smell in the kitchen which the landlord inspected on 17 April 2024. It attended on 24 April 2024 but said a joiner was needed before the plasterer could finish the repair. It agreed to arrange the work and noted the resident was only available on Wednesdays. An appointment was agreed for 10 July 2024. However, the appointment was cancelled on the day, due to operative absence and rebooked for 4 September 2024. It completed the repairs on 9 September 2024. The landlord paid additional compensation of £400 for delays, cancelled appointments, inconvenience, and poor communication.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident referred her complaint to us as work had not completed in the agreed timescales and appointments had been missed.

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.

Complaint	Repairs to the kitchen and toilet
Finding	Reasonable redress

6. The tenancy agreement places an obligation on the landlord to keep the structure of the resident’s home in good repair. This includes walls, skirting boards, major plaster work, as well as toilets, waste pipes and associated fittings. The landlord’s repairs policy states it will complete non urgent repairs within 28 calendar days. If repairs exceed this, it should monitor progress and keep the resident updated. It will then complete the repair at the earliest opportunity.

Plastering and replacing skirting boards in the toilet and kitchen

7. The resident reported “bubbling” on her walls on 17 August 2023. The landlord inspected and said it needed to remove the plaster in the kitchen and toilet. It arranged an appointment for 17 November 2023 but did not tell the resident, so the appointment did not go ahead. This poor communication caused avoidable distress and inconvenience.
8. The landlord attended 3 months later. It is unclear whether this was the earliest available appointment. This was an unreasonable delay that meant it failed to meet its 28-dayrepair timescale. This caused the resident frustration. On 7 February 2023, the landlord made a temporary repair, but said it needed another 2 days to replace the soil stack and then repair the wall. During this time, the resident also reported damage to her skirting boards in the kitchen and toilet.
9. In March 2024, evidence shows the landlord tried to arrange visits for the repairs to the “bubbling” wall and soil stack replacement. The resident said she was only available on Wednesdays due to work, and the landlord’s operatives had limited availability due to annual leave. While we recognise the landlord’s efforts to work around the resident’s availability and operative absence, the landlord did not evidence 7 months worth of delays. There is no evidence of proper attempts to arrange appointments, chase contractors and only one update was sent to the resident between August 2023 and March 2024. It failed to comply with its repairs policy to keep the resident informed or complete repairs promptly. This was unreasonable as it caused further distress to the resident.
10. Contractors carried out repair work to the “bubbling” wall, the toilet pipe and skirting boards on 17 and 24 April 2024, but some work remained outstanding. This is because they identified another soil stack issue during this visit. The resident chased the landlord 3 times between April and July 2024. The landlord sent only 2 updates between May and September 2024, before completing the work on 4 September 2024. This was unreasonable as it shows delays of 13 months to complete the repair and poor communication which caused the resident further distress and inconvenience.

Loose pipe at back of cistern and leaking pipe at back of toilet

11. The resident reported a loose cistern pipe on 17 August 2023. The landlord fixed it the next day. She also reported a leaking pipe at the back of her toilet on 9 January 2024. The landlord completed the repair within 28 calendar days. Both were in line with its repairs policy.

Conclusion

12. In the landlord’s complaint responses, it tried to put things right by acknowledging the delays and poor communication and apologising. It said it had learned from the issues by explaining service improvements and offered £850 compensation, which it paid. This is in line with the remedies we may have ordered, under our compensation policy, to put things right for the level of failure and detriment caused.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Maladministration

13. The Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) applicable from April 2022 applied when the resident made her complaint. The landlord’s complaint policy appropriately adopted the definition of a complaint and the response timeframes set out in the Code. The Code says a complaint response must be sent to the resident when the answer to the complaint is known, not when the outstanding issues were addressed.
14. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint after 22 working days and issued its stage 1 response 4 working days later. This was unreasonable as the acknowledgement was delayed. It was not in line with its complaint policy which stated the complaint should be acknowledged within 5 working days. This caused avoidable distress.
15. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s escalation request 6 working days later. However, it did not provide its stage 2 response until 169 working days after the request. This was not in line with the Code or its policy. These stated the landlord must respond to the stage 2 complaint within 20 working days of the complaint being escalated. The unexplained delay in providing the final complaint response prevented the resident from bringing the matter to us. This caused further distress, inconvenience and frustration for the resident.
16. There is no evidence the landlord reflected on this. The landlord failed to appropriately assess its handling of the complaint against the Code and its policy timescales. As such, it missed an opportunity to put things right for the resident. To reflect the inconvenience, time and trouble caused, we have made an order for compensation in line with our compensation guidance.

Learning

17. The landlord’s overall handling of the repairs was poorly managed resulting in delays. It should consider how it can make improvements to managing repairs which require multiple appointments to resolve.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

18. The landlord’s records were missing information about its appointments. It should be mindful of the data it records to help ensure relevant information is captured more effectively.

Communication

The landlord’s communication could be improved by giving clear and timely updates to the resident.