Cobalt Housing Limited (202345595)
|
Decision |
|
|
Case ID |
202345595 |
|
Decision type |
Investigation |
|
Landlord |
Cobalt Housing Limited |
|
Landlord type |
Housing Association |
|
Occupancy |
Secure Tenancy |
|
Date |
11 March 2026 |
Background
- The resident has reported guttering, drainpipe, and chimney breast repairs to the landlord since 2018. The landlord’s handling of these repairs was the subject of her complaints.
What the complaint is about
- The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
- Guttering, drainpipe, and chimney breast repairs.
- The resident’s complaint.
Our decision (determination)
- We found:
- Maladministration in the landlord’s handling of guttering, drainpipe and chimney breast repairs.
- Service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.
We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.
Summary of reasons
The guttering, drainpipe and chimney breast repairs
- The landlord raised works orders to complete repairs at the property. However, it did not complete these in line with its responsive repairs policy. The repairs were still outstanding when it sent the resident its stage 2 response.
Complaint handling
- The landlord did not follow its complaint policy when responding to the resident’s concerns, and it did not acknowledge it failings in its final complaint response. It later accepted its poor complaint handling and offered compensation after the complaint process had finished.
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:
|
No later than 08 April 2026 |
|
|
Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £550 made up as follows:
This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date. The landlord may deduct from the total figure any payments it has already paid. |
No later than 08 April 2026 |
|
|
Inspection order
The landlord must contact the resident to arrange an inspection. It must take all reasonable steps to ensure it completes the inspection by the due date. Someone suitably qualified must complete the inspection of the type needed. If the landlord cannot gain access to complete the inspection, it must provide us with documentary evidence of its attempts to inspect the property no later than the due date.
What the inspection must achieve: The landlord must ensure that the surveyor inspects the structure of the property, the guttering, drainage, and external pipework. The survey report must set out:
|
No later than 08 April 2026 |
Our investigation
The complaint procedure
|
Date |
What happened |
|
9 August 2023 |
The resident raised a stage 1 complaint. She said it had been 12 months since the landlord received a contractor’s report about the guttering and drainpipe and she was still waiting to hear when it would fix the chimney to stop damp in the living room. She said she would like it to fix the repairs as she had been waiting for 4 years. |
|
9 August 2023 |
The landlord acknowledged the resident’s stage 1 complaint. |
|
8 September 2023 |
The landlord sent the resident its stage 1 complaint response. It said a surveyor inspected arranged damp works in 2022, but the issues persisted. It revisited, found no concerns with the damp course, but found further repairs. It visited again on 8 September 2023 and agreed to repair the chimney and repoint brickwork to stop damp in the living room, guttering, a rainwater pipe, and drainage in the front garden. The landlord upheld the complaint due to the time it took to agree works and its poor communication. It offered the resident a £100 voucher as compensation. |
|
6 December 2023 |
The resident contacted the landlord about the status of the outstanding repairs and escalated her complaint. She said she was unhappy as the repairs had been going on for 5 years. She said 2 contractors came about the roof, but it was too windy and there had been no scaffolding. She said it was due to repair guttering on 4 December 2023, but it did not attend. She said she thought the stress of handling the repairs had caused her recent health issues. |
|
6 December 2023 |
The landlord acknowledged the resident’s stage 2 complaint. |
|
12 February 2024 |
The landlord sent the resident its final complaint response. It upheld her complaint because of its poor repairs planning. It said scaffolding for a roof repair blocked its drainage contractor from completing repairs. It apologised and offered £50 for its poor communication and £50 towards redecorating the internal chimney breast once it completed the works. It also said it had spoken to its contractor and given the resident a direct contact as she requested. It said it was working with its contractors on communication and performance, and it would use her experience to improve its services. |
|
2 September 2024 |
The landlord wrote to the resident about the time taken to complete the roofing and drainage repairs. It acknowledged that she had raised the complaint with us and she had since told the landlord she was satisfied with the repairs it completed. It reviewed how it handled her complaint and accepted there had been delays and that it missed the opportunity to send a holding response to extend its deadline. It offered her a further £100 for the impact of its poor communication and complaint handling. |
|
Referral to the Ombudsman |
The resident asked us to investigate her complaint. She said the landlord should complete outstanding guttering and drainpipe repairs and pay her extra compensation. |
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 |
The guttering, drainpipe, and chimney breast repairs |
|
Finding |
Maladministration |
What we have not investigated
- The resident said this situation had a detrimental impact on her health and wellbeing. It would be fairer, more reasonable, and more effective for the resident to make a personal injury claim for any injury caused. The courts can deal with this type of dispute as they have the benefit of independent medical advice to decide on the cause of any injury and how long it will last. We can decide if a landlord should pay compensation for distress and inconvenience.
What we have investigated
- In her complaints, the resident said the guttering, draining, and chimney breast repairs were outstanding for over 4 years. However, this investigation looks at the landlord’s handling of these repairs from 12 months before her stage 1 complaint. Any events referred to before then are for context only.
- The landlord raised a works order for guttering repairs in October 2022, after raising orders earlier in 2022 to repair a downpipe and check the drainage. It is unclear when it raised a works order to deal with damp in the chimney breast, or whether it carried out a damp risk assessment as required by its damp and mould policy. Under its responsive repairs policy, the landlord should complete urgent repairs within 3 working days, and routine repairs within 10 working days. However, it did not complete the repairs before the resident complained in August 2023. The delays caused her time and trouble chasing the landlord about the repairs.
- In her stage 1 complaint, the resident referred the landlord to a guttering and drainpipe report that its contractor produced 12 months earlier. We have not seen this report, and the landlord did not mention it in any of its communication with the resident. Not keeping a copy of the contractor’s report was a record keeping failure.
- In August 2023, the landlord recorded that repairs were still outstanding to the guttering, pipework, drainage, and the chimney brickwork needed to prevent damp. It reinspected the property on 8 September 2023 to confirm the repairs before sending its stage 1 response the same day. It agreed to complete the outstanding repairs within a month to resolve the complaint. It did not meet this timescale, and it missed the chance to update the resident or give her a revised repair timeline to manage her expectations.
- The landlord recorded that it missed its repair target for replacing a downpipe on 18 October 2023, following a report it received on 11 October 2023. It booked a roofer to attend on 25 October 2023, 7 working days later than its urgent repair policy timescale.
- On 24 October 2023, the landlord told the resident it had rebooked the outstanding repairs for 15 November 2023. However, this appointment did not meet the timescales set out in its responsive repair policy. It also failed to complete the repairs in November and then missed another appointment it arranged for 4 December 2023. The landlord’s poor repair handling caused the resident further time, trouble, and inconvenience. She escalated her complaint about the outstanding repairs 2 days later.
- The landlord did not speak to the resident about her complaint or the outstanding repairs, to manage her expectations, until one working day before sending its stage 2 response. It also did not complete the repairs before it sent its final response.
Summary
- The landlord acknowledged its repair delays, poor communication, and upheld the resident’s stage 1 complaint. It offered her £100 compensation for the impact this had on her and agreed to complete the repairs within a month. However, it did not meet this commitment which caused her further time and trouble chasing the outstanding repairs. In its final complaint response, the landlord accepted further repair handling failings. It said it had learned from its contractor’s communication and performance and offered the resident an extra £50 compensation. It also upheld the complaint and offered her £50 towards decorating once it completed the chimney breast repairs, totalling £200.
- The landlord’s approach followed our dispute resolution principles: to be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes. However, the compensation it offered was not proportionate to the time, trouble, and inconvenience its poor repair handling caused the resident. It missed the opportunity to assess any risks from damp in the property or explain when it would complete the outstanding repairs. It also did not fully acknowledge the impact of the long delays on the resident who had been reporting the repairs for more than 4 years. Overall, we found maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of guttering, drainpipe, and chimney breast repairs.
- We have ordered the landlord to apologise to the resident in writing and pay her an additional £200 for the time, trouble, distress, and inconvenience its repairs handling failings caused her. This is in line with our remedies guidance where a landlord has not proportionately addressed the impact of its failings.
- The resident reported outstanding chimney breast, guttering, and downpipe repairs again after the complaint completed the internal complaint procedure. She has since told us that only the guttering and downpipe repairs are outstanding, but that dripping water is hitting her utility meter. We have ordered the landlord to inspect the property and complete any outstanding repairs.
|
Complaint |
The handling of the complaint |
|
Finding |
Service failure |
- The landlord’s complaint policy says it will respond to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days and stage 2 complaints within 20 working days. This is in line with our complaint handling code (the Code).
- The landlord acknowledged the resident’s stage 1 and stage 2 complaints on the day she made them. However, it did not respond to her stage 1 complaint until 12 working days after its complaint policy deadline. It also responded to her stage 2 complaint 25 working days late.
- The landlord sent the resident another complaint response on 2 September 2024 after she raised the issue with us. It recognised its earlier poor complaint handling and offered her £100 compensation for its impact on her.
- The landlord upheld the resident’s stage 1 and 2 complaints, accepted its poor repair handling and communication, and offered her compensation. It also said it would use her experience to improve its services. However, it did not acknowledge its delays handling the complaint or offer compensation for this until it sent a further response in September 2024. Although its late compensation offer of £100 for the complaint handling delays was in line with our remedies guidance, it should have recognised this issue and offered compensation while it considered the complaint within its complaint procedure. Overall, we found service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.
- In addition to the £100 it already offered, we have ordered the landlord to pay the resident a further £50. This is to recognise the delay of its late offer which was another complaint handling failing.
Learning
- The landlord should learn from this complaint by ensuring it fully considers reasonable offers of compensation while complaints are within its complaint procedure.
Knowledge information management (record keeping)
- The landlord did not provide us with evidence of the contractor’s report the resident referred it to in her stage 1 complaint, or its damp inspection. It should learn from this complaint to ensure it keeps clear and complete records and it can provide them when asked.
Communication
- The landlord should learn from this complaint and consider how it communicates with residents. It should ensure it provides prompt, correct, and meaningful updates and its complaint responses are detailed and empathetic.