Southern Housing (202338932)

Background

1. The resident lives in a 1-bed bungalow. She reported to the landlord a damaged fence in January 2024. The landlord arranged a survey and told the resident in February 2024 it was her responsibility to repair the fence.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to:
   1. The resident’s reports of a damaged fence.
   2. The associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. We found that:
   1. There was reasonable redress in the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of a damaged fence.
   2. There was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

We have not made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

Response to the resident’s reports of a damaged fence

4. The landlord took appropriate steps to establish responsibility of the garden fence. However it delayed its investigation and updating the resident of this, causing unavoidable inconvenience. The landlord acknowledged its delays, took learning, and offered compensation that reflected the impact on the resident.

Complaint handling

5. The landlord responded to the complaint in line with its policy and our Complaint Handling Code (the Code).

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.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

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.

6. The landlord’s repairs policy states that residents are responsible for repairing a garden fence shared with neighbours or located between 2 landlord’s tenants. The landlord should confirm legal responsibility before agreeing to complete any repair.
7. The resident reported that she first notified the landlord of the damaged fence on 1 January 2024. While we have not seen evidence of the initial contact, which represents a record keeping failure, the landlord’s internal records show that a repair job was raised on the same date and that a surveyor appointment was booked for 15 January 2024. We consider these records sufficient to confirm the resident’s account of when the issue was first reported.
8. Arranging a surveyor inspection was an appropriate and proportionate step to establish responsibility for the fence repair and was consistent with the landlord’s repairs policy. The evidence shows that the appointment was rescheduled 3 times at the resident’s request. The surveyor attended on 13 February 2024 and concluded that the fence was the resident’s responsibility. This conclusion was consistent with the landlord’s repairs policy. The surveyor updated the landlord of the outcome the following day.
9. However the landlord did not inform the resident of the survey outcome until 26 February 2024, despite further contact from her. This represents a delay in communication following the inspection. While the delay was for a short period, it amounted to a service failure because the resident was left uncertain about the outcome and whether the landlord would be carrying out the repair. This resulted in avoidable inconvenience and time and trouble for the resident.
10. Under our dispute resolution principles where the landlord acknowledged failures, we look at whether it acted fairly, put things right, and learn from outcomes. In this case there were delays in the landlord’s communication following the survey of the fence. Although the rescheduling of appointments was at the resident’s request, the landlord acknowledged the resident was inconvenienced by this and offered compensation to reflect the impact caused. This demonstrates it was resolution focused.
11. The landlord acknowledged these failures, apologised, and committed to improving its appointment booking, rescheduling and communication process to prevent recurrence. It offered a total of £125 compensation to recognise the overall inconvenience caused. While the compensation offered is more than we would typically order for similar cases, it demonstrates the landlord appropriately acknowledged the impact on the resident and sought to put matters right. This is line with our compensation guidance for maladministration and sufficiently recognises the impact caused to the resident.

12. The landlord has a 2-stage complaint process in line with the Code and its complaints policy. It must acknowledge complaints within 5 working days, and issue stage 1 and 2 responses within 10 and 20 working days respectively. If it cannot meet these timeframes, it can extend with explanation.
13. The landlord acknowledged both the stage 1 and 2 complaints within its policy timeframes. It provided its stage 1 response on 6 February 2024 which was within its 10-day timeframe of acknowledgement. The landlord should have responded to the stage 2 complaint by 20 March 2024. When it could not meet this timeframe, it appropriately updated the resident and provided a new timeframe to respond by 3 April 2024. It provided its stage 2 response on 2 April 2024 which was appropriate and within its new timeframe. The landlord responded to both stages of the complaint in line with its complaints policy and the Code.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

14. The landlord said in its complaint response it would review its appointment booking process to improve how it books and reschedules appointments. This was a positive step.

Communication

15. There were delays in updating the resident following the survey appointment. It is positive that the landlord acknowledged this and committed to improving its communication with residents.