Salix Homes Limited (202405498)

Decision
Case ID	202405498
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Salix Homes Limited
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	5 May 2026

Background

1. The landlord’s contractor completed remedial work in the resident’s garden following an issue with the pipework and drains. The resident complained to the landlord and said her garden had been “ruined”. She also raised concerns about other outstanding repairs at her property. The issues within this case had been resolved at the time of this investigation.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
   1. Reports of damage to her garden.
   2. Reports of multiple repairs at the property, including damp and mould.
   3. Associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. We have found the landlord responsible for:
   1. Reasonable redress in its handling of the resident’s reports of damage to her garden.
   2. Reasonable redress in its handling of the resident’s reports of multiple repairs at the property, including damp and mould.
   3. No maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damage to her garden

4. The landlord put things right for the resident during the complaints process. It acknowledged the damage to her garden and assured her that this would be rectified. It awarded compensation in recognition of the damage.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of multiple repairs at the property

5. The landlord acknowledged errors and delays in its handling of repairs at the property. It awarded compensation to the resident which was proportionate to its failings.

Complaint handling

6. The landlord’s complaint handling was in line with its complaints policy and our Complaint Handling Code (‘the Code’), which sets out our expectations around landlord complaint handling practices.

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 recommendations
The landlord should pay the resident the £500 it previously offered, if it has not done so already. Our findings of reasonable redress are made on this basis that this is paid.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
13 March 2024	The resident complained to the landlord. She said: Her garden was “ruined” because a previous repair to a pipe under her garden had collapsed. Her front door was letting heat out of her home. The landlord had not attended a repair booked for 12 March 2024. There was damp in her back doorway. She wanted reimbursement for the money she had spent on decorating materials and would like all outstanding repairs issues rectified.
27 March 2024	The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response. It said: It had asked the contractor to return to rectify any issues with the garden. It had scheduled a damp and mould inspection and a property inspection for 8 April 2024 to assess the front door and the damp and mould. It had rescheduled a plastering job which was booked for 12 March 2024 due to staff sickness. It noted that the work had since been completed. It would contact the resident to re-issue the decorating voucher. It did not uphold the complaint, but it offered £25 in recognition of the missed appointment.
3 April 2024	The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaints process. She said: She had been complaining about her windows for several years and did not know why she hadn’t had new windows installed. It was not just damp in the doorway. There was damp in her son’s bedroom, her kitchen cupboards smelled of mould, and she was worried about damp and mould in the loft. Her garden was ruined due to the work of the contractors who had attended to repair the pipe.
3 May 2024	The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response. In this, it: Said that it had reviewed its investment programme and confirmed that the windows were installed in 2011 with a planned replacement date in 2031. Apologised for the ongoing repairs at the property. Confirmed a surveyor and the repairs manager would inspect the property on 9 May 2024, including the garden. Raised its stage 1 offer of compensation from £25 to £250 in recognition of the ongoing repairs. Awarded an additional £250 compensation in recognition of the damage caused to the resident’s garden by its contractor.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident remained dissatisfied and asked us to investigate because she did not feel that the compensation the landlord offered was enough to put things right.

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 landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damage to her garden
Finding	Reasonable redress

7. The landlord’s repair records indicate that the landlord’s contractor carried out works to the drains in the resident’s garden on various dates in 2023. The resident said that it was during works carried out in January 2024 that damage was caused to her garden.
8. We have not seen any evidence that the resident reported damage to her garden prior to her complaint in March 2024. It was therefore reasonable that the landlord did not take any action regarding the resident’s garden up until this point.
9. The landlord said, in its stage 2 complaint response, that it had reviewed the resident’s photos of her garden. It provided assurance that all outstanding damage would be “rectified” following the property inspection on 9 May 2024. It awarded £250 in recognition of the damage to the resident’s garden.
10. This offer aligns with our compensation guidance (published on our website), which sets out our approach to compensation. The guidance says that awards within this range are appropriate where there was a failure by the landlord which adversely affected the resident but there was no permanent impact. As we have not identified any further failings, we are satisfied that the offer made was proportionate in the circumstances of the complaint. Due to this, we have made a finding of reasonable redress.

Complaint	The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of multiple repairs
Finding	Reasonable redress

11. Accurate record keeping helps landlords meet their obligations, including providing information to residents and to us to enable a thorough investigation. In this case, some of the landlord’s repair records were not always sufficiently clear. For example, it was not always possible to see when a repair had been reported. Furthermore, several entries did not confirm why jobs had been cancelled, whether jobs were completed, and some appeared to be duplicates. This was confusing and made it difficult to fully assess the landlord’s actions or whether the repairs were completed within its repairs policy timescales.
12. The landlord did not dispute that there were failings in its handling of repairs, as evidenced by its complaint responses and compensation offer. In such cases, our role is to consider whether it did enough to put things right for the resident. When doing this, we assess the landlord’s actions against our dispute resolution principles:
    1. Be fair.
    2. Put things right.
    3. Learn from outcomes.
13. As part of its stage 2 complaint response, the landlord said it would complete a damp and mould inspection on 8 April 2024 and full property inspection on 9 May 2024. These were appropriate resolutions which demonstrated that the landlord was committed to obtaining an overview of the issues at the property and resolving the repairs. This was positive.
14. The landlord’s repair records show that the landlord conducted both of these inspections and raised follow-on works. As previously mentioned, the landlord’s repair records were not clear regarding when follow-on works took place. However, it appears that the landlord fitted a new front door at the property and damp and mould works were complete by June 2024. The resident has confirmed that these issues are resolved.
15. The landlord awarded £250 in recognition of the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident by the ongoing property repairs. This was proportionate and in line with our compensation guidance, as referenced above.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	No maladministration

16. The landlord has a 2-stage complaints process. Its policy says it will issue a full response within 10 working days for stage 1 complaints and within 20 working days for complaints at stage 2. These timescales align with the Code as referenced above. The landlord responded to the resident’s complaint within its policy timescale at both stages.
17. The Code states that landlords must only escalate a complaint to stage 2 once it has completed stage 1 and at the request of the resident. When the resident raised additional concerns about her windows, this should have been treated as a new complaint and not an escalation of the original complaint. It is unclear why the landlord chose to progress it in this manner.
18. However, we have seen no clear evidence indicating that the resident was impacted by this. The landlord’s decision to provide a response to the resident’s concern about windows in its stage 2 complaint response did not cause the resident any detriment and ultimately allowed her to bring the case to us more quickly. Therefore, this has resulted in a finding of no maladministration.

Learning

Complaint handling

19. The landlord may want to arrange for relevant staff to review our eLearning courses on complaint handling, available on the Centre for Learning section of our website.

Knowledge and information management (record keeping)

20. It is vital landlords keep clear, accurate and easily accessible records to provide an audit trail. If we investigate a complaint, we will ask for the landlord’s records. If the information the landlord provides is not clear, we may not be able to conclude that an action took place or that the landlord followed its repairs policy. In this case, the landlord’s records were not always clear, which affected its handling of the repairs.

Communication

21. The landlord may have avoided further dissatisfaction from the resident if its communication had been more proactive. Our spotlight report on attitudes, respect and rights identified that sensitive and tailored communication can reduce distress experienced by residents. The landlord may wish to review its communication with residents in line with the findings set out in our spotlight report.