Hyde Housing Association Limited (202501088)

Background

1. During February 2025 the landlord’s contractor asked the resident to provide access to the block to carry out a repair that did not directly affect him. The resident is elderly and lives on the ground floor. The resident authorised a representative to act for him during this complaint. For the purposes of this report the resident and his representative are referred to as ‘the resident.’

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about its request for access.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was service failure in the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about its request for access.

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

Reasons

4. On 3 February 2025 the landlord called at the resident’s property to ask him to provide access via the back door. The resident subsequently emailed it to ask why this happened because, following their discussions in September 2024, it had its own key.
5. An internal email dated 10 February 2025 confirmed its roofing contractor had attended. Although it queried why they did not collect the key from its offices, it concluded there was no failure of service. It said this was due to it being an emergency repair and it not being uncommon for contractors to ask residents on the ground floor to provide access. It also noted that the contractor may not have been aware of previous discussion regarding access.
6. The landlord’s complaint responses concluded there was no failure of service and did not uphold the resident’s complaint. It apologised for any distress caused. Its stage 2 complaint response confirmed it had installed an outside key safe for future use. While this was positive, during his call with us on 23 April 2026 the resident said he’d been asked for access following its installation.
7. The evidence shows that the parties had previously discussed the issue of access. The landlord had a key which should have been available to its contractor. The nature of the repair in this case did not override the need to gain access using the key. There’s also no evidence that the landlord proactively communicated with its staff and contractors about access arrangements at the block. Its failure to put sufficient processes in place, after it was put on notice of the issue, caused distress and inconvenience to the resident. Our compensation guidance says that payments of up to £50 should be made when the failure was low impact and of short duration.

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.