London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202406849)

Decision
Case ID	202406849
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	London & Quadrant Housing Trust
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	22 May 2026

Background

1. The resident lived with her adult daughter, who has autism, and the landlord became aware of this during the complaint process. In September 2023 the resident complained about the landlord’s handling of repair appointments to decorate her daughter’s bedroom. The landlord offered £170 compensation to recognise the impact of its failings and arranged a date to complete the decoration works. The resident accepted this resolution and considered the complaint resolved. However, following the decoration works in October 2023, the resident was dissatisfied with the standard of the works.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to:
   1. The resident’s concerns about the quality of the bedroom decorative works.
   2. The complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was service failure by the landlord in its response to the resident’s concerns about the quality of the bedroom decorative works.
4. There was maladministration by the landlord in its response to the complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

5. The landlord recognised that the bedroom decorationsfell below its usual standards. It acted reasonably by offering to return and rectify the defects. However, it did not offer to reimburse the resident for the paint she had already purchased. Instead, it asked her to purchase the paint again so it could complete the remedial works, which was unfair and not in line with its compensation policy.
6. The landlord delayed providing its stage 2 response and failed to respond to the resident’s allegation of deliberate poor workmanship.

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 June 2026
	Compensation The landlord must provide the resident with a decoration voucher equivalent to the reasonable cost of paint required to decorate a room of the same size as the resident’s bedroom. The landlord must pay the resident £100 compensation for the impact of its complaint handling failings. This amount is inclusive of the compensation previously offered at stage 2, and the landlord may deduct any sum already paid. The landlord must pay this directly to the resident and provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date.	No later than 19 June 2026
	Other action order The landlord must repeat its offer to redecorate the bedroom. The resident may then choose whether to accept or refuse this offer. If the resident accepts, the landlord must provide evidence by this order due date that it has arranged and scheduled the works.	No later than 19 June 2026

 

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
19 September 2023	The resident complained to the landlord about its handling of the repair appointment to redecorate her daughter’s bedroom.
19 September 2023	The landlord provided its stage 1 response. It recognised that the resident had advised that decorating the bedroom on 21 September 2023 did not work for her. It apologised for not acting on her request to reschedule and said it would be in touch to organise a more suitable date.
21 September 2023	The landlord confirmed it had rescheduled the bedroom decorations for 30 October 2023. It explained that it would not compensate the resident for loss of earnings, but it offered £170 compensation to reflect the impact of its failings on her. This was equivalent to £50 for service failure, £60 for distress caused and £60 for the inconvenience caused.
8 January 2024	The resident escalated her complaint, expressing dissatisfaction with the standard of the redecoration works completed in her daughter’s bedroom. She said the poor workmanship appeared deliberate. She requested that the landlord fund a private decorator to rectify the issues.
12 March 2024	The landlord issued its stage 2 response, explaining that it was not within its policy to pay for a private decorator. However, it offered to return to rectify the problem. It also apologised for shortcomings in its complaint handling and proposed £50 compensation in recognition of the inconvenience caused.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident brought her complaint to us because she remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and the amount of compensation offered. She would like the level of compensation to reflect the cost of redecorating the bedroom, which she said remains outstanding.

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	Concerns about the quality of the bedroom decorative works
Finding	Service failure

Focus of the investigation

7. The resident reported that the situation impacted her and her daughter’s health. We cannot draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, any impact on health. The courts can decide on personal injury claims as they will have the benefit of independent medical advice to decide the cause of any injury, how long it might last, and the liability for any injury. This means we will not assess any reports of personal injury as part of this investigation.

The quality of the bedroom decoration

8. The resident escalated the complaint in November 2023 due to dissatisfaction with the standard of the bedroom works. The landlord did not dispute that the decoration had fallen below its standard and offered to return to rectify the issue. Despite this, the resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and referred the complaint to us. In particular, she was concerned that the landlord had not offered compensation for the poor workmanship or reimbursement for the cost of paint purchased by her daughter in October 2023.
9. We understand that the resident believed the landlord deliberately carried out the decoration to a poor standard as a form of retribution for the earlier complaint she had made. While we acknowledge the resident’s reasons for reaching this conclusion, we have not identified any evidence to support this claim. It is not possible for us to determine or assume the personal motives behind the actions of individuals carrying out the work. As such, we are unable to conclude that the poor workmanship was intentional or that there was a service failure on this basis.
10. After the resident raised her dissatisfaction with the standard of the works, the landlord reviewed the video evidence she provided and offered to return to rectify the issues. She refused this offer, explaining that she did not trust the landlord to complete the work to an acceptable standard. We recognise that the resident felt disappointed and upset that the landlord did not complete the work correctly at the first attempt. We also understand that her daughter was looking forward to having her room decorated as she wanted and was disappointed. However, the landlord acted appropriately by offering to put matters right. It was also reasonable for the landlord to expect the resident to allow it the opportunity to rectify the defects.
11. As a resolution, the resident asked the landlord to fund a decorator of her choice to complete the works. In its stage 2 response, the landlord explained that its policies did not allow it to pay for private contractors and reiterated its offer to return and rectify the defects. The landlord acted reasonably by clearly setting out its position and offering a fair and proportionate resolution. It was not obliged to pay for a private contractor.
12. We acknowledge that the landlord did not offer compensation for failing to complete the repair correctly at the first attempt. However, compensation is not always a proportionate remedy and not intended as a punishment like a fine or penalty. Instead, to resolve complaints and disputes, landlords should aim to put residents back in the position they would have been in had the service failure not occurred.
13. In this case, the landlord offered to return and complete the work to the required standard. This represented a fair and proportionate way to resolve the issue. This is because it would have restored the resident to the position she would have been in had the landlord completed the work correctly in the first instance. Therefore, the landlord’s approach was reasonable, and it was under no obligation to offer compensation in these circumstances.
14. In October 2023 the resident purchased her own paint for the landlord to use when decorating the bedroom. In January 2024 the landlord said it would return to rectify the defects but asked the resident to purchase the paint again. This was unfair and not in line with its compensation policy, which says that it should reimburse residents for reasonable out‑of‑pocket expenses incurred due to service failures. In the circumstances, the landlord should have offered to reimburse the cost of the paint, as it had recognised the decorating was not to standard and needed redoing.
15. Our compensation guidance says that when a resident incurred costs, we will consider what is fair and reasonable to resolve the complaint. In this case, given the time that has passed since the purchase, it would now be unreasonable to expect the resident to provide a receipt for the paint she purchased in 2023. Therefore, we order the landlord to provide the resident with a paint voucher as a reasonable means of reimbursing this expense. This is also in line with the landlord’s compensation policy to provide decoration vouchers.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Maladministration

16. The landlord has a 2-stage complaint process, and its complaint policy is in line with our Complaint Handling Code (the Code). It aims to acknowledge complaints at both stages within 5 working days. It says the resident should then receive formal responses to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days and stage 2 complaints within 20 working days of the complaint acknowledgement. If a resident is unhappy with the outcome at stage 1, they can escalate their complaint to stage 2 within 20 working days. If it needs longer to respond to a complaint, it will inform the resident and agree a new timeframe. In such cases, it would explain the reasons for the delay.
17. The landlord handled the resident’s stage 1 complaint and acknowledged the resident’s stage 2 complaint in line with its complaint policy. While this was reasonable, it exceeded its timeframe for the stage 2 response by 27 working days. Although it had told the resident in January 2024 that there would be a delay, it did not provide a timeframe for the response or provide updates. This was unreasonable. However, we did not see evidence the delay significantly impacted the resident or the outcome of the substantive issue.
18. The resident raised new concerns when she escalated her complaint in January 2024. She described the landlord’s actions as “vindictive” and suggested that the poor standard of the work was deliberate and in response to her earlier complaint. While we recognise that she had not raised this issue, or the standard of the works, at stage 1, the landlord chose to progress the complaint at stage 2. It responded to the newly raised concerns rather than advising the resident to submit a new stage 1 complaint. In doing so, it was reasonable to expect the landlord to address all aspects of the complaint at that stage.
19. The landlord addressed the resident’s request for it to fund a private decorator in its complaint response. However, we have not seen evidence that it responded to the resident’s allegations that the poor workmanship was deliberate. This was unreasonable and not in line with the Code, which requires landlords to address all elements of a complaint. It also represented a missed opportunity for the landlord to fully investigate and take steps to rebuild trust with the resident.
20. The landlord offered £50 compensation to recognise the impact of its complaint handling failings. While this amount was reasonable in relation to the delay in responding to the stage 2 complaint, it did not adequately reflect the landlord’s failure to address all aspects of the resident’s complaint. In line with our compensation guidance, we therefore order the landlord to pay £100 compensation to reflect the overall impact of its complaint handling failures. Although these failings did not cause a permanent detriment to the resident, they adversely affected her and caused frustration.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

21. The case highlights the need for the landlord to maintain clear and comprehensive records of inspections and assessments of work quality and records of resident interactions and decisions at the time they occur. While it accepted that the decoration fell below standard, it did not evidence detailed records of what went wrong. This would have supported transparency and learning and helped its response to the resident’s allegations that the poor workmanship was deliberate.

Communication

22. Effective complaint handling requires prompt recognition and action in line with policy and the Code. The landlord must log, track and respond to complaints correctly to ensure accountability, timely resolution and regulatory compliance. All staff should understand and apply the complaint policy consistently to build trust with residents and show that the landlord takes concerns seriously.