London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202500537)

Background

1. The resident and his wife have lived in their home for 40 years. They have health problems. Their property is a flat within a converted house, with a private entrance. Their original landlord was the council, but it transferred its housing stock to their current landlord. From at least 2020 onwards the landlord repeatedly asked the resident to pay service charges but removed them after he complained. He said he was not responsible for paying charges under the terms of his tenancy agreement.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
   1. The resident’s concerns about service charges.
   2. The complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. We found:
   1. Maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about service charges.
   2. Service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

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

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about service charges

4. The landlord asked the resident to pay service charges annually over several years. The resident repeatedly challenged this, and the landlord removed the charges each time. When the landlord asked the resident to pay them again in February 2025, he complained. The landlord accepted it had wrongly charged him and offered compensation. However, it did not fully address the resident’s concerns about future charges which left this part of the complaint unresolved.

The landlord’s complaint handling

5. The landlord did not promptly act on the resident’s initial request to escalate the complaint to stage 2 or explain it would respond. The resident spent time chasing the landlord. Because the landlord did not escalate the complaint promptly, the final response was 19 working days late and the landlord did not remedy this in its complaint response. This was not in line with its complaints policy or 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.

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.

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 has happened or comment on all the information we have reviewed. We have only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

What we have not investigated

6. We have not investigated the resident’s complaint about rent payments as we will investigate this separately in another case.

What we have investigated

7. The resident repeatedly complained over at least 6 years about the landlord’s demands that he paid service charges he did not think he should have to pay. They included charges for electrical testing, bulk waste collection, communal lighting, grounds maintenance and management fees. During this period, the landlord removed all the charges the resident challenged. We have focused our investigation from 8 April 2024 which is when the landlord responded to a previous complaint about the issue.
8. In its final response to a previous complaint on 8 April 2024 the landlord told the resident that his tenancy transferred to the landlord from the council in 2010. It said as he was now a tenant of the landlord, its tenancy terms and conditions applied. It said he may have to pay service charges in the future under these terms and conditions. It said, “if you had any documentation to the contrary that states we cannot recover service charges from you, then to provide us with the evidence of this for consideration.”
9. On 5 February 2025 the resident complained about the landlord’s letter asking him to pay £13.00 for communal electricity and a £62 management fee for the year. The landlord said he was responsible for paying £1.44 per week for these services. The resident complained he did not have any communal lighting near his property and asked the landlord to remove the charges.
10. The landlord attempted to put things right for the resident in its stage 1 complaint response. It explained it had incorrectly applied the service charges and the reasons why this happened. It said it made notes on its systems following his previous complaints, but its automated systems did not pick this up. Its said it would “take every action to avoid disappointment moving forward”. Its empathetic response, assurances, and £60 compensation offer for his time and trouble went some way to resolving this part of the complaint.
11. The resident escalated the complaint as he remained unhappy when the landlord said in its initial complaint response that he may not be exempt from future service charges. He said he had been challenging the charges “every year for the last ten years” and each time the landlord had removed them. He told the landlord he had health problems including a terminal illness, and he was frustrated at having to spend time raising the issue every year.
12. The landlord’s service charge policy says it collects service charges from “those who receive services for the upkeep and maintenance of the communal areas around their home”. It says the policy applies to all tenants, leaseholders, licensees and freeholders with transfer agreements that require them to pay service charges. It says it normally charges tenants a fixed charge. It says it includes some costs in the rent and not as service charge, such as communal repairs, insurance and servicing of heating systems.
13. The resident told the landlord he believed he should not pay service charges as there was no obligation to in his tenancy agreement. He gave the landlord a copy of his 9-page agreement which he and his wife signed with the council in September 1985. The agreement refers to other leaflets and clauses which the resident does not have. In its final complaint response, the landlord said it did not have a complete copy of his original tenancy agreement either and it had not been able to obtain one from the council. It failed to fully respond to the issue which left this part of the complaint unresolved and caused the resident additional frustration.
14. The landlord has provided a copy of its tenancy terms and conditions which it says it gave to residents when the council transferred its stock to them in 2010. It says there is a fixed service charge included in the rent. It says it will “continue to provide the services provided by the Council at the time your home transfers to us. After consultation with you, we may change the services we provide. The resident’s tenancy agreement also says it will consult with tenants or their representative, before making a housing management decision.
15. The landlord’s actions went part way to resolving the resident’s complaint as it did not incorrectly charge him for the current financial year. However, we found maladministration because the landlord did not resolve all the resident’s complaint and the issue had a significant impact on the resident. It failed to follow the resident’s tenancy terms and conditions by explaining it would need to consult with him or representatives, before making a change to services. As it only partly resolved the complaint, its compensation offer was not proportionate to our findings.
16. We ordered the landlord to apologise to the resident and pay him an additional £200 compensation to recognise the distress and inconvenience the issue caused him. This is in addition to the £60 it offered the resident’s for his time and trouble. This extra amount is consistent with our compensation guidance where the landlord did not fully put things right. Plus, the compensation it offered was not proportionate to the failings identified by our investigation and did not reflect the detriment to the resident.

17. The resident complained to the landlord at least 7 times since 2020. However, in this case we have focused our investigation on the landlord’s handling of resident’s complaint dated 5 February 2025 as he referred this complaint to us.
18. The landlord’s complaints policy defines a complaint. It says it will record and acknowledge stage 1 and 2 complaints within 5 working days. It says it will respond to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days and stage 2 complaints within 20 working days. The landlord’s complaint definition and response times are in line with the Code.
19. The landlord responded to the resident’s stage 1 complaint within its policy timeframe. Within this response on 6 February 2025, it acknowledged the resident requested his complaint to be escalated to stage 2. However, the landlord did not follow this up and failed to explain when it would issue its stage 2 response.
20. The resident spent time and trouble chasing a response from the landlord. On 25 February 2025 he asked the landlord to escalate his complaint again to stage 2. The landlord acknowledged this after 8 working days. Because the landlord failed to escalate his complaint initially, its final response on 2 April 2025 was delayed by 19 working days.
21. We found service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling. The landlord’s response to the resident’s escalated complaint was delayed and it failed to remedy this in its final complaint response. We ordered the landlord to pay £50 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling. This is consistent with the landlord’s policy and our compensation guidance.

Learning

22. The landlord has demonstrated it has learned from the resident’s previous complaints as it did not ask the resident to pay any erroneous charges this financial year.
23. The landlord should ensure it consults with residents before introducing new services and before proposing charges for these, if this is outlined in their tenancy agreement.
24. The landlord should ensure it escalates residents’ complaints in line with its policy and the Code.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

25. The landlord should attempt to get copies of its residents’ tenancy agreements to understand their rights and obligations.

Communication

26. Although the landlord delayed escalating the complaint its overall communication with the resident was good. It responded promptly to the resident’s emails during the complaint’s process.