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Stonewater Limited (202326355)

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Decision

Case ID

202326355

Decision type

Jurisdiction

Landlord

Stonewater Limited

Landlord type

Housing Association

Occupancy

Secure tenancy

Date

4 June 2026

Background

  1. The complaint has been raised on behalf of the resident by his representatives who are his daughter and his son in law. The resident’s wife fell on the steps in their garden. A year later she suffered another fall and sadly passed away. They believe her death was a result of her sustaining life changing injuries after her first fall in the garden. They believed the steps were dangerous and wanted copies of the landlord’s inspection reports relating to the steps.

What the complaint is about

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns:
    1. About reports of antisocial behaviour (ASB) in 2020 and 2021.
    2. Following his wife’s fall on the garden steps which he believes later led to her death, and its failure to provide inspection reports for the steps.

Our decision (determination)

  1. We found the complaints are outside our jurisdiction and we have not investigated them.

Reasons

  1. Our Scheme rules state we may not investigate complaints which were not referred to the landlord as a complaint within a reasonable time, which is normally 12 months. The resident has stated they were aware of the ASB concerns from around July 2020 and raised a formal complaint in October 2023. However, there is no evidence they raised a complaint promptly and in any event within 12 months of when they became aware of the ASB issue. We have not seen evidence they were prevented from raising a complaint sooner. For that reason, we have decided not to investigate the complaint about ASB reports.
  2. We do not investigate complaints where it would be quicker, fairer, more reasonable or more effective to seek a remedy through the court, tribunal or other procedure. After careful consideration, the complaint about the resident’s wife’s injuries and her subsequent deathis better dealt with by the courts. This is because the court will have the benefit of independent medical evidenceand coroner’s reports to decide on the cause of any injury and death.
  3. We understand that the resident and representatives may be disappointed with this outcome. However, for the reasons stated above, we will not investigate the complaints.