London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202425255)
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Case ID |
202425255 |
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Decision type |
Investigation |
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Landlord |
London & Quadrant Housing Trust |
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Landlord type |
Housing Association |
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Occupancy |
Shared Ownership |
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Date |
19 February 2026 |
- The resident told the landlord in November 2023 of his ongoing concerns about annual recurring heating issues.
What the complaint is about
- The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of reports of issues with the heating system.
- We have also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.
Our decision (determination)
- We have found maladministration in the landlord’s handling of:
- Reports of issues with the heating system.
- The complaint.
We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.
Summary of reasons
- The landlord delayed in appropriately progressing all repairs. It did not take all reasonable action to identify and resolve reoccurring heating issues.
- The landlord delayed providing its stage 1 complaint response. It did not communicate about this to the resident or acknowledge this delay in its eventual response.
- The landlord did not respond to the resident’s concerns that his utility costs had increased due to using temporary heaters.
- The landlord did not identify or ensure it took steps during its complaint handling to fully address the resident’s concerns about reoccurring heating issues.
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.
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Order |
What the landlord must do |
Due date |
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1 |
Apology order The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure:
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No later than 19 March 2026 |
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3 |
Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £1,140 made up as follows:
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No later than 19 March 2026 |
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4 |
The landlord must contact the resident to consider evidence of his increased utility costs as a result of using temporary heaters since November 2023. It should then reimburse these in line with its compensation policy. |
No later than 19 March 2026 |
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5 |
Inspection order
The landlord must contact the resident to arrange an independent inspection. It must take all reasonable steps to ensure the inspection is completed by the due date. If the landlord cannot gain access to complete the inspection, it must provide us with documentary evidence of its attempts to inspect the property no later than the due date.
What the inspection must achieve
The landlord must ensure that the independent surveyor:
The survey report must set out:
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No later than 02 April 2026 |
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6 |
Completing the works The landlord must take all steps to ensure that heating repairs are completed promptly and in any event by the due date. If the landlord cannot complete the works in this time, it must explain to us, by the due date:
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No later than 16 April 2026 |
Recommendations
Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.
Our investigation
The complaint procedure
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Date |
What happened |
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27 February 2024 |
The resident complained to the landlord. He said he had been waiting 6 weeks for it to respond to his enquiries about the heating. He said he still did not have working heating, and an engineer had not attended a scheduled visit in the previous week. |
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28 February 2024 |
The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint. |
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16 July 2024 |
The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response. It noted the resident’s concern about defective heating. It said it had arranged for a surveyor to determine the cause. It said that responsibility for internal heating would typically fall to the resident. However, it said that due to the complexity and the need to optimise the heat interface unit (HIU), it had decided to complete all work. |
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23 July 2024 |
The resident escalated his complaint. He said the issue he had reported reoccurred yearly and each year the landlord sent contractors to restart his radiators. He said he wanted a permanent solution and for the landlord to accept “liability”. |
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25 July 2024 |
The landlord acknowledged the resident’s escalation request. |
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27 September 2024 |
The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response. It said it had completed various work to the resident’s heating system on 18 June 2024. It said it remained responsible for the communal heating and HIU, but the resident remained responsible for maintaining heating equipment in his home. It awarded the resident £40 for delays in its stage 2 complaint response. |
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Referral to the Ombudsman |
The resident referred his complaint to us as he remained unhappy with the landlord’s response to his complaint. He said the intermittent heat issues continued. He wanted a permanent solution and compensation. |
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.
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Complaint |
Issues with the heating system |
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Finding |
Maladministration |
- When the resident reported the issue on 2 November 2023, he told the landlord of the reoccurring problem. He said the radiators were not working when the heating was turned on for the winter.
- In line with the lease and the landlord’s repairs policy, the landlord is responsible for shared/communal heating systems. It set out its responsibility in its stage 2 complaint response to the resident. It stated that it was responsible for the communal heating and the HIU, and that the resident was responsible for heating equipment (such as radiators) within his home. The landlord’s repairs policy does not set out a timescale for it to attend such repairs. However, it should have completed repairs within a reasonable period of time.
- The landlord appropriately raised an inspection following the resident’s report. It arranged for a heating engineer to attend on 9 November 2023. The engineer recorded no heat from radiators in the bedrooms, kitchen and living room. They noted there may be a heat pump fault and airlocked radiators. The engineer recorded that the resident did not require temporary heaters to be left.
- The landlord did not record any further action until 19 December 2023. At this time, it recorded it had left a temporary heater for the resident. Later it dropped off 2 further temporary heaters on 19 January 2024. It was aware the heating issues affected both bedrooms, the living room and kitchen. Given this, it should have taken earlier steps to arrange/offer additional heaters. That it did not do so was a failing.
- The landlord did not take appropriate steps to proactively update the resident about what action it was taking to resolve heating issues. Instead, he had to make frequent contact requesting updates. When he complained on 27 February 2024, he said he was still without working heating and that an engineer had not attended an appointment the previous week. The landlord’s records do not show this appointment and that is a record keeping failing.
- The landlord raised a work order on 5 March 2024 for its engineer to attend to quote for power flush work. This was the first clear action towards resolving heating issues since its engineer attended on 9 November 2023. It did not evidence it was attempting any reasonable steps in the intervening period. That was a failing.
- A heating engineer attended on 13 March 2024. They noted then that the issue with the HIU was resolved but that work was needed to the resident’s radiators as he said the issues had been ongoing for a number of years. The landlord later arranged extensive work to drain and flush all radiators in the resident’s property on 18 June 2024. It also completed replacing radiator valves and optimised setting of the HIU. However, it is unclear why it took the landlord 3 months following its attendance in March 2024 to complete this work. Given, heating issues had been ongoing since November 2023, that was an unreasonable delay.
- When the landlord provided its complaint responses in July and September 2024 it set out that it had completed additional work that would typically have been the resident’s responsibility. It said it had agreed this due to the complexity of the issue and the need to optimise the HIU.
- We acknowledge the landlord had completed a substantial amount of work to the resident’s internal heating in June 2024. But it should have identified from its own repair records that this was a reoccurring issue. These showed reports from the resident of heating issues in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The resident also set out his concerns in his escalation request of 23 July 2024. Given this, it should have taken additional steps to identify the cause of the reoccurring problem. As a result of its failure to do so, the resident experienced further problems in 2024 and 2025.
- The landlord raised further repairs on 28 October 2024 after the resident reported the heating was again not working properly. This was under 5 months after it completed extensive work to the radiators. But there is no evidence of action until 8 February 2025. It is unclear why it delayed but that was a failing. It recorded in February 2025 that it had booked a power flush. It later noted on 27 March 2025 that this work had previously been completed. But it should have made appropriate record to show this. That it did not was a record keeping failing.
- The landlord recorded on 27 March 2025 that the power flush had resolved issues for a short period only. It noted it was therefore arranging a joint visit from a heating engineer and a HIU engineer. It noted then that the resident had experienced the issues yearly. It also noted it had not been clear about what the issue was or how it would rectify it.
- The landlord recorded it attended on 28 March 2025. It noted that it completed work to replace a valve and that all radiators were now heating up normally. But it also noted that work remained outstanding to resolve an issue with the HIU expansion vessel which had failed. There is no evidence it progressed this work or the joint inspection. These were further failings. It did not take steps to progress replacement of the HIU expansion vessel until 27 November 2025. At this time, it said it would contact its engineer to progress this.
- The landlord’s engineer attended on 10 December 2025 and noted they did not consider the issues were due to the HIU. It noted the resident did have heating but could not have all radiators on at the same time. It noted that the radiators needed to be balanced. The landlord attended on 9 January 2026 to complete this work. It noted that each radiator was now receiving heat above 50 degrees. However, it is clear the resident remains understandably concerned that the landlord has not taken steps to identify or resolve the cause of reoccurring issues. When he wrote to the landlord on 16 January 2026, he said he did not want another contractor to attend. But he said he did not consider that heating was working effectively.
- We have found failings by the landlord to take all appropriate action to progress all repairs identified without delay. We acknowledge that the landlord competed repairs that resolve issues for periods of time. It also completed some work which would fall to the resident under the lease. But we have also found the landlord failed to take all reasonable action to resolve reoccurring issues. These failings amount to maladministration.
- We have ordered that the landlord now arrange an independent comprehensive survey of the heating to identify the cause of reoccurring issues. We have also ordered that it make an award to the resident of £900 in recognition of the impact of its failings in its handling of reports of heating issues within his property. This award is in line with the range set out in our remedies guidance.
- When the resident complained to the landlord in 2024, he expressed his concerns about the increase in his electricity bill as a result of his use of temporary heating. The landlord did not respond to this point. He told us he has had to continue making use of temporary heating during intermittent heating issues. We have ordered that the landlord contact the resident to consider evidence of increased cost (such as bill/bank statements). It should then reimburse these in line with its compensation policy.
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Complaint |
The handling of the complaint |
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Finding |
Maladministration |
- Our Complaint Handling Code (the Code) sets out how landlords should manage complaints. The timescales and definition of a complaint within the landlord’s published complaints policy met the requirements of the Code (the 2022 version in place at the time).
- The landlord appropriately acknowledged the resident’s initial complaint in February 2024. However, its eventual response was far outside timescales set out in it policy and the Code. This was provided on 16 July 2024, 97 working days after the complaint was made. It was a significant delay. There is no evidence the landlord communicated appropriately with the resident to advise him of this delay. It did not acknowledge or apologise for this in its eventual response. These were complaint handling failings.
- The landlord acknowledged in its stage 1 response that the resident said his use of temporary heating had increased his bills. But it did not address this point. As noted earlier, it should have done so and considered reimbursement under its compensation policy.
- The landlord’s stage 2 complaint response was delayed. But it appropriately communicated with the resident to explain this. It set out an extended response deadline of 6 September 2024. But it did not meet this as its stage 2 response was not provided until 27 September 2024. It appropriately acknowledged this delay and the £40 award it made was appropriate.
- As set out earlier, the landlord should have ensured all appropriate action was taken to identify/resolve the reoccurring issue with the resident’s heating. But it missed the opportunity to fully address this during its complaints process. As a result, the resident’s heating issue returned and remain without full resolution.
- Overall, we have found maladministration in the landlord’s complaint handling. We have ordered that it make an additional award to the resident of £200. This is aimed at fully recognising the impact of its complaint handling failings. This amount is in line with the range set out in our remedies guidance.
Learning
- The landlord did not take all reasonable action to investigate and resolve reoccurring heating issues. It should maintain and review repair records to ensure it understands the extent and nature of repair issues. Doing so will allow it to consider appropriate action in line with its repair responsibilities.
Knowledge information management (record keeping)
- The landlord did not keep appropriate records of all repairs/attendances. Without doing so, it cannot fully demonstrate how it responded to repair reports.
Communication
- The landlord did not maintain appropriate communication with the resident during repairs. Instead, he had to repeatedly contact it for updates.