London Borough of Sutton (202333272)

Background

1. The resident lives in a block of flats. In 2019, the landlord replaced his front door as part of a fire door renewal programme. After the work, he reported repair issues with the door but it declined to fix them, saying the door had been gifted to him and was therefore his responsibility to repair. In 2023, he complained to it saying it offered him no choice but to accept the new door in 2019 and therefore it was not a gift and he felt he was therefore not responsible for the repairs. He also had concerns that it had not completed regular inspections of the door as it had previously said it would. He brought the complaint to us as he was unsatisfied with the landlord’s response. He subsequently sold the flat in 2025.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:

a)     Reports of defects with the front door of his flat.

b)     Concerns about the landlord’s yearly inspection of fire doors in his building.

Our decision (determination)

3. The resident’s complaints are outside our jurisdiction to investigate.

Summary of reasons

4. 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 raised a formal complaint with the landlord on 18 March 2023 about repair issues with the front door which he said appeared within months of it being installed in 2019. He also complained that door was not a ‘gift’ from the landlord as he had no other choice but to accept the door change in 2019. He also complained that it had not inspected the door annually.
5. The resident was aware of repair issues in 2020. He would have noticed the door was not inspected annually after a year had passed. However, he did not raise his concerns in a complaint until 3 years later. Furthermore he did not raise his concerns that he felt forced to accept the door change within a year of this happening.
6. There is no evidence the resident raised a complaint promptly and in any event within 12 months of when he became aware of the issue. We have not seen evidence he was prevented from raising a complaint sooner.
7. For that reason, we will not investigate this complaint.