A2Dominion Housing Group Limited (202120246)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202120246

A2Dominion Housing Group Limited

27 February 2023

Our approach

The Housing Ombudsman’s approach to investigating and determining complaints is to decide what is fair in all the circumstances of the case. This is set out in the Housing Act 1996 and the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme). The Ombudsman considers the evidence and looks to see if there has been any ‘maladministration’, for example whether the landlord has failed to keep to the law, followed proper procedure, followed good practice or behaved in a reasonable and competent manner.

Both the resident and the landlord have submitted information to the Ombudsman and this has been carefully considered. Their accounts of what has happened are summarised below. This report is not an exhaustive description of all the events that have occurred in relation to this case, but an outline of the key issues as a background to the investigation’s findings.

The complaint

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
1. repairs to the resident’s bathroom.
2. the resident’s complaint about the repairs.

Background and summary of events

Background

The resident is an assured tenant and lives in a three-bedroom house. The tenancy began on 7 February 2005.
The resident has several vulnerabilities listed with the landlord, including Screumhan’s disease in spine, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, depression and severe anxiety.
The landlord has provided its responsive repairs policy which states that ‘urgent repairs’ are to be responded to within 24 hours and ‘standard repairs’ will be dealt with by the next available appointment that is convenient with the customer.
The landlord has provided its complaints policy which has two stages: stage one, which requires a response within 10 working days, and stage two, which requires a response within 20 working days. The landlord has also provided its compensation policy which allows it to make compensation awards where it identifies service failures.

Summary of Events

The landlord’s repair log shows that the resident first reported mould in their bathroom in January 2020. Several other reports were made on 9 June 2020 where the resident reported mould around the bath and wash hand basin. The reports also mentioned that the bathroom fan was ineffective and was causing mould to the ceiling and wall. The log shows that the landlord attended the property on 16 June 2020 and found the extractor fan working correctly, stopped a leak and did not locate any mould.
On 19 April 2021, the resident reported loose wall tiles in the bathroom. The repair was classed as a ‘standard’ repair. On the same date, an operative attended the property to remove the loose tiles. The repair notes show that the tiles were made safe and the operative planned to return to complete the full repair.
On 5 May 2021, the landlord received a complaint from the resident. The resident was unhappy that the landlord had not returned to complete the repairs with the tiles. The resident also said that nobody had contacted him and that some of the tiles were being held up by tape that the contractor had stuck over the wall.
On 14 May 2021, the landlord issued a stage one response. The landlord offered £50 compensation in recognition of the time and trouble in pursuing this matter and an additional £20 for a missed appointment on 30 April 2021, but this appears to have been in response to a separate issue regarding an exterior garden light.
On 18 May 2021, the resident reported a toilet leak which was deemed a standard repair at the time. The repair notes do not show that this was rectified.
A further appointment was booked for 18 May 2021 in regard to the tiling, but the resident reported that the surveyor did not turn up.
On 25 May 2021, the landlord received a complaint from the resident about mould in the bathroom. The resident said that the landlord had not resolved the issue after a year and that there was still mould on the bathroom ceiling.
On 23 June 2021, the landlord sent a stage one response for the complaint regarding mould on the bathroom ceiling. The response said that the contractor would be attending the property to measure the area for the tiles and that they would also check the loft and mould on the ceiling at the same time. The landlord committed to completing the outstanding repairs to the bathroom by 12 August 2021. Compensation of £75 was offered in recognition of the time and trouble in pursuing the matter and also a further £20 was awarded for a missed appointment on 10 June 2021.
On 14 July 2021, the landlord received a complaint about a leak to the toilet. The resident said that three separate operatives had attended to repair the leak on different occasions in the past month but it was still leaking.
On 2 August 2021, the landlord sent a stage one response regarding the leak. The landlord accepted that it should have resolved the issue without needing three separate visits and that this constituted a service failure under its complaints policy. The landlord said it would undertake to repair the toilet as well as the other repairs for the bathroom. It awarded £100 compensation which was made up of £50 for the quality of its work and a further £50 for the inconvenience caused.
The resident attempted to escalate their complaint on 13 August 2021 by email and the landlord responded on 16 August 2021 to say that the complaint would be escalated to stage two. The landlord then sent an email dated 26 November 2021 confirming the complaint had been escalated to stage two and that the resident would receive a response by 24 December 2021. The resident said he was not happy that it had taken so long to escalate his complaint.
A joint inspection between the landlord and its contractors was completed in September 2021 to survey the bathroom, and a list of the outstanding repairs was produced. There was initially some disagreement with the resident about what repairs were required. The landlord said its operatives wanted to start working early in the morning but the resident was unable to allow access until after 1pm, which caused some delays.
On 1 December 2021, the landlord provided its stage two response which addressed all three stage one complaints. The response said the following:
1. the works were completed on 22 October 2021 after they began on 6 October 2021. The landlord said it had difficulty sourcing the correct tiles.
2. the resident had issues regarding the quality of the works and it was agreed that the quality of the wall tiling could be improved.
3. on 26 November 2021, the ceiling work and sealing of the bath were completed and the landlord said that no further works were required until an occupational therapist report was provided, but the resident disputed this.
4. the landlord offered a further £175 at stage two on top of the amounts previously offered at stage one – it said that this was for the additional delays and the quality of work.
5. it had learned the importance of maintaining good communication with its residents and for its contractors to apply greater urgency.
On 8 December 2021, the resident responded to the landlord’s final decision and made the following points:
1. he had made it clear for several years that due to his medical conditions it was not convenient for contractors to visit before 1pm and not because he was being awkward and he alleged that the landlord was trying to hide behind his disabilities;
2. works had taken so long because operatives had failed to turn up to appointments or bring the correct equipment with them and he believed some of the delays were not necessary;
3. he was still waiting for the landlord to remove mouldy plaster in the bathroom and level the plaster and for it to be sealed with damp block.
The landlord has said in its repairs chronology that all the bathroom and toilet repairs were completed on 13 January 2022 as the resident did not want the work carried out until after the new year.
The resident has said that he made another complaint in September 2021 to the landlord and that this was only acknowledged as a complaint in December 2021. This particular complaint is not in the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction for this investigation as it needs to complete the landlord’s complaints process.

Assessment and findings

Repairs to the resident’s bathroom

The resident had reported damp and mould in the bathroom since at least as early as January 2020. It is unclear what the landlord’s initial response to this was but the repairs log shows that it attended the property on 16 June 2020 and found the extractor fan working correctly, stopped the leak and did not find any mould. There do not appear to be any further reports of mould in the bathroom until the resident complained about it in May 2021.
The landlord subsequently informed the resident that it would resolve his bathroom issues by 12 August 2021, including checking for mould on the ceiling. The landlord awarded £75 compensation for time and trouble and £20 for a missed appointment. The compensation for the missed appointment is in line with the compensation policy and, considering there was no report of mould in the bathroom for nearly a year, the £75 compensation was a proportionate award for any delay between May-June 2021.
However, the resident was still reporting that the landlord needed to remove mouldy plaster in the bathroom and apply damp block in December 2021, over six months after they initially complained. The landlord has confirmed that all the bathroom repairs were not completed until 13 January 2022. Although there appears to have been some delay as the resident wished to wait until the new year, the landlord still took around six months to progress the mould-related works and this represented an inappropriate delay.
The resident first reported the issue regarding his bathroom tiles in April 2021. The repair was classed as a ‘standard’ repair and should therefore have been dealt with at the next available appointment. The resident was unhappy that he was told that the contractor would be coming back to finish the repairs, but reported that they did not return. The repairs appear to have been completed around October 2021 according to the landlord’s final complaint response. The landlord said it had an issue sourcing the correct tiles, but the repair took around six months to be completed which represented an inappropriate delay of several months.
The landlord awarded £50 compensation in its May 2021 stage one response. The £20 for a missed appointment was in regards to a separate matter as stated above and not relevant to this complaint. The compensation at the time was in line with the landlord’s compensation policy; however, as with the mould-related works, the actual repair was not completed until some months after this which will have caused the resident additional inconvenience and breached the landlord’s repairs policy.
The repair to the toilet was classed as a ‘standard’ repair. The resident reported this in May 2021 and said that the landlord sent three contractors on three separate occasions to repair the leak and the job still was not completed. The landlord accepted in August 2021 that this was not acceptable and constituted a service failure under its complaints policy. It offered £100 compensation to the resident for the quality of work and the inconvenience caused. This was again a reasonable offer on the part of the landlord but, as with the mould and tile issues, the toilet repair was incomplete until January 2022.
The landlord initially confirmed that all the repairs were completed on 22 October 2021, but the resident said there were still outstanding issues with the bathroom in his reply to the landlord’s final response on 8 December 2021. The landlord’s responsive repairs chronology shows that all the bathroom and toilet works were completed on 13 January 2022. Therefore, the landlord has not followed its responsive repairs policy and completed the repairs within the required time frames for any of the works.
The landlord has also mentioned that the repairs were delayed because the resident had specifically requested that the contractors attend after 1pm. The landlord has said that the contractors did not want to come only in the afternoon and therefore would refuse to do the job. The resident believed that the landlord has made him appear awkward but he had informed the landlord that this was due to his health conditions.
The landlord is aware of the resident’s multiple health conditions and therefore it could have better engaged with the resident to get the repairs completed at a more suitable time, especially given the circumstances of the case. The resident may well have had valid reasons as to why he required the landlord to start the work after 1pm, but there is no evidence that the landlord considered these fully or attempted to mitigate the resident’s concerns.
Furthermore, the landlord’s responsive repairs policy does have afternoon times between 1pm and 5pm as options for repairs and indicates therefore that the resident’s request could have been accommodated. The landlord did discuss internally the option of decanting the resident to allow works to be completed but it is unclear if a decision was made on this or if it was communicated to the resident.
The landlord made an additional compensation award of £175 in December 2021 which appears to have been in recognition of its further delays with the mould between June 2021 and January 2022, the tiles between May 2021 and January 2022 and the toilet leak between August 2021 and January 2022.
Although the landlord has completed the repairs and awarded the additional £175 compensation in its final complaint response, the Ombudsman does not consider this to offer sufficient redress given the circumstances of the case. There were multiple repairs to the bathroom outstanding for five months between September 2021 and January 2022. This will have caused inconvenience to the resident, particularly in light of his health conditions. The Ombudsman would recommend compensation of £175 in instances where there has been a short-term failure; a more significant award would have been proportionate in this case.

The resident’s complaint about the repairs

With regards to all three separate complaints about the bathroom tiles, toilet leak and mould, the landlord responded to the complaints at stage one either within ten working days or soon after.
The resident asked for their complaint to be escalated on 13 August 2021 by email and the landlord responded on 16 August 2021 to say that the complaint would be escalated to stage two and that this would be acknowledged shortly.
However, this was apparently not actioned as the landlord then sent an email dated 26 November 2021 confirming then that the complaint had been escalated to stage two and that the resident would receive a response by 24 December 2021. The stage two response was sent on 1 December 2021.
The landlord’s complaints policy says that it will try to respond at stage two within 20 working days but it failed to meet this timescale. The landlord acknowledged that the resident wanted to progress the complaint to stage two on 16 August 2021, but it did not actually progress this until 26 November 2021. Whilst the landlord was in contact with the resident during this time trying to organise the repairs, it still should have provided its stage two response sooner.
The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code also makes it clear that a stage two response should be sent within 20 working days. The landlord’s actions at stage two of its complaints process were therefore inappropriate and will have caused uncertainty to the resident as to how his complaint was being handled.

Determination (decision)

In accordance with Paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there has been a service failure by the landlord in its handling of repairs to the resident’s bathroom.
In accordance with Paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s complaint about the repairs.

Reasons

The landlord has taken an excessively long time to complete the repairs, which has caused inconvenience for the resident, and its compensation awards were insufficient given the circumstances of the complaint.
The landlord provided poor complaint handling as it failed to escalate the complaint to stage two in a timely manner.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

The landlord is ordered to inspect the resident’s bathroom to ensure that all works regarding the tiles, mould and toilet leak have been completed. This should be done within four weeks from the date of this decision.
The landlord should pay the resident £570 compensation in total for the repairs to the bathroom. This includes the £420 that has already been offered at stages one and two. This should be done within four weeks from the date of this decision and the landlord should provide evidence that it has paid this to this Service.
In addition, the landlord should pay the resident a further £125 compensation for its poor complaint handling and the time and trouble the resident has spent on the complaint. This should be done within four weeks from the date of this decision and the landlord should provide evidence that it has paid this to this Service.
The landlord should write to this Service with evidence of compliance with the above orders within four weeks of the date of this report.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the landlord review its responsive repairs process to ensure that it takes into account it’s residents’ health concerns when arranging repairs.
The landlord should confirm its intentions in regard to this recommendation to this Service within four weeks of the date of this report.