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A2Dominion Housing Group Limited (202234916)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202234916

A2Dominion Housing Group Limited

25 November 2024

 

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

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for further information about its 2021/2022 service charges.
  2. The Ombudsman has also investigated the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

  1. The property is a flat on the second floor of a block of similar properties. The resident and her partner are shared ownership leaseholders of the property. The landlord is the freeholder. Both the resident and her partner had contact with the landlord during the period being investigated. However, this report will not differentiate between the two and both parties are referred to as “the resident”.
  2. On 28 September 2022 the landlord sent the resident a service charge summary for the year 2021/2022. On 4 October 2022 the resident emailed the landlord to ask for further information, including questions about specific charges. The landlord acknowledged receipt of this email via an automated email response.
  3. On 18 November 2022 the resident raised a complaint as she had not received a response to her query. The landlord acknowledged receipt of this complaint via an automated email response.
  4. On 11 January 2023 the landlord emailed the resident to say it was looking into the resident’s request for a more detailed breakdown and would respond by 20 January 2023. It also said it would be arranging a meeting with the chair & committee of the resident’s association within the next 3 weeks. On 16 January the resident replied to the landlord to ask it to acknowledge that the query had been made “months ago”, as it had not done so.
  5. On 23 January 2023 the resident raised another complaint as she had not received a response by the 20 January 2023 as promised. She had also received no response to the original complaint that she made on 18 November 2022.
  6. In its stage 1 response on 7 February 2023 the landlord apologised that the resident had not received a response to her enquiry by 20 January 2023 and awarded £50 compensation in recognition of its poor communication. It said its property manager would contact her with an update on 8th February 2023.
  7. On 8 February 2023 the property manager emailed the resident to say the service charge query was being investigated and that they would contact her again on 17 February 2023. The resident escalated her complaint on 8 February 2023, saying that she did not consider the complaint closed as she was still awaiting a response to her original query. The landlord acknowledged the escalation request on 13 February 2023.
  8. In its stage 2 response on 10 March 2023, the landlord said that it was working on a service charge dispute for the 2021/2022 actuals and hoped to update the resident by 31 March 2023. It acknowledged that the resident had said that the resolution she sought was for queries to be answered within promised timescales, and for greater transparency. It said a new management team had taken over on 27 February 2023 and it aimed to meet her expectations going forward.
  9. The resident contacted the Ombudsman on 31 March 2023, as although the landlord had provided a letter with some information about the service charges, the resident was not satisfied that it had addressed the specific questions she had asked.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation.

  1. Paragraph 42(d) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states “we may not consider complaints that concern the level of service charge or rent or the increase of service charge or rent.” Complaints that relate to the level, reasonableness, or liability to pay rent or service charges are within the jurisdiction of the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). The resident can seek free and independent legal advice from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) (https://www.lease-advice.org/) in relation to how to proceed with a case if they so wish. We are able to investigate complaints about how the landlord communicated information about service charges and this investigation will focus on that.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for further information about its 2021/2022 service charges.

  1. Under section 22 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a resident has the right to request, within 6 months of obtaining a summary of service charges, that the landlord allow them to inspect the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting the summary. The landlord should make this available to the resident for a period of two months beginning not later than one month after the request is made. Therefore, when the resident made their request for further information about the service charge summary on 4 October 2022, it would have been appropriate for the landlord to have provided access to the information within one month.
  2. Alternatively, at the very least it would have been reasonable for it to respond to the resident to further clarify what information they required and to advise them of the likely timeframe for providing that information. However, the landlord failed to do either. This resulted in the resident contacting the landlord again on 18 November 2022 to raise a complaint about the lack of response. Its response to this complaint will be addressed in the section of this report about complaint handling.
  3. The landlord has provided no evidence of it responding to the resident until 11 January 2023, when it emailed the resident to say it was looking into her request for a more detailed breakdown and would respond by 20 January 2023. It is noted that it was also arranging a meeting with the Chair & committee of the resident’s association, which was appropriate. The landlord should have responded by 20 January 2023, however it failed to do so. Due to this and the fact that the resident had received no response to their previous complaint, this resulted in the resident raising a second complaint on 23 January 2023.
  4. The landlord took appropriate steps to contact the resident with an update on 8 February 2023, as agreed in its stage 1 response. However, the update was just to advise that it would contact her again on 17 February 2023. The landlord finally provided further information about the service charges by 31 March 2023 as agreed in its stage 2 response on 10 March 2023. However, this was almost 6 months after the resident requested the information and far outside the one month period that it should have ideally been provided.
  5. In its stage 1 response the landlord appropriately addressed that there had been a delay in providing the information and awarded £50 for that delay. However, it failed to address the further delay or the fact that even if it did provide the information by 31 March 2023, a 6 month timeframe to receive the information was not acceptable or reasonable and caused distress and inconvenience to the resident.
  6. It is noted that the landlord has taken appropriate steps to install a new management team from 27 February 2023. However, in light of the failings identified in this report the Ombudsman has made a finding of maladministration. In line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for cases of maladministration where the landlord has acknowledged failings and/or made some attempt to put things right but failed to address the detriment to the resident or make a proportionate offer of compensation, we will be ordering the landlord to pay the resident a further £100 compensation. This is in addition to the £50 it has already paid. As the resident has advised that they still do not feel that their original query was addressed we will also be ordering the landlord to contact the resident to address any outstanding issues related to this complaint.
  7. This investigation has found two examples (on 4 October 2022 and 18 November 2018) of the resident receiving automated email responses to her enquiry and complaint that led her to believe they were being acknowledged and acted upon. This then led to further frustration for the resident when no further responses were received and she had to contact the landlord again. Therefore, we will also be recommending that the landlord considers reviewing the wording of its automated email responses, to clarify that a formal acknowledgment will be provided within a specified timeframe and that the resident should contact them again if this is not received.

Complaint handling.

  1. In line with its complaints policy, when the resident raised her complaint on 18 November 2022, the landlord should have logged, allocated and acknowledged the complaint within 5 working days and provided a response within a further 10 working days. However, it failed to do so. This resulted in the resident having to raise the complaint again on 23 January 2023. The landlord has confirmed to the Ombudsman that the complaint raised in January 2023 uses the same reference number as the complaint the resident originally raised on 18 November 2022. However, it has not confirmed why the original complaint was not progressed through its complaints process.
  2. Once the complaint was raised again on 23 January 2023, the landlord acknowledged and responded to it at stage 1 and 2 of its complaints process within the timescales in its complaint policy. However, as it had failed to respond to the initial complaint 2 months earlier, there was maladministration by the landlord. In its stage 1 response the landlord took appropriate steps to apologise for its delay in responding to the query the resident’s raised on 4 October 2022. However, it would also have been appropriate for it to have acknowledged and apologised for its failure to respond to the initial complaint that was raised on 18 November 2022, but it failed to do so. This was a further failing by the landlord.
  3. In line with our remedies guidance for cases of maladministration where landlord has failed to acknowledge its failings and/or has made no attempt to put things, right the Ombudsman will be ordering the landlord to apologise to the resident and pay compensation of £150.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for further information about its 2021/2022 service charges.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s complaint handling.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this decision the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Apologise to the resident for its failings in relation to the resident’s request for further information about its 2021/2022 service charges, and its complaint handling.
    2. Contact the resident to discuss any outstanding questions she has about the 2021-2022 service charges, and to advise how it will address those.
    3. Pay the resident a total of £250 compensation, comprised of:
      1. £100 for the impact on the resident of its failings in relation to its handling of her request for further information about its 2021/2022 service charges. This is in addition to the £50 compensation it has already awarded (which it should also pay if it has not already done so.)
      2. £150 for the impact on the resident of its complaint handling failures.

 Recommendations

  1. The landlord is recommended to consider whether it should amend the wording on its automated email responses.