Basildon Borough Council (202112531)
REPORT
COMPLAINT 202112531
Basildon Borough Council
10 December 2022
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 repairs to the resident’s window, roof, brickwork, and balcony.
Background
- The resident is the leaseholder of the property, which is a first floor flat.
- On 19 June 2020, a refuse truck collided with the resident’s property. He informed the landlord on 11 November 2020 that repairs to the damage had not yet been carried out. These were: a window which was now misaligned and allowing draughts into the property; the roof had developed a leak, and; the electrics were operating erratically.
- Between 13 November 2020 and 24 February 2021, the landlord carried out four repairs, however the wall and window repairs remained outstanding. After the resident contacted the landlord on several occasions between 29 March and 4 May 2021 to chase updates, he raised a stage one complaint with the landlord on 4 May 2021 about the delay. The landlord’s response to this, on 17 May 2021, provided the resident with dates for his repairs and offered £100 compensation for the delays. When it failed to keep to an appointment on 9 June 2021, he escalated his complaint to stage two later that day; it responded to this by providing £20 compensation for the missed appointment.
- On 23 June 2021, the resident escalated his complaint to the final stage due to the landlord missing an appointment that day. The landlord identified a defect with the balcony on 1 July 2021 which was confirmed as resolved on 27 July 2021; however, damage was incurred to the window frames. The landlord issued its final stage complaint response on 23 August 2021 in which it offered compensation of £200, in addition to its previous offers, acknowledging that there had been “avoidable delays” in completing the repairs. It confirmed that the damage to window frames had been unrepairable and it would replace these.
- The resident informed the Ombudsman on 18 November 2021 that he continued to be dissatisfied with the length of time taken by the landlord to complete the repairs and the level of compensation it offered him for these delays. He had also raised a further issue to it on 13 October 2021 after being informed by his insurance company that the balcony repair had led to water leaking into his property.
Assessment and findings
Scope
- Following his initial complaint to this Service, the resident reported that he had been informed by his insurance company in October 2021 that the quality of the workmanship to the balcony was poor, resulting in water entering his property. The Ombudsman understands that the resident raised a new complaint with the landlord about this, but there is no indication that this complaint has exhausted its complaints process.
- The Scheme sets out that the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which are made to it prior to having exhausted a member’s complaints procedure, (unless there is evidence of a complaint-handling failure and the Ombudsman is satisfied that the member has not taken action within a reasonable timescale). This is because a landlord should have the opportunity to fully address an issue before the Ombudsman makes a determination. While the Ombudsman understands that the issue of the balcony is linked to the resident’s complaint, the specific concern about poor workmanship has not completed the landlord’s complaint process, and so the landlord has not yet had the opportunity to fully address it. As such, it is not considered in this investigation. The Ombudsman understands that the resident has requested that the landlord carries out the repairs to the balcony, and he is entitled to refer a new complaint to this Service if he remains dissatisfied, once the landlord’s complaint process has been completed.
The landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s window, roof, brickwork and balcony.
- The resident’s lease agreement with the landlord confirms that it is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the structure and exterior of the property. This includes the windows, walls, and balcony of the property. The resident, as the leaseholder of the property, is responsible for the repair of the electrical installations within.
- The landlord has not provided confirmation of its repair timeframes. In line with the best practice across the sector, the Ombudsman would expect emergency repairs to be completed within 24 hours and routine repairs to be completed within four weeks. When a repair proves to be complex, the landlord would be expected to keep the resident informed of progress while endeavouring to complete the repair in a reasonable timeframe.
- The landlord attended on 24 November and 7 December 2020, and 26 January and 24 February 2021 before it completed the roof repairs, over three months after the initial report. It was not disputed that this rectified the reported leak from the roof. However, this was an excessive number of attempts to complete the repair and was likely to have led to distress and inconvenience for the resident while the leak persisted.
- After some repairs to the brickwork were carried out on 17 December 2020, the landlord inspected the property on 4 February 2021 and found further cracks in the brickwork which were leading to damp inside the property. It did not provide an appointment for this work until 20 April 2021, and this appointment was in a further two months’ time on 22 June 2021. This was a significant time to await the repair, and caused detriment to the resident by allowing damp to persist in his property. The landlord should have addressed the repair as a priority, given the potential for damp to become a hazard to health. This repair was brought forward to 14 June 2021, when the work was completed, however it failed to keep an earlier appointment for this on 9 June 2021. This led to disappointment, distress and inconvenience for the resident, prompting him to escalate his complaint to the next stage.
- The landlord attended the resident’s property on 13 November 2020 to carry out repairs to the misaligned window. The contractors report noted that replacement of the window was required if the problem persisted. It was evident that the repair was unsuccessful as the resident was required to chase this repair in a series of emails between 20 April and 4 May 2021, in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the landlord not providing him with a firm date for the replacement. It advised him in its stage one complaint response that the work would be completed on 22 and 23 June 2021. It was not, which led to the resident escalating his complaint to the final stage.
- The Ombudsman has not been provided with a specific date for the when the windows were replaced, however it was evident that these had been replaced by 13 October 2021. This was because the resident had previously told the landlord on 8 July 2021 that his insurance company was unable to begin the drying process of the property until all repairs had been completed. This represented a period of approximately 11 months between 11 November 2020 and 13 October 2021 for the windows to be fully repaired, which was an excessive and unreasonable delay.
- In its final response to the complaint, the landlord acknowledge ‘avoidable delays’ and a lack of communication, and offered sincere apologies. It also offered the resident of £320 compensation for its handling of the repair works. This was appropriate and shows that the landlord was taking steps in an attempt to ‘put things right’ for the resident.
- However, the Ombudsman notes that the resident repeatedly informed the landlord that, while the repairs were outstanding, he was unable to carry out any repairs to the interior of the property and was forced to live in damp conditions. This was a period of approximately 11 months, during which he was likely to have experienced distress and inconvenience, which was compounded by being unable to carry out remedial work to his property to mitigate the damage caused by damp.
- As the distress and inconvenience experienced by the resident resulted from the unreasonable delay by the landlord in completing all the remedial work, its compensation offer of £320 was insufficient to proportionately recognise the detriment caused to him over 11 months. As such, a finding of service failure is found. The Ombudsman’s own remedies guidance sets out that in cases where there has been a failure which adversely affected the resident, and a landlord has acknowledged this and made some attempt to put things right (but the offer was not proportionate), compensation of between £100 and £600 would be appropriate. Given the lengthy delays in this case and the impact this had on the resident, an amount at the upper end of this scale is ordered below.
- Further, there is no indication in the landlord’s final response that it took any steps to identify the reasons for the failings and ‘learn from outcomes’. Therefore, an order is made to address this below.
Determination
- In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of repairs to the resident’s window, roof, brickwork, and balcony.
Orders
- Within one month of the date of this report, the landlord should:
- Pay the resident compensation of £600, to replace its previous offer of £320 (if the £320 has already been paid it can be deducted from this total).
- Review its handling of the repairs in this case, to determine the reason for the delays in completing these, and what action has been/will be taken to prevent a recurrence of such delays in the future. The landlord should inform the Ombudsman of the outcome of this review.