Birmingham City Council (202106816)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202106816

Birmingham City Council

14 January 2022


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns regarding his boiler, pests in his property and increased utility bills.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to consider.

Summary of events

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord.
  2. Following contact from the resident, this Service wrote to the landlord on 27 June 2021 and asked it to raise a formal complaint. The resident had explained that he had an ongoing, eight–year issue with his boiler. He said when his boiler was not working, he used electric heating which increased his electricity bills. He also said he had received a high water bill two years ago due to an unknown leak. He said the landlord made a hole in his property two years beforehand which caused rats to enter and damage his belongings. The resident asked to be reimbursed for his utility bills, and to be compensated for the stress and inconvenience caused.
  3. The landlord issued its stage one complaint response on 7 July 2021. It said the last leak related matter affecting the resident’s property was recorded on 28 August 2019. It said if there had been a leak, the resident would have seen evidence (dampness, or standing water). It advised that the resident was responsible for checking he was on the correct electricity tariff and it would not pay for either his water or electricity bills. It had attended four times in 2019 for a boiler breakdown, twice in 2020, and twice in 2021. When its surveyor attended on 18 May 2021 the resident confirmed he had no current issue with rodents, and that the hole where rodents had ben entering previously, had been repaired.
  4. The landlord’s records show the resident escalated his complaint on 10 August 2021. He remained dissatisfied that the landlord had not offered compensation which he believed he was owed.
  5. The landlord issued its stage two complaint response on 14 September 2021. It referred to previous complaints made by the resident in 2020 concerning similar matters. It said on 27 August 2020 it had confirmed that the hole in the property had been sealed. It considered that the resident should have acted sooner if he believed his utility bills were higher than usual. It advised there were no outstanding repairs to his property.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 39(e) of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman will not consider complaints that “were not brought to the attention of the landlord as a formal complaint within a reasonable period, which would normally be within six months of the matters arising”.
  2. The resident’s complaint (made in June 2021) is based upon issues which occurred, and which he was aware of before 2021. He explained that he received a high water bill in 2019, and that his boiler issue had been ongoing for eight years. The landlord said in its stage one complaint response that it had confirmed in August 2020 that the hole which was giving access to rats had already been sealed.
  3. The Ombudsman encourages residents to raise complaints with their landlords in a timely manner, so that the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to consider the issues whilst they are still ‘live’, and whilst the evidence is available to reach an informed conclusion on the events which occurred. Given the amount of time between the original issues arising, and the resident exhausting the landlord’s complaints procedure about them, and in accordance with paragraph 39 (e) of the Scheme, the Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint.