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bpha Limited (202409252)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202409252

bpha Limited

30 September 2025

 

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 requests for repairs to the living room and kitchen flooring.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. She lives in a 3-bedroom new build house under an agreement that started on 29 July 2019.
  2. When the building developer handed the property over to the landlord in April 2018, it noted it needed to monitor the appearing crack in the screed underneath the sheet vinyl flooring.
  3. Following moving into the new build property in July 2019, the resident reported cracks in her living room and kitchen floors on 10 occasions between 13 January 2021 and 21 March 2024.
  4. On 28 March 2024 the resident raised a complaint to the landlord. She said she wanted to complain about the slow service received to repair the cracks in the flooring of her property. The landlord had completed an inspection on 23 February 2024, and she had still not heard anything about arranging repair work. She said she could not enjoy her home, and it was affecting her mental health.
  5. The landlord responded at stage 1 of its complaint process on 15 April 2024. It said it had passed the work request to its contractor to repair the flooring, but it did not have a start date. It apologised for the delays and said it would continue to chase the contractor and provide updates. It said it would also wait for the completion of the repairs before considering compensation.
  6. The resident said she was dissatisfied with the landlord’s response on 30 April 2024. She said she had received no contact from the contractor and asked it to escalate the complaint.
  7. The landlord provided its final complaint response on 3 June 2024. It said it suspected the movement lines in the vinyl sheet flooring and tile coverings were due to movement in the insulation under the screed. It said the house builder had confirmed it would deal with the issue as a latent defect. It apologised for the distress and inconvenience and offered £200 compensation.
  8. When the resident contacted us, she wanted the landlord to complete the repairs to her flooring and provide compensation. However, the landlord has since confirmed to us that it repaired the flooring in January 2025.

Assessment and findings

Requests for repairs to the living room and kitchen flooring

  1. From time to time there will be defects and snagging in new build properties which may not have been identified in the initial build. New build properties are therefore protected by the defect period and the warranties in place, and the existence of defects alone would not constitute a failure in the landlord’s service.
  2. According to the landlord’s repairs policy, it should complete an urgent repair within 7 calendar days, a routine repair within 28 calendar days, and a non-routine more complex repair within 90 calendar days.
  3. The resident reported a large crack in her living room floor to the landlord on 17 November 2022. She said she also had a large crack in the kitchen floor, which the landlord was already due to repair in a few weeks’ time. The landlord asked her to provide photographs of the issue. It should have arranged for the floor to be repaired within 90 days. However, it has not provided any evidence of it raising any repair work at that time. This is a failure.
  4. The resident telephoned the landlord on 23 January 2023 to chase up the repair issue. It said it had raised a repair with its contractor and again asked the resident to provide photographs of the issue. We have not seen any evidence of the landlord raising the repair job, which indicates poor record keeping.
  5. On 9 May 2023 the resident contacted the landlord to chase up the repairs, as a contractor had attended previously and removed the kitchen flooring. This left her with no flooring and affected her enjoyment of the kitchen. The landlord booked an appointment for 22 May 2023. There is no evidence to show when the kitchen flooring was removed, or any evidence to suggest the new appointment of 22 May 2023 was completed. This again shows poor record keeping.
  6. The resident continued to contact the landlord to chase up repairs to her kitchen and living room flooring on 15 August 2023, 8 and 16 January, 2 February and 21 March 2024. During that time, the landlord had arranged full inspections and surveys of the flooring to be completed on 6 June 2023 and 27 February 2024. However, there is no evidence of any lasting repairs being arranged or completed, which is inappropriate.
  7. When the landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response of 15 April 2024 it did not provide any resolution. It did not provide any timescale for the completion of repair works and offered no compensation for the significant delays. This was a failure.
  8. On 22 May 2024 the building developer confirmed with the landlord it would arrange for a further investigation of the flooring and any subsequent follow up work.
  9. In its final complaint response of 3 June 2024, the landlord confirmed the building developer had confirmed it would deal with the flooring issues as a latent defect. It apologised and offered £200 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused, which we do not consider to be adequate. It again offered no timescale for the completion of repair works. This was a further failure.
  10. The landlord has provided limited evidence of it raising repair works with its contractor. It has also provided limited evidence of appointments being raised and whether they were completed or not. The lack of record keeping contributed to confusion for the resident and caused her to chase up matters on several occasions. This caused time, trouble and inconvenience for the resident.
  11. The evidence shows numerous instances where the resident did not know what was happening with respect to the outstanding repairs. There is also evidence of internal emails between the landlord and its contractors trying to determine who would be ultimately responsible for completing the repairs and bearing the costs. This contributed to significant delays. On occasion, the landlord said its contractor would contact the resident directly to arrange appointments, but this did not always happen.
  12. The landlord has since confirmed to us that the contractor attended and completed the outstanding repair work to the flooring in the week commencing 13 January 2025. It has also confirmed the only compensation paid to the resident is for a reimbursement of costs she incurred totalling £41.94.
  13. In summary, the landlord did not complete repairs within 90 days of each of the resident’s reports of issues with the flooring. When it completed the repairs in the week commencing 13 January 2025, that was a full 4 years from the resident’s first report of January 2021. It was 2 years and 2 months after the resident’s report of November 2022, and 10 months after she raised her complaint of March 2024. There was also a lack of communication with the resident about what work would be completed and when. The resident therefore experienced significant delays awaiting repair works and the enjoyment of her home was impacted by the issues with cracks in flooring to both her kitchen and living room.
  14. Therefore, we are ordering the landlord to apologise to and pay the resident £1,000 compensation. This considers the failings mentioned above and is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for such failings resulting in maladministration that delayed getting matters resolved.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s requests for repairs to the living room and kitchen flooring.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. The landlord must within 28 days of the date of this determination:
    1. Provide the resident with an apology for the failings outlined in this report.
    2. Pay the resident total compensation of £1,000 for the time, trouble, distress and inconvenience caused by the landlord’s handling of the resident’s requests for repairs to the living room and kitchen flooring.
  2. All payments must be paid directly to the resident and not credited to the rent account unless otherwise agreed by the resident.