Clarion Housing Association Limited (202118686)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202118686

Clarion Housing Association Limited

11 December 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

1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about:
   1. The condition of the property when it was first let.
   2. When the rent was first payable from.
   3. Repairs at the property.
   4. A gas leak.

Background and summary of events

Background

2. The resident has an assured non-shorthold tenancy which began on 14 April 2021. The landlord recorded on its systems that the resident had learning difficulties, but that there had been no requests from the resident to make adjustments in how it communicates.
3. The landlord has provided a copy of its voids procedure (the ready to let standard) which show that before an empty property is let to a new tenant, the landlord undertakes a number of safety checks and completes repair works.
4. The landlord’s responsive repairs policy says that emergency repairs should be attended within 24 hours, and works to make safe or temporarily repair should be completed at this visit. With non-emergency repairs, the landlord offers the next available appointment that suits the resident and this will be within 28 days of the repair being reported.
5. The landlord has provided a copy of the tenancy terms and conditions. The document does not provide information on how a tenant should report a gas leak. The landlord’s website provides emergency information on what its residents should do if there is a gas leak. The website says to contact the National Gas Emergency Helpline and provides a contact number.
6. The tenancy agreement stipulates rent is payable in advance on the first day of each month. The document explains that as the tenancy start date was not on the first day of the month, a total of £219.45 was payable to cover the interim period between when the tenancy started and the following first day of the next month. This amount was due on the tenancy start date.

Summary of events

7. The landlord’s repair notes show that the property was deemed a new void on 3 March 2021. The landlord carried out a gas safety check on 8 March 2021. An internal email dated 15 March 2021, confirmed that the void was ready to be let and that the gas and electric checks had been completed. The landlord has also provided a copy of its void report to show the property was ready to be let out.  
8. The resident and landlord signed the tenancy agreement on 14 April 2021. Subsequent to signing the tenancy, the resident commented that they felt the property needed repairs to be completed and that he could not move in straight away. The Ombudsman has not seen any evidence that supports these matters were recorded by the landlord at the material time. The resident has told this Service that he felt this breached the landlord’s policy, as the repairs were not completed prior to the landlord re–letting the property.
9. On 22 April 2021 the landlord checked and uncapped the gas supply. The landlord provided a gas safety certificate for this date to show that the gas was checked and safe.
10. On 24 May 2021, the resident reported that the balcony leaked in bad weather. On 7 June 2021, an issue was raised by the landlord regarding the roof, and this job was completed on 12 July 2021. The resident has since said that the roof was leaking when he moved into the property.
11. On 2 November 2021, the resident contacted his landlord to report that he had no heating or hot water. An appointment was booked for the following day. A visit was made to the resident’s home on 3 November 2021, and the job was recorded as completed with the boiler pressure topped up.
12. On 9 November 2021, the resident’s walls and ceiling were inspected due to damage from the leak in the roof.
13. On 11 November 2021, the landlord’s repair notes show that the resident called in to book an appointment, whilst doing so the resident informed the landlord that a gas leak had been repaired by the supply company around 10 November 2021. The landlord noted this information and booked and appointment for 12 November 2021 to attend to the boiler and an operative attended to top up the boiler water pressure.
14. The resident called the landlord again on 16 November 2021 to explain that he has had a gas leak in his house since he had moved in. An engineer had uncapped the gas when he first moved in and he said he could smell gas from that point. The resident said that three engineers had looked at the boiler and said it was leaking gas.
15. The resident raised a formal complaint on 17 November 2021 regarding what he considered was incorrect advice he had received at sign up, including not having a rent free period between sign up and moving in due to repairs which he said had been promised. Furthermore, he reported there were issues with his boiler, he had sustained poisoning from the gas leak, his utilities were not working and that universal credit did not cover his first month’s rent.
16. The landlord fitted a new boiler on 19 November 2021.
17. The landlord’s internal correspondence show that on 24 November 2021, it spoke to the operative who completed the sign up with the resident. They explained that they had told the resident that he would need to pay rent from the start of his tenancy. They did not recall any outstanding repairs during sign up and said they had checked their records and could not find any reports of repairs. They were confident that there were no outstanding repairs during the sign up. They recalled that the resident was very anxious at the time.
18. The landlord provided its stage one response on 26 November 2021, which said the following:

a. That its staff advised during the sign up that he would need to pay rent from the tenancy start date. There were also no outstanding repairs at the time of sign up according to its records.

b. The landlord said its gas contractor completed a turn on test on 22 April 2021   and confirmed everything was fine. There were no other issues until 2 November 2021 when the resident complained about no heating or hot water.

c. It was the resident’s responsibility to contact his utility providers to ensure that the service was adequate. The landlord said that the resident would have to liaise with universal credit providers to ensure his rent was covered from the start of his tenancy. The landlord did not identify any service failures in regards to how it acted.

19. Correspondence from the residents gas supplier dated 30 November 2021, said it had detected a gas leak, however, that the landlord would not have been able to detect it as part of a routine gas safety check. This was because the leak was on the incoming steel pipe. The provider said it cut off the old pipe to make it safe and ran a new external supply to the meter position.
20. The resident escalated his complaint to stage two on 13 December 2021, and he told the landlord that his outstanding concerns were:

a. That it took several months to be told how to report a gas leak, which resulted in health issues.

b. There were outstanding repairs, including a leaking roof when he moved into the property. The resident said that the landlord had failed to meet its legal requirements regarding its repair responsibilities.

21. The repairs which were raised on 9 November 2021, following the damage to the roof, and which included plastering, were completed on 14 December 2021.
22. On 7 January 2021, internal correspondence showed that the landlord spoke to its contractor who confirmed that the gas leak was on the incoming main and it had been repaired.
23. The landlord issued its stage two response on 18 January 2022, which said the following:

a. The property met the landlord’s ready to let standard when the resident signed up for the property on 14 April 2021, and it would not be reimbursing any rent.

b. It was alerted about the water penetration on 24 May 2021, which affected the property during periods of heavy rainfall. The repair was completed on 5 July 2021 to stop the leak. The landlord then completed the repairs to the damage caused on 14 December 2021. It was acknowledged that that there was a delay to stop the water penetration and this was outside of the landlord’s service agreement, so it awarded £50 compensation.

c. In respect of the repair work for the damage caused by the leak, the landlord accepted that the length of time taken was not acceptable and apologised for the inconvenience. It offered a further £50 for the delay in completing the repairs.

d. The landlord said that the issue with the leak to the gas main was separate to the boiler issues and was the responsibility of the gas provider. The landlord topped up the pressure on the boiler on 3 and 11 November 2021 and 10 January 2022. The repairs were completed within its agreed timescales.

e. When contractors attended on 3 November 2021, there was nothing to indicate that there was a gas leak affecting the supply to the resident’s home. There was also no record of the resident reporting the matter to its contact centre or to its contractors prior to the gas provider carrying out a repair around 8 November 2021.

f. The landlord said that any claim with regard to the impact caused by a delay in repairing the gas main should be directed to the provider. Furthermore, it said that all matters relating to leaks to the supply up to the meter serving the property were the responsibility of the gas provider.

g. If the resident had any evidence that he reported the leak to the landlord before the gas provider repaired the issue around 8 November 2021, then he should provide this information.

24.  On 8 March 2022, the landlord completed its annual gas safety check and has provided the certificate to the Ombudsman Service.
25. Internal correspondence from the landlord dated 7 November 2022 and after its internal complaint procedure, said that compensation should be paid to the resident for the 16 day period prior to new boiler been fitted on 19 November 2021. There was no further information regarding this.

Assessment and findings

26. The resident has maintained that the issues affecting his property had a negative impact on his health. It is beyond the remit of this Service to draw conclusions on the causation of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing as these matters are more suitable to be dealt with through a personal injury claim. As such, the Ombudsman will not consider this aspect of the resident’s complaint. Nonetheless, consideration has been given to the general distress and inconvenience which the situation may have caused the resident.
27. The landlord has provided the resident with its insurance details and he has made a claim seeking compensation for personal injury. As mentioned above, this issue is being dealt with by the landlord’s insurers and will not be addressed in this report.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about the condition of the property when it was first let to him

28. The resident has said that repairs were needed for the property to be habitable and therefore he could not move in straight away. The landlord has provided evidence to show that the property was inspected and signed off as ready to let on 15 March 2021. There is no evidence that the property was not at a lettable standard and the resident has not been able to show he raised any repairs at the point of the sign up and the tenancy start date. The landlord has also stated that the resident did not raise any repairs with them at this point. Furthermore, the repair notes and contact notes do not show any reported repairs from this period. In the Ombudsman’s opinion, there is an absence of evidence to support there were any outstanding repairs or known defects at the point the resident began his tenancy.
29. The landlord also complied with its obligations under its voids procedure, as this states that any repairs and safety checks would be completed prior to the property being re-let. As the repair work and safety checks were completed in March 2021, and the resident started the tenancy on 14 April 2021, the landlord complied with its policy. The documentary evidence supports the landlord’s position that the property met its suitable letting standards when the resident began his tenancy.
30. Whilst the start date of the tenancy was the 14 April 2021, the landlord did not attend to uncap the gas until 22 April 2021, just over a week later. Therefore, this means that the resident would have been denied key services within the property. The gas should have been checked and uncapped at the very start of the tenancy, and by not doing so, there has been a service failure and the resident should be compensated to reflect this loss of service.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about when the rent was payable from

31. The landlord provided a copy of the signed tenancy agreement showing that both parties agreed that the start date was 14 April 2021. Furthermore, the agreement states that as the tenancy start date was not the 1st day of the month, the resident was to pay £219.45 on the tenancy start date. The total rent due would then be on the start of each month afterwards . Therefore, the tenancy agreement states when payment should be made and how much was to be paid each month, and the resident has not provided any evidence to the contrary. The wording in the tenancy agreement could be clearer, but essentially there is no other evidence to show that the landlord and resident had agreed anything different.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about repairs

32. The repair notes show that the resident raised an issue with a leak from his balcony on 24 May 2021. The landlord came out to inspect this on 7 June 2021. This would be regarded as a non-emergency repair, and therefore as the landlord came out within 28 days to inspect the issue, then this was in line with its repairs policy. However, on 7 June 2021, the landlord identified that the root cause of the issue concerned repairs required to the roof. The roof was not repaired until 12 July 2021, which is more than 28 days after the issue was reported.
33. The landlord accepted that there was a delay in stopping the water penetration which was outside of its service agreement, and awarded £50 compensation in its stage two response. As the delay was relatively short, the £50 compensation awarded by the landlord was reasonable in the circumstances.
34. The resident said the roof was leaking when he first moved into the property, but there is no evidence he reported this before 24 May 2021. The landlord is only obligated to complete repairs within a certain time frame, once they have been brought to its attention. The resident stated that he reported the repairs by phone, but the landlord does not have any evidence from its records to suggest these repairs were reported prior to 24 May 2021 and the resident has also been unable to provide any evidence to support their claim.
35. The landlord did not complete the repair work required inside the property from the damage caused by the leak until 14 December 2021. Furthermore, it did not even inspect the damage to decide what repairs were needed until November 2021. By this point, the resident had raised a formal complaint on 17 November 2021. The landlord accepted that the length of time taken was not acceptable and apologised for the inconvenience caused to the resident. The repairs were completed more than six months after the resident raised the issue, which was outside of the timelines within the landlord’s policy. The landlord offered a further £50 compensation. Given the length of the delay this was not reasonable when considering the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident over a protracted period. In order to resolve the issue, the resident was obliged to raise a formal complaint which would have caused him additional time and inconvenience.
36. The resident first reported an issue with his hot water/heating on 2 November 2021 and the landlord came out to top up the water pressure on 3 November 2021. The repair notes also show that the resident reported an issue with his boiler on 11 November 2021 and the landlord booked an appointment and visited on 12 November 2021, to again top up the water pressure. Both of these repairs were completed in line with the landlord’s policy and were reasonable actions taken by the landlord.
37. The boiler was replaced on 19 November 2021. It is reasonable for the landlord to be entitled to attempt to fix the boiler before it went to the additional expense of having to replace it. There was no service failure with regards to how the landlord reacted to reports of issues with the resident’s boiler and the actions it subsequently took to make repairs.
38. Whilst the landlord acted in line with its policy with regards to the boiler repairs, internal correspondence dated 7 November 2022 showed that the landlord had commented that compensation should be paid for the 16 day period prior to a new boiler being fitted. It is not clear from the landlord’s notes as to whether this was offered to the resident. As the landlord has suggested such action was appropriate at the material time, and has not offered a rationale subsequently to explain why it does not think it to be appropriate, this Service has recommended that the landlord provides clarity on the matter following receipt of this report.
39. The landlord said in its stage two response that an engineer topped up the pressure on 11 November 2021, but the notes show that this occurred on 12 November 2021. The landlord also said that the leaking roof was repaired on 5 July 2021, but the notes said that the job was completed on 12 July 2021. Furthermore, the landlord told the Ombudsman that the gas safety check was completed on 23 April 2021, but records show it was the day earlier. It is important that the landlord keeps clear and accurate records to maintain the trust in its relationship with its residents, and to provide accurate information to the Ombudsman.
40. In summary, the landlord handled the boiler repairs reasonably and in line with its process, but there was a service failure with the delays in dealing with the leak repair and completing the follow up work. The compensation offered by the landlord in acknowledgement of these service failures was insufficient given the length of the delays and impact upon the resident.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about a gas leak

41. The resident said that there was a gas leak at his property since he moved in. The resident said that he reported this to his landlord by phone. The phone notes do not show any calls from the resident regarding a gas leak until 11 November 2021. The notes from this call show that the resident informed the landlord that there was a gas leak and it had already been repaired by the service supplier.
42. The tenancy terms and conditions do not state what action the resident should take in case of an emergency gas leak. A recommendation has been made below in regards to this. The resident said that he did not know who to contact for six months regarding the gas leak. The landlord’s website states residents should contact the National Gas Emergency Helpline if they smell gas. There is no evidence that the resident contacted the landlord about the gas leak and there was information provided by the landlord available to help the resident. There was no service failure by the landlord in respect to this specific complaint, however, the landlord could consider if alternative means of providing the information contained upon its website could be given to residents upon sign up, particularly where residents may have additional needs in regards to how they absorb written information.
43. The landlord has provided evidence to show that a gas safety check was carried out on 8 March 2021 and a further check was completed on 22 April 2021 – when the gas was uncapped. The certificates show that there were no issues, and the landlord also completed its annual check on 8 March 2022. Correspondence from the gas supplier dated 30 November 2021, explained to the resident that the landlord would not have been able to detect the gas leak as part of a routine gas safety check.
44. An engineer checked the resident’s boiler on 3 November 2021, when the resident called to say he had no heating and hot water. There was nothing to indicate that there was a gas leak affecting the supply to the resident’s home. There was also no record of the resident reporting the matter to the landlord’s contact centre or to its contractors until after the leak had been repaired. Therefore, the actions taken by the landlord were reasonable, as it only found out about the issue after it had been resolved and it would have been the service provider’s responsibility. The landlord complied with its obligations regarding the safety of gas supply and there was no service failure in regards to this aspect of the resident’s complaint.

Determination (decision)

45. In accordance with paragraph 52, the Ombudsman finds service failure in regards to the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about the condition of the property when it was first let.
46. In accordance with paragraph 52, the Ombudsman finds no maladministration in regards to the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about when rent was first payable from.
47. In accordance with paragraph 52, the Ombudsman finds maladministration in regards to the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about repairs including a leak and issues with his boiler.
48. In accordance with paragraph 52, the Ombudsman finds no maladministration in regards to the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about a gas leak.

Reasons

49. There is no evidence that there were outstanding repairs when the resident moved in and the start date of the tenancy and when rent was due from was covered in the agreement. However, the gas was not uncapped at the property until 22 April 2021 and therefore the resident would not have been able to use the fixtures which relied upon a gas supply between 14 April 2021 when he started the tenancy until 22 April 2021.
50. The landlord did not complete the repairs caused by the damage from the leak in the roof in a reasonable time, as repairs were still being completed in December 2021. This was seven months after the resident had raised the leak issue and the landlord breached its repairs policy. The compensation offered was not reasonable in the circumstances given the amount of time and the inconvenience this would have caused to the resident. The landlord only completed the repairs after the resident had taken the time to raise a complaint.
51. The landlord completed all required gas safety checks and only found out about the gas leak after it had occurred and had been rectified by the gas provider. Expert opinion from the supply company shows that the landlord would not have been able to detect the gas leak whilst conducting gas safety checks. The landlord’s website provides information to tenants on who to contact in case of a gas leak emergency. There is also no evidence that the resident told the landlord about the gas leak before 11 November 2021.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

52. The landlord is ordered within four weeks from the date of this report to pay £75 compensation to the resident for the loss of amenities which required a gas supply for the period of 14 April 2021 to 22 April 2021.
53. The landlord is ordered to pay the resident a further £75 compensation in addition to the £100 previously offered in its stage two response for the handling of its repairs following a leak. The total compensation payable including that outlined at para 52 (less any payment already made) totals £250. This should be paid directly to the resident and not off set against any arrears.
54. The landlord should reply to this Service with evidence of compliance within the timescales set out above.

Recommendations

55. Within eight weeks of the date of this report, it is recommended that the landlord review its repairs record keeping processes in line with the Ombudsman’s Spotlight Report on Knowledge and Information Management (May 2023) and create an action plan to show how it will ensure that its repairs logs contain accurate and timely information.
56. It is recommended that the landlord review its new tenancy procedures to include information about who a resident should contact in emergency situations or signpost the resident to the information on its website.
57. It is recommended that the landlord provides clarity to both the resident and this Service in regards to its internal correspondence which suggested compensation be made to the resident for a 16 day period in which he could not use his boiler in November 2021. The landlord should either make good its proposed compensation in addition to that ordered above, or explain that the payment has been made, or explain satisfactorily why it had made the comment in error.
58. It is recommended that the landlord proactively contact its resident’s to check if they require any adjustments or additional support when they have been made aware that a resident has a medical condition or learning difficulty.
59. The landlord should advise this Service of its intentions in regard to the above recommendations within four weeks of the date of this report.