Clarion Housing Association Limited (202313062)

Background

1. The resident lives in a flat. He has reported repair issues and communication issues around 2 broken communal doors in the building and an overgrown oak tree in his garden. The repairs have now been completed.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s:

a.             Repair of communal doors.

b.             An overgrown oak tree.

3. Communication.
4. Complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

5. There was reasonable redress with the landlord’s:
   1. Handling of the repair of the communal doors.
   2. Handling of the overgrown oak tree.
   3. Communication.
   4. Complaint handling.

We have not made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of repair of communal doors

6. The landlord did not remedy the repairs in line with its policy timeframes. But it has acknowledged this failure, provided appropriate compensation and took proportionate steps to complete the repairs.

The landlord handling of an overgrown tree:

7. Whilst the landlord failed to act upon the resident’s concerns initially, it acknowledged this failure, provided compensation and cut back the tree.

Communication:

8. Though the landlord failed to communicate with the resident within its timescales, it recognised its failure, provided appropriate compensation and took reasonable steps to ensure future contact was on time.

Complaint handling:

9. The landlord accepted failings in its handling of the resident’s complaint. It apologised and offered compensation, which was sufficient to put things right during the complaints procedure.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

What we found and why

The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that’s happened or comment on all the information we’ve reviewed. We’ve only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

10. The landlord’s repair policy says it is responsible for repairs in communal areas which have a completion period of 28 days.
11. On 5 June 2023, the resident reported damage to the building’s communal doors. He chased the repair on 26 June 2023, but the landlord did not respond until 3 August 2023, 31 days from when the repairs should have happened following the June 2023report. This was a reasonable timeframe.
12. The landlord said it would investigate the broken communal doors, but there is no record showing it did this. This indicates poor record keeping by the landlord and caused the resident to chase again for an update on 12 September 2023, to receive an email on 3 October 2023 with no new answers, but a promise that it would chase the repair. On 10 October 2023 it said that the repairs would happen that day, but if there wasn’t a first fix, it would order parts to carry out repairs for another time. There was no further communication from the landlord about the doors until its stage 1 and 2 complaint responses.
13. The complaint response is the first time the resident got an explanation for the delay. Delays do happen, but it is best to explain the reason behind this to a resident, The landlord apologised for the delay in repairs and the chasing for updates, awarding the resident £150 in compensation.
14. We have considered our own remedies guidance (published on our website) in respect of compensation. Our guidance suggests awards of between £100 and £600 where there was a failure by the landlord that adversely affected the resident but there may be no permanent impact. The landlord’s award is within this range; and it was sufficient for the distress and inconvenience caused by the delay and the repairs are no longer outstanding. The landlord offered reasonable redress for this complaint. It is unclear whether the landlord has paid the compensation, therefore we have recommended that it do so if it has not already.

15. The landlord has not provided a policy about tree maintenance. But the tenancy agreement says that a resident is responsible for the maintenance of trees and hedges in their garden. The landlord will act if there were health and safety concerns with the tree, there were not. However, it agreed to cut back the tree since it was overgrown.
16. Back in February 2023, the resident raised concerns about the tree. Following this, the resident chased the repair a further 7 times before, the landlord confirmed in April 2023 that a contractor would carry out a tree survey.
17. The survey took place on 25 April 2023, but there is no evidence that the landlord informed the resident on the outcome, causing him to chase for an update, On 9 June 2023, the landlord told the resident that it needed permission from a third party to access the railway line to trim the tree. The landlord should have said this sooner.
18. Between June and December 2023, the landlord assumed that the contractor was waiting to get permission from the third party to shut the line. During those 6 months, the resident contacted the landlord a further 10 times for an update. There is no sign that the landlord chased the contractor for the current position with the third party. In the second complaint response, the landlord explained that the contractor had not contacted the third party. If it had found out sooner, it could have saved months of delay and frustration for the resident.
19. The landlord apologised for the delay and arranged a visit in January 2024 with a different contractor. It awarded the resident compensation of £300 for the distress and inconvenience caused. This amount aligns with our remedies guidance (as referenced above), and the tree was cut back on 16 February 2024. Therefore, the landlord has done enough to resolve this issue.
20. The resident has asked for a partial rent rebate as a resolution to his complaint. Under the tenancy agreement, the resident is obliged to pay the rent in full. We would only generally award compensation based on rent, if all or part of the property was unusable due to repair issues. However, this was not the case here. Whilst the landlord’s errors caused was distress and inconvenience to the resident, the landlord has compensated for this.

21. As part of the landlord’s commitments to its residents (published on their website), it will reply to emails and online enquiries within 5 working days on average. However, there is no guidance around call-backs.
22. Between February and November 2023, there were10 occasions where the landlord did not meet its service level agreement of responding to emails within 5 working days. This would have been frustrating for the resident.
23. Between February and November 2023, there were 4 occasions where the landlord returned the resident’s calls. 8 occasions where it failed to return calls, however with 4 of these, there was no evidence to demonstrate it agreed to do so in the first place.
24. On 3 August 2023, the resident asked that the landlord call once a month there is no evidence of an agreement to do this. On 19 September 2023, he said that the landlord agreed to call every 2 weeks but had not. We acknowledge the resident’s testimony, but there is nothing to suggest an agreement to make these calls at these regular intervals. We cannot criticise the landlord without evidence to show it has made errors.
25. The landlord has apologised for the lack of communication and has awarded the resident compensation of £150. This amount aligns with our remedies guidance (as referenced above). There was an explanation for some of the missed responses, and the landlord did put things right by proving the resident with another point of contact to help prevent similar issues in future.

26. The Ombudsman’s Complaint Handing Code sets out our expectations of landlords’ complaint handling practices. The Code requires landlords to have a 2 stage complaints process. They should acknowledge a complaint or escalation request within 5 working days. Landlords should issue a stage 1 response within 10 working days of acknowledging the complaint. They must issue a stage 2 final response within 20 working days of an escalation acknowledgement. The landlord acknowledges these expectations within its complaints policy.
27. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response 7 working days after the complaint notification, which was within its 10-working day target. Its stage 2 complaint response was 22 working days after the resident escalated the complaint. This exceeded the 20-working day response timeframe. However, the impact was minimal and the landlord appropriately apologised.
28. During its complaint procedure, the landlord offered £50 compensation for distress and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling failings. This amount aligns with our remedies guidance for failures that cause distress and inconvenience but may have been of short duration and did not affect the overall outcome of the complaint. Therefore, the landlord offered reasonable redress for its complaint handling failings. It is unclear whether the landlord has paid the compensation. We have recommended that it do so if it has not already.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

29. There was a lack of record keeping around the repair of the communal doors and the contact with the third party.
30. Our spotlight report on knowledge and information management highlights the importance of maintaining accurate, accessible records that provide a clear audit trail and support oversight of committed actions. The landlord may wish to review its record keeping practices based on the recommendations made in our spotlight report.

Communication

31. Our spotlight report on repairs and maintenance explains that failures can be avoided when the landlord keeps residents informed of the status of their repair. In this case the landlord did not keep the resident updated regularly.