Clarion Housing Association Limited (202315352)

Background

1. The resident lives in a flat. The resident reported concerns that there were cracks in the back external wall in April 2023. The resident continued to report his concerns about the wall and that the landlord’s communication was poor and the repair delays were excessive. The landlord completed the work in January 2025.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
   1. The resident’s reports of cracks to the back wall.
   2. The associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. We have found that:
   1. There was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of cracks to the back wall.
   2. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of cracks to the back wall

4. The landlord delayed completing the repair works to the back wall and failed to communicate appropriately with the resident. Although it acted to acknowledge its failures and offer compensation, it did not recognise the full extent of its ongoing failures after the complaints procedure. Therefore, the level of compensation was not entirely proportionate for the failures identified in this report.

The complaint handling

5. The landlord acknowledged delays in its complaint handling but did not recognise the full extent of the delays. It also failed to treat the escalation request correctly, where we had to intervene.

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.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

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.

6. The landlord was responsible for the repair work to the external wall under the resident’s tenancy agreement. The landlord’s repairsand maintenance policy says that it will attend to non-emergency or routine repairs within 28 calendar days.
7. The resident initially reported issues with cracks in the back wall in April 2023, the landlord has acknowledged this, and we have seen evidence of this in its records. The repair job was completed in January 2025. Given this, it took the landlord almost 21 months to complete the repair and it acted contrary to its repairs and maintenance policy’s timeframe of calendar 28 days. However, the landlord recognised the delays at all of the stages of its complaints procedure and offered compensation for them, which was reasonable given the time taken to resolve the repair.
8. The landlord attempted to acknowledge its failures in its complaint responses and to put things right. It initially apologised for not sending a surveyor sooner and offered £100 compensation in September 2023. This was appropriate given the resident’s main concern at that point was that a surveyor had not been arranged.
9. The landlord also recognised its poor communication in November 2023. It said it should have communicated more frequently to manage the resident’s expectations and to keep him informed. The landlord acknowledged the inconvenience to the resident in pursuing the complaint and his constant ‘chasing’ of the repair work.While we do not have complete contact records, it is clear the resident requested updates from the landlord on numerous occasions without a response. Therefore, it was appropriate for the landlord to apologise for its poor communication and offer another £300 compensation for this at that stage.
10. We have seen evidence that the resident consistently requested a date for the repair to take place or for some clarity from the landlord. It is clear that the landlord repeatedly failed to provide the service needed to complete the repair. In the landlord’s complaint response of 30 November 2023, it said its works would begin on 4 December 2023. It also later promised that it would attend to the repair on 17 September 2024. It did not attend on either of these occasions. The landlord attended on 6 December 2023 and carried out the repair to a poor standard. It then attended to put this right on 10 October 2024 without the required material to do the job, so it had to postpone the repair again.
11. These instances gave the resident false hope that the repair would be carried out and further added to the delays and his frustrations. However, the landlord did acknowledge the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident as a result of its repeated attendances without results, and it offered him further compensation for this, which was reasonable. It offered him £550 for its repair delays and poor communication in August 2024 and another £350 for this in September 2024. It also, after it attended the 19 April 2023 repair report on 6 December 2023, assigned a repair date for 17 September 2024, with the repair being completed on 9 January 2025. This shows a minor improvement in its repair management practises.
12. The landlord’s stage 2 complaint responses offered £400 and £900 total compensation for each of the repairs complaints. This is what we would expect for high level maladministration, where there is a significant effect on the resident over a significant period of time. This amount is in line with our remedies guidance’s recommended range of compensation for this and the resulting effect on the resident here. However, it is unreasonable that the repair continued to go unfinished for almost another 4 months following its second stage 2 response.
13. For this reason, we consider there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of cracks in the wall and we order it to apologise and pay an additional £100 compensation. It should also pay the £900 compensation previously offered for this complaint in its second stage 2 response if this has not already been paid. The additional compensation ordered is in line with our remedies guidance’s recommendation of compensation of up to this amount for such delays in getting matters resolved.

14. The resident has gone through 2 separate complaints procedures about this subject matter. The first was in relation to reports of the cracks in the wall (Complaint A) and the second was in relation to the quality of the workmanship to the wall (Complaint B).

Complaint A

15. On 22 July 2023, the resident asked for the landlord’s complaints process to begin. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response on 15 September 2023. This was 40 working days later and was not in line with the landlord’s complaints policy’s timeframe of 10 working days. Although the landlord did apologise for the delays, explained these, and offered £100 compensation for them in a separate apology letter to its complaint response on 13 September 2023. This was reasonable to recognise the delays and offer compensation to put things right.
16. The resident escalated the complaint 24 October 2023. However, the landlord told the resident that it was unable to escalate until the stage 1 complaint was resolved. This advice was contrary to the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) which requires a landlord to escalate unless there is a valid reason not to do so, which was not put forward in this case.Following this, the resident contacted us and we asked the landlord to issue its stage 2 response by 30 November 2023. We have recognised learning for it in this respect.
17. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 30 November 2023. This was 28 working days after the resident’s escalation request and over the 20-working-day timeframe of its policy. In its response it appropriately apologised for the delay.

Complaint B

18. The resident raised his second complaint about the quality of the workmanship to the wall on 22 July 2024. However, it is concerning that he noted he was going to point this out to the landlord on 7 December 2023 but that it had no record of this. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response on 28 August 2024. This was 28 working days after the second stage 1 complaint. This was beyond its policy’s timeframe of 10 working days. It apologised and offered £50 compensation for the delay. This appropriately recognised the full extent of the delay, the resulting effect caused by the delay to the resident, and was proportionate to its failings under our remedies guidance’s recommendation of this amount for such minor failures.
19. The resident escalated the complaint on 28 August 2024. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 17 September 2024. This was 15 working days later and in line with its policy’s 20-working-day timeframe.
20. Overall, given the delays we consider the landlord should have recognised these and apologised for its advice, which was contrary to the Code. For these reasons we consider there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint and we order it to apologise and pay the resident a further £100. This is in line with our remedies guidance’s recommended range of compensation for such delays in getting matters resolved.

Learning

21. The landlord should supply staff training on how to recognise complaint escalation requests and how to act on them in accordance with the Code.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

22. The landlord has not supplied us evidence of the complaints made by the resident and other key documents in order for us to investigate matters thoroughly. This shows poor record keeping practices. The landlord should record all contact with residents, in particular complaints, escalation requests, and the reported effect.

Communication

23. Overall, the landlord’s communication was poor across the complaint, where the resident requested updates on numerous occasions over the 21 months the issues were ongoing. We recommend the landlord reflects on its lack of communication and implements an improvement plan in the future to make sure it acts to make improvements as to how it communicates with its residents.