Clarion Housing Association Limited (202340234)

Background

1. The resident reported the communal bin store lighting for his property was not working. He complained to the landlord about the length of time it was taking to resolve the issue.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s
   1. Handling of repairs to communal bin store lighting.
   2. Complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

3. We have found:
   1. Reasonable redress in the landlord’s handling of repairs to communal bin store lighting.
   2. Reasonable redress in the landlord’s complaint handling.

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

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of repairs to communal bin store lighting

4. The landlord did not complete repairs within its policy timeframe. It took steps to put this right in its complaint responses.

The landlord’s complaint handling

5. The landlord’s complaint responses were outside of its policy timeframe. It took appropriate steps to put the matter right.

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.

6. The landlord under the tenancy agreement is responsible for repairing any outside shared areas it owns and any outhouses it provides. The landlord’s repair policy says it will complete routine repairs within 28 days.
7. The resident says he has been reporting the issue with the communal lighting since 2022. We do not dispute this but have not seen any evidence in the landlord’s records of this. The evidence we have seen shows the resident reported the issue on 27 January 2023. The landlord’s repair logs show its attended 6 times to complete repairs between February 2023 and May 2024. The resident continued to report the lights were still not working during this time. The landlord should have taken further steps to find out the reason for the resident’s continued reporting of the issue. As it did not, the issue was unresolved and he had to continue to spend time and trouble reporting the repair.
8. The landlord does not dispute in its complaint responses the repair was not carried out within its repairs policy timeframe. It took appropriate steps to put the matter right by apologising, arranging further repairs and offering compensation. The amount of compensation it offered is in line with our compensation guidance if we had made a finding of maladministration.
9. The resident has told us the bin store lighting is not working at the date of this report. As such we have recommended the landlord inspect the bin store lighting to assess if any further repairs are needed.

10. The landlord at the time of the complaint was using an interim complaints policy. This said it would acknowledge complaints within 10 working days, provide a response at stage 1 within 20 working days and stage 2 within 40 working days. We note the landlord’s policy now is compliant with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code).
11. The landlord issued its stage 1 response 10 days outside of its interim policy timeframe. It apologised for this and offered the resident £50 compensation. The landlord issued its stage 2 response 48 days outside of its interim policy timeframe. It apologised for this and offered the resident £50 compensation. It also offered the resident a further £50 compensation in an update to its stage 2 response for an error in it. We are satisfied the landlord took appropriate steps to put matters right. The total amount of compensation it offered is also in line with our compensation guidance if we had made a finding of maladministration.

Learning

12. The landlord did not take any steps to establish why the resident kept reporting the same repair. It should have inspected the communal lighting to assess what it needed to do to make a lasting repair.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

13. The landlord’s records allowed us to investigate this complaint.

Communication

14. The landlord’s communication with the resident was appropriate.