Clarion Housing Association Limited (202406312)

Decision
Case ID	202406312
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Clarion Housing Association Limited
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Secure Tenancy
Date	20 March 2026

Background

The resident lives in a first floor flat. He reported a leak coming in through the building roof which led to water damage to the ceilings in his bathroom and hallway. While the landlord repaired the roof, the repairs to the ceilings are still outstanding. The resident is unhappy with how long the landlord has taken to rectify the issues.

What the complaint is about

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
1. Reports of a leak from the communal roof and the associated repairs to the roof, bathroom and hallway ceiling.
2. The associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

We have found there was:
1. Maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of a leak from the communal roof and the associated repairs to the roof, bathroom and hallway ceiling.
2. Reasonable readdress in the landlord’s complaint handling.

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

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of a leak from the communal roof and the associated repairs to the roof, bathroom and hallway ceiling.

The landlord did not carry out the repairs in line with its policy timeframes. Although the landlord repaired the roof, there was a delay and it failed to acknowledge this or provide an appropriate remedy. The repair of the bathroom and hallway ceilings are still outstanding.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

The landlord accepted failings in its handling of the resident’s complaint. It apologised and offered proportionate compensation for its delay in its final response.

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.

Order	What the landlord must do	Due date
1	Apology order The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure: The apology is specific to the failures identified in this decision, meaningful and empathetic. It has due regard to our apologies guidance.	No later than 17 April 2026
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident additional compensation of £250 to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by the delay in repairing the roof. This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date.	No later than 17 April 2026
3	Completing the works The landlord must take all steps to ensure the work to the hallway and bathroom ceilings are completed promptly and in any event by the due date. If the landlord cannot complete the works in this time, it must explain to us, by the due date: Why it cannot complete the works by the due date and provide evidence to support its reasons. It must provide a revised timescale of when it will finish the works; or Explain the steps it has taken to ensure the works were completed and provide supporting evidence. It must provide a revised timetable if it is able to or explain why it cannot.	No later than 17 April 2026

Recommendations

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

Our recommendations
Compensation We recommend that the landlord pays the resident the £50 compensation it previously offered for the inconvenience caused by delays in its complaint handling. The finding of reasonable redress is based on this payment being made to the resident.

Our recommendations

Compensation

We recommend that the landlord pays the resident the £50 compensation it previously offered for the inconvenience caused by delays in its complaint handling. The finding of reasonable redress is based on this payment being made to the resident.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
6 October 2023	The repairs team raised a complaint on the resident’s behalf about the ongoing issues with the roof.
13 December 2023	The landlord issued a stage 1 complaint response. It apologised for the delay in responding to the complaint, and said: Roof repair: It raised a repair at the end of April 2023 and the roof was repaired in May 2023 in line with its 28 days’ timescales. It received another report of a roof leak at the end of August 2023 where it required scaffolding, but there was a lack of access from a neighbouring flat. It completed the roof repair in October 2023. It apologised for the delay in completing the roof repair as there had been some internal miscommunication around access. Bathroom and hall ceilings: It raised a repair at the end of April 2023 which it scheduled for early June 2023. But the appointment was cancelled due to no access. In early October 2023, the resident reported that plaster was falling from the ceiling. It booked a repair for the end of November 2023. There was no access, and it rescheduled this to December 2023. However, there was a further instance of no access. It had booked a 3 -day repair for mid-December 2023. Conclusion: It acknowledged and apologised for the delays in completing the bathroom ceiling and hallway due to access issues. It identified a service failure in the time taken to resolve the ceiling repairs, the repeated visits, the amount of time chasing and inconvenience caused. It awarded £150 in recognition of this. To recognise the delay in responding to the complaint it awarded £50.
22 January 2024	The resident escalated the complaint because: He was unhappy with the outcome and was upset and angry as he felt that there had been little communication. A contractor left his property midway through a repair. He was going to seek advice from a solicitor and asked if the landlord could advise if all the works were due to go ahead on schedule. He wanted the works done as soon as possible.
9 February 2024	The landlord issued a stage 2 response which said: It found the stage 1 complaint response to be fair and reasonable. After identifying unresolved issues during the stage 1 response, it raised a new job to carry out internal plaster repairs over a 3-day period. During a visit on 15 December 2023, it discovered a leaking waste pipe and possible roof issue, which meant it had to halt the repairs so it could fix this. On 24 January 2024 it attended to repair the pipe and scheduled a roofer to attend on 6 February 2024 to inspect and address any suspected leaks. It apologised that the contractor had to leave the property during an appointment. They had been taken ill and were unable to continue, which was unfortunate but an unforeseen circumstance. Overall, it was happy with how it dealt with the complaint.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident referred the complaint to us because he believes he should be moved from the property due to its condition.

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.

Complaint	The landlord’s handling of reports of a leak from the communal roof and the associated repairs to the roof, bathroom, and hallway ceiling.
Finding	Maladministration

The resident has told us that the leak had been ongoing for years. While his comments are not disputed, the first report documented in the landlord’s record is in April 2023. We have therefore assessed the landlord’s response from this date until the end of the complaint procedure.

Roof

The landlord’s responsive repairs policy falls into 2 categories – emergency and non-emergency. An emergency repair must be attended within 24 hours and works to make safe or temporarily repair the issue should be made during this visit. Non-emergency repairs must be completed within 28 days.
On 28 April 2023, the resident reported that when it rained, water was coming through the bathroom and hallway ceilings in his property. The landlord raised a repair that day, but the records show that it did not visit the property until 7 June 2023, which exceeded both repair timescales. The landlord states it did complete a repair in May 2023 (in line with service standards) but there is no evidence if this. Without contemporaneous evidence corroborating the landlord’s comments, we cannot conclude that it responded appropriately to the resident’s report.
There is no record the landlord raised or carried out repairs after the attendance in June 2023 nor is there a record to demonstrate what prompted the visit in June. This led to the resident to re-report the issue a further 3 times between July and October 2023. The landlord states that it received a report in August 2023, but there is no corresponding entry in its records. As such, it is unclear if this was the case and how the landlord reached its conclusion when responding to the complaint. Nevertheless, it is indicative of poor record keeping practices.
The landlord completed repairs to the roof on 31 October 2023, which was 5 months after the initial report and not in line with the landlord’s repair timescales. Roof repairs can be tricky as the source can be difficult to locate. It is not uncommon for the repairs to take some time if scaffolding is required either. The landlord said it had difficulty in gaining access to a neighbour’s property to erect scaffolding, which caused a delay. While the landlord’s comments are noted, we have not seen contemporaneous evidence which corroborates this either. It would have been reasonable for the landlord to keep a clear audit trail of the actions it was taking to resolve the repair. As it has failed to do so, it has not been possible for us to establish whether it was seeking to proactively resolve the repair that had been reported.
As a result, it may have been that some of the delay was unavoidable, but it is unclear how long this delay was or what actions the landlord took to gain access to erect the scaffolding. However, the overall timeframe between the resident’s report and the repair was disproportionate and the resident would have benefited from being updated on the situation.
The landlord should reasonably have taken a proactive approach to dealing with the leak, to prevent further damage to the resident’s home. There is no evidence that the landlord had carried out any temporary repairs to the roof, to limit the damage to the ceilings, which caused the resident further distress. The landlord should have communicated with the resident about the delays with the repairs.

Ceilings

The landlord visited the property on 7 June 2023 and recorded that the ceilings needed filling and painting. In October 2023, the resident made 3 further reports of damage. Each report got progressively worse where a ceiling dropped, and emergency repairs were required.
On 13 November 2023, the resident confirmed that following the roof repair, there had been no further leaks. The landlord carried out an inspection on 20 November 2023 and booked repairs for 12 December 2023. The landlord could not gain access to the property and tried again on 15 January 2024 but to no avail, the reason for this is unknown.
There is no evidence the landlord tried alternative methods of contact for the resident to ensure that it did everything it could to gain access. The landlord has explained that in December 2023 and January 2024, it had to halt the repairs, but there is no record of this or that the resident was kept informed or that the landlord shared its proposed plan for remedying the issues with the landlord. This demonstrates poor repairs management and again poor record keeping.
The landlord has confirmed it has not completed the repairs. It is noted that it was reasonable to wait until the roof repairs were complete prior to attempting internal repairs. But that does not explain why in March 2026, these repairs are still outstanding. The issues with access, and a further suspected leak and roof issue, are also noted, but it is again unclear why no further attempts to engage with the resident have been made in relation to this. As a result, the evidence does not demonstrate that the landlord has been resolution-focused in its approach.

Putting things right:

The landlord has apologised for the delay in dealing with the roof repair and the ceilings in the bathroom and hallway. It has awarded the resident compensation of £150, however this was only in relation to the ceiling repairs and did not take into account the delay in dealing with the roof.
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 that adversely affected the resident but there may be no permanent impact. Whilst the landlord’s award is within this range, it does not go far enough to adequately recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by the failing of resolving all of these issues within reasonable timescale. We have also taken into consideration that the internal repairs remain outstanding 2 years later.
The resident has asked for a move to an alternative property as a resolution to his complaint.While noted, our remedies seek to put residents back in the position they would have been, or so far as reasonably possible, had it not been for the failings. We have found that the landlord delayed in resolving the leak. This, combined with the landlord’s actions in 2023/2024 in relation to the internal repairs, mean that the resident has experienced distress and inconvenience that could reasonably have been avoided. To put things right, we can order the landlord to complete the repairs and pay compensation for the distress and inconvenience that has been causedas a result of its failing.
We have ordered that the landlord pay additional compensation in recognition of these failures and that it carries out a full repair of the hallway and bathroom ceiling.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Reasonable redress

Our Complaint Handing Code (the Code) sets out our expectations of landlords’ complaint handling practices. The Code requires landlords to have a 2 stage complaints process. It should acknowledge a complaint or escalation request within 5 working days. Landlords should issue a stage 1 response within 10 working days of the complaint. It must issue a stage 2 final response within 20 working days of an escalation.
There is no evidence the landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint, and it provided its stage 1 response 38-working days late. We have seen no evidence that it agreed an extension with the resident, which was a further departure from the Code. However, the landlord appropriately acknowledged the delay and offered £50 compensation for the associated distress and inconvenience. This amount aligns with our remedies guidance (as referenced above) for failures that cause distress and inconvenience but may be of short duration and do not affect the overall outcome for the complainant.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

We have identified that there was a lack of record keeping around arranging the repairs. 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

Our spotlight report on repairs and maintenance explains that failures can be avoided when landlords let residents know what to expect regarding repairs and provide a clear schedule for repair visits.
In this case, the records do not show the landlord regularly updated the resident on the status of repairs