Clarion Housing Association Limited (202438074)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202438074

Clarion Housing Association Limited

23 September 2025

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

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
1. reports of heating and hot water issues.
2. associated complaint.

Background

The resident holds an assured tenancy with the landlord for a 3-bedroom maisonette. She lives with her daughter who has represented her in making this complaint. For the purposes of this investigation both the resident and representative will be referred to as the resident. The landlord does not have any vulnerabilities recorded for the resident. However, the resident has made us aware of a medical condition which requires her to wash frequently.
On 21 November 2024 the resident raised a repair request for a leak on her boiler. This was initially attended on 22 November 2024 and repaired on 6 January 2025.
On 6 December 2024 the resident raised a complaint with the landlord over the phone, in relation to its response to her reports of heating and hot water issues. In this complaint the landlord records that the resident said:
1. she had no hot water or heating in the property since 21 November 2024.
2. she was elderly and needed to be kept warm.
3. that this had happened the previous year also.
On 23 January 2025 the landlord issued its stage 1 response. In this it:
1. provided a timeline of the repair issue and explained the delay was due to parts not being available.
2. apologised for the delay in resolving the issue and responding to the complaint.
3. offered £440 compensation made up of:
  1. poor communication £100
  2. inconvenience to the household £100
  3. intermittent heating and hot water 21/11/24 – 18/12/24 £140
  4. delay in responding to the complaint £100
On 11 February 2025 the resident requested her complaint was escalated to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaints process. She:
1. requested further compensation and to be moved property within the borough.
2. said she did not have hot water on 18 December 2024 as the heating stopped working again and this was not resolved until January 2025.
3. said her energy costs increased as she was using 2 small heaters to heat her property.
4. she had been left without hot water and because of a medical condition she needs to shower frequently, so had to pay her neighbours and travel to family to use their showers.
5. she became physically and mentally unwell during this time.
6. said her daughter had to take days off work to accommodate the delays and bad communication.
7. said she felt there was a bigger issue with the heating as the same thing had happened around a year before.
8. said there had been further issues with the heating system.
On 21 March 2025 the landlord issued its stage 2 response. In summary it said:
1. it had approved its contractor to convert the heating system to a sealed system which it believed would result in the heating system working efficiently and reliably again.
2. since the heating had been reliably restored the resident would not be eligible for a temporary move.
3. it did not have an internal transfer list, however given the resident’s medical needs she may be eligible to join the internal management move list, noting that these transfers were only offered in exceptional circumstances and had a clear criteria for being accepted.
4. there were other rehousing options it could discuss with her, and it had arranged a neighbourhood response officer to contact her to discuss these.
5. for it to consider increased energy costs, the resident would need to provide copies of utility bills for the period in question as well as the bills covering the same period the previous year, so that it could assess the usage and determine the difference.
6. it had identified a missed appointment and awarded £15 compensation.
7. it noted the heating issue was not fully resolved.
8. it noted that the compensation did not reference the vulnerabilities within the household and said these should have been considered.
9. it apologised and awarded £175 compensation, made up of a discretionary payment for – time taken to resolve the repair, consideration of vulnerabilities in the household, failure to follow policy and procedure, repeat visits to resolve, poor communication and inconvenience to the household and the compensation for the missed appointment.
When the resident referred her complaint to us, she said she has experienced further issues with the heating and hot water system. She said as a resolution, she was seeking more compensation and would like to be moved to alternative accommodation.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

The resident has told us about her ill health and has said that she has a medical condition which was made worse by not having hot water. We are sorry to hear about this and acknowledge the difficulties she has faced.
The courts are the most effective place to deal with claims about personal injury. As we are an informal alternative to the courts, we are unable to establish legal liability or whether a landlord’s actions or lack of action had a detrimental impact on a resident’s health. Nor can we calculate or award damages. The resident may wish to seek independent advice if she wishes to pursue a personal injury claim. We have, however, considered the impact of any failings by the landlord, including the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident.
Whilst it is noted that the resident continues to have issues with the heating and hot water system, this investigation report will not consider issues which have arisen after the date of the landlord’s Stage 2 response. This is because the landlord has not had an opportunity to investigate and respond to any complaint which may be raised by the resident in respect of those events. Any such issues that have not been subject to a formal complaint can be addressed directly with the landlord and progressed as a new formal complaint, if required.
The landlord has confirmed that further repairs have been required on the heating and hot water system since the end of its internal complaints process. It said that it believed the issues to be resolved, but because of the challenges the resident had faced that it will offer further compensation based on this. It also said that if any further works were required a full review would be taken and the heating system replacement reconsidered.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of heating and hot water issues.

The landlord is obliged under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to complete repairs for which it is responsible and to do so within a reasonable time. What is a reasonable time will depend on all the circumstances of a case.
The landlord’s responsive repairs and maintenance policy states that it should attend an emergency repair within 24 hours to at least make safe or temporarily repair the issue. Its states that further repairs may be required and if so, every effort is made to complete repairs within the targeted 28 days.
On 21 November 2024 the resident reported a leak in her boiler when the heating or hot water was on. The landlord attended in the early hours of 22 November 2024. In this emergency repair it made safe the leak, provided the resident with 2 fan heaters, and advised an engineer was required to remedy the issue. The landlord attended on 2, 9 and 10 December 2024 before restoring the heating and hot water on 18 December 2024.
On 26 December 2024 the resident reported her heating was not working. This was attended to on the same day. However, a part was required to complete the repair, and this was resolved on 6 January 2025.
On 17 January 2025 the resident reported that her radiators were not heating fully. This was attended to on 24 January 2025, 10 February 2025 and 5 March 2025. The landlord converted the heating to a sealed system on 24 March 2025 to help the flow of heat to the radiators.
Overall, the issues with the heating and hot water system took over 4 months to resolve. The landlord does not dispute that there were failings in its handling of this matter and has offered an apology and compensation as redress to put things right.
The landlord’s compensation policy identifies the following relevant payment rates for a loss of amenity:
1. Repairs not completed within the target time – £10 for the first day, and £2 for each day onwards (up to a maximum of £50).
2. No heating due to outstanding repair – £5 per day after the landlord is notified (£0 for the first 7 days if the resident is offered temporary heating).
3. No hot water due to outstanding repair – £5 per day (£0 for the first 7 days after the landlord is notified, or 14 days if the repair is a boiler replacement).
4. If without both heating and hot water, then compensation will be provided for each amenity.
If the landlord had followed this policy, the amount of compensation offered for the loss of heating and hot water between 21 November 2024 and 18 December 2024 should have been £200. This would have accounted for this 27-day period, calculated at £5 per day, per amenity for 20 days. The first 7 days are excluded from hot water loss, and the first 7 days are excluded for heating loss, as the landlord had provided temporary heaters on its first visit.
The landlord’s compensation offer of £140 for intermittent heating and hot water between 21 November 2024 and 18 December 2024, was therefore not reasonable or in line with its compensation policy.
The landlord told us, in September 2025, that the property has an immersion heater. Although this means that the resident would have had access to hot water by using this, there is no evidence that the landlord made the resident aware or showed her how to use this. Therefore, it was reasonable for the resident to have believed she had no access to hot water. And it remains appropriate that compensation for loss of amenities is still paid in respect of this. Had the landlord made the resident aware of this it would likely have reduced the distress felt by the resident, given her medical vulnerabilities.
We acknowledge that the resident disputes that her hot water was restored on 18 December 2024. She said she was without hot water until the repair was completed in January 2025. She told us that the contractor did not wait for the hot water to heat enough to be checked, and that the system broke down again days later.
Whilst we do not dispute the resident’s account that this was the case, we are obliged to assess the landlord’s response on the evidence it had available.
The landlord has supplied its repair records for the heating and hot water system. It shows that, on 18 December 2024, the contractor noted that the system was working correctly when it left. The records also show that on the same day a “request to visit site and recheck the hot water as a precautionary check.” was raised and booked for 2 January 2025.
The landlord has told us that this was because the resident was concerned that the water was not hot enough. Whilst this evidences the resident’s concerns it does not provide sufficient evidence that confirms she was without hot water following the repair on 18 December 2024.
Therefore, without evidence to the contrary, we find that the landlord was entitled to rely on its contractor’s update that the heating and hot water issue was fixed on 18 December 2024.
On review of the landlord’s repair records, we note that it attended a further call out on 26 December 2024 for a report of no heating which was not resolved until 6 January 2025. This accounts for a period of 12 days with no heating or hot water. Therefore, the landlord should have awarded compensation for loss of amenities during this time also.
The landlord told us in June 2025, that it had identified that it should have issued compensation for this period. Whilst this evidences that the landlord has proactively reviewed its handling of this case, it should have been identified during its complaint investigation.
The landlord’s compensation policy also allows discretionary compensation to be awarded. Given the resident was without heating and hot water in winter months it was appropriate that the landlord used its discretion and awarded an additional £200 for poor communication and inconvenience to the household in its stage 1 response.
It was also positive that, once it was made aware of the resident’s medical vulnerability, it increased its compensation in its stage 2 response. It offered a further £175 to account for the inconvenience and consideration of vulnerabilities to the household, a missed appointment, repeat visits and the time taken to resolve the repair.
Within her escalation request, the resident asked the landlord to rehouse her, due to the ongoing issues. The landlord’s policy relating to moving a resident to alternative accommodation is called the ‘decant policy.’
This policy covers both temporary and permanent moves. It states that temporary moves will “only last as long as it takes to complete the repair works” and includes the circumstances in which it will offer one. These are:
1. emergency health and safety works are required because the whole or a significant part of the property is uninhabitable, and / or unsafe or hazardous (for example an unplanned event such as a fire, flood, storm damage or major leak, condensation, damp or mould works)
2. work is required to a building that may be harmful to the household, e.g. chemical work or large-scale removal of asbestos.
3. the loss of a significant proportion of the property for more than one week and works cannot be sequenced to prevent this.
It states that a permanent move is one in which there is no intention to return the resident to the property. The circumstances in which it offers a permanent move, under this policy, are:
1. major improvements are required and undertaking these would make the whole property uninhabitable.
2. the property is to be redeveloped, remodelled, demolished, or to be sold or otherwise disposed of, or to remodel the whole block or estate: or to alter the property to the extent that it is no longer suitable for the existing tenants needs.
3. where the damage is so extensive that permanent rehousing is necessary (e.g. a major fire).
It was appropriate that the landlord used its stage 2 complaint response to explain that, because the hot water and heating had been restored, the resident would not meet the threshold to be moved. Since the landlord considered the issues to be resolved at the time of this response, its decision not to move the resident to alternative accommodation, under this policy, was reasonable.
We have also assessed if the landlord ought to have considered a temporary move during the time the heating and hot water issues were occurring. The policy states “We will only decant tenants in exceptional circumstances where the property is uninhabitable and/or unsafe, or if it is not possible to undertake the works with the tenant in situ. In deciding whether a decant is necessary, we will consider the household composition, any vulnerabilities, needs and preferences, the likely time periods involved, the suitability of alternative accommodation and the level of disruption. We will also consider the relative cost of carrying out works with the household in situ, compared to the cost of decanting.”
Although the landlord was aware of the resident’s age, it was not aware of her medical conditions until her escalation request. It had provided the resident with temporary heaters, and it had not been made aware of any issues suggesting there would be an exceptional delay to the repair. Therefore, based on the information available to the landlord at that time, it was reasonable that a temporary move was not offered while the heating and hot water issues were occurring.
That being said, should the resident agree for the landlord to record her medical vulnerabilities this may change its future approach, if similar issues arose again.
It was also positive that the landlord explained that, although it did not hold an internal transfer list, it had a management transfer policy, for which the resident may be eligible. It’s offer that a neighbourhood response officer would contact the resident to review her circumstances and discuss the options available to her demonstrated that it was focused on a long-term resolution in relation to the resident’s rehousing request.
When a landlord admits failings, our role is to consider whether it followed our Dispute Resolution Principles: to be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes.
It was positive that the landlord converted the heating system, as it committed to in its stage 2 response, and it acted fairly by offering compensation to the resident. However, the landlord did not identify all its failings during its complaint investigation, and it miscalculated its loss of amenities compensation. Therefore, the compensation was not proportionate to the failings identified in this report and it did not go far enough to put things right.
We have, therefore, found maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of heating and hot water issues. We have ordered additional compensation below. The resident has told us there have been further issues with the heating and hot water system and an order has been made in relation to this.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s associated complaint.

The landlord’s complaint policy states it will acknowledge its stage 1 complaints within 5 working days of being received and that it aims to issue a full response to a stage 1 complaint within 10 working days.
The resident raised a complaint on 6 December 2024. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 23 January 2025. Therefore, the landlord failed to acknowledge or issue its stage 1 response in line with its policy.
It was appropriate that the landlord used its stage 1 response to apologise for this and offered £100 compensation to redress this failure.
The landlord’s complaint policy states it will acknowledge its stage 2 complaints within 5 working days of escalation and that it aims to issue a full response within 20 working days of its acknowledgement. It further states that if it requires additional time to issue its stage 2 response, it will agree this with the resident and aim not to extend this by more than 20 working days.
The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaint process on 11 February 2025. The landlord acknowledged this on 12 February 2025, therefore, in line with the timescales of its policy, and its first acknowledgment, the landlord should have issued its stage 2 response by 12 March 2025.
However, the landlord issued a second acknowledgment on 25 February 2025, in which it said that it aimed to issue its response within 20 working days, by 25 March 2025. This was not appropriate or consistent with the landlord’s complaint policy and is likely to have caused confusion to the resident.
The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 21 March 2025, 28 working days after the first acknowledgment. Although this was within the timescales the landlord said it would respond by in its second acknowledgment, it was reasonable for the resident to have expected the response in line with the landlord’s first acknowledgement. Had the landlord required more time, it could have agreed a new deadline with the resident, but it has not provided any evidence that it did this. This was a failure, which the landlord did not acknowledge in its stage 2 response.
Our complaint handling code (The Code) requires the landlord to address all points raised and provide clear reasons for any decisions, referencing the relevant policy, law, and good practice where appropriate. The landlord’s stage 2 response fell short of the requirements of The Code.
This is because, in its stage 2 responses, the landlord failed to provide a response to several of the resident’s escalation concerns. These included:
1. that her hot water was not restored on 18 December 2024.
2. that her daughter had to take days off work to accommodate the delays to resolve the issue.
3. that this issue had happened with the heating and hot water within the previous year (December 2023 – January 2024).
Although the landlord offered compensation for the failures it identified at stage 1, it did not acknowledge its complaint handling failures at stage 2. This meant it missed the opportunity to apologise and offer appropriate redress for its overall failures.
We, therefore, find maladministration, in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s associated complaint and order additional compensation below.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of heating and hot water issues.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s associated complaint.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

Within 4 weeks of this determination the landlord is ordered to:
1. apologise for the failures identified in this investigation.
2. pay the resident £920 compensation. This includes the £615 compensation previously offered by the landlord, and is made up of:
  1. £450 compensation for the impact of the landlord’s failures in its response to the resident’s heating and hot water issues, between 21 November 2024 and the 24 March 2025.
  2. £320 for the loss of amenities between 21 November 2024 and 18 December 2024, and 26 December 2024 and 6 January 2025.
  3. £150 compensation for the impact of the landlord’s complaint handling failures.
3. consider if any additional compensation is appropriate for its handling of heating issues between 6 December 2023 and 2 January 2024. After its consideration, it should write to the resident to set out the outcome and the reason for its decision.
4. contact the resident to establish if she wishes to have her vulnerabilities recorded, and if so, record these on internal records.
5. provide the resident and us with a timebound action plan setting out the actions it intends to take to resolve the heating and hot water issues within the property. If it considers the matter resolved, it must provide us and the resident with evidence of this within the timeframe above.
6. provide us evidence that it has complied with these orders.

Recommendations

It is recommended that, in line with its offer, the landlord contacts the resident to discuss events after 24 March 2025 and establish if she wishes to raise a new complaint.