Gateway Housing Association Limited (202407368)

Background

1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord and lives in a maisonette on the ground floor and there is another resident who lives on the top floor. Both properties are registered under one address. The resident has mobility issues. In February 2024, the resident reported to the landlord that she did not qualify for a warm homes discount due to her property address not being correctly registered. The issue relating to the resident’s property not being correctly registered remains outstanding.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
   1. The resident’s concerns that her property was not correctly registered.
   2. The associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. The landlord made a reasonable offer of redress, which in our opinion, resolved the errors of the resident’s concerns that her property was not correctly registered.
4. There was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Summary of reasons

5. The landlord acknowledged there was a delay in it considering the resident’s request for her property address to be registered and offered the resident sufficient compensation to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by the error. It also explained why it would not be proceeding with registering the resident’s address.
6. The landlord sent its complaint responses within the timeframes set out in its complaints policy and the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (The Code), which sets out our expectations for landlord’s complaint handling. Its complaint handling was reasonable in the circumstances.

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.

7. The resident raised in her complaint that she had been asking the landlord to register her property address correctly for several years. We acknowledge the resident’s comments about the length of time the issue has been ongoing for. However, our scheme states we may not investigate complaints which were not referred to the landlord as a complaint within a reasonable time, which is normally 12 months from when the issue(s) occurred. However, we have seen no evidence the resident formally complained to the landlord before May 2024. We have therefore not assessed the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns that her property was not correctly registered historically. This investigation focuses on the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns that her property was not correctly registered and the resident’s more recent reports 12 months leading up to her complaint in May 2024.
8. In February 2024, the resident contacted the landlord and explained due to her address not being registered with the Land Registry, her energy provider declined her application to apply for the warm homes discount. The landlord responded appropriately by submitting a street naming and numbering application to the local authority for the resident’s property to help support a potential Land Registry application. However, the landlord’s notes indicate the street naming and numbering application could not be validated as it was missing some required information.
9. In May 2024, the resident told the landlord that her insurance company had cancelled her contents insurance due to her address not being separately registered from her neighbour’s property. The landlord’s stage 1 complaint response confirmed it had registered the resident’s property with Royal Mail, and it explained it was in the process of registering the resident’s property with the Land Registry and would provide her with an update at the end of June 2024.
10. The landlord also offered the resident £50 compensation to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused as it stated the resident previously requested for her property address to be registered. The amount of compensation offered was reasonable to recognise the distress and inconvenience and also complies with the Ombudsman’s approach to compensation set out in our remedies guidance published on our website. The remedies guidance suggests awards of £50 to £100, where there is a minor failure by the landlord in the service it provided, and it did not appropriately acknowledge this and/or fully put it right.
11. Shortly after, the landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response, it tried to contact the resident to discuss and provide support in relation to the issue with her content’s insurance being cancelled due to her property not being registered with the Land Registry. However, the landlord said the resident refused the support. it was positive that the landlord offered the resident support to resolve the issues with her contents insurance being cancelled. The resident was entitled to decline this support, but we recognise this would have been outside the landlord’s control. The landlord also re–offered the support in its stage 2 complaint response. However, the resident has since told us that she managed to resolve the issue with her contents insurance.
12. After the landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response, there were a lack of updates from the landlord to the resident about its plans to register the resident’s property with the Land Registry. Due to this, the resident contacted the landlord In October 2024 and asked for an update. She also explained she was experiencing further issues due to her address not being registered, including carers failing to locate her property and bailiff letters sent to the resident which were not intended for her. The letters stated the bailiffs would enter her property. We recognise the ongoing issues due to the resident’s property not being correctly registered would have been difficult for her.
13. On 10 October 2024, the landlord explained it would not be progressing with registering the resident’s property as a separate flat with Land Registry. It said there were similar properties it owned which were also not registered. However, it offered to provide the resident with a letter confirming the address to help resolve the issues she was experiencing. This was an appropriate step by the landlord.
14. The landlord also provided us with further reasons why it had decided not to progress with registering the resident’s flat separately with the Land Registry. It explained this would be expensive and also stated it could set a potential precedence to other residents with a similar property type. It was reasonable for the landlord to consider the cost implication and that the property registration was not value for money for their residents.
15. The Land Registration Act 2022 also sets out details of when a property is legally required to be registered with Land Registry. It confirms that the landlord would not legally be required to register the resident’s property separately with Land Registry due to the landlord owning the freehold of the building and the properties being let to tenants and not leaseholders. Therefore, it was reasonable for the landlord not to proceed with registering the resident’s address. However, we recommend the landlord provides the resident with confirmation in writing about the circumstances surrounding her address to help support the ongoing issues she is experiencing, such as receiving bailiff letters.

16. The landlord’s complaint process has 2 stages. The timeframes in the landlord’s complaints policy are the same as the timescales referenced in the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code). The Code states a stage 1 response must be sent within 10 working days from the complaint being logged, and a stage 2 response within 20 working days. The landlord’s responses were sent within these timeframes. Its complaint handling was reasonable in the circumstances, and there was no maladministration in this matter.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

17. The landlord’s records were detailed enough for us to investigate the landlord’s overall handling of the complaint.

Communication

18. There was a delay in the landlord communicating to the resident that it would not be registering her property address as she requested.