Grand Union Housing Group Limited (202212586)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202212586

Grand Union Housing Group Limited

12 March 2023


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

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of no heating following the replacement of her boiler.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. There are vulnerabilities listed in the property such as arthritis. In addition, during the period the resident was without heating, she had just had an operation which the resident described as “major” and had left her “bedbound”. It has been acknowledged by the landlord and the resident that there were faults and repairs to the resident’s boiler prior to a new boiler being installed on 9 December 2021.
  2. The resident contacted the landlord on 15 December 2021, to inform it that the boiler had broken down. The landlord informed the resident that it would not be able to attend the property until 16 December 2021.
  3. The resident raised a complaint on 15 December 2021. She stated that following several breakdowns in her heating, she had had a new heating system installed on 9 December 2021. The resident stated that she remained unhappy that no appointment was available sooner than 16 December 2021 despite informing the landlord of her vulnerabilities which included having recently had major surgery, meaning she had limited mobility and arthritis which is made worse by the cold. The resident felt that it was inappropriate that nobody had apologised to her for having no heat in the property. The resident stated that she had to use electric heaters to heat her property during this time, which had cost her £100 in electricity costs which nobody had acknowledged either.
  4. On 1 January 2021, the resident emailed the landlord to report that her new boiler had broken down again and therefore she would like to escalate her complaint to stage two. In its final response of 4 February 2022, the landlord acknowledged that the resident’s new boiler was not working on 1 January 2022, the contractor attended out of hours and a fault due to low pressure was identified and rectified. The landlord stated that as the resident had lost confidence with the boiler, it had attended and completed an inspection, where it identified three repairs to be completed. These were:
    1. Two valves on a radiator system had small leaks which it believed was the reasons for the depressurisation of the system. The landlord arranged for these to be changed.
    2. Valves on previously installed radiators to be replaced as these were in poor condition.
    3. For all valves on the radiators in the property to be tightened.
  5. These repairs were arranged for 24 January 2022. However, on that day the resident had called as the engineer that arrived only had one job on his job sheet and the resident was upset that not all the work was going to be done as promised, and so it had spoke to the engineer and instructed them to carry out all of the works. It further stated that when it spoke to the resident on 26 January 2022, she confirmed that all the work had been completed and that the heating system was in full working order. Due to the distress and inconvenience caused, it offered the resident £50 compensation for lack of heating in her property.
  6. The resident referred her complaint to this Service on 12 September 2022. The resident stated she was still experiencing issues with the boiler system, and that the continued repairs had been caused her distress and inconvenience. As a resolution, the resident would like compensation for the inconvenience and distress caused to her and for an independent survey of the boiler.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it is responsible for repairing the installations for supplying water, gas and electricity. It is also responsible for repairs to installations and appliances for heating the property and supplying hot water. It further states that it is explicitly responsible for repairs to resident’s central heating systems, pipes and appliances.
  2. The repairs policy further states that priority repairs should be attended to within 4-24 hours depending on the urgency of the repair, and the risk to the resident and property.
  3. The compensation policy states that it should award £6 a day for a loss of heating between 1 November and 30 April. This should be increased by 50% if the resident is elderly or disabled.

Assessment

  1. As a resolution to her complaint, the resident has requested for an increased offer of compensation. To determine if compensation is appropriate, this Service first looks at how the landlord handled the resident’s reports of having no heating in her property and any subsequent appointments. If failings are identified, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether the landlord has acted in accordance with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles (DRP): to be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes.
  2. In the evidence provided, the resident’s boiler new boiler failed three occasions 15 December 2021, 1 January 2022 and 15 January 2022. In each case the landlord attended within 24 hours in accordance with its repairs policy.
  3. The landlord offered the resident compensation of £50 for the distress and inconvenience caused as a result of the failure of her new boiler and lack of central heating. As per its compensation policy, the landlord should award resident’s £6 a day in compensation for a loss of heating between 1 November and 30 April. This should be increased by 50% if the resident is elderly or disabled.
  4. In this case, this Service does deem the resident as vulnerable due to her arthritis and the operation she had prior to the central heating failing. Therefore, it is the view of this Service that the resident would be entitled to the additional 50% compensation meaning for everyday she was without central heating she should be awarded £9 compensation.
  5. This would entitle the resident to £27 compensation under the landlord’s compensation policy. However, the landlord provided the resident with an offer of £50 compensation in light of the distress and inconvenience caused, therefore acting outside of its compensation policy in recognition of the resident’s vulnerabilities and the inconvenience the issues cased her.
  6. Furthermore, this compensation is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance, which suggests awards of £50 to £100 for cases where the Ombudsman has found service failure by the landlord resulting in minimal impact on the complainant. We recognise that there has been service failure which had an impact on the complainant but was of short duration and may not have significantly affected the overall outcome for the complainant. Therefore, the landlord’s offer of compensation was in-line with this Service’s remedies guidance and in excess of the landlord’s, and as such the landlord had been fair in its compensation award.
  7. The resident further raised that she had spent £100 in energy costs to keep her house heated whilst the central heating system had failed. In order for the landlord to determine whether it is reasonable to compensate for additional energy costs, it would need sight of the resident’s utility bills for the period whereby the central heating system was not working and utility bills from a similar time period in a year when the central heating system was working in order to determine what changes in energy usage could be attributed to the lack of central heating and use of heaters in the property.
  8. No evidence has been provided which suggests that this information was provided or requested during the complaint process. However, it would be appropriate for the landlord to write to the resident and request her to provide it with any evidence she has that shows an increase in his energy bills and then review its compensation offer based on what evidence it receives. The resident can bring a separate complaint to this Service about the landlord’s response to the energy costs if she remains dissatisfied once the landlord has responded to this issue through its complaint’s procedure.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress prior to investigation which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint regarding the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of no heating following the replacement of her boiler.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord:
    1. Pay the resident the £50 compensation offered if it has not done so already.
    2. Contact the resident and request her energy bills to determine costs involved of heating her property whilst the boiler was not functioning. The landlord should then consider if any additional costs have occurred for which it would be reasonable for it to reimburse the resident, and contact the resident with its decision in writing.