Great Places Housing Association (202448198)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202448198

Great Places Housing Association

30 July 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 radiator repairs at the property.
We have also investigated the landlord’s complaint handling.

Background

The resident is a tenant of the landlord, which is the leaseholder of the property, a 2-bed apartment within a block. The landlord employs an agent (the agent) to undertake repairs and maintenance. The freeholder of the building employs another agent, which has responsibility for the communal heat network. Another party has responsibility for the management of the utility bills at the property.
The resident has reported issues with the heating supply to her flat from August 2023. On 3 November 2023 the resident reported that the bedroom radiator was leaking “considerable water”. Repairing this meant the landlord had to turn off the heating to the property. On 5 December 2023 the landlord ordered a new bedroom radiator.
On 14 December 2023, recording that the resident had had “no heating for months”, the landlord gave the resident 3 electric heaters to use while the heating system was, as it described, “not working correctly”.
The resident contacted the landlord, saying she had complained to the agent on 13 February 2024. She said she had not had heating for a significant period. Not having received a response, she forwarded the complaint to the landlord on 26 March 2024. She said she was passed between different parties to try and raise a heating repair. As the heating was not working, she said she had had to stay at her mother’s house. The electric heaters the landlord provided increased her bills. She said that, confusingly, her bills had increased even when she was not at the property. She also said the radiator leak had caused damage to the carpet and the walls and she wanted compensation.
The landlord replaced the bedroom radiator on 27 March 2024.
The landlord responded at stage 1 of its complaint’s process on 10 April 2024. It said there had been some “initial confusion” about who was responsible for the repair. Once it realised the fault was with a radiator, it arranged the repair. It accepted that the resident had “been without proper heating for in excess of six months” and that this was a service failure. However, it said it had been difficult to arrange access to the apartment. It offered £250 compensation for its delays.
The resident asked to escalate her complaint on 26 April 2024. She did not consider the offer of £250 was sufficient and provided energy bills to show her increased costs. She also asked it to write-off a month’s rent. She said that after contractors had replaced her bedroom radiator, within half an hour another leak started, this time with the living room radiator.
The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 21 June 2024. It said it had been unable to contact the resident to arrange a visit to inspect the radiator. It said it could not “identify a breakdown of charges” from the bills she had provided. (It is not wholly clear what it meant by this). It said she had not been without heating. It offered a further £250 for the delays resolving the repair (which it accepted was still not resolved) and for the cost of using electric heaters.
The landlord replaced the living room radiator on 22 January 2025. The records show that operatives were unable to test it because of another leak, which is the subject of a further complaint.
The resident came to the Ombudsman in February 2025. She said she had not had any heating at the apartment from November 2023.The landlord has recently contacted the Ombudsman. It says it is further reviewing the case while we investigate. It says there are gaps in its complaint responses and more it can do for the resident.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

Issues with leaks and the heating supply to the property continued or reoccurred after the complaints process ended and after the replacement of the living room radiator. This is the subject of a separate complaint by the resident. This investigation focuses on the landlord’s responses to the issues reported by the resident about the property radiators up and until its final response in June 2024.
The resident said the landlord had not dealt with her complaint about the damage caused by a boiler leak or the damage caused to her carpets and walls by the radiator leaks. As the separate complaint referred to above addresses the overall issues of damage to property, we have not considered that here. The landlord has said it will, as part of its response to that complaint, complete remedial work to the property to bring it “back up to standard”. If the resident is unhappy with the landlord’s response to that complaint, she can ask the Ombudsman to investigate.
Throughout the complaint and in communication with this Service, the resident said this situation had a detrimental impact on her health and wellbeing. The Ombudsman is unable to assess the cause of, or liability for, impacts on health and wellbeing. The resident may be able to make a personal injury claim if she considers that her health has been affected by the landlord’s actions or inaction. This is a legal process, and the resident may wish to seek legal advice if she wants to pursue this option. As this issue is more effectively resolved and remedied through the courts. It will not be considered in this report.

The landlord’s handling of radiator repairs at the property

The landlord has acknowledged in its complaint responses that it delayed responding to the resident’s reports about issues with radiator leaks. It took from November 2023 to March 2024 to replace the faulty bedroom radiator. It took from March 2024 to January 2025 to replace a faulty living room radiator. During this period, the records indicate, and the resident has stated, she did not have “proper heating.” However, what this actually means is not clear.
Nonetheless in the absence of a clear explanation from the landlord it appears the resident did not have central heating. It appears her only source of heating between December 2023 and January 2025 was from electric heaters.
In the landlord’s complaint responses and communications with the Ombudsman, it accepted that the resident’s “customer experience has not been in line with our agreed and expected service.” Where landlords acknowledge failings, the Ombudsman will consider whether any redress it offered put things right and resolved the complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances.
In it stage 1 response, the landlord explained its initial delays were caused by confusion about who was responsible for the repair. It is accepted that with different parties having differing repair management responsibilities, determining responsibility for specific repairs can be complicated.
However, the landlord took on the responsibility for the bedroom radiator repair by instructing its sub-contractors to complete the job. Having done so, it should have completed the repair within a reasonable time.
The landlord’s repairs policy says it will undertake to repair heating faults or breakdowns within 20 working days. The landlord’s remedies and resolutions policy says that where issues occur for 6 months or more, (as it accepted at stage 1 was the case here) it will consider paying compensation of over £700. Therefore, on the face of it, its compensation offer of £250 was not in line with its policy framework.
Its policy also says that it will take the circumstances of each case into account, considering for instance if the service failures were due to factors outside of its control or whether the actions of the resident prevented or delayed the completion of a repair.
At stage 1 of its complaint process and in internal records, the landlord said it considered the repair was “prolonged” because of difficulties arranging access to the property with the resident. It provided evidence showing its attempts to call the resident. While that shows times when there was no answer, these were not frequent, and the resident usually contacted the landlord shortly after missing calls or emails. There is no indication this was fundamental to the significant delay in this case.
The resident was not totally without heating, having the use of electric heaters, provided by the landlord, from December 2023. However, its compensation offer at stage 1 was not in line with the compensation its policy.
At stage 2 of its complaint’s process the landlord offered further compensation of £250. It said this was for both the delays and the resident’s costs from running the electric heaters. It did not explain how it decided that amount, and so it is not apparent how much was for the heaters.
The resident had told the landlord she was confused by the increases in her bills, partly as for part of the period she was briefly not living in the property. It failed to address her concerns. That was not reasonable, because having accepted the provision of electric heaters had increased her costs, it should have taken proactive steps to understand the position properly and to consider what support it could provide.
Furthermore, the resident needed to use the heaters until at least January 2025.There is no evidence of the landlord reimbursing her for the longer period.
The landlord told the Ombudsman that responding to the issues the resident had was challenging. It explained that it was not the freeholder of the building and had to rely on other parties to complete repairs to the structure and common parts of the building. However, if it had challenges communicating with other parties to complete the repairs, it should have developed better ways of communicating with the various parties involved.
The Ombudsman’s Spotlight Report regarding managing agents was published in March 2022. The Ombudsman accepts that in some cases the ability of a landlord to influence other parties is limited. However, as the report says, “landlords should be able to demonstrate attempts at effective engagement…to establish the root cause of the issues, develop clear action plans, and ensure that performance is both proactively and robustly monitored”.
In this case the landlord has failed to demonstrate this. For instance, internal records show that although a radiator for the living room had been ordered and delivered to the landlord months prior, it was not fitted until January 2024. Nothing in the evidence explains the delay.
Overall, the landlord failed to repair consecutive leaks to the property radiators, which were linked to issues with heating at the property, for a significant period of time. The division of responsibility for the repairs at the building is complex but the landlord should have had systems in place to respond in a timely and effective way to issues that cause significant upset and distress. It took steps to respond by providing electric heaters, ensuring the resident was not completely without heating. However, it then failed to support the resident when she explained that her bills had “sky-rocketed”. Furthermore, the compensation it offered for the delays was not in line with its compensation policy. As the landlord did not identify these failings in its responses it also did not provide remedies for them, leaving the resident’s complaint unresolved.

On the landlord’s complaint handling

The landlord’s March 2024 customer feedback policy says it will take 10 working days from the date of acknowledgement to respond to complaints at stage 1 of its process. It says it will take 20 working days from the date of acknowledgment to respond to stage 2 complaints. It says it will acknowledge complaints within 5 working days.
However, the landlord took 30 working days to acknowledge the resident’s complaint to its agent. It should ensure it has systems to address complaints to its agents in line with its policy timeframe.
The landlord then took 9 working days to acknowledge the resident’s stage 2 complaint, missing its policy commitment by 4 working days. It then took 29 working days to provide its stage 2 response. In total, the combined delay throughout the complaints process was 43 working days. The landlord did not acknowledge these delays. Even though they were relatively small and had no clear impact, it would have been reasonable to apologise for them.

Determinations

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of radiator repairs at the property.
In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

Orders and recommendations

The landlord has said it is further reviewing the complaint. Within that review it must consider and comply with the below orders.
Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord should provide evidence it has:
1. Paid the resident the sum of £1050 (inclusive of the £500 if already paid). This comprises:
  1. £500 to acknowledge the impact of its delayed repair to the resident’s bedroom radiator and the consequent reduced/lack of heating provision between November 2023 and April 2024.
  2. £500 to acknowledge the impact of its delayed repair to the resident’s living room radiator and the consequent reduced/lack of heating provision between April 2024 and January 2025.
  3. £50 to acknowledge its delays throughout the complaints process.
Within 8 weeks of this report the landlord must:
1. Show evidence it has worked with the resident to identify how much of her energy costs over the period concerned here were due to using the electric heaters. It should ensure that it reimburses her fairly for any costs it identifies above what it has already offered.
2. Explain how its current processes will avoid a repeat of the initial confusion about who was responsible for the repairs and the following delays in completing the repairs.
The landlord must provide evidence of compliance with these orders by their respective deadlines.