Great Places Housing Group Limited (202336752)

Background

1. The resident reported a hole in her roof to the landlord, which she said caused damp in her bathroom. She complained because she was unhappy with its communication and said it delayed fixing her roof and resolving the damp.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
   1. Roof repair and associated damp.
   2. Complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. We found:
   1. Maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s roof repair and associated damp.
   2. Maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s roof repair and associated damp

4. The landlord did not complete the roof repair and associated damp work in line with its policy timescales. It apologised and offered compensation in its stage 2 response. Its offer was not proportionate to the failings we identified.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint

5. The landlord did not send its stage 1 acknowledgement, and response, in line with our complaint handling code. It failed to address the resident’s complaint about damp and did not acknowledge its complaint handling failings in its 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.

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.

What we did not investigate

6. The resident said the landlord’s handling of her roof repair and associated damp impacted her health. It would be fairer, more reasonable and more effective for the resident to make a personal injury claim for any injury caused. The courts are best placed to deal with this type of dispute as they will have the benefit of independent medical advice to decide on the cause of any injury and how long it will last. We’ve not investigated this further. We can decide if a landlord should pay compensation for distress and inconvenience.

What we did investigate

7. This investigation looks at the landlord’s overall handling of the roof repair and associated damp, but we have explained our findings using subheadings for ease.

Roof repair

8. On 19 October 2023 the resident reported a hole in her roof and missing tiles. The landlord raised a repair on 26 October 2023. The resident complained about its delay in resolving the issue. She explained she had recently returned from hospital following a serious health incident and was unhappy with its handling of her repair. After her complaint, it raised further work on 11 December 2023.
9. In its stage 1 response, the landlord said its contractor completed a temporary repair on 31 October 2023 while it sourced replacement tiles, which it fitted in December 2023. The resident told us it did not complete a temporary repair. The landlord had no records of its temporary repair and told us it was likely it did not complete the repair and closed it in error.
10. The resident remained unhappy with the landlord’s stage 1 response. She said the hole in her roof was still there and referred it to a survey from 2 January 2024. The landlord did not provide us a copy of this survey. It completed work on 10 January 2024 which it raised on 11 December 2023 for the roof hole. It is unclear what this work involved.
11. In its stage 2 response, the landlord acknowledged it did not repair the soffit and eaves and told her it requested this repair from its in-house team. It explained it had an internal team who managed the work and said this gave it greater control. It raised work on 2 February 2024 which it completed on 6 February 2024. It is unclear from its records what this involved. The resident was unhappy and contacted the landlord on 12 February 2024. She said its internal roofer attended without an appointment and put a single piece of wood over the hole.
12. The landlord raised further work on 12 February 2024 to replace the soffits. It attended on 16 February 2024 but said the resident was not in. However, it later confirmed she did not need to be present. It ordered the soffit materials in March 2024 and recorded the work as complete in May 2024.
13. The landlord raised another roof survey in October 2024 which it completed in November 2024. It did not provide us a copy of this report and there is a gap in its roof repair activity from May to October 2024. On 9 December 2024 it raised further work for the hole in the roof which it completed on 10 January 2025.
14. The resident disputes the landlord completed the soffit and eaves work in May 2024. She said it completed all work, including soffits and eaves, in May 2025 when it replaced the roof. She sent us communication from the landlord to her from May 2025 to book in roof work. Further to our request for clarification on this, the landlord said it completed roof work on 24 January 2025. The landlord’s records are poor, and it is unclear what work it did and when.

Associated damp

15. On 19 October 2023 the resident reported the hole in her roof caused damp in her bathroom. The landlord’s damp and mould policy says it will respond within 10 working days and assess the cause, and complete repairs in line with its repairs policy. It did not do this. This caused the resident time and trouble complaining on 1 December 2023 after which, it raised work for the mould on the bathroom ceiling. It attended on 14 December 2023 but said the resident was not home.
16. The landlord completed a damp assessment on 2 January 2024. This identified damp and mould on the bathroom ceiling and found the bathroom extractor fan was not working. In line with its policy, it gave the resident advice about treating and managing damp. It raised work on 10 January 2024 to remove the bathroom ceiling.
17. After its stage 2 response, the landlord raised work on 28 February 2024 to replace the resident’s bathroom fan and carry out a mould wash. It completed this on 3 and 5 April 2024. This was outside its repairs policy timescale of 20 working days for routine repairs. It completed another inspection on 25 April 2024 but did not provide us a copy of its report or record the outcome on its repair logs. It raised work on 26 April 2024 to install a ventilation system, which it completed in July 2024.
18. The landlord arranged an appointment in September 2024 to replace the resident’s bathroom ceiling. It could not complete the work because it found there were rats in the loft and there was a risk they could enter the bathroom if it removed the ceiling. It put the resident’s bathroom ceiling work on hold while pest control treated the infestation, which pest control completed in November 2024.
19. The landlord replastered the bathroom ceiling in September 2025. It did not send us evidence of its communication with the resident between completing the pest control treatment and replastering. The resident is unhappy it replastered the ceiling and did not replace it. She has also reported the damp has returned. It is unclear why it replastered the ceiling rather than replacing it, as initially planned in January 2024. In view of the resident’s ongoing damp concerns, we have made an order for it to complete an inspection.

Summary

20. Overall, the landlord’s handling of the resident’s roof repair and associated damp was poor. It did not act promptly to address the damp or complete work in line with its damp and mould policy. It did not complete the roof repair within its policy timescales, which says it will attend to routine repairs within 20 working days. Its policy says a routine repair becomes a major repair where more extensive remedial work is needed. This includes structural and replacement work. In such cases, it says it would agree the full scope of works and update residents on estimated timescales and steps. Where repairs are complex or take longer than expected, we expect landlords to update residents and manage their expectations, but it did not do this. Its records were poor and it was unclear what work it completed and when.
21. In view of the landlord’s delays, poor communication and records, we found maladministration in its handling of the resident’s roof repair and associated damp. In its stage 2 response it offered £100 compensation for the inconvenience its roof repair delay caused the resident. It did not address the associated damp. We order the landlord to pay the resident an additional £600 compensation for the distress and inconvenience its delays and poor communication caused her. This is in line with our compensation guidance for failings which adversely affected the resident and the landlord’s offer was not proportionate to the failings we identified.

22. The landlord’s complaints policy, in use at the time, did not mention timescales for its complaint acknowledgements. It said it would respond to stage 1 within 10 working days of its acknowledgement, and at stage 2 within 20 working days of its acknowledgement. This was not compliant with our complaint handling code (the Code) applicable at the time. This said landlords must respond within 10 working days of the complaint being logged and within 20 working days of the complaint escalation, not from its acknowledgement. For the purposes of our assessment, we have assessed the landlord’s complaint handling using our former Code (2022), which was in use at the time.
23. The landlord sent its stage 1 acknowledgement 11 working days after the resident complained. This was not in line with the Code which said landlords must acknowledge the complaint within 5 days of receipt. The date it said it would respond by in its response was inaccurate. It told the resident on 18 December 2023 it would respond by 8 January 2023. Its delay to acknowledge the resident’s complaint caused her time and trouble contacting it again and complaining.
24. The landlord sent its stage 1 response 23 working days after she complained. This was not in line with the Code.
25. The landlord sent its stage 2 response in line with the Code.
26. The landlord did not address the resident’s damp concerns in its stage 1 or stage 2 response. This was not in line with the Code which said landlords must respond to all points raised in the complaint and confirm details of any remedy and outstanding actions. It missed an opportunity to respond to this part of her complaint and put things right.
27. In view of the above, we found maladministration. We have ordered the landlord to apologise and pay the resident £50 compensation for the time and trouble its complaint handling delays caused her. This is in line with our compensation guidance for failings which had no permanent impact but the landlord failed to acknowledge its complaint handling failures.
28. We have not ordered the landlord to review its complaints policy because its updated policy is compliant with our current Code.

Learning

29. The landlord should learn from this case in respect of its management of damp and mould.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

30. The landlord should ensure it keeps a record of all its communication with residents to demonstrate how it managed expectations.
31. The landlord should ensure its repair records are accurate and complete. It should review the best practise highlighted in our spotlight report on knowledge and information management.

Communication

32. The landlord should consider how it can improve its communication with residents for repair and inspection updates. It should also consider how it communicates with contractors to ensure it is aware of when it attended and the work completed.