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GreenSquareAccord Limited (202308881)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202308881

GreenSquareAccord Limited

30 June 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

  1. The complaint is about:
    1. the level of compensation offered by the landlord for delays in completing repairs to the resident’s staircase.
    2. the landlord’s complaints handling.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord’s at the property, which is a 2-bedroom house. The landlord has no vulnerabilities recorded for the resident. The resident has told us that she is a carer and that she has chronic health conditions.
  2. On 30 May 2023, the resident contacted the landlord to report that 6 steps on her staircase were very noisy. The landlord said it had passed her concerns to its surveyor, as it had previously completed works to the staircase in 2022 and the issue had reoccurred. On 14 June 2023, the resident chased the repair with the landlord as she had not heard back from the surveyor.
  3. The resident contacted us on 14 June 2023 and again on 8 August 2023. She said that she had tried to complain to the landlord about its failure to complete repairs, but she had not received a response. On 15 August 2023, we raised a complaint with the landlord on the resident’s behalf. The complaint referred to delays in completing repairs to her staircase, and other issues, including delays in completing a window repair and in clearing rubbish at the rear of the property. We asked the landlord to respond to the resident by 19 September 2023.
  4. The landlord provided a formal complaint response on 19 September 2023. It said that a job had been raised to repair the staircase in February 2022 and works were completed in September 2022. On 11 May 2022 the resident had reported that the issue had reoccurred. The job had been passed to the landlord’s surveyor, but they were unexpectedly absent, and the inspection was not completed. Following the resident’s complaint, the landlord had inspected the property on 7 September 2023 and identified works required to address movement and noise. The landlord assured the resident that the staircase was not dangerous and said it would contact her within 28 days to arrange the works. It offered £450 compensation, which included compensation for delays in completing repairs to the staircase and window, and delays in removing rubbish from the rear of the property.
  5. The landlord raised an order for the required works on 16 November 2023. A further inspection was completed on 22 November 2023 where the landlord identified that it needed to remove a ceiling to access the stairs from below. The resident escalated her complaint on 5 December 2023. The landlord said it would respond by 8 January 2024. In a conversation with the landlord on 7 March 2023, the resident confirmed that the complaints about the window repairs and rubbish clearance had been resolved, but that the stairs had not been repaired.
  6. The landlord provided a final complaint response on 5 April 2024. It apologised for the delay in contacting the resident about her complaint escalation and acknowledged that there had been failings in its complaints handling. The landlord said that the works to the staircase had been completed except for replastering, which was booked for 10 April 2024. It accepted that there had been an unacceptable and avoidable further delay in completing the repairs. The landlord offered an additional £650 compensation for the delays, complaint handling failures, and the stress and inconvenience caused.
  7. The staircase repairs, replastering and redecoration works were completed on 2 May 2024. The resident has told us that she believes compensation of £2,500 is appropriate, to reflect the time and trouble she took to pursue the staircase repair, and the stress and inconvenience caused.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. In her communications with us, the resident has said that she believes the landlord was negligent, and that it should compensate her for harm to her mental health.Matters of personal injury or damage to health, their investigation and compensation, are not part of the complaints process, and are more appropriately addressed by way of the courts or the landlord’s liability insurer as a personal injury claim. The resident has the option to seek legal advice if she wishes to pursue these matters.

Level of compensation offered for delay

  1. The landlord’s Repairs Policy says that routine repairs should be responded to within 28 calendar days. Planned routine repairs should be completed within 84 calendar days.
  2. No action was taken by the landlord between the resident’s report of issues with the staircase on 30 May 2023 and the survey appointment of 7 September 2023. As the landlord should have responded within 28 calendar days, there was a delay of approximately 10 weeks in the landlord taking action to progress the repair. The landlord said in its complaint response of 19 September 2023 that someone would contact the resident within 28 days to arrange the repairs. The next appointment took place on 22 November 2023, after a delay in raising the works order, meaning a further 5-week delay from the target set by the landlord. After that appointment, no further works were carried out until March 2024, and the job was finally completed on 2 May 2024, following access issues, which prevented it from attending on 17 April 2024.
  3. In total, it took the landlord 11 months to complete the repairs, which was far greater than its response times for both routine and planned routine repairs, as set out in its Repairs Policy. The landlord’s service fell far below the required standard. Its communication with the resident throughout this period was poor, as the resident and the Service had to chase the landlord for responses.
  4. The landlord recognised these failings, and the effect on the resident,in its formal complaint responses. It offered the resident an apology and noted that the issues had been raised with the relevant service areas, showing its commitment to learn from the complaint.
  5. In its first formal complaint response, the landlord offered £100 for poor communication, £100 for delays in completing the repairs to the window and staircase, and £100 for the distress and inconvenience caused. The landlord then offered an additional £400 for the further delays in completing the staircase repairs and the stress and inconvenience caused.
  6. In total, the landlord offered £700 for the delays in completing repairs to the staircase. Recognising that this included compensation for delays in repairing a window unit, the Ombudsman considers that, overall, the amount of compensation offered by the landlord was reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances. This sum is in line with our remedies guidance, given the length of time the issue was outstanding, and the stress and inconvenience caused. The landlord has also apologised and described the action it has taken to address the delays internally. The Ombudsman is of the opinion that it has made an offer of redress to the resident, which satisfactorily resolves this aspect of the complaint.

Complaints handling

  1. At the time of the complaint, the landlord operated a 3-step complaints process. It would first attempt to resolve issues informally, with a response provided within 48 hours. If it could not resolve the issue, it would escalate the complaint for formal investigation at step 2. If the resident remained dissatisfied it would escalate to step 3. The landlord would acknowledge complaints and escalations within 2 working days. At step 2, the landlord would aim to respond within 10 working days. At step 3, it would respond within 20 working days.
  2. The resident told us that she first attempted to raise a complaint with the landlord by telephone on 5 June 2023, although there is no documentary evidence of this. We raised a complaint on the resident’s behalf on 15 August 2023 and asked the landlord to respond by 19 September 2023. The landlord sent an acknowledgment to the resident on 16 August 2023, saying that it would respond by 14 September 2023. It then wrote to the resident saying it needed to extend time to the 18 September 2023. The response was provided on 19 September 2023.
  3. The landlord apologised for the delay in its first complaint response and offered £100 to recognise the delay in responding. As the response was only delayed by 3 working days, and it was provided by the deadline given by us, we consider that the adverse effect of the delay on the resident was minimal. The landlord’s offer of compensation showed it was keen to acknowledge where its service had fallen short and to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
  4. In its final complaint response, the landlord accepted that it had failed to escalate the resident’s complaint on 5 December 2023, and that its communication with her had been inadequate. It noted that she had not been contacted until 7 March 2023, when the complaint escalation was logged and the landlord took action to progress the repairs. The landlord recognised that this had caused the resident additional stress and inconvenience. The landlord took responsibility for its failings, and it has now revised its Complaints Policy to be fully compliant with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
  5. The landlord apologised and offered a total of £350 for the failures identified in its complaints handling. This offer was made in recognition of the adverse effect on the resident of its poor complaints handling, demonstrating that it wanted to put things right for the resident and to rebuild the landlord and tenant relationship. Its action was in line with our dispute resolution principles.
  6. The offer of compensation made by the landlord is in line with the amounts recommended in our remedies guidance, which says such sums are appropriate where there has been an adverse effect on the resident. The Ombudsman is therefore satisfied that the landlord has made a reasonable offer of redress to the resident that resolves this aspect of the complaint.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress to the resident, which in the Ombudsman’s opinion satisfactorily resolves the complaint about its handling of repairs to her staircase.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress to the resident, which in the Ombudsman’s opinion satisfactorily resolves the complaint about its complaints handling.

Recommendation

  1. It is recommended that the landlord re-offer the £650 it offered to the resident in its final complaint response of 5 April 2024.