Hackney Council (202102201)

Back to Top

 

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202102201

Hackney Council

6 October 2021

 

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. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
    1. a bathroom fan repair;
    2. the related complaint.

Background and summary of events

Background

  1. The resident was a secure tenant of the property. The property is a flat within a tower block and the landlord advised this Service in September 2021 that the resident had recently moved to a new address. The landlord is a local authority.
  2. The resident advised the landlord during the complaints process that her father – who also lived at the property – was clinically extremely vulnerable.
  3. The landlord has a tenancy conditions booklet that explains that it is responsible for ‘repairing the systems in the property for supplying water, gas and electricity, and for sanitation (including basins, sinks, baths and toilets), and keeping those systems in proper working order’.
  4. The landlord’s website shows that it is responsible for repairs to any fittings it has provided and that it has four repairs classifications which determine how quickly repairs are attended to. These classifications and timescales are as follows:
    1. immediate repairs – attended to within two hours
    2. emergency repairs – attended to within 24 hours
    3. urgent repairs – attended to within five working days
    4. normal repairs – attended to within 21 working days
  5. The landlord has a two-stage complaints procedure. It advises that it aims to respond to stage one complaints within 10 working days (or, if the complaint is complex, within an extended timescale that it will advise the resident of) and stage two complaints within 20 working days.
  6. The landlord has a compensation guidance document that shows it will award compensation for distress or time and trouble caused.
  7. The landlord’s website shows that ‘services are currently significantly disrupted due to a serious cyber-attack, and you may experience difficulty contacting us or using our services’.

Summary of Events

  1. The resident sent a complaint to the landlord on 3 November 2020. This included concerns that the electric bathroom fan did not work which meant that they had to keep the window open, leaving her father at risk of getting ill. She advised that there had been a missed appointment and that it had been rescheduled for 4 November 2020.
  2. The landlord logged the complaint on 4 November 2020 and sent an acknowledgement email to the resident.
  3. The resident chased the bathroom fan repair on 28 November 2020. She said that an electrician had attended on 10 November 2020 but left the main socket open and had not returned. She added that her father was clinically extremely vulnerable and that the fault meant that the fan was permanently on so could only be controlled using the mains switch that was dangerous to access.
  4. The landlord’s internal emails from 28 January 2021 show that it was aware (from a virtual inspection) that there was exposed ducting in the bathroom with wiring sticking out. Further internal emails the following week indicate that the landlord had difficulty in locating records of which operatives had previously attended to the bathroom fan but that it believed a new fan had been installed in November 2020.
  5. The landlord noted that it raised an emergency repair order on 10 February 2021 for an electrician to attend to check for exposed wiring and find out why the extractor fan was not working.
  6. The resident wrote to the landlord on 11 February 2021. She chased the outcome of the virtual surveyor inspection on 26 January 2021 and said that an electrician had attended that day but that this was only to address exposed wiring.
  7. The landlord’s internal emails show that it made an offer on 15 February 2021 to the resident that it could send an emergency electrician within 24 hours but that she had refused as she would not be available within this timescale.
  8. The landlord issued a complaint response on 16 February 2021. It apologised for the delay in providing a response and said that this was related to a cyber-attack that it had experienced in October 2020 that had affected its repair and complaints data. It concluded that:
    1. the resident had refused access on 11 February 2021 and 15 February 2021 so it asked her to let it know when it could attend to the bathroom fan
    2. it did not know when it would be able to access historic repairs data in order to explain its handling of the bathroom fan repair (and a separate kitchen sink repair)
    3. it proposed to pay the resident £75 compensation on the grounds it had been unable to answer the complaint.
  9. The resident chased a complaint response on 29 March 2021 and chased the virtual surveyor inspection outcome on 19 April 2021.
  10. The landlord wrote to the resident on 22 April 2021. It provided a copy of its complaint response of 16 February 2021 and said it had arranged for the bathroom fan to be attended to on 28 April 2021.
  11. This Service passed the resident’s complaint escalation request to the landlord on 29 June 2021.
  12. The landlord issued a final complaint response to the resident on 21 July 2021. It concluded that:
    1. it had completed the bathroom fan repair on 28 April 2021
    2. its compensation policy showed that it should award the resident £10 per week for the repairs delays which amounted to £250 compensation for the 25 weeks delay.
  13. The landlord advised this Service in September 2021 that it had reviewed the repairs records for this property and not been able to locate any information about repair orders raised since November 2019 and that this was due to the cyber-attack.

Assessment and findings

  1. In reaching a decision we consider whether the landlord has kept to the law, followed proper procedure and good practice, and acted in a reasonable way. Our duty is to determine complaints by reference to what is, in this Service’s opinion, fair in all the circumstances of the case.

Bathroom fan

  1. It is not disputed that there was a significant delay in the landlord’s response to the resident’s report that her bathroom fan did not work. The resident has advised that this problem began in October 2020 and the landlord has confirmed that it should have completed the repair by 4 November 2020 but delayed by 25 weeks, meaning it was not done until 28 April 2021. This was well outside of the timescales set out in the landlord’s repairs procedure for both emergency and urgent repairs and was therefore inappropriate.
  2. It is of concern that the landlord failed to respond to the resident’s concerns about her father’s vulnerability and potential safety issues with wiring between November 2020 and January 2021. Again, this delay was inappropriate albeit the landlord has explained that its ability to investigate the bathroom fan repair was compromised by IT problems following a cyber-attack immediately prior to the initial bathroom fan report.
  3. Following a virtual inspection in late January 2021, the landlord noted a potential safety issue. Its actions in raising an emergency repair order and attempting to access the resident’s property twice within a week to resolve this were reasonable. However, it failed to follow up between February and April 2021 – this caused additional delay and was again inappropriate.
  4. Overall, there were inappropriate delays in the landlord responding to the resident’s bathroom fan reports from November 2020 to January 2021 and February 2021 to April 2021. This led to concerns on the part of the resident about electrical safety, a potential for mould growth in the bathroom and the possibility of her father becoming ill.
  5. The landlord reviewed the matter through its complaints process and this led to it completing the bathroom fan repair on 28 April 2021 and awarding the resident £250 compensation for its delays. This level of compensation is within the range that the Ombudsman’s Remedies Guidance recommends for service failure ‘over a considerable period of time to act in accordance with policy – for example to address repairs’ but has had no ‘permanent impact on the complainant’. The landlord also offered a reasoned explanation as to how it had calculated the compensation award in line with its own compensation policy. Its actions in putting right the service failure and making a fair compensation assessment were therefore appropriate.
  6. In summary, although there was some mitigation due to the impact of a cyber-attack, the landlord delayed by almost six months in addressing the resident’s report of a faulty bathroom fan. However, the combination of the landlord’s apologies offered, completion of the repair and compensation award represented reasonable redress for its service failure. In accordance with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles, the landlord was fair in its assessment of the service failure and took steps to put things right.

Complaint handling

  1. The resident submitted her initial complaint on 3 November 2020. The landlord acknowledged the following day that it had received the complaint but failed to offer a full response until 16 February 2021. This was well outside of the 10-working day timescale that the landlord’s complaints procedure sets out for stage one responses and it also failed to provide the resident with a revised timescale – this was inappropriate albeit the landlord has explained that its ability to administer the complaint was compromised by IT problems following a cyber-attack the month before the complaint was received.
  2. When the landlord responded to the complaint in February 2021, it explained the reason for the complaint handling delay and apologised, asked the resident to co-operate in finding a mutually convenient time for the repair and proposed a £75 compensation award given the cyber-attack meant that it would not be able to fully investigate the complaint. This level of compensation is within the range that the Ombudsman’s Remedies Guidance recommends for ‘failure to meet service standards for actions and responses but where the failure had no significant impact’. The landlord’s actions in acknowledging and offering redress for its complaint handling service failure were therefore appropriate.
  3. The resident subsequently approached this Service which led to the Ombudsman passing the resident’s complaint escalation to the landlord on 29 June 2021. The landlord provided its final complaint response on 21 July 2021 – this was within the 20-working day timescale that the landlord’s complaints procedure requires. The response also offered a review of the landlord’s handling of the bathroom fan repair in as much detail as its records allowed and a compensation proposal for its service failure. The landlord’s actions at the final stage of the complaints process were therefore appropriate.
  4. In summary, although there was some mitigation due to the impact of a cyber-attack, the landlord delayed by four months in responding to the resident’s initial complaint. However, the combination of the apology and explanations offered by the landlord and its compensation proposal represented reasonable redress for this complaint handling service failure.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 55 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has offered reasonable redress to the resident for the service failures identified in its handling of:
    1. a bathroom fan repair;
    2. the related complaint.

Reasons

  1. The landlord contributed to delays of almost six months in completing a bathroom fan repair but its apology, completion of the outstanding repair and compensation award were appropriate given the circumstances of the case.
  2. The landlord delayed by four months in providing a response at the first stage of its complaints process but its apology and compensation award were appropriate given the circumstances of the case.

Recommendations

  1. If it has not already done so, the landlord to pay the resident compensation of £325, made up of:
    1. the £75 compensation that it proposed in February 2021 for its complaint handling failure;
    2. the £250 compensation that it proposed in April 2021 for its service failure in the handling of the bathroom fan repair.

The landlord should confirm its intention in regard to this recommendation to this Service within four weeks of the date of this report.