Hammersmith and Fulham Council (202206018)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202206018

Hammersmith and Fulham Council

12 January 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 concerns:
   1. The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the property.
   2. The associated formal complaint of this matter.

Background

2. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord, which is a local authority. The property is a flat in a communal building.
3. The landlord’s records state that it was contacted by the resident on 10 January 2022, who reported damp in the property. The landlord raised work orders to inspect both the resident’s and the neighbouring property in order to locate the source of the damp. On 7 March 2022, the landlord’s contractor determined that the source was from a leak in the overflow pipe from the property above, which was not owned by the landlord and was currently vacant. The landlord contacted the representative for the leaseholder of the property above to inform them of the leak and to request that they arrange for the pipe to be repaired.
4. The resident wrote to the landlord on 22 March 2022 and requested to raise a complaint into how the issue had been handled. The resident described the elements of her complaint as the length of time the landlord was taking to resolve the issue and that poor level of communication she had received from the landlord when requesting updates on the progress of repairs.
5. In its complaint responses, the landlord:
   1. Apologised for the difficulty the resident experienced in attempting to speak to someone at its call centre and the lack of contact she had from its contractor who was investigating the cause of the damp in her property.
   2. Explained that due to the circumstances surrounding the ownership of the property above, the landlord had experienced delays outside of its control in arranging for the leak to be repaired.
   3. Confirmed that the leak had now been repaired and that following a surveyor visit to her property, it had raised a work order to repair the damage to the property the leak had caused. The landlord apologised for the delay in completing the surveyor inspection, noting that it had informed the resident that it would arrange the appointment by 2 June 2022, but it did not occur until 24 June 2022.
   4. Offered £275 compensation for the delays the resident experienced in resolving the matter and the inconvenience that this had caused.
6. Following the conclusion of the complaint process, the landlord wrote to the resident on 8 July 2022 and stated that it would keep her updated on the progress of the outstanding repairs to her property. An internal landlord email sent on 27 September 2022 stated that an appointment had been booked for 18 October 2022. From the evidence provided to this Service, it is not clear if this appointment went ahead, and if it did, whether further appointments were necessary to complete the repairs.
7. In referring the complaint to this Service, the resident described the outstanding issues of the complaint as length of time it was taking the landlord to complete the repairs in her property once the leak had been resolved and that the compensation offer from the landlord did not reflect the level of distress and inconvenience that she had experienced.

Assessment and findings

Relevant policies and procedures

8. Section E1 of the tenancy agreement sets out the landlord’s repair and maintenance responsibilities. This, in part, states that the landlord will “repair and maintain the structure and the outside of your home”.
9. The landlord’s repairs policy categorises its repair types as “Emergency” (make safe within two or 24 hours), “Urgent” (complete or make safe within three or five working days) and “Routine” (complete within 20 working days). The landlord considers “a minor leak or dripping pipe” as an urgent repair that should be attended to within three working days and follow-on work to complete repairs after a leak had been repaired as routine repairs.
10. The landlord operates a two-stage complaints process. When a complaint is received, the landlord aims to provide a response at stage one within 15 working days. If the complainant is dissatisfied with the response, they can request an escalation of the complaint to the next stage. The landlord will then undertake a review of the complaint and provide a stage two response within 20 working days. This will be the landlord’s final response to the complaint.
11. The complaints policy further states that the landlord follows the remedies guidance given by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) when determining the level of compensation to offer a complainant for its admitted service failure.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the property

12. Once it was informed by the resident of damp and mould in the property, the landlord had a duty to respond to the matter in line with the obligations set out in the tenancy agreement and its published policies and procedures. Initially, the landlord acted appropriately to the resident’s report. It raised a work order for its contractor to inspect the property and locate the source of the damp. When it was determined that the source of the leak from the property above, the landlord contacted the leaseholder’s representative to pass on the findings from its contractor and request that they arrange to have the issue repaired. Once it received confirmation that the leak had been repaired, the landlord arranged for a surveyor to inspect the resident’s property and raised work orders to repair the damage in the property caused by the leak.
13. However, the landlord recognised that there were failures in how it handled the repairs. It accepted the resident had experienced poor communication and delays from its staff and contractors. The landlord’s repair logs also state that the work raised for its contractor to investigate the source of the damp were raised as routine repairs, despite its repairs handbook suggesting that this type of work should be raised as a priority repair. That would have resulted in further delays for the resident before the source of the damp was confirmed. Therefore, it was appropriate for the landlord to apologise to the resident, offer compensation and explain what steps it had taken to improve its service. This position is also in line with the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles: be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes.
14. The landlord acted fairly in acknowledging its mistakes and apologising to the resident. It looked to put things right by improving its communication (following the complaint being raised, the landlord’s complaint handler looked to gather information from its repairs team and contractor in order to provide regular updates to the resident on the status of the work), ensuring that the leak was repaired, offering £275 compensation and raising work orders to repair the damage in the resident’s property. It looked to learn from its mistakes by improving its customer service and its policies and procedures on handling leaks. The landlord has stated that it was looking to hire more staff to allow it to respond to customer contact in a timelier manner. Notes of a landlord meeting held on 30 March 2022 concerning leak management stated that the resident’s complaint was raised during the meeting and it discussed ways it could improve its policy and procedures for how it should act in cases where the cause of the leak is from a property not owned by the landlord.
15. The compensation offered by the landlord was broadly in line with the Ombudsman’s own remedies guidance (which is available on our website). This recommends a payment of £100 to £600 for considerable service failure or maladministration which adversely affected the complainant, but there was no permanent impact. A payment of £275 that recognised the landlord’s poor communication, as well as the delays from its contractors in explaining where the source of the leak was from and the delay in agreeing an appointment for the surveyor to inspect the property was therefore reasonable in the circumstances. It should be noted that this payment was for the time period considered in the complaint; which was from when the landlord first received a report from the resident on 10 January 2022, up to when the stage two complaint response was sent on 5 July 2022.
16. However, the resident continued to experience delays following receipt of the stage two response. The landlord raised a work order for the work recommend by the surveyor to be completed as a routine repair on 5 July 2022. The target for the work to be completed by was stated as 25 July 2022 in the landlord’s repair log. It was not until September 2022 that an appointment was arranged to go ahead on 18 October 2022. Despite several emails being written by the resident in July and August 2022 requested updates on the status of the work, there is no evidence that the landlord explained the reason for the delay.
17. Therefore, in order to fully resolve the complaint, further compensation from the landlord is warranted for the continued delays and poor communication experienced by the resident after the conclusion of the complaints process. Based on the previous compensation award by the landlord and this Service’s remedies guidance detailed above, it would be appropriate for the landlord to pay an additional £200 compensation for the poor communication and delays in completing repairs between 5 July 2022 and 18 October 2022.
18. It is also not clear from the evidence provided that the outstanding repairs were completed on 18 October 2022. Therefore, it is recommended that, if the repairs to the resident’s property were not completed on 18 October 2022, that the landlord determine if further compensation is warranted then write to the resident to inform her of its decision.

The landlord’s complaint handling

19. The landlord did not follow its complaint policy at stage two of its complaint process. The resident made a request to open a new complaint on 10 May 2022 as the issue had yet to be resolved and she was still receiving poor customer service from the landlord. The landlord replied on 12 May 2022 to inform the resident that it had escalated the original complaint and that it aimed to provide her with a response by 10 June 2022. The stage two response was sent to the resident on 5 July 2022; 19 working days outside of its target of 20 working days. This caused clear inconvenience to the resident as she had to request the intervention of this Service to ask the landlord to provide her with a stage two complaint response. The stage two response that was sent to her did not address this delay, nor was the delay taken into consideration by the landlord when it calculated its compensation offer.
20. Therefore, there has been service failure by the landlord in its complaint handling and in order to full resolve the complaint, further compensation is warranted. The Ombudsman’s remedies guidance suggests a payment of £50 to £100 for service failure of a short duration that did not affect the overall outcome of the complaint. This includes distress and inconvenience, time and trouble, disappointment, loss of confidence, and delays in getting matters resolved. It would therefore be appropriate for the landlord to pay £75 compensation for the 19 working day delay in providing the stage two response and for the inconvenience caused to the resident by having to write to this Service and request assistance in receiving the stage two response.
21. It should also be noted that the stage two complaint response incorrectly advised the resident to contact the LGSCO if she wished to progress the complaint further. This incorrect information did not have an effect on the complaint as the resident had already been in contact with this Service prior to receiving the stage two response and she had been made aware of what the next steps would be. However, it is recommended that the landlord review its complaint handling procedures to ensure that complainants are signposted to the correct Ombudsman service once the internal complaints process has been exhausted.

Determination

22. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in respect of:
    1. It’s response to the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the property.
    2. It’s complaint handling

Orders

23. For the service failure and reasons set out above, the landlord is ordered to pay to the resident £275, made up as follows:
    1. £200 for the failures identified in this report in relation to the ongoing delays and poor communication experienced by the resident after the stage two complaint response was sent on 5 July 2022.
    2. £75 for the complaint handling failures identified in this report.

Recommendations

24. It is recommended that:
    1. If it has not done so already, the landlord pay the resident the £275 compensation it offered for the delays in completing repairs and its poor communication from 10 January 2022 to 5 July 2022.
    2. If the repairs to the resident’s property were not completed on 18 October 2022, that the landlord determine if a further compensation payment is warranted in recognition of the ongoing delay and then write to the resident to inform her of its decision.
    3. The landlord review its complaint handling procedures to ensure that complainants are signposted to the correct ombudsman service once the internal complaints process has been exhausted.