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Harlow District Council (202307732)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202307732

Harlow District Council

12 May 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 the landlord’s handling of the front door replacement at the resident’s property.

Background

  1. The resident was a secure tenant of the landlord’s since 2011. The property is a 1-bed flat.
  2. On 17 April 2023 the landlord was notified the police had forced entry to the resident’s property. It noted the front door would need replacing. On 13 June 2023 the landlord raised a repair for a new front door to be fitted at the resident’s property.
  3. On 20 July 2023 the resident complained to the landlord. He said he was unhappy as it had not replaced the front door at his property.
  4. The landlord responded to the resident on 26 July 2023 at stage 1 of its internal complaints process. It explained “human error” was the reason a new door had not been ordered. The landlord apologised to the resident and upheld his complaint. No offer of compensation was made.
  5. On 10 October 2023 the resident escalated his complaint. The landlord responded to him at stage 2 of its internal complaints process on 31 October 2023 and said the following:
    1. It had missed an appointment to fit a new front door 2 months earlier and there had been a lack of communication by the landlord.
    2. It upheld the complaint and apologised for the delay in replacing the front door at the property. No offer of compensation was made to the resident.
  6. The resident brought his complaint to us and said he moved out of the property in December 2023. He said by the time he had moved the front door had not been replaced by the landlord.

Assessment and findings

  1. Paragraph 53.c. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that, “the Ombudsman may determine the investigation of a complaint immediately if satisfied that the member has made an offer of redress following the Ombudsman’s intervention which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint satisfactorily.”

The Ombudsman’s intervention

  1. We contacted the landlord and provided it with a summary of events. This included our provisional comments as to what the landlord could do to resolve the resident’s complaint.

The landlord’s offer of redress

  1. The landlord offered to pay the resident £600 compensation within 4 weeks of this decision. The resident has informed the us he is content with this as a resolution to his complaint.
  2. We are therefore satisfied that following our intervention, the landlord’s actions will remedy the matters raised. This will resolve the complaint satisfactorily.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.c. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the complaint was resolved with intervention.

Recommendation

  1. We recommend the landlord pay the sum of £600 compensation within 4 weeks if it has not already done so.