Hyde Housing Association Limited (202212252)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202212252

Hyde Housing Association Limited

29 April 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 is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of fly-tipping.

Background

  1. The resident is a leaseholder and the landlord is the freeholder of the building. The resident resides in a ground-floor flat which is in a block of similar properties. It is acknowledged that during the complaint process a third party acted on behalf of the leaseholder; however, both parties will be addressed as the ‘resident’ throughout this report.
  2. In April 2022, the resident reported to the landlord that there was rubbish outside his windows and this had caused potential damage to his windows. There were no further reports until June 2022. A further four reports of fly-tipping were also received in August 2022. The landlord responded to the resident’s reports on every occasion by attending the estate to complete inspections of the rubbish and subsequently, removing the rubbish.
  3. The resident raised a complaint in June 2022. He stated that further fly-tipping had occurred outside of his property. The resident stated that this had been ongoing for an extended period, and he was unhappy that this was continuing to happen. In addition, the resident reported that other residents had been throwing food from their windows and balconies, which he had to clean up. The resident stated that he felt that no action had been taken by the landlord to stop this from occurring.
  4. In its complaint response, the landlord stated that it had checked its internal records and confirmed that it had done all it could in relation to the fly-tipping. It reached this conclusion based on the actions it had taken. This included:
    1. Writing to residents asking them to dispose of rubbish correctly. It stated that any further letter would be ineffective as residents were not taking notice of the communication it had already sent.
    2. Acting in relation to one individual who was found on CCTV to be fly tipping. However, it explained that it was not always possible to identify those fly-tipping and, as such, limited action can be taken. It assured the resident that it would continue to review any CCTV footage of the bin storage area.
    3. It had also gone through rubbish bags left to try and find identification to help tackle the issues; however, this was not successful.
  5. It assured the resident that further action would be taken to help resolve the fly-tipping on the estate, including acting against those identified as fly-tipping and completing site inspections. The landlord offered the resident £50 for the delays in its complaint handling and £100 for the distress and inconvenience caused as a result of this delay.
  6. The resident escalated his complaint to this Service in September 2022. The resident remains unhappy with the landlord’s handling of his reports of fly-tipping as this continues to be a problem. As a resolution, the resident would like the landlord to act against the residents who are fly-tipping, fines to be put in place, and CCTV to be monitored.
  7. Further reports occurred after the landlord provided the resident with its final complaint response. This included four reports in November 2022, three reports in December 2022 and at least one report in January 2023.
  8. After the complaint response was exhausted, the resident has informed this Service of a leak into the property which has been raised with the landlord. If the matter remains unresolved the resident will need to contact the landlord and, if appropriate, raise a separate complaint to get the matter resolved.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident has said that he has complained about the fly tipping to the landlord for a considerable period of time. Under Paragraph 42 (b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme we may not consider complaints that were brought to the Ombudsman’s attention normally more than 12 months after they exhausted the member’s complaints procedure. Therefore, whilst it is acknowledged that this has been an ongoing issue for the resident, the historical incidents will only provide contextual background to the current complaint. This assessment focuses on events from January 2022 onward, which is six months prior to the formal complaint being made in June 2022

Fly-tipping

  1. The landlord is responsible for the repairs and maintenance of the communal areas of the buildings in line with the lease agreement. In cases such as fly-tipping and personal items being left in the communal areas, there are limited immediate steps a landlord can take. The landlord is expected to act against specific perpetrators of fly-tipping once an issue had been reported and the individual had been identified.
  2. Unfortunately, due to the nature of how fly-tipping occurs, it may not always be possible to identify and act against those involved in fly tipping and the landlord is expected to take reasonable steps to identify those involved which includes conducting site visits, reviewing CCTV and searching the rubbish for any identify items which would show the residents fly-tipping.
  3. The landlord is responsible for attempting to minimise instances of fly-tipping. In this case, the issue appears persistent as reports have been occurring as far back as 2014. Therefore, a landlord would be expected to take reasonably practicable actions to find a resolution to the resident’s concerns. Examples of reasonable actions include watching CCTV, conducting estate patrols and issuing information to resident’s about how to appropriately dispose of rubbish.
  4. From the available evidence, the landlord took multiple steps in an attempt to identify the perpetrators of the fly-tipping including searching through the bags of rubbish left outside the resident’s property and reviewing CCTV. This led to one perpetrator being identified and measures were taken against this resident. This was an appropriate step for the landlord to take, to stop the fly-tipping that the resident reported. Furthermore, the landlord acted appropriately in attempting to obtain the identity of those fly-tipping.
  5. It is not necessary to always identify the perpetrators of the fly-tipping for the landlord to act to alleviate the resident’s concerns. As such, when the landlord continued to receive reports from the resident of fly-tipping, the landlord sent out letters to all residents reminding them of how to dispose of rubbish appropriately and the consequences of not doing so, which included potential pest infestations and breaches of tenancy. This was in-line with good practice and given the landlord’s inability to identify the residents fly-tipping, as it informed all residents of the consequences meaning the perpetrator(s) would have also received this information.
  6. It is evident that the resident had spent significant time reporting his concerns to the landlord and this Service appreciates how distressing these matters have been for the resident and his family. However, as evidenced above, the landlord responded to the resident’s reports of fly-tipping appropriately and has explained the actions it could take against those fly-tipping. As such, this Service has found no failures in the landlord’s service.
  7. However, it is acknowledged that the issue remains outstanding and that the fly-tipping continues to be a concern for the residents. In order to continue supporting the resident in tackling the fly-tipping, the landlord could take further steps including sharing its reports with the police to see if there is any legal action that could be taken, consider installing CCTV in the bin storage area or supporting the resident in installing his own CCTV system. This is not an extensive or definitive list of actions the landlord could or should take and are merely suggestions on how to provide further support to the resident. To set realistic expectations for the resident, a landlord would not be obliged to install CCTV in response to fly-tipping reports; however, it may deem this to be fitting given the duration and frequency that the fly-tipping is occurring.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of fly-tipping.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord:
    1. Continues to work with the resident in order to support his in his reports of fly-tipping and discuss further actions that could be taken by both parties.
    2. Continue to monitor the fly-tipping on the estate and conduct community engagement with residents to ensure the consequences of fly-tipping are fully understood by all residents.