Hyde Housing Association Limited (202230105)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202230105

Hyde Housing Association Limited

29 November 2024

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

The resident’s complaint is about the landlord’s handling of his reports of leaks in the bathroom.

Background

The landlord is a housing association. The property is a 1-bedroom flat on the third floor of a building. The resident is an assured non-shorthold tenant and has been living in the property since November 2012. He is a wheelchair user with several recorded disabilities.
The resident reported on 2 November 2022 that his shower drainage was blocked and the water was not going down the plughole. On 4 November 2022, he also reported leaking from the shower mixer tap and the shower holder falling down.
The landlord’s account from its complaint response is that the resident reported a leak from his wash hand basin around the same time, however, there is no contemporaneous record specifically referring to a leak from the wash hand basin.
A contractor attended on 17 November 2022. They found the shower head and hose were leaking, but explained to the resident that was his responsibility as a tenant to repair.
A report from 6 December 2022 showed that a contractor attended and found that water was leaking from the basin taps non-stop. They did some repair work on the basin and further noted the landlord needed to rebook with a carpenter to build boxing around the pipework to prevent further leaks.
A report from 19 December 2022 showed that a contractor found the leak was coming from inside the tap housing. They replaced the mixer taps on the basin.
On 3 January 2023, the landlord noted that the leak was still happening and the contractor should add boxing once that was rectified.
The resident called on 16 January 2023 to say the taps were still faulty and the boxing had not been added.
The landlord removed and replaced the tap heads on the wash hand basin on 18 January 2023 and checked on the same day, noting that it was ‘all dry and water tight’. The contractor also noted that they would need to discuss with the manager about adding boxing under the wash hand basin as that would be non-standard work.
On 26 January 2023, the landlord replaced the shower head and hose as a goodwill gesture to the resident.
The landlord issued a stage 1 complaint response on 31 January 2023, summarised as follows:
1. It acknowledged that it should have completed the repairs sooner.
2. It said it had replaced the tap heads as of 18 January 2023 and further replaced the shower head as a goodwill gesture.
3. It provided the contact details of its contractor and asked the resident to contact them in order to arrange a date for fixing the boxing under the wash hand basin.
4. It said a surveyor would inspect the bathroom on 2 February 2023.
5. It said it would only replace the wash hand basin if it were beyond economic repair which was not the case.
6. It offered £150 in recognition of the resident’s distress and inconvenience caused by delays in completing repairs and poor communication.
The surveyor inspected the bathroom on 2 February 2023, specifically noting there was no further issue with the wash hand basin pipe. They found no leak and advised the resident to keep an eye on any new leaks and to inform the landlord if there were any. The surveyor also asked the landlord to renew the bathroom towel radiator which was damaged.
The resident asked for escalation of his complaint and the landlord issued a stage 2 complaint response on 28 February 2023, summarised below:
1. It had reviewed its stage 1 response which had addressed all the points raised by the resident.
2. As the resident had provided no new information, it would not change its decision or increase compensation.
There was a note dated 24 March 2023 on the landlord’s internal records: ‘the cover for under sink is being chased up’. It is uncertain if this was a reference to the boxing under the wash hand basin.
The resident referred the matter to this Service on 20 July 2023. In response to our enquiries in November 2024, he stated that he would like the wash hand basin to be replaced completely, as he believed the leak was coming from under the basin and the landlord had only replaced the taps, which was not a permanent solution. He also stated that the boxing had not been installed, nor the towel radiator replaced.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of leaks in the bathroom

Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, landlords have an obligation to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the property for the supply of water including basins, sinks, baths and sanitary conveniences. The tenancy agreement confirms this.
The landlord’s responsive repairs operations procedure states that it would endeavour to complete any routine non-emergency repairs within its contractors’ working hours and 20 working days repairs timeline. It also states that shower heads and shower hoses fall within the resident’s responsibility to repair, which is also in line with the tenancy agreement.
The resident reported drainage issues in his shower, leaking shower mixer taps and the shower head falling down in early November 2022. Although it is not evident from the records, the landlord stated that he also reported leaks from his wash hand basin in the same month. No specific date has been identifiable from the records.
The leaks appear to have been containable and the landlord’s contractors attended on 17 November 2022 and 6 December 2022 respectively to address the shower leak and the wash hand basin leak. The attendance was in line with the landlord’s responsive repairs timeframe (20 working days for non-emergency repairs).
It appears that once the wash hand basin tap leak was discovered, it took several attempts for the landlord to fix this. The earliest record of the wash hand basin leak was from 6 December 2022 and the landlord carried out repairs on the same day, however they identified later on 19 December 2022 that the leak was coming from inside the tap housing. The leak was still happening on 3 January 2023. The leak was reported to have been fully fixed on 18 January 2023. The resolution would appear to fall outside of the repairs response timeframe by around 2 to 3 weeks, which understandably caused the resident distress and inconvenience.
The contractor first reported to the landlord that the resident would need boxing around the wash hand basin pipe to prevent further leaks. This was delayed several times as the leaks from the taps were not fully resolved until 18 January 2023 and the boxing could not be added until this was done. On 31 January 2023, the landlord said to the resident that he could contact the contractors directly to set up an appointment.
The resident however stated to this Service he did not contact the contractors as the contractors had changed. It is unclear if the landlord has been able to install the boxing so far. As of 24 March 2023, the landlord noted “the cover for under sink” was still being “chased up” which again indicated a delay.
Overall, there appears to be delays in delivering the repair service of several weeks and the leak took 2-3 visits for the landlord to resolve. This would have caused the resident frustration and inconvenience. The landlord has offered an apology and £150 in recognition of this, which the Ombudsman considers to be proportionate.
On a positive note, the landlord has replaced the resident’s shower head free of charge. The landlord’s repairs policy and tenancy agreement state that the shower head and hose would have been the resident’s repair responsibility, however, the landlord has done this free of charge as a goodwill gesture which the Ombudsman considers has contributed to mitigating the impact of distress and inconvenience on the resident.
It is also positive that the landlord arranged for a surveyor to inspect the bathroom on 2 February 2023 to ensure the leaks had been fully resolved.
The resident has asked for the wash hand basin to be replaced completely as he believed this was the only way to resolve the full damage that has been caused by the previous leaks. As the surveyor has found there were no further leaks after the taps were replaced, this should not be necessary. The surveyor has explained to the resident that should any new leaks occur, he should report this as a new leak to the landlord and further repairs would be raised.
As the landlord has explained, while the wash hand basin was the landlord’s responsibility to repair, if it was still in functional order, it was not obliged to replace it as per the tenancy agreement and the repairs policy. As part of the stage 2 response, the landlord had arranged for a surveyor to check and confirmed on 2 February 2023 that there was no further leak from the basin, which was an appropriate way to ensure all leaks had been resolved.
The only potentially outstanding repair issues are the boxing for the wash hand basin pipe and the towel radiator. Although it was reasonable for the landlord to ask the resident to contact the contractor to arrange a date for boxing installation, the resident has raised with this Service that he had not been able to get in touch with the contractor as the contractor had changed. It is unclear if the resident had raised this with the landlord. In the interests of facilitating a full repair resolution, the Ombudsman would recommend the landlord contact the resident to check if the boxing had been done and to arrange further works if that was not the case.
The other remaining repair issue was the towel radiator. Although this was not part of the resident’s original complaint and the landlord had not had an opportunity to address it, the surveyor had found on 2 February 2023 that the towel radiator was damaged and reported back to the landlord. From the pictures provided by the resident, the radiator appeared to be heavily rusted and the resident has raised with this Service that it was no longer usable. In the interests of maintaining a good relationship between the landlord and the resident, the Ombudsman would recommend the landlord reach out to the resident directly to arrange a check and if necessary a replacement.
Overall, as the landlord has made a reasonable and proportionate offer of compensation to the resident that reflected the impact to the resident, the Ombudsman finds there has been reasonable redress.

Determination

In accordance with paragraph 53.b of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the Ombudsman finds that the landlord has offered reasonable redress for its failings in handling the resident’s reports of bathroom leaks.

Recommendations

The landlord should contact the resident directly to confirm if it had installed the boxing under the wash hand basin for the pipe, and if not, it should arrange further inspections and works in line with its repairs policy.
The landlord should contact the resident directly with regards to the rusted towel radiator and to conduct further checks to see if a replacement is needed.