Hyde Housing Association Limited (202412883)
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Case ID |
202412883 |
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Decision type |
Investigation |
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Landlord |
Hyde Housing Association Limited |
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Landlord type |
Housing Association |
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Occupancy |
Assured Tenancy |
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Date |
10 March 2026 |
- Through his wife, the resident raised concerns to the landlord in March 2024 about heating charges. He also requested a refund for a period when he had no service. For ease, we have referred to ‘the resident’ throughout even when communication was sent by his wife. The resident’s property is within a block flats. A communal boiler provides heating and hot water.
What the complaint is about
- The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about heating/hot water charges and request for reimbursement for a period when he had no service.
- We have also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.
Our decision (determination)
- We found maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
- Concerns about heating/hot water charges and request for reimbursement for a period when he had no service.
- Complaint.
We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.
Summary of reasons
- The landlord did not adequately respond to the resident’s concerns about heating/hot water charges. It did not review all relevant records to appropriately address his request for reimbursement for a period when he had no service.
- The landlord delayed escalating and responding to the resident’s complaint. Its complaint responses did not resolve issues, and it did not provide a clear explanation of heating/hot water charges.
Putting things right
Where we find service failure, maladministration or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.
Orders
Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.
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Order |
What the landlord must do |
Due date |
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1 |
Apology order The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure:
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No later than 07 April 2026 |
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2 |
Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £727.12, made up as follows:
This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date. The landlord may deduct from the total figure any payments it has already paid. |
No later than 07 April 2026 |
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3 |
The landlord must write to the resident to clearly outline the personal heating charges he paid for the years 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25. It should then set out how these have been taken into account against gas service charges the resident paid in those years. |
No later than 21 April 2026 |
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4 |
The landlord must complete an inspection of the heating system in the building. It must arrange for this to be completed by an appropriately skilled operative. It should then provide a full and clear response to the resident’s concerns about whether heating/hot water is also provided to communal areas. |
No later than 21 April 2026 |
Recommendations
Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.
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Our recommendations |
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We have recommended that the landlord contact the resident to address his concerns about how it took account of personal heating charges in years prior to 2022/23. |
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We have recommended that the landlord confirm to the resident if any current credit remaining on his rent account can be refunded to his bank account. If it cannot do so, it should explain why not. |
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We have recommended that the landlord contact the resident to provide a response to his concerns about how it shares heating charges between occupants of the building. |
Our investigation
The complaint procedure
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Date |
What happened |
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2 March 2024 |
The resident complained to the landlord. He said he had paid a weekly service charge for heating when it had not worked for days at a time. He said he had sent an earlier query to it in November 2023 about how charges were calculated and whether there was a meter for the communal boiler. He said he had received no response. |
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10 June 2024 |
The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response. It acknowledged its unacceptable delay in responding to the resident’s query and complaint. It offered the resident £350 for its poor communication and complaint handling failures. |
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10 and 18 June 2024 |
The resident escalated his complaint. He said had been left without heating and hot water between 17 February and 6 March 2024. He questioned the personal charge for heating/hot water and asked the landlord to explain this. He said it appeared he was being charged twice for this as he had paid through a service charge too. |
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17 June 2024 |
The landlord told the resident that the personal charge was made for the use of heating/hot water to his property. It said the communal boiler also provided heating and hot water to the communal areas. |
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16 July 2024 |
The landlord acknowledged the resident’s escalation request and said it aimed to respond by 13 August 2024. |
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9 August 2024 |
The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response. It provided an explanation of heating charges. It said it would reimburse him £11.42, for the 8-day period of loss of heating between 17 February and 24 February 2024. |
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Referral to the Ombudsman |
The resident referred his complaint to us as he remained unhappy with the landlord’s response to his complaint. He said he wanted it to reimburse him for the loss of heating/hot water for the period up to 6 March 2024. He said that the landlord had not satisfactorily answered his questions about the personal charge. |
What we found and why
The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that’s happened or comment on all the information we’ve reviewed. We’ve only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.
In response to
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Complaint |
The resident’s concerns about heating/hot water charges and request for reimbursement for the period when he had no service |
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Finding |
Maladministration |
What we have not investigated
- The resident raised some concerns about the amount he is charged for heating/hot water. We acknowledge these concerns. But this aspect of his concern is ultimately about whether the level of service charge is reasonable. We cannot investigate it. The First-Tier Tribunal (FTT) has jurisdiction over the level of service charges and is best placed to consider this.
- The resident raised concerns about the landlord’s handling of his request for reimbursement of charges for a period of time when he was without heating and hot water. While we have considered the landlord’s handling of this request, we have not considered the impact on the resident of this loss of heating and hot water. That is being considered under a separate complaint the resident has referred to us.
What we have investigated
- We have considered how the landlord responded to the resident’s concerns and questions about how it charged heating/hot water and his request for reimbursement.
Concerns about heating/hot water charges
- In his complaint the resident referred to the earlier enquiry he had raised with the landlord in November 2023. The landlord noted this communication in its later complaint response. But it has not provided its record of this contact. That is a record keeping failing which means it is unclear exactly what queries the resident raised at this time.
- In his subsequent communication the resident told the landlord of his concerns that he was paying twice for heating/hot water costs. He said that he paid for gas through the service charge and made a separate personal charge. He specifically referred to payments he made for 2022/2023. He said he had paid more than £1,800 for gas through the service charge and a further £400 through personal heating charges.
- The landlord’s service charge policy statement explained that it operates mainly variable services charges. It says that 6 months after the financial year end it will send residents a statement showing the actual costs of providing the services. It says that, for tenants, where there is a surplus, this will be rolled forward and deducted from the amount they are required to pay for the following year. It says that any deficit will be carried over and used to increase the charge in the following year.
- The landlord’s policy statement also sets out that it will apportion service charges between properties in accordance with the tenancy. It says that where this agreement is silent on the issue of apportionment, it will divide the charges between dwellings that receive the service. It says that it may also use a “rateable value” relating to the floor area/number of bedrooms. It does not cover how it takes account of personal heating charges it collects.
- When the landlord responded to the resident’s complaint in June and August 2024, it said that:
- All gas used at the building was read from the same meter, so the invoice for gas included both the personal and communal charges.
- The personal charge was for heating and hot water for the individual flats. It said a rateable value had been used to calculate a reasonable split between all properties.
- It charged tenants the personal charge yearly through rent statements and so this was not included in the actual (service charge) costs.
- The resident did not dispute that he should pay towards the provision of heating/hot water. But he questioned how the personal heating/hot water charge was taken into account. He explained during his complaint that he had received the actual service charge costs for 2022/23 and that all gas used for the building was paid through this charge. Therefore, he questioned the extra personal charge. The landlord told the resident this was for heating/hot water to his individual property. But it did not adequately explain how it took account of the charge against the costs it collected through the service charge. It should have done so. As a result, its response did not address the resident’s concerns that he was paying twice for heating/hot water costs.
- When responding to the resident’s concerns, the landlord’s said that some of the charges he paid were for heating and hot water to communal areas. But the resident said during his complaint that corridors and landing with the building were outside. He said there were no radiators and no communal areas to heat.
- The landlord set out in its stage 2 response that it had checked with a cleaning supervisor at the building who said there was communal building heating. But we have seen no records of its enquiries at this time. That was a record keeping failing which means it is unclear what efforts it made to establish the heating/hot water arrangements within the resident’s building. Further, it is unclear why it considered the cleaning supervisor at the building was best placed to confirm this. Its response and explanation to the resident on this issue was inadequate and added to the resident’s concerns about what he was being charged for.
- Following its stage 2 response, the landlord wrote to the resident on 20 November 2024. It said it had received enquiries about the way it charged gas costs within the building, specifically about whether it had collected twice for the service. It said that it had now reviewed charges for the year 2022/23. It agreed it had not reflected the personal charges collected from tenants. It said this had resulted in a higher deficit for the financial year. It said that, in light of this, it had credited the resident’s account with £396.24 to refund the personal charges it had collected.
- The landlord has provided us with no details of the review it completed in November 2024. It should have done so as it related to the issues raised in this complaint. That it did not do so was a record keeping failing. It means we do not have full details of its investigations at this time. It should reasonably have identified the issues with how it had taken account of the personal charges earlier, particularly given the resident’s concerns. It missed earlier opportunities to identify and correct this. Further, its response about whether or not there was heating/hot water to communal areas was inadequate. This added to the resident’s confusion and concerns about heating/hot water charges.
- The landlord’s service charge enquiry policy statement was introduced in April 2025 after the conclusion of this complaint. This sets out that if it discovers an error, it will make necessary adjustments for all customers affected.
- When the landlord wrote to the resident in November 2024 it set out that:
- it had recorded actual service charge costs for gas in 2023/24 as £0.00 which had resulted in a surplus for the year. It said it had incurred full costs and had under-collected for that financial year.
- estimated gas costs and personal charges for 2024/25 remained unchanged but it would ensure the amount collected via the personal charges was included in the overall statement amount.
- The landlord also set out its plans to change how it collected gas charges from tenants within the block from April 2025. It said communal gas would now be calculated using the previous years’ actual charges and that these would be collected from the resident as a personal charge. However, the resident remains concerned and about the situation. Given the landlord’s earlier inadequate responses, this is understandable. We have ordered that it write to him to clearly outline the personal heating charges he paid for the years 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25. It should then set out how these have been considered against gas service charges he paid in those years.
- We have also ordered that the landlord must complete an inspection of the heating system in the building. An appropriately skilled operative should complete this. This is so the landlord can provide a full and clear response to the resident’s concerns about whether heating/hot water is provided to communal areas.
- The resident expressed concerns about payments made in years prior to 2022/23. We have not seen records relating to payments he made in earlier years. We have also not seen evidence he raised any specific concerns about earlier years when he complained to the landlord. However, we have recommended that the landlord contact the resident to address his concerns about how it took account of personal heating charges in years prior to 2022/23.
- The resident expressed concerns that the landlord refunded money in November 2024 to his rent account rather than to his bank account. We have recommended that the landlord confirm to him if any current credit remaining on his rent account can be refunded to his bank account. If it cannot do so, it should explain why not.
- The resident raised concerns to us about the way in which the landlord shares heating charges between other occupants of the building (tenants and leaseholders). We acknowledge the resident’s concerns about this. However, this is not a query previously made to the landlord. We have recommended that the landlord contact the resident to provide a response to his concerns about this. As set out earlier, if the resident has concerns about the reasonableness of service charges, he may wish to consider taking these to the FTT.
Request for reimbursement
- During his complaint, the resident asked that the landlord reimburse the personal heating/hot water charge he paid between 17 February and 6 March 2024. In its stage 2 complaint response the landlord set out that it would reimburse the resident for the personal charge he paid for the 8-day period between 17 and 24 February 2024. It said that this was because its records showed the heating/hot water issues were resolved on 24 February 2024.
- Records we have seen show the resident continued to report issues with heating/hot water after 24 February 2024. These records also show the issue was not resolved until 6 March 2024. The landlord set this out itself in the separate complaint it investigated for the resident about the impact of loss of heating/hot water. The landlord should have reviewed all records for the period the resident had queried. That it did not do so was a failing.
- Overall, we have found maladministration with the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about heating/hot water charges and request for reimbursement for the period when he had no service. So far it has paid awarded him £250 for delays responding and for his effort. It also awarded him £11.42 for reimbursement of charges. This does not adequately compensate him for the impact of failings we have identified.
- We have ordered that the landlord pay the resident £27.12 (£9.99/7 x 19). That is to reimburse him for the personal charge paid between 17 February and 6 March 2024 and replaces the previous award of £11.42. We have also ordered that it pay him a further £250 for distress and inconvenience caused by its inadequate response to the concerns he raised about heating and hot water charges. This payment together with the earlier award of £250 is aimed at fully recognising the impact of the landlord’s failings. It is in line with the range set out in our remedies guidance.
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Complaint |
The complaint handling |
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Finding |
Maladministration |
- Our Complaint Handling Code (the Code) sets out when and how a landlord should respond to complaints. When the resident complained to the landlord in March 2024, the relevant Code was the April 2022 edition. We have found that the landlord’s published complaints policy at this time complied with the Code in respect of timescales and the definition of a complaint.
- The landlord did not appropriately acknowledge the resident’s complaint of 2 March 2024. That was contrary to the Code and its own policy. Its complaint response was also delayed. It was provided more than 50 working days outside the target set out in its complaints policy. There is no evidence the landlord communicated with the resident about this delay. These were complaint handling failings. The £100 it awarded in recognition of this was appropriate.
- The landlord’s stage 2 response was provided within 20-working days of it escalating the resident’s complaint. But it delayed in escalating his complaint. He requested this on 10 June 2024, but it did not acknowledge this until 16 July 2024, more than a month later. This was unreasonable. It delayed its full consideration of his concerns through its complaints process. We acknowledge it attempted to provide an additional explanation to the resident during this time. But in line with its policy and the Code it should also have taken appropriate steps to escalate the complaint. The landlord did not identify or acknowledge its delay doing so and that was a failing.
- As set out earlier, the landlord also failed to ensure it provided adequate and clear explanations to address the resident’s concerns about heating/hot water charges. It missed the opportunity to resolve his concerns during its complaints process. Overall, we have found maladministration in the landlord’s complaint handling. With consideration to all the circumstances, we have ordered that it make an additional award to the resident of £100. This amount together with its earlier award is aimed at fully recognising the impact of its complaint handling failings. It is in line with the range set out in our remedies guidance.
Learning
- The landlord did not provide the resident with a sufficiently clear explanation of heating charges he paid. It missed earlier opportunities to identify issues with the way it had taken account of personal charges.
- The landlord did not appropriately review all repair records to establish the period the resident had experienced a loss of service.
- The landlord delayed escalating the resident’s complaint and did not identify or acknowledge this in its eventual complaint response.
Knowledge information management (record keeping)
- The landlord did not keep/provide records of all communication. It should do so to adequately demonstrate steps taken to respond to/address concerns.
Communication
- The landlord did not ensure it communicated clearly with the resident to address his concerns about charges. It did not communicate appropriately about delays in its complaint response.