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Incommunities Limited (202106979)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202106979

Incommunities Limited

12 June 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 pests (bed bugs) in her property.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord.
  2. In January 2021, March 2021 and May 2021 the resident reported that she believed there to be bed bugs in her property as she was being irritated and bit whilst in the property. The landlord attended the property on three occasions and set traps to determine if bed bugs were present, for which there was no evidence on every occasion. Following further reports in June 2021, the landlord set traps in the property and again found no evidence of pests; however, in an effort to support the resident the landlord voluntarily sprayed the property with an insecticide, despite there being no evidence supporting this decision.
  3. In June 2021, the resident raised a complaint with the landlord via this Service. the resident stated that she had been reporting the presence of bed bugs in her property since January 2021 and she believed that bed bugs were still present in her property. As a resolution she requested for the landlord to resolve the infestation, pay compensation and re-house her.
  4. The landlord provided its final response to the resident in August 2021, it stated that it was unable to uphold the resident’s complaint as on every occasion of pests being reported it had attended to visually inspect the property, laid pest traps and found no evidence of bed bugs. It further continued that it had sprayed insecticide in the property despite having no evidence, to put the resident’s mind ‘at ease’. In relation to the resident’s request to move property, the landlord confirmed it had not received an application, provided a link to the application form for rehousing and encouraged the resident to submit an application if she still wished to move property.
  5. In April 2022, the landlord identified a bed bug infestation in the resident’s property. The landlord treated this and in May 2022, the infestation had been eradicated. No further reports of bed bugs were made.
  6. The resident referred her complaint to this Service in November 2022, she stated that the pest infestation is still present in the property and as a resolution she would like to be re-housed.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. It is acknowledged that in April 2022, the landlord identified and treated a bed bug infestation in the resident’s property. However, as this occurred eight months after the landlord’s final response, it would not be appropriate for this Service to investigate this later incident. This is because the landlord needs to be given the opportunity to investigate this matter and formally respond. The resident will need to contact the landlord and, if appropriate, raise a separate complaint to get this matter resolved.

Assessment

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy does not establish who is responsible for treating internal pest infestations in relation to bed bugs; however, as the landlord took ownership over the pest treatment it should act in accordance with its repair obligations. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it aims to complete all internal repairs within an average of 9 working days.
  2. In this case, the resident first reported an infestation on 6 January 2021, to which the landlord attended on 12 January 2021. When further reports were made on 9 March 2021, the landlord attended on 12 March 2021. Therefore, on both of these occasions the landlord attended within its policy obligation.
  3. In relation to these visits, the landlord completed reasonable steps to establish if an infestation was present by laying traps and reattending to assess if these had trapped any bed bugs. However, there was no evidence that bed bugs were present in the property, and as such, at that time the landlord was reasonable in not taking any further steps in relation to the infestation.
  4. In May 2021, when further reports of bed bugs were reported by the resident and in light of the distress being caused to her, the landlord agreed to complete an insecticide spray treatment in the property despite this not being required. This shows that the landlord understood the impact this issue was having on the resident and attempted to help alleviate any concerns. This appointment was followed up with again in July 2021, and there was again no evidence of bed bugs in the property. Therefore, there was no further action for the landlord to take in relation to this matter.
  5. Overall, in consideration of the evidence the landlord attended the property within its policy obligations, completed pest control measures such as laying traps, and when no evidence was found of bed bugs there was no action for the landlord to take in relation to the matter. Therefore, the landlord acted reasonably in handling the resident’s reports.
  6. It is noted that the resident requested to be moved into a different property as she no longer feels comfortable in the property in view of what has happened. The Ombudsman can understand the resident’s reasons for wanting to move. However, the Ombudsman would not order the landlord to move a resident immediately as part of our investigation. This is because we do not have access to information regarding the availability of suitable vacant properties owned by the landlord at any one time and we do not have details of any other prospective tenants waiting to move who may have higher priority than the resident for rehousing, such as people facing homelessness or fleeing domestic violence. It is recommended that the landlord should continue to support the resident with her request to transfer from her current property and discuss her options with her, if it has not done so already.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of its handling of the resident’s reports of pests (bed bugs) in her property.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord contact the resident to enquire if she would still like to be re-housed, and support her in this process, if it has not done so already.