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Incommunities Limited (202324651)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202324651

Incommunities Limited

16 June 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. This complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s complaint about the time taken to restore her hot water supply.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. Her tenancy at the property started on 29 December 2022.
  2. The landlord requested access to the resident’s property on 24 August 2023 to investigate a leak from her heating system into the property below. She contacted it that day to report that her boiler was not working. The landlord attended on several occasions between 25 August 2023 and 29 August 2023 to complete repairs relating to the leak and the boiler.
  3. The resident complained to the landlord on 29 August 2023. She said it should have completed repairs within 24 hours, and she had been without hot water and unable to shower for 7 days. She asked it to provide her with compensation. The landlord provided its stage 1 complaint response on 6 September 2023. It said it logged a job on 26 August 2023 for no hot water. It explained that it had a 3 working day timescale for a loss of hot water. It said that it completed repairs on 1 September 2023, and left the boiler working. It apologised for the distress this issue had caused the resident but offered no compensation as it had attended within 3 working days.
  4. The resident escalated her complaint on 13 September 2023 via her MP. She said she was left without hot water for 10 days and her boiler door still needed to be replaced. She also complained that a leak had left her property damp and caused a silver fish problem. On 19 September 2023, she added to her complaint that the landlord’s timeline was incorrect and provided her own account of events. Her MP told the landlord on 28 September 2023 that her boiler was not working. The landlord attended on 29 September 2023 and identified a fault with the electricity meter.
  5. The landlord provided its stage 2 complaint response on 10 October 2023. It acknowledged the resident reported the repair on 24 August 2023, which it fixed on 1 September 2023. It acknowledged this was outside its 3 working day timescale. It explained that it was aware that her electricity supplier was working to resolve an issue with her electricity meter, which required her to use the boost button to get hot water. It asked her to let it know if she still had an issue with damp or silverfish and it would arrange an inspection. It said that she had confirmed on a call to it that it had now replaced the boiler door. The landlord apologised for the delay and offered compensation of £90.
  6. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response. She asked the Service to investigate her complaint. She said that her hot water was still not working properly as she still had to press the boost button on her electricity meter. She said she was unhappy with the amount of compensation offered.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation.

  1. In her complaint to us, the resident has explained that she is continuing to experience issues with her hot water. The scope of this investigation is limited to the issues raised during the resident’s formal complaint. This is because the landlord needs to be given an opportunity to investigate and respond to any dissatisfaction with its actions prior to the Service’s involvement. Any new or ongoing issues that have not been subject to a formal complaint can be addressed directly with the landlord as a new formal complaint if required.
  2. The resident appears to have already done this because the landlord sent a new complaint response to her in June 2024 in relation to further repair issues. If the resident remains dissatisfied, she should escalate her complaint and ask the landlord for its final complaint response. Once that has been done, she has the option of asking the Ombudsman to investigate the new issues.
  3. Accordingly, this investigation centres on the events that took place between 24 August 2023 and 10 October 2023.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s complaint about the length of time it took to restore her hot water supply.

  1. The landlord’s repair policy does not class a loss of heating outside of the winter period as an emergency but as a routine repair. Its policy states that it aims to complete routine repairs within 20 working days, but it may prioritise repairs depending on the customer’s individual circumstances. The landlord stated its repair timescale for a loss of hot water was 3 working days within its final complaint response.
  2. The evidence shows that the resident contacted the landlord on 24 August 2023 regarding a leak at her property. She told the landlord that her boiler was not working. The landlord’s repair records show that it fixed the leak on 25 August 2023. It noted at this time that there was no power to the resident’s heating system due to possible damaged wiring and cylinder. The repair records show that it replaced a cylinder on 28 August 2023. An electrician attended on 29 August 2023 to complete repairs, but the cylinder was still leaking. Due to this, an engineer attended on 1 September 2023 to replace the cylinder.
  3. While the landlord did not complete repairs within its 3 working day timescale, the evidence does not indicate any clear failings in the steps the landlord took. The time taken was therefore more due to the specific nature of the repairs than the landlord’s actions. Nonetheless, the landlord believed it could have done better. It recognised the impact on the resident from her loss of hot water and the time taken to complete repairs. It was therefore appropriate for it to apologise and offer compensation.
  4. The landlord offered compensation of £90. When considered against the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance, this amount reasonably reflected the time the repairs took and demonstrated the landlord’s appreciation of their effect on the resident.
  5. In her stage 2 escalation, the resident stated that the leak had caused damp and silverfish in her home. In its complaint response, the landlord asked the resident to let it know immediately if the damp had not dried out and it would arrange an inspection. This was a reasonable response given that we have seen no evidence of the resident contacting the landlord to report issues with damp or silverfish.
  6. In her complaint to us, the resident said she was still having to press her boost button to receive hot water. The evidence shows that the resident’s MP reported to the landlord that her boiler was not working on 28 September 2023. The landlord attended on 29 September 2023. It found that her heating system was working correctly. However, due to a fault on her electricity meter, her water was not heating up overnight and she had to press the boost button to heat her water. It advised her to contact her electricity supplier to report the issue.
  7.  The resident told the landlord on 9 October 2023 that her electricity supplier had to complete work to resolve this issue with her meter. The boost button is located on an electricity meter, and it is the electricity supplier’s responsibility to resolve any faults with the meter. Therefore, it was appropriate for the landlord to signpost the resident to her supplier and acknowledge in its final response that the supplier was working to resolve this issue.
  8. Overall, the landlord’s recognition of the impact the boiler failure had on the resident, along with its apology and financial redress, reasonably put things right and resolved the complaint.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord made an offer of redress which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion satisfactorily resolves the complaint.

Recommendations

  1. If it has not done so already the landlord should now pay the resident the £90 it previously offered.