Islington Council (202103136)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202103136

Islington Council

28 April 2022


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 handling of kitchen repairs and pest proofing work to the resident’s property.

Jurisdiction

  1. What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, in accordance with paragraph 39 (a) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the following complaint regarding the landlord’s handling of the kitchen repairs and pest proofing works to the resident’s property is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. As this Service cannot investigate a complaint which in the Ombudsman’s opinion has been made prior to having exhausted the landlord’s complaint procedure, unless there is evidence of a complaint handling failure.

Summary of events

  1. The resident complained in April 2020 about the conduct of an operative who attended to remedy issues with the water pressure, a leaking tap and water pump. The landlord’s complaint responses in May and July 2020 advised that the operative’s behaviour had been dealt with under its discipline procedure, that it was not responsible for the maintenance of the water pump and awarded compensation of £25 as the tap repair was omitted from the operative’s work sheet. It acknowledged that the resident had raised new matters when escalating her concerns through the complaint process and arranged an appointment for the bathroom repairs and for pest proofing works to take place to resolve the mice infestation.
  2. The resident complained to the landlord’s Chief Executive on 24 November 2020 regarding the conduct of the project manager responsible for the kitchen and pest proofing works explaining that she felt “discriminated against, harassed and victimised” by the staff member. She outlined in detail the difficulties she had experienced during the kitchen installation and in getting the landlord to agree to repair the water pump. She requested a written apology, a review of the repairs required to her property and a change of project manager.
  3. The landlord responded to the resident’s escalated complaint on 26 March 2021. It apologised for its failure to respond within its corporate complaint timescales and advised that it had established that it was responsible for the maintenance of the water pump. It offered compensation of £259.00 for the five months the resident had inadequate water pressure and for its complaint handling failures.
  4. It confirmed that it considered that the letter dated 24 November 2020 contained new matters related to the kitchen and proofing works which had not been previously considered during the complaint process and it arranged for that complaint to be acknowledged and investigated.
  5. The resident contacted the landlord on 2 May 2021 and confirmed that she was satisfied with the resolution to the complaint regarding the conduct of the operative, leaking tap and water pump and accepted the compensation offered. The Ombudsman is satisfied that the landlord has addressed those issues through its complaint process and the resident considers those matters resolved. In addition, the resident has not bought those issues a complaint to the Ombudsman so they will not be considered further.
  6. The resident escalated her complaint to this Service on 14 May 2021. She said that the landlord had not provided a comprehensive response to her complaints about the outstanding kitchen repairs and the pest proofing works to her home. It had continued with the programme of works to her home though it had not resolved the related complaint. She requested a detailed schedule of the works required to the property, confirmation that she could be present while the kitchen and pest proofing works were carried out and that the project lead have no further involvement in the management of the project due to his alleged behaviour towards her.
  7. After the complaint process, the landlord responded to the new stage one complaint on 31 May 2021, it agreed for a new project manager and for a new contract team to undertake the works. The landlord confirmed to this Service on 12 April 2022 that this complaint has not exhausted the landlord’s complaints process.

Reasons

  1. The resident complained to the landlord about its decision not to repair the water pump in her property which was affecting the water pressure in her home. During the complaint process she raised new matters such as the conduct of the landlord’s staff responsible for the management of the kitchen installation, her dissatisfaction with the quality of the works carried out to her kitchen and the pest proofing works.
  2. The landlord explained in its final complaint response in March 2021 that those matters had not been considered during the complaint process therefore they were regarded as new matters and would be dealt with as a new complaint.
  3. The landlord responded to these matters regarding the conduct of the landlord’s staff, the outstanding kitchen and pest proofing works in its complaint response on 31 May 2021 and has confirmed that the complaint has not exhausted the landlord’s complaint process. The Ombudsman has had sight of the stage 1 response issued by the landlord but has not seen any evidence that the resident escalated her complaint to the final stage of the landlord’s complaints process or that the landlord failed to respond to such an escalation request.
  4. The Ombudsman Scheme stipulates that this Service cannot investigate a complaint which in the Ombudsman’s opinion has been made prior to having exhausted a member’s complaint procedure, unless there is evidence of a complaint handling failure This is to ensure that the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to investigate and resolve the complaint before this service intervenes. Therefore, as this complaint did not exhaust the landlord’s complaint process, the Ombudsman does not have the jurisdiction to investigate this complain further.