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Jigsaw Homes Group Limited (202345927)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202345927

Jigsaw Homes Group Limited

5 September 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. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of issues with low water pressure and hot water at the property.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of a 1-bedroom first floor flat owned by the landlord, which is a housing association.
  2. From 25 August 2023 the resident reported low water pressure that repeatedly caused his boiler to cut out, leaving him without hot water. He said he had lived with the problem since his tenancy began in April 2023.
  3. The resident made a formal complaint on 13 December 2023. He complained that, despite multiple reports, the landlord had not resolved the low-pressure problem, leaving him without reliable hot water. He asked the landlord to carry out a full investigation and provide compensation for the disruption and inconvenience.
  4. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response on 10 January 2024. It apologised that the resident had cause to complain. It explained that engineers had attended several times and that a plumber had advised the pressure could not be improved because the property shared a mains water supply. It acknowledged the need for further investigation into the issues and proposed a joint visit by the plumbing manager and plumber.
  5. The resident was unhappy with the stage 1 complaint response and escalated his complaint on 24 April 2024.
  6. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 15 May 2024. It upheld the complaint and apologised that it had not arranged the plumbing-manager visit as promised. It offered £300 compensation in recognition of time, trouble, and inconvenience. It also confirmed that it would conduct further investigation to identify a lasting solution to the water pressure problem.
  7. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s stage 2 complaint response. He reported that both the low water pressure and the hot water problems remained unresolved. He stated the £300 compensation was insufficient given the length of time he has lived with the problem. He brought his complaint to us seeking a lasting resolution to the outstanding issues and increased compensation.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of issues with low water pressure and hot water at the property.

  1. The tenancy agreement and the landlord’s repairs policy state it is the landlord’s responsibility to repair and keep in proper working order the installations in the dwelling house for the supply of water, gas, electricity, and installations in the dwelling house for space heating and heating water.
  2. The landlord’s repairs policy classifies reports of no heating or hot water as an emergency repair in winter months and as an urgent repair during summer months. It will attend to emergency repairs within 24 hours and urgent repairs within 5 working days. It will resolve essential repairs within 25 working days, and routine repairs within 90 calendar days.
  3. On 25 August 2023 the resident reported no hot water linked to low pressure and boiler cut-outs. The landlord attended on 30 August 2023; this was reasonable and within its repairs policy timeframe. However, its records show it did not resolve the issue of low water pressure during this visit.
  4. Between 21 September 2023 to 25 December 2023 the resident continued to report low pressure and intermittent hot water loss. The landlord completed some repairs during this time including adjusting some components and restarting the boiler. However, the records do not indicate that the landlord completed a thorough investigation into the root cause of the low pressure and hot water loss as the issues persisted. By December 2023 the resident had been experiencing these issues for over 3 months. This delay in finding a permanent resolution to the issue was unreasonable and not in line with its repairs policy timeframe.
  5. In its stage 1 complaint response on 10 January 2024 the landlord apologised, explained engineers had attended several times, and noted a plumber’s view that pressure might be limited on a shared main water supply. It acknowledged it needed to investigate further and proposed a joint visit by the plumbing manager and a plumber.
  6. It was reasonable of the landlord to apologise and acknowledge that it would investigate the issue further. However, it should also have considered offering compensation for the distress and inconvenience the situation would have caused the resident. As at the time of the stage 1 complaint response, the resident had been reporting issues with the hot water and water pressure for more than 4 months. Furthermore, it should also have provided a timeline to the resident on when it would complete the joint visit. The landlord’s actions in not offering compensation or a definite repair period was unreasonable.
  7. After its stage 1 complaint response, the landlord then undertook piecemeal repairs. It recharged the expansion vessel and replaced the pressure relief valve in February 2024, which temporarily restored hot water. It also introduced leak sealer on 1 May 2024 to address recurrent pressure loss. These steps helped short-term hot-water outages but did not address the underlying low-pressure cause.
  8. The landlord had not arranged the joint plumbing-manager visit by the date of its stage 2 complaint response. This was more than 4 months after it promised to complete this visit in its stage 1 complaint response and more than 8 months from when the resident first reported the issue in August 2023. This delay was unreasonable and not in line with its repairs policy time limit. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the landlord provided any explanation for this delay or communicated with the resident about this. This was unreasonable and would understandably have caused unnecessary distress and inconvenience to the resident.
  9. In its stage 2 complaint response, the landlord upheld the complaint, acknowledged it had not arranged the promised visit, apologised, and offered £300 for time, trouble, and inconvenience. It committed to further investigation to find a lasting solution to the low-pressure and hot-water issues.
  10. It was reasonable of the landlord to acknowledge, apologise and offer compensation for its failings. However, as at the time of the stage 2 complaint response, it still had not resolved the hot water or low water pressure issues the resident was experiencing. Furthermore, although it said it would explore potential solutions, it did not include a clear action plan or provide a timeline for completing any required repairs.
  11. In conclusion, we have found service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of issues with low water pressure and hot water at the property. Although the £300 redress the landlord offered was adequate, it has not provided evidence that it has taken robust action to resolve the low pressure or hot water problems. The resident has informed us that these issues are still ongoing. Therefore, we have made orders for it to take such action now. We have also ordered the landlord to consider further compensation for the resident once the matter has been resolved.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of issues with low water pressure and hot water at the property.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report the landlord must complete the following orders and provide evidence of compliance to us:
    1. Provide the resident and us with a clear written plan setting out how it will investigate and resolve the water-pressure and hot-water problems, including timescales for completing any required works. It should also set out what action it will take if its initial steps to resolve matters are not successful.
    2. Consider further financial compensation for the resident to cover the period from the date of the stage 2 complaint response to the date the low pressure was resolved. It should consider making an interim payment after 6 weeks of the date of this report if the matter has not been resolved by that time.
    3. Pay the resident the sum of £300 as offered in its stage 2 complaint response, if it has not done so already. This must be paid directly to the resident.