Kingston upon Hull City Council (202424167)

Background

1. The resident reported a leak in her bathroom which was affecting the condition of the walls. She also said the living room wall needed to be repaired as it was starting to crumble. When the resident raised her complaint, she believed the leak had not been resolved and the repairs to the walls were outstanding.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to a leak and the subsequent repairs.
3. We have also investigated the landlord’s complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

4. We have found:
   1. There was reasonable redress in the landlord’s response to a leak and the subsequent repairs.
   2. There was service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

Leak and subsequent repairs

5. There was a delay to the repairs needed to fix the leak. This was caused to some extent by factors outside of the landlord’s control. The landlord acknowledged it had taken too long to address the problem. It apologised and offered the resident compensation in line with its policy which we thought was appropriate in the circumstances.

Complaint handling

6. The landlord failed to escalate the resident’s complaint in line with our Complaint Handling Code (the Code), which delayed the resolution by 7 weeks.

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.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

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.

7. The landlord responded to the resident’s report of a leak within 24 hours, in line with its repair policy timescales. It found no leak and arranged for its contractor to attend the property 5 days later to prepare a schedule of works to prevent further water penetration.
8. The contractor tried to arrange the repairs with the resident on 16 July 2024 but was unable to speak to her. It sent a letter advising the resident to make contact. The resident responded 10 days later, and the repairs were booked for the next available appointment. The repairs were completed on 20 September 2024, almost 3 months after the repair was raised.
9. The landlord’s repairs policy states it aims to complete routine repairs within 28 days. While the landlord’s response time for the follow-on repairs was outside of its stated timescales, there was a 10-day delay in the resident responding to the contractor. It was also noted the repairs required multiple trade operatives to attend and the resident was given the earliest appointment available.
10. The landlord acknowledged this in its final response and offered the resident £150 compensation for the inconvenience caused. This amount is in line with landlord’s compensation policy where there had been considerable service failures which have caused the resident distress and inconvenience.
11. The compensation offered by the landlord was reflective of the impact upon the resident and was proportionate to its failings. We have found reasonable redress in the landlord’s response to the leak and subsequent repairs. This means its offer of redress satisfactorily resolved the complaint.

12. The Code sets out when and how a landlord should respond to complaints. The landlord has a published complaints policy which complies with the terms of the Code in respect of timescales to manage and respond to complaints:
    1. It will acknowledge and record a complaint within 5 working days.
    2. It will issue its stage 1 response within 10 working days of the complaint being made.
    3. It will issue its stage 2 response within 20 working days of an escalation request.
13. The landlord’s issued its stage 1 complaint response 7 working days after the resident made her complaint. This was in line with its stated timeframes.
14. The resident tried to escalate her complaint on 24 July 2024. The landlord informed her it could not do so until the repairs had been completed. The resident made 2 further attempts to escalate her complaint on 5 and 12 September 2024. The Code states if all or part of a complaint is not resolved to the resident’s satisfaction at stage 1, it must be escalated to stage 2. The landlord acted outside of the Code by not accepting the resident’s initial escalation request and delayed matters by 7 weeks.
15. The landlord issued its stage 2 response 17 working days after it registered the resident’s escalation request, in line with its policy. The landlord apologised for not escalating the resident’s complaint sooner.
16. The landlord went some way to putting things right by apologising to the resident. However, it did not recognise the time and trouble caused to the resident by its failure to escalate her complaint. Therefore, we have found service failure in the landlord’s complaint handling.

Learning

17. The landlord’s approach to resolving the substantive issue for the resident was in keeping with our Dispute Resolution Principles of be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes.

18. The landlord should ensure escalation requests are dealt with in line with the Code.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

19. The landlord demonstrated good record keeping in respect of the matters we have investigated in the case.

Communication

20. The landlord demonstrated effective and proactive communication with the resident.