Leeds City Council (202415283)

Decision
Case ID	202415283
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Leeds City Council
Landlord type	Local Authority / ALMO or TMO
Occupancy	Secure Tenancy
Date	9 December 2025

Background

1. The resident lives at the property which has an open porch to the side entrance. The porch has a flat roof. The resident reported repair concerns to her landlord about the porch, including water accumulation on the porch floor and a leaking porch roof. She has also said she has mobility limitations.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about the porch.

3. We have also investigated the landlord’s complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

4. We have found that there was:

Reasonable redress offered by the landlord which resolves the complaint about its response to the resident’s concerns about the porch.
No maladministration in the landlord’s complaint handling.

We have not made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

Concerns about the porch

5. It was positive the landlord attended to the resident’s reports of issues with the porch in line with its policies and procedures. It recognised its communication failing and offered to put things right with £100 in compensation. This was proportionate to the failings.

Complaint handling

6. There was a minor delay by the landlord in acknowledging the resident’s complaint at stage 2. This would not have caused significant detriment to her. Excluding this error, it followed its complaints policy.

Putting things right

We have the discretion to make recommendations in all cases within our jurisdiction.

Recommendation

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.

Our recommendation
The landlord is recommended to re-offer the resident its £100 offer in compensation as stated in its stage 2 response, if this has not been paid already. Our finding of reasonable redress is based on the compensation being paid.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
Between 2 and 10 April 2024.	On 2 April 2024 the resident reported a leak from the porch roof and expressed dissatisfaction about this to her councillor. On the following day she told the councillor the porch floor could not be repaired until the porch roof was fixed. The councillor relayed her concerns to the landlord, and it acknowledged the complaint on 10 April 2024. The resident confirmed that she: Wanted the porch to be returned to its “original state” at no cost to her. Had contacted a private contractor who said it would cost £180 to fix the issues. Was told the landlord would not tile the porch floor, but she believed it needed to be tiled. Had concerns about falling on the porch floor.
12 April 2024	The landlord sent the resident it stage 1 complaint response and said: It previously repaired damaged material on the roof, but had no records of any other roof repairs until 5 April 2024 for felt around the brickwork, which it said was completed on 6 April 2024. From the contractor images it saw there was “minor” damage to the ceiling beneath the porch and would inspect this. It previously offered to repair the concrete floor of the porch, but she refused this as she wanted tiles, but it would re-inspect. She could have requested permission to undertake improvements, but she might not be reimbursed, with the exception of the right to claim scheme.
Between 17 June 2024 and 25 June 2024	The resident escalated her complaint to the landlord on 17 June 2024 as she: Felt the quality of works undertaken were poor and the porch floor held water. Said she was promised that the porch floor would be tiled and wanted to know when this would be done. Had spent £275 on having the porch repaired and painted, but she described the porch as an “eyesore”. The landlord called her on 25 June 2024 to discuss the issues and sent a stage 2 acknowledgement letter. She reiterated her concerns.
15 July 2024	The landlord issued the resident with its stage 2 complaint response. It said: It applied a waterproof liquid coating to the porch roof on 4 July 2023. On 3 July 2023 it visited the property and raised anti-slip coating works to the porch floor on 9 October 2023. It attended the property on 6 November 2023 to tile the porch floor, but she had refused the tiles (due to the colour). In April 2024 she had reported a leak from the porch roof and its contractors applied new felt to the roof on 10 April 2024. On 11 July 2024 she told it that her neighbours had changed their flat roofs, but it had confirmed this would fall under its improvement works not repairs, so she would need to request permission. If she experienced any further issues with water drainage from the roof, she would need to report this. It had inspected the porch ceiling, and it applied a sealant to it on 17 June 2024. The porch floor was safe and free from hazards, and the porch floor was not meant to be tiled. If she still wanted this, she would have to request permission. It had miscommunicated previously and confirmed it would not tile the porch floor, it awarded £100 in compensation for the inconvenience caused by this.
Referral to the Ombudsman	By 17 July 2024 the resident referred her complaint to us. She remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and told us she wanted further repairs to the porch.

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.

Complaint	Concerns about the porch
Finding	Reasonable redress

7. We acknowledge the resident received stage 1 responses about historical porch issues and contractor conduct in May 2023, and about separate staff conduct in July 2024. However, she had not exhausted the landlord’s complaints procedure about these matters. In the interest of fairness, this investigation looks at events from June 2023, which were addressed at both stages of the complaints procedure, as outlined above.

8. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 the landlord is required to repair and maintain the structure and exterior of the property. This is echoed in the resident’s tenancy agreement.

9. The landlord was aware it needed to inspect the resident’s property on 1 June 2023 because she reported issues with her porch. The landlord’s repairs handbook says it aims to attend responsive repairs in 20 working days. It attended on 23 June 2023 which was inside target timescales for the pre-inspection. It then completed repairs to the porch roof on 4 July 2023 which was within its ‘priority’ target of 7 working days.

10. In the landlord’s final complaint response it said the 3 July 2023 porch floor inspection was raised following contact from the resident’s councillor. The resident and her councillor discussed the issue on 26 June 2023, although we do not know when the councillor contacted the landlord. However, the evidence showed the landlord treated this service request with urgency. Its attendance was prompt and within the priority target in its repairs handbook.

11. We acknowledge the landlord’s inspection found no issues with the porch floor at that stage. However, the landlord wanted to level the porch floor surface and apply an anti-slip coating to help the resident. This showed it was listening to the resident’s concerns despite finding no issues and that it considered her vulnerabilities. Its records also showed it had advised her about grab rails, but the resident did not want this. We acknowledge it had tried to complete the coating on 22 August 2023 but the records showed the resident did not allow the full extent of works to be completed on that occasion. It was reasonable that it completed this coating on 9 October 2023.

12. The evidence showed the resident did not like the porch floor tiles (and the colour) provided by the landlord on 6 November 2023. The offer to tile the porch floor was retracted by the landlord and the resident was made aware of this by 12 December 2023. Evidence showed the landlord said this was due to the original design of the porch being concrete (and not tiled). It is clear the resident’s expectations were mismanaged by the landlord from 9 October 2023 until 12 December 2023. However, the landlord recognised this in its final response and awarded £100 in compensation. This level of compensation was in line with our remedies guidance for the inconvenience caused by this duration.

13. The councillor relayed the resident’s concerns about the porch roof leak to the landlord on 2 April 2024. Under the landlord’s repairs handbook, repairs for roof leaks are to be completed in 7 working days. The landlord completed this within target.

14. On 21 May 2024 the councillor also put the landlord on notice of the resident’s concerns regarding the porch ceiling. The landlord inspected these issues and completed the repairs inside its 20-working day target.

15. The resident told the landlord that her neighbours had changed their flat roof to a pitched roof. In these circumstances, it was reasonable the landlord advised the resident she could potentially request this via its home improvement policy.

16. While the resident disputes the quality of work, we have not seen contrasting evidence that the landlord was obligated to undertake further repairs. It was reasonable for the landlord to rely on the professional opinion of its staff and contractors. The repairs it undertook were in line with its procedures. Ultimately, in its final response it clearly communicated to her it would not be tiling her porch floor as it was beyond its responsibilities, but she could request permission to undertake this.

Complaint	The landlord’s complaint handling
Finding	No maladministration

17. The landlord has a 2 stage complaints process. It aims to acknowledge complaints within 5 working days and escalation requests in 3 working days. It says the resident should receive a formal response to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days and stage 2 complaints within 20 working days of the complaint acknowledgement.

18. At stage 1 the landlord acknowledged the complaint via phone and sent its formal response within target timescales. At stage 2 it was 3 working days over target in acknowledging the resident’s complaint, but its response was issued within target. We have taken into consideration that the resident’s overall complaint journey at stage 2 was 20 working days in total. As such, while it failed to follow its 3 working day target in acknowledging the resident’s escalation, this would not have caused detriment to her.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping) and communication

19. In the landlord’s stage 1 complaint response it said it completed roof repairs on 6 April 2024 but this differed to subsequent correspondence and the evidence provided to us. The landlord is reminded that in our spotlight report on knowledge and information management, we recommended that databases are easy to interrogate. Also, that the data can be extracted and used. This is essential for decision making.

20. Similar to the above, the spotlight report also recommended that landlords have key data recording standards. Had the landlord followed this, it may have avoided inconvenience caused by miscommunicating to the resident that it would tile her porch floor. It should have known from the outset that this would deviate from the original property plan, but we acknowledge it has since clarified this to her.

21. The landlord was able to provide a contact log with the resident’s councillor, which in this case evidenced some of its actions. This was positive.