Livv Housing Group (202105660)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202105660

Livv Housing Group

14 July 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. The complaint concerns the landlord’s response to reports of pigeons nesting in solar panels.

Background and summary of events

  1. The property is a two-bedroom house.
  2. The landlord’s contact notes indicate that the resident first called the landlord regarding an issue with pigeons nesting in her roof on 30 October 2020. The operative sent a message to the Assets team for it to add the resident to the list for netting to be fitted around the solar panels to stop pigeons getting in.
  3. The resident called the landlord again on 13 January 2021 asking for an update on when it would put netting around her solar panels as she was having problems with pigeons nesting under them. The landlord’s notes of the call indicate that the operative raised for someone to call her however there is no evidence to show the landlord got back to the resident.
  4. The resident called the landlord again on 28 January 2021 via its Live chat service reiterating her request. The landlord’s notes of the contact indicate the operative liaised with the Assets team who confirmed it had added property to the list for when planned programme was in her area.
  5. The resident called the landlord on further occasions on 30 March 2021 and 13 April 2021 advising she was “sick of cleaning up the mess” and that she could no longer deal with the issue. She said she wanted to someone to call her and she asked if the matter could be dealt with as a priority.
  6. On 19 April 2021, the resident emailed the landlord complaining that she must have called its offices “about 50 times” regarding the same issue. She said that each time she was told she would get called back. No one had contacted her. She also said she previously asked to speak to a manager but that but no one was ever available.
  7. The resident explained that pigeons were in the roof when she moved in, she was stressed about the situation. There was pigeon excrement allover her garden and she had two young children. She was having to clean the mess daily which was getting worse. She explained that she could not afford to pay privately for someone to remove the pigeons. She had been told for two years that the netting programme was suspended due to funding. She asked if it was suspended or cancelled. She asked the landlord for its help.
  8. Later on 19 April 2021, the resident called the landlord requested a call back to discuss the issue.
  9. On 22 April 2021, the landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint, confirmed it had been logged. It advised the resident that it wanted to let her know that it had recently received advice from the RCPSA that pigeons were a protected bird under the “Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981” and that any solar netting works could only be completed outside of the pigeons nesting period of April – October. However, it advised that her complaint would be responded to in due course.
  10. On 27 April 2021, the landlord provided a stage one complaint response to the resident. It acknowledged that her complaint concerned pigeons roosting under solar panels of the roof.
  11. It advised that during the months of April – October, wood pigeons among other birds, were nesting and reiterated that they were protected by the Wildlife and Countryside act 1981. Therefore, the landlord said it could not install netting during this period so as not to endanger the birds located on the roof. It could confirm however that solar netting would be installed to the property in November 2021. In the meantime, it said it could only advise that she could purchase a “scarer” which acted as a deterrent and may help alleviate the issue. The landlord stated it was sorry for any inconvenience caused.
  12. On 14 May 2021, the resident raised a stage two complaint with the landlord during a phone call. The landlord’s notes of the call indicate that the resident reiterated that over the past few years, pigeons had been gathering under the solar panels and their excrement was destroying her garden including the furniture and children’s toys. She also reiterated that she had called it on multiple occasions but was always told the issue would be picked up on a programme but she was never contacted. She said that when she tried to raise the issue on the Live chat but was always being cut off.
  13. The landlord’s notes indicate that it confirmed with the resident during the call that the main aspects of her complaint was the lack of communication she had received from it regarding a resolution to the issue and the netting not being completed on the solar panels.
  14. The landlord’s notes show it reiterated that legislation meant it was unable to install netting around the solar panels during nesting season. The resident replied that that was not good enough or fair; what about her children and the drains were being blocked due to the amount of waste from the pigeons.
  15. The notes state the landlord advised it would discuss with Managers possibility of internal training for staff to prevent similar incident occurring in the future. The landlord also set out the actions from the discussion which were:
    1. to arrange for an Assets surveyor to attend week commencing 17 May 2021 and inspect to see if any birds were nesting on the roof and check the gutters and condition of garden. However, if birds were nesting, it would have to explore remedies to manage the situation until it could complete the required works when nesting season ended.
    2. It would contact her on 24 May to discuss next steps and provide a stage two response by 31 May 2021.
    3. Consider a goodwill gesture for the lack of communication.
    4. Consider arranging for her garden to be cleaned by its contractor if necessary.
    5. If netting could not be completed, it would investigate the possibility of routine cleaning of the area.
  16. The resident emailed the landlord on 24 May 2021 asking why no one had attended.
  17. The landlord provided a final response to the resident on 4 June 2021. It apologised for the delay in providing the response and said this was because the manager who was dealing with her complaint was on long-term leave. It referred to the call on 14 May and the action plan put in place which included:
    1. For its Assets team to attend and inspect the solar panels to see if birds were nesting, check gutters and condition of garden;
    2. For it to arrange for the garden to be cleaned by its contractor every four to six weeks.
  18. It said that operatives did attend and install netting. However, it was later discovered that birds were nesting, and the netting had been lifted to comply with the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
  19. It appreciated that this was not the outcome she would have hoped for but due to the birds nesting it could only try to minimise the disruption of the birds through cleaning of the gutters and the cleans every 4-6 week of her garden area. It would be able to refix the netting in November 2021.
  20. The landlord concluded that that there had been failings on its part. It said it was sorry for that and it would like to offer a £100 payment, in recognition of these failings.  It advised that to accept this offer and schedule convenient cleaning appointments she should contact its Customer Feedback team. It provided the relevant contact details. It said that its review concluded its internal complaints process.
  21. On 13 July 2022, the resident told the Ombudsman that the landlord did return in October/November 2021 to install the netting which stopped pigeons nesting in the solar panels. However, she said that she did not think it paid her the £100 offered in the complaints process and that she did the cleaning herself in the interim until the netting was installed.

Assessment and findings

Reports of pigeons nesting in solar panels

  1. The landlord’s repair policy includes different categories of repairs including planned repairs and it also references work that is “completed on a planned programme of works” however it does not give a timescale for completing these types of repairs.
  2. Prior to raising a formal complaint on 19 April 2021 regarding pigeons nesting in the solar panels, the landlord’s records provided to this Service indicate that the resident had contacted it to report this matter on at least five occasions since 30 October 2020. The landlord’s internal call notes indicate that the operatives who received her reports raised the issue with the landlord’s Assets team who in January 2021 confirmed the property had been added to the list for netting to be fitted “when planned programme was in her area”.
  3. However, on most occasions the resident did not receive a call back as requested when she contacted the landlord for an update on the situation. Towards the end of the six month period, the resident reported the situation had worsened referencing the mess caused by the pigeons advising she could no longer deal with it. She requested for the matter to be dealt with as a priority.
  4. The lack of communication from the landlord or clarity provided to the resident about when she could expect it to attend to fit netting around the solar panels during the six months from the date of her first report, was unreasonable. As such, the service provided by the landlord in this regard did not reach an acceptable standard.
  5. In her formal complaint raised, the resident complained about the landlord’s service and explained that the level of pigeon’s excrement meant she had to clean daily and that her garden and property were being damaged. In its stage one response, the landlord advised that due to legislation that prevented it from fitting netting during pigeon’s nesting season from April to October, it intended to install solar netting to the property in November 2021.
  6. Whilst the landlord’s response provided clarity on when it could install the netting, it did not address the resident’s point raised about the lack of communication from the landlord during the months leading up to her complaint or the difficulties she was experiencing due to pigeon mess in her garden. Following, the resident escalating her complaint, the landlord called the resident when she explained that she was unhappy with its response as it did not resolve the problem. She said it was unfair on her and her two young children that they had to continue to deal with the issue and she also mentioned that excrement was blocking the gutters.
  7. The landlord agreed actions points to address the situation during the call. These included attending to inspect the property during the week commencing 17 May to see if any birds were nesting on the roof and check the gutters and condition of garden. It advised that if birds were not nesting, it would fit the netting however if they were, it would explore remedies to manage the situation until it could complete the required works when nesting season ended. It referred to the possibility of getting its contractor to provide routine cleans. As these actions would reasonably address the issues complained about, this approach taken by the landlord was appropriate.
  8. The landlord also agreed to pay the resident a goodwill gesture for the lack of communication and said it would raise the possibility of internal training for staff to prevent similar incident occurring in the future. This shows a willingness by the landlord to learn lessons from the issues raised in the resident’s complaint which is in accordance with the Ombudsman Dispute Resolution Principles: be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes.
  9. The landlord’s work orders dated 24 and 25 May 2021 demonstrate that the contractor attended the property to check the garden and gutters and if birds were nesting, as agreed. It is noted that the evidence indicates it visited a few days later than advised during the stage two call with the resident however it is unclear from the evidence the reason for this. It is evident however from the details in the work order that cleaning was carried out during this visit and also that netting was added to the solar panels. Nonetheless, the netting then had to be removed when it became clear pigeons were still in the solar panels in order comply with the relevant legislation.
  10. In its stage two final response it acknowledged that this had happened and confirmed it would return in November 2021 to refit the netting around the solar panels. It also offered the resident £100 in recognition of its service failings and agreed to clean her debris from her garden every four to six weeks if this was needed however advised that she should contact its Customer Feedback team to arrange.
  11. The landlord provided to this Service evidence of a work order dated 25 October 2021 to fix the netting and the resident confirmed to the Ombudsman that the work completed resolved the issue.
  12. Therefore, whilst the landlord unreasonably delayed with responding to the resident’s initial reports of pigeons nesting in the solar panels, it subsequently recognised this failure during the complaints process and took steps to put matters right by apologising and offering reasonable compensation in recognition of its failure to communicate effectively with the resident. It also arranged for an inspection to assess the situation and to carry out initial cleaning. It then returned to refit the netting after nesting season had ended, in accordance with the legislation. The remedies provided during the complaints process were reasonable in the circumstances and addressed the issues complained of. Therefore, on balance the landlord adequately resolved this complaint.
  13. Regarding the resident’s recent advice to this Service that she did not believe the landlord had paid her the £100 agreed in the complaint process, if it has not already done so, the landlord should either provide evidence of any payment already made or ensure it pays the resident £100 in compensation and confirm that it has done so to this Service.
  14. Whilst the resident also recently told us that she did the further cleaning required until the netting was refixed, as there was no suggestion that she tried to schedule cleaning with the landlord as advised in its final response, on balance, this point does not establish any failure on the landlord’s part.

Determination (Decision)

  1.  In accordance with paragraph 55(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was reasonable redress by the landlord when responding to reports of pigeons nesting in solar panels.

Reasons

  1. The landlord failed to communicate effectively with the resident about their reports of pigeons nesting in the solar panels over several months however it took reasonable steps to put this right in the complaints process and also resolved the problem complained about.

 

Recommendation

  1. The finding of reasonable redress is based on the landlord honouring what it offered in the complaints process therefore it should pay the resident £100 in compensation if it has not already done so and confirm to this Service that it has paid the compensation within four weeks.