London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (202326022)

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Decision

Case ID

202326022

Decision type

Investigation

Landlord

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

Landlord type

Local Authority / ALMO or TMO

Occupancy

Assured Tenancy

Date

19 March 2026

Background

  1. The resident lives in a maisonette owned by the landlord, who is responsible for maintaining the communal TV aerial that serves the building. A fault with the communal aerial disrupted the resident’s Sky TV signal, leaving her without a Sky service for around 1 year. Although the landlord acknowledged the issue and agreed to consider reimbursing her Sky TV costs, it failed to follow up. As a result, the resident brought her complaint to us.

What the complaint is about

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of repairs to the TV aerial.

Our decision (determination)

  1. The case was resolved with our intervention.

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

Summary of reasons

  1. The landlord has agreed to pay compensation for reimbursement of loss of Sky Tv plus additional compensation for the delays in resolving the issue.
  2. We may determine the investigation of a complaint immediately if satisfied that the member has made an offer of redress following our intervention which, in our opinion, resolves the complaint satisfactorily.
  3. We contacted the landlord and provided a summary of our understanding of the events. This included evidence showing that the resident had emailed her Sky TV bills to the landlord in April 2024, along with how the landlord could resolve the complaint.
  4. The landlord offered to pay the resident £626.13 for the loss of Sky TV service, including £100 to reflect the delays, time and inconvenience experienced. The resident confirmed to us that she was satisfied with this offer as a resolution to the complaint.
  5. We are therefore satisfied that, following our intervention, the landlord has agreed to take appropriate action to remedy the issues raised, and that this resolves the complaint satisfactorily.

Putting things right

Recommendations

The complaint has been resolved with intervention on the basis the landlord follows our recommendations.

Our recommendations

The landlord should apologise to the resident and pay her £626.13. The landlord should provide documentary evidence that it has paid the total amount of compensation to the resident.

Learning

  1. The landlord should review its poor communications to find out what went wrong and put measures in place to improve its communications.