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London Borough of Camden Council (202347174)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202347174

London Borough of Camden Council

23 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:
    1. The resident’s reports of repairs required to fix the heating.
    2. The resident’s request for a refund of related heating service charges.
    3. The associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is a non-resident leaseholder under an agreement dated 7 August 2019. The property is a 1-bedroom flat in a purpose-built block. The landlord is a council.
  2. The resident emailed the landlord on 30 November 2023 to advise that there had been no heating that winter. She understood that the heating should have been on from 25 September 2023, and it was an ongoing issue. She said that she had filled in a rebate form but wanted to ask if she had to wait until the issue was resolved.
  3. The resident raised a complaint with the landlord on 19 January 2024. She said that there had been no heating in the property that year. She said she had paid over £3,000 in service charges and had not been reimbursed for the heating costs. She was not happy that the landlord had closed jobs when the heating had not been fixed. As a remedy she asked the landlord to fix the heating and reimburse the relevant service charges. She also asked not to be charged heating charges for the following year if the issue continued to not be resolved.
  4. The landlord issued a stage 1 complaint response on 1 February 2024. It advised:
    1. Its contractor had attended the property on the date the issue was reported on 23 October 2023 and left the heating in working order. After a further report of no heating on 2 November 2023, it provided temporary fan heaters during its investigation which continued until 10 November 2023. Another report on 13 November 2023 led to a new order where a partial blockage in the filter was found, the system was flushed and ventilated and system restored.
    2. Its contractor revisited on 17 November 2023 and the riser valves were adjusted. Concerns were raised at the time about a shared valve in a neighbouring property that needed to be accessed. Communication efforts led to an appointment with the neighbour on 30 January 2024. The contractor found that a valve was partially closed and this was reopened in the hope that this would restore services. Its contractor would visit again on 2 February 2024.
    3. It declined the resident’s service charge heating rebate form to refund heating charges as work to restore the heating had not been completed. It encouraged the resident to submit a new rebate form once the work was completed. It apologised that it had failed to respond to the resident following her emails of 30 November 2023 and 28 December 2023 about removing the heating charge.
    4. It upheld the resident’s complaint and awarded a total of £330 compensation comprising £100 for inconvenience in respect of the delay in fixing the heating. It also awarded heat compensation of £230 to compensate for the period 2 November 2023 to 1 February 2024.
  5. The resident was dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and requested a complaint escalation to stage 2 of the landlord’s internal complaints process on 5 February 2024. She advised that the heating was not fixed despite the landlord’s contractor visiting on 2 February 2024. She reiterated her request for a refund and asked the landlord to confirm when the heating should come on and off.
  6. The landlord issued its final complaint response on 21 March 2024. It reiterated its response regarding the heating repairs at stage 1. It said it had checked its records and that the heating was working. It apologised for the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident. It upheld the resident’s complaint.
  7. The resident was dissatisfied with the landlord’s final complaint response, and she referred her complaint to us on 15 May 2024. As a remedy, the resident wished for the landlord to refund the heating charges and for the heating to be fixed.

Assessment and findings

The scope of the Ombudsman’s investigation

  1. This investigation focusses on the time period from October 2023 to the date of the landlord’s final complaint response of 21 March 2024. We have referenced some relevant events that took place after the end of the final complaint response.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of repairs required to fix the heating

  1. According to the landlord’s records and the resident’s emails, the initial report of the lack of heating was made on 23 October 2023. The landlord’s contractor attended the same date and reported that the heating riser was turned right down so it was turned back up again. Its contractor reported to the landlord that the heating was left in working order. However, a works order was raised shortly after this on 2 November 2023 reporting no heating. This was also attended the same day as an emergency in line with the landlord’s repairs policy timescale. This was in line with its repairs policy for emergency repairs and was reasonable.
  2. On 13 November 2023, the landlord raised a further works order noting that several residents had reported no heating. This was also marked complete on the same date as an emergency repair which was appropriate. The landlord’s repair records state that its contractor dropped off fan heaters to the property on 16 November 2023 and was to return the day after. The contractor said that further investigation was required and returned on 4 December 2023. The contractor reported that the work was complete on 13 December 2023. It was reasonable that the landlord dropped off temporary heating when the heating was not working, particularly since the resident had reported that her tenants had a baby in the property and could be vulnerable to cold temperatures. The landlord’s repairs policy also stated it should provide alternative heating, so it acted in line with its policy.
  3. The landlord raised 3 further works orders between 12 January 2024 (marked complete on 15 January 2024 with a note saying the heating was working after a communal issue was rectified), 19 January 2024 (marked complete on 22 January 2024 with a note saying that the risers had been vented a flushed and left working) and 22 March 2024 (marked complete on 26 March 2024 with a note that the system had been flushed and balanced). The landlord noted in an internal email of 1 February 2024 that the heating had been fixed on 1 February 2024, however it was trying to contact the resident to check if the system was working. This indicated that there some uncertainty as to whether this was the case.
  4. The landlord’s repairing responsibilities are set out within the written lease agreement. Under the usual terms of a lease, leaseholders are responsible for maintaining the interior of their property. The landlord, however, is generally responsible for the structure and exterior of the building, as well as shared services such as communal heating. The landlord has advised us that the heating was provided through a district heating scheme within the block.
  5. What is a reasonable time to complete repairs will depend on all the circumstances of a case. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it will complete emergency repairs within 2 hours out of hours or by 8 pm the next day for emergency daytime repairs. It will complete urgent repairs within 5 working days and routine repairs within 20 working days. The landlord’s responses to each report were for its contractor to attend either as an emergency or within 5 working days which was in line with its policy. This was appropriate. However, with the resident’s continued reports of the heating not working, the landlord needed to take further action to check the quality and effectiveness of the work of its contractor and satisfy itself that the heating was working as it should do. No record has been seen that this happened which was inappropriate given that it was by 1 February 2024 over 3 months from the date the issue was first reported.
  6. Our Insight Report (December 2023) – Insight on service charges and the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction advises that when services are provided at estate or block level, it is best practice for landlords to conduct regular scheduled checks to confirm the work has been completed. We have recommended that the landlord reviews this report to help inform improvements to the way it handles communal repairs.
  7. The landlord was also aware of the need to gain access to the neighbouring property that had the shared valve from at least 17 November 2023 according to its repair records. The landlord’s contractor asked the landlord on 28 November 2023 whether it had tried to phone the neighbour. The contractor said it would try and call on the neighbour in its email of 4 December 2023. It was not until 29 January 2024 that the landlord told its contractor that it had spoken to the neighbour and arranged an appointment for 30 January 2024. Given the time of year, being winter, it would be expected for the landlord to take all reasonable steps to urgently contact the neighbour. However, there are no records that it did this until over 2 months’ later which was inappropriate. If the landlord did make other attempts, then its record keeping was not sufficiently robust to demonstrate this.
  8. The landlord declined its contractor’s reasonable suggestion of 30 January 2024 to meet at the neighbouring property. This meant that the landlord missed an opportunity to check itself the temperature in the building and it could have also arranged at the same time to check the resident’s property.
  9. The landlord told the resident in its stage 1 complaint response of 1 February 2024 that its contractor found a partially closed valve which it opened when it attended the neighbouring property on 30 January 2024. It flushed the system in the hope that this would restore the heating. It was reasonable to conclude that the evidence that the heating was not working during this period, apart from the provision of temporary heaters. The landlord said it tried to contact the resident to check which was appropriate, but it was unable to, and its contractor was due to visit on 2 February 2024. However, the resident confirmed in her complaint escalation of 5 February 2024 that the heating had not come on.
  10. There was no response to the resident’s complaint escalation and chase up email to the landlord on 22 February 2025 about the heating not working until the landlord sent its final complaint response of 21 March 2024. The landlord’s lack of communication with the resident will have likely caused unnecessary distress and inconvenience as well as time and trouble in trying to get the landlord to fix the issue. Not only that, but there is also no record of any further works order being raised to check the heating and to complete any required repairs. Given, the time of year and the landlord’s repairing obligations, this was unreasonable.
  11. The landlord said that the heating was working in its stage 2 complaint response, however the resident said in her reply of 22 March 2024 that the heating had not worked since October 2023 and was still not working.
  12. The landlord arranged for its contractor to visit on 26 March 2024 and on this occasion appropriately followed up with the resident on 27 March 2024 to ask if the heating was working. The resident confirmed that the heating was still not working on 28 March 2024 but that the landlord’s contractor was due to call that day. The resident reported on 9 April 2024 that there had been no follow up to the contractor’s visit and that the heating was still not working. She described her numerous reports of the issue and receiving no feedback with jobs being closed without a resolution. The landlord appropriately apologised for the poor service that the resident had received in its email of 10 April 2024 and that it had escalated the matter to senior management.
  13. The resident continued to report that the heating was not fixed and according to the landlord’s records its contractor visited on 17 May 2024 where it found that a valve was closed in the neighbouring property. The resident has advised us that her tenants left and that the flat was vacant as she was unable to rent it out due to the lack of heating.
  14. From the initial report of 23 October 2023 to at least 17 May 2024, nearly 7 months’ later, the landlord had failed to find a lasting solution to the resident’s reports of a lack of heating. Whilst the landlord sent its contractor out on several occasions, it needed to fully satisfy itself that the repair was successful and it failed to do this appropriately. Its communication was generally reactive rather than proactive and it needed to ensure proper updates were provided to the resident but did not do this. The Ombudsman considers that the failings identified amount to maladministration.
  15. The landlord offered compensation of £100 to the resident in its stage 1 complaint response of 1 February 2024 for the inconvenience, along with an apology. This was in line with its remedies policy that says that it can award between £100 to £300 for distress and the same amount for time and trouble. However, the landlord failed to consider whether it should award further compensation at stage 2 for the extended period that the heating was not restored, even though the landlord recognised that the heating was still defective at stage 1. The Ombudsman considers that the £100 offered does not fully reflect the delay and also the distress, inconvenience and time and trouble caused to the resident by the landlord’s failings.
  16. After carefully considering our guidance on remedies, we have ordered the landlord to pay the resident £350 compensation. This comprises £200 in respect of the landlord’s delays in finding a lasting solution to the lack of heating and £150 (inclusive of the £100 previously offered) in respect of the distress and inconvenience, and time and trouble caused to the resident by the landlord’s failings.
  17. As it is not clear from the resident’s reports to us whether the repairs have been effective we have also ordered the landlord to complete an inspection of the heating system and to provide its inspection report to the resident and to us outlining any repairs that may be required, along with timescales to complete them.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for a refund of related heating service charges

  1. The landlord’s repair records indicate that her tenant had completed a heating charges rebate form on 16 November 2023. This had been declined on 30 November 2023 as it was not from the resident as the leaseholder. The landlord wrote to the resident on this date to say that the rebate had been declined as the job was still open, though it encouraged the resident to reclaim once the system was restored. The resident requested a refund in her email to the landlord of the same date. She referred to the heating period commencing 25 September 2023. There is no record of the landlord’s further response to this request at this time which is inappropriate.
  2. The resident again requested a refund of the heating bills in her email to the landlord of 28 December 2023. There is again no record of the landlord responding to this request. This evidenced poor communication with the resident which was inappropriate. It was not until the resident raised a complaint on 19 January 2024 where she again raised the issue, that the landlord’s records show that it was looking into the request for a rebate.
  3. In its internal emails of 1 February 2024,the landlordchecked if the heating was fixed so it could consider a reduced service charge and the period of time that it would consider for this. The landlord said that the heating was fixed on 1 February 2024, and it said it would calculate a heat rebate for loss of heating for the period 2 November 2023 to 13 December 2023. The landlord then responded to the resident’s query of 30 November 2023 in its stage 1 complaint response of 1 February 2024, over 2-months later. Whilst it is accepted that the landlord would need to gather information to respond to the resident, the lack of communication was inappropriate. It could have advised the resident when she could expect to hear the outcome to manage her expectations.
  4. The landlord apologised in its stage 1 complaint response of 1 February 2024 “if they failed to respond” indicating that it could not find a record of a response being made which was inappropriate. This also could indicate record keeping issues as it should have been aware of the lack of response. The resident repeated her request for a refund of the amount charged to her for heating in her complaint escalation request of 5 February 2024 and also on 22 February 2024. She also asked the landlord to recalculate the charges for the following year if the heating was not fixed. She requested permission to withhold the payment for the heating-related service charges until the issue was sorted making the point that she should not be paying for heating if there was no heating provided.
  5. The landlord acknowledged as mentioned above that the heating was still defective in its stage 1 complaint response. In this it awarded a £230 rebate of the heating element of the service charges which it said reflected the period from 2 November 2023 to 1 February 2024. It said that this was an interim payment to reflect the fact that the heating was not restored. It also said that the resident could complete another form once the heating was repaired. The landlord acted reasonably in considering a rebate of the service charges, however, it did not explain how it had calculated the period that this would apply from. As the heating was reported as not working from 23 October 2023, it could have explained why it did not consider applying the refund from this earlier point.
  6. The landlord advised the resident on 8 March 2024 that she had been dealing with its repairs and complaints section and that they would respond directly to her for the issues raised. It said that the team responsible for maintenance would need to provide information to its leasehold services team for billing purposes. It also asked the resident to make arrangements to pay its invoice that was issued on 14 February 2024 (inclusive of heating charges). The resident said in her email of the same date that the landlord had not answered her queries. She asked who she should contact to arrange to have the heating element removed from the service charges. She also said that the refund of heating of £230 that had been awarded by the landlord at stage 1 of its complaints process had not been credited to her account. She could not understand why the landlord could not gather the information internally. This was understandable given it was an internal team that could provide the information and was indicative of poor internal communication.
  7. There was again no response from the landlord until it sent its stage 2 complaint response of 21 March 2024. However, as the resident rightly pointed out in her email of 22 March 2024 the landlord’s final complaint response had listed all the resident’s questions concerning the heating service charges but it then failed to answer them. This was inappropriate.
  8. The resident continued to chase the landlord after the end of the internal complaints process. She expressed her frustration in her email of 9 April 2024 of not being able to find out the answers to straightforward questions. For example, she asked how the heating charge was calculated, when the heating was supposed to come on and off and how the rebate previously awarded was calculated. She said she had the estimate of £2,124.47 minus £230 already rebated. She asked why the rebate was from 2 November 2023 and not October when the report of no heating was made.
  9. The landlord replied on 24 April 2024 that its senior management had agreed that the resident could withhold the heating charges for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 being the amount of £1,462.29 on its service charge invoice. It apologised for no response and confirmed that it had applied the £230 rebate to the resident’s account. The resident confirmed receipt of the rebate in her email of 10 April 2024. This indicated a delay in the landlord actioning the rebate it had promised as a remedy at stage 1 of its complaints process which was inappropriate.
  10. The landlord confirmed with the resident that she would need to pay £152.11 every month between May to December. The landlord also said it would need to wait until the estimates are actualised before then giving a rebate for the previous year’s estimates as it did not have a system in place prior to all the costs being certified.
  11. The resident later contacted the landlord on 30 September 2024 after she received her statement showing the actuals to claim back the heating charges that the landlord had agreed to consider. The landlord’s response of the same date asked if this had been authorised and it said that it was unable to refund the estimated charges without authorisation. The landlord said in its email of 15 October 2024 that different staff members across different departments had been involved and at least one had left. This again indicates a lack of appropriate record keeping and a lack of internal communication so that the landlord could see what was previously agreed.
  12. As set out in our Spotlight report on Knowledge and Information Management (May 2023) and follow up report (January 2025), without good knowledge and information management, a landlord cannot adequately understand its own housing stock and proactively monitor the completion of repairs. It would be unable to calculate whether it should pay a refund to the resident and over what period without adequate records or appropriate systems in place to deal with a remedy that it had already offered to the resident. The landlord’s attempts to deliver on its promises were also hampered by its processes such as its authorisation processes. The landlord should review its self-assessment of its knowledge and information management if it has not already done so to improve its record keeping practices.
  13. The resident has sent further emails between her and the landlord dated up to 2 July 2025 evidencing that the matter has remained unresolved. The landlord has not actioned the resident’s request for a refund for the charges paid in 2023 to 2024 to the date of this determination. It continues to say that it relies on its internal repairs and maintenance team to confirm that it had not repaired the heating.
  14. The Ombudsman considers that the failings identified amount to maladministration for which orders have been made. The landlord refunded £230 of the heating charges already over a period from 2 November 2023 to 13 December 2023. However, it has not considered any further refund to date. The refund also does not recognise the inconvenience, time and trouble caused to the resident by the landlord’s lack of communication, the delays and poor record keeping.
  15. After carefully considering our guidance on remedies, as above we have ordered the landlord to pay the resident £250 compensation. This comprises £150 in respect of the landlord’s delays in responding appropriately to the resident’s queries within a reasonable period. It also includes £100 in respect of the inconvenience, and time and trouble caused to the resident by the landlord’s failings.
  16. We have also ordered the landlord to review the resident’s heating-related service charges for the period 2023 to 2024 to consider whether a refund is due (excluding the £230 previously refunded). It must write to the resident and us with the outcome of this review. It must also consider whether any further refund of heating-related service charges is due for the period 2024 to 2025. It must provide an explanation of any refund that it will provide and explain the period of time that this covers and why.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

  1. The resident raised her complaint on 19 January 2024. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response on 1 February 2024. This was within the landlord’s complaints policy timescale to reply within 10 working days. It also reflects the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) timescales.
  2. The resident requested an escalation of her complaint on 5 February 2024. The landlord’s final complaint response was issued on 21 March 2024. This was 33 working days after the resident escalated her complaint. There is no record of the landlord sending an acknowledgement but even if it had sent one within the landlord’s complaint’s policy timescale of 5 working days, the response was delayed. This was contrary to the landlord’s policy and the Code.
  3. The landlord’s complaints policy says it will respond at stage 1 within 10 working days and will respond within 20 working days at stage 2. It may also extend where there is complexity.
  4. The landlord’s final complaint response of 21 March 2024 failed to answer the resident’s complaint points even though it listed these in its response. The response was therefore inappropriate as it did not provide any resolution to the resident’s complaint. This was despite the landlord recognising that the complaint was upheld and apologising for the distress and inconvenience. It also failed to identify any learning from outcomes of the resident’s complaint.
  5. The Code states under 6.18 that landlords must address all points raised in the complaint definition and provide clear reasons for any decisions, referencing the relevant policy, law, and good practice where appropriate.
  6. Under 9.1 of the Code, we advise that landlords must look beyond the circumstances of the individual complaint and consider whether service improvements can be made as a result of any learning from the complaint. In this case there was no evidence of any learning bearing in mind that the lack of heating will have had a wider impact on other residents in the block evidenced within the landlord’s repair records.
  7. The landlord has been the subject of a special investigation under paragraph 49 of the Scheme, which allows the Ombudsman to conduct further investigation into whether there is a systemic failure. The investigation started in November 2023. It considered complaints brought to us between July 2023 and April 2024. This also identified similar issues around record keeping and communication issues evident in this investigation. The landlord has been working with us on the recommendations, and it has since introduced a customer experience oversight panel in January 2024 which allows residents to feedback. It is part of the way through a transformation programme with updated policies and procedures underway. This is a positive step and will hopefully result in improved complaint handling, communication and record keeping practices.
  8. The Ombudman considers that there was service failure in respect of the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint. We have ordered the landlord to pay the resident £100 in respect of the failings identified that will have caused additional distress, inconvenience, time and trouble to the resident. We have also ordered the landlord to conduct a senior management review of this case to identify any lessons it can learn to improve future outcomes.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of repairs required to fix the heating.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for a refund of related heating service charges.
  3. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in respect of the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report the landlord is ordered to send a written apology to the resident from a senior leader in respect of the failings identified in this investigation. It must send a copy of this to us within this period.
  2. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report the landlord is ordered to pay the resident a total of £700 compensation. This comprises:
    1. £350 in respect of the landlord’s handling of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of repairs required to fix the heating comprising £200 in respect of the landlord’s delays to resolve the lack of heating and £150 (inclusive of the £100 previously offered) in respect of the distress, inconvenience, and time and trouble caused to the resident by the landlord’s failings .
    2. £250 in respect of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for a refund of related heating service charges comprising £150 in respect of the landlord’s delays in responding to the resident and £100 in respect of the inconvenience, and time and trouble caused to the resident by the landlord’s failings.
    3. £100 in respect of the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.
  3. Within 6 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to complete an inspection of the heating system that covers the resident’s property. The inspection should be carried out by a suitably qualified person. It must confirm any works that need to be completed, along with timescales, and provide its inspection report to the resident and to this service within the 6-week timeframe.
  4. Within 6 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to review the resident’s heating-related service charges for the period 2023 to 2024. It must consider a refund of the heating charges for the period that the heating was not operational (excluding the £230 already rebated). It must write to the resident with the outcome of its review and the reasons for its decision within the same time period. It must send a copy of this review to us within this period.
  5. Within 6 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to carry out a senior management review of this case to identify why the failings have occurred and to consider learning that can be used to prevent similar failings from happening. This should include consideration as to whether other residents have been similarly affected. The landlord must send a copy of its review report to the resident and to us within this timeframe.

Recommendation

  1. It is recommended that the landlord review its self-assessment of its knowledge and information management based upon the recommendations set out in our Spotlight report on Knowledge and Information Management (May 2023) and follow up report (January 2025) to improve its record keeping practices.
  2. It is recommended that the landlord reviews our Insight Report (December 2023) – Insight on service charges and the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to help inform improvements to the way it handles communal repairs.