London Borough of Ealing (202423464)
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Decision |
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Case ID |
202423464 |
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Decision type |
Investigation |
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Landlord |
London Borough of Ealing |
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Landlord type |
Local Authority / ALMO or TMO |
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Occupancy |
Leaseholder |
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Date |
23 December 2025 |
Background
- The resident lives in a flat. He made numerous reports to the landlord about his hot water and heating not working on 23 occasions. The landlord sent out a contractor to fix the issue on each occasion, but the issue persisted. The resident complained in July 2024. The landlord apologised and replaced the boiler on 27 November 2024, but the resident remained unhappy as the landlord did not offer any compensation.
What the complaint is about
- The complaint is about the landlord’s handing of:
a. Repairs to the communal heating and hot water system.
b. The complaint.
Our decision (determination)
- There was maladministration in the handling of the repairs to the resident’s communal heating and hot water system.
- There was a service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.
We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.
Summary of reasons
Handling of repairs to the communal heating and hot water system
- The landlord failed to complete lasting repairs to the boiler and took too long to recognise that it needed replacement. While it apologised, it did not recognise the impact the lack of heating and hot water had on the resident. It also failed to offer any compensation to recognise the impact.
Complaint handling
- The landlord delayed in acknowledging escalation and providing its stage 2 response. It did not recognise this within its response and did not offer any compensation.
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.
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Order |
What the landlord must do |
Due date |
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1 |
Apology order The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure:
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No later than 20 January 2026 |
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2 |
Compensation Order The landlord must pay the resident a total of £400 compensation as follows:
This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date. |
No later than 20 January 2026 |
Recommendations
Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.
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Our recommendations |
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We recommend that the landlord review its policy on cumulative breakdowns of a communal boiler. This issue occurred 23 times in 6 months, and it would be expected that the landlord should’ve identified an issue with the boiler sooner than it did and that it needed replacing. |
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We recommend that the landlord review its complaint handling process to ensure that it complies with its policy timeframes. |
Our investigation
The complaint procedure
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Date |
What happened |
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6 June 2024 |
The resident first reported an issue with his heating and hot water. The landlord sent out a contractor who fixed the issue. |
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28 June 2024 to 27 November 2024 |
Further issues with the heating and hot water were reported by the resident (23 times in total) over a period of 6 months. The landlord resolved the issue on each occasion. |
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8 July 2024 |
The resident raised a complaint due to the persistent faults with the communal boiler leading to no hot water and heating. He was unhappy that this kept happening and that a permanent fix was not put in place. |
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15 July 2024 |
The landlord acknowledged the stage 1 complaint. |
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26 July 2024 |
The landlord issued its stage 1 response in which it:
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14 August 2024 |
The resident escalated his complaint to stage 2. He remained unhappy that the issue persisted even after the stage 1 response and the fixes put in place by the landlord. |
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13 September 2024 |
The landlord acknowledged the stage 2 escalation. |
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23 October 2024 |
The landlord issued its stage 2 response in which it:
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Referral to the Ombudsman |
The resident remained unhappy and asked us to investigate as the issue was ongoing. He was unhappy with the persistent faults which led to him having no hot water and heating and wanted compensation for the time, distress and inconvenience caused. The landlord later confirmed to us the boiler was replaced on 27 November 2024. |
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.
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Complaint |
The landlord’s handling of repairs to the communal heating and hot water system. |
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Finding |
Maladministration |
- On 6 June 2024 the resident first reported an issue with his hot water and heating not working. Under the lease the landlord is responsible for communal repairs. The landlord’s Homeowner Handbook also confirms this. It repaired the communal boiler the same day. This was in line with its repair policy from the Homeowner Handbook where it states it will respond to emergencies within one working day. The resident reported further repairs for the same issue, and the landlord resolved the issue each time in line with its policy timescales. The repair report shows several different issues with the boiler with parts being needed which were installed but the issue persisted.
- Due to the ongoing issues, the resident raised a complaint on 8 July 2024. The landlord apologised and explained that the issues raised were fixed and that it would inspect the boiler room so that no further issues occurred. This is reasonable.
- However, the issue continued to persist, and the resident escalated his complaint to stage 2 on 14 August 2024. A stage 2 response was issued on 23 October 2024, where the landlord listed further issues that the resident faced and that these issues were fixed, which they were. The landlord apologised and upheld the complaint but there was no explanation as to why the boiler kept breaking down and if the issue would happen again. And no compensation was offered to the resident for the distress and inconvenience caused.
- The resident then faced further issues after the stage 2 response and in total had to raise a repair on 23 separate occasions. The landlord eventually replaced the boiler on 27 November 2024. The landlord should have completed long lasting repairs sooner or have identified the need to replace the boiler sooner than it did, as the issue persisted over a 6-month period. Although it attended each repair report within its timeframe, its constant need to reattend did not demonstrate effective repairs.
- The landlord apologised at both stages for the issues but there was no offer of compensation to acknowledge the issues caused. The landlord’s complaints policy says, “Where a remedy is required to put things right (which may include remedial actions and/or compensation), the remedy will reflect the impact on the complainant of any fault identified.” The landlord failed to recognise the ongoing impact this had on the resident. There was maladministration.
- The issue caused the resident continuous distress and inconvenience for 6 months and he was without 2 essential services. The landlord is therefore ordered to apologise and pay the resident £300 compensation to reflect this impact.
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Complaint |
The handling of the complaint |
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Finding |
Service failure |
- The landlord has a 2-stage complaints process in line with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code). The landlord’s complaints policy says that complaint acknowledgements will be issued within 5 working days, a stage 1 response will be issued within 10 working days, and a stage 2 response will be issued within 20 working days.
- The landlord complied with the stage 1 timeframes by acknowledging and responding to the resident’s 8 July 2024 complaint on 15 July 2024 and 26 July 2024, respectively. However, while the stage 1 complaints process was in line with its complaint policy, the stage 2 acknowledgement and final response were significantly delayed. The resident escalated his complaint on 14 August 2024, but this was only acknowledged by the landlord on 13 September 2024, which was 17 working days late. The final response was sent 51 working days after the resident escalated his complaint, which was 26 working days late. These were significant delays, which caused further inconvenience to the resident, and the landlord is reminded to follow its policy and the Code.
- The landlord did not apologise or acknowledge the delays in the responses in its acknowledgement or final response and offered no compensation, which is not proportionate or reasonable, as it did not recognise the above failures. This is also not in line with our remedies guidance to recognise such failures, which the landlord has been found responsible for.
- There was service failure. The landlord is therefore ordered to apologise and pay the resident £100 compensation for the inconvenience caused. This is in line with the amount suggested in our remedies guidance where there was minor failure by the landlord in the service it provided, and it did not appropriately acknowledge these and/or fully put them right.
Learning
- The landlord did repair the issue each time, but it would be worth identifying the root cause of the issue sooner to avoid repeat instances of the same issue, which was the case in this complaint. The resident reported the issue 23 times before a new boiler was installed which resolved the issue fully. Had the issue been identified sooner, then this would’ve mitigated the impact on the resident.