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London Borough of Hillingdon (202308454)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202308454

London Borough of Hillingdon

18 November 2024


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 roofing works.

Background

  1. The resident is a leaseholder who has held the lease since 29 January 2016. The property in question is a first floor flat.
  2. On 19 January 2022, the resident reported damp patches on the ceiling of the property. An inspection was carried out on 28 February 2022 and this found that insulation was required in the roof space.
  3. The landlord attended on 13 May 2022 to remove tiles from the roof and install insulation. It provided contradictory information as to the work completed during that visit.
  4. The resident reported leaks at the property on 6 June 2022, 28 July 2022 and 17 August 2022. No works were completed following these reports. The resident then raised a formal complaint on 23 August 2022. An inspection was booked with a roofing contractor for 7 September 2022.  
  5. The landlord provided a stage 1 response on 8 September 2022. The landlord said that it had carried out works to install insulation but accepted there had been delays, which it put down to weather conditions. It acknowledged that an inspection had recently taken place and said that it would action any recommended works from the inspection.
  6. Following the inspection, roofing works were completed and the ceiling in the resident’s property was replaced and decorated. The works were completed on 14 December 2022.
  7. The resident raised a stage 2 complaint on 19 March 2023 and requested compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by the works and associated delays.
  8. The landlord provided a stage 2 response on 4 April 2023 and acknowledged there had been delays but said that it had not exceeded the timeframes it had offered. It said it had replaced a bookcase that was damaged during the works and directed the resident to claim further damages through its insurer. The landlord said it had completed decoration of the property following the works as a goodwill gesture and offered a further payment of £150 compensation due to the time taken to complete the works.
  9. The resident did not consider the offer sufficient and raised this for review with this Service on 8 June 2023. During February 2024, the landlord liaised with the  resident as a part of mediation discussions through this Service and increased its compensation offer to £750. The resident refused this offer.

Assessment

  1. The resident reported wet patches forming in his property on 19 January 2022. Given the concerns and potential damage that a leak or damp can cause, it would be reasonable for the landlord to seek to identify and treat the problem in an appropriate timeframe. If this was considered a ‘routine’ repair under its policy, it should have attended within 20 working days. However, it took until 28 February 2022, 29 working days later, for the landlord to attend and identify the potential cause of the problem.
  2. The landlord later acknowledged that it attempted to attend on 4 February 2022. It is understandable that weather conditions meant that both this and the rescheduled appointment of 17 February 2022 had to be moved. However, the time between each of these appointments shows a lack of urgency to identify and resolve the problem. This is a service failing on the part of the landlord, as the resident was left waiting for the problem to be diagnosed while being concerned about the potential damage that could be caused.
  3. Given that the landlord suggested a lack of insulation was causing the appearance of damp, it should have sought to attend the property soon after to rectify this. However, it took until 13 May 2022, some 75 days later, before the landlord attended with the intention of fixing the problem. Again, weather conditions had caused a failed appointment on 4 April 2022. However, this was the only other appointment that was booked during that period and there was a gap of almost 6 weeks between those 2 appointments. Given the concerns and urgency the resident showed in his correspondence with the landlord, it would have been reasonable for those works to be carried out sooner than they were.
  4. The resident was advised that insulation was installed on 13 May 2022. However, the notes from the works order from May 2022 make no reference of insulation being installed. The notes said that there was “insufficient insulation” and that it “checked with the office and that part is the leaseholder’s responsibility”. It is clear that the resident was not made aware of this at the time. This is evident as the roofing contractor who attended on 7 September 2022 reported that the resident had advised of insulation being installed ‘recently’. In response to this claim, the roofing report from 7 September 2022 said “I can’t see much evidence of it”.
  5. Internal landlord emails from 5 September 2022 said that there had been 6 visits to the property since January 2022 but no works were completed, only assessments. Despite being aware of this, the landlord’s stage 1 complaint response makes reference to insulation having been installed during the visit in May 2022. This demonstrates a lack of oversight and understanding by the landlord of both the problem, the required works and what it had done to date. Further to this, it provided incorrect information within its complaint response. 
  6. This is further evidenced in the landlord finding that its initial diagnosis – that the damp patches were caused by condensation – was incorrect. Landlord emails from 28 March 2023, during its stage 2 complaint investigation, said that “roofers had failed to spot the leak and claimed ‘condensation’”.
  7. After receiving the roofing report in September 2022, the landlord took positive steps and began arranging the works set out in the report. As these were a larger set of works that required planning, these fell into the ‘minor works’ category of the landlord’s repairs policy, which has a 90 working day timeframe. The landlord, installed insulation in the roof space, carried out significant roofing repairs, replaced the asbestos ceiling in the property and redecorated by 14 December 2022. Although it is understandable that the additional delays would be disappointing for the resident, the landlord did meet the timeframe set out in its policy when completing these repairs.
  8. The resident later requested compensation towards the inconvenience caused by these works, the overall delays and damage caused. It is clear that the landlord acknowledged the works had led to cosmetic damage and damage to a bookcase. It replaced the bookcase like for like and redecorated the room following the completion of the works. It is the view of the Ombudsman that these were reasonable steps to take given that it had caused the damage.
  9. The landlord offered a compensation payment of £150 due to the time taken to fully resolve the issues. Given the overall delays and other service failings identified, this offer was not proportionate.
  10. Ultimately, the landlord incorrectly diagnosed the damp problem, despite attending on multiple occasions, and then failed to take any significant steps to resolve it until after the roofing survey on 7 September 2022. This was almost 9 months after the resident first reported the problem. The lack of urgency to and the inconsistent information recorded by the landlord contributed to these delays and the resident was left with an ongoing concern during this time. Given the unnecessary delays along with the management of the works and other service failings identified, this Service makes a finding of maladministration.
  11. Prior to the case being accepted for investigation with this Service, the resident indicated that he would accept a compensation payment of £2,000. In response, the landlord proposed a payment of £750 in response. Based on the finding of maladministration and the service failings identified, this Service considers £750 to be proportionate and will recommend compensation at this level. This is within a range that the Ombudsman would recommend where there have been failings that caused a significant impact.
  12. Prior to investigation, the resident also requested that the landlord compensate him for the difference in his energy charges. He said that as the property did not have sufficient insulation from him moving in until October 2022, he felt it should compensate him for the difference in those charges. As this request did not form part of the initial complaint, this Service is unable to make a determination on the landlord’s response to the request. However, a recommendation will be made for the landlord to provide clarification on its position in relation to this request.  

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of roofing works.

Orders

  1. Within 28 days of the date of this report, the landlord should provide a written apology to the resident for the distress and inconvenience caused by the service failings in its handling of the roofing works.
  2. Within 28 days of this report, the landlord is ordered to make a compensation payment of £750 to the resident for the distress and inconvenience caused by the failures in its handling of the roofing work.
  3. The landlord must reply to this Service with evidence of compliance with these orders within the timescales set out above.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord should write to the resident and set out its position on the resident’s claim for a reimbursement of energy charges for the period before it installed insulation in 2022.