London Borough of Lewisham (202441034)

Background

1. The resident is the leaseholder of a flat in a purpose built block. The resident reported a leak from the flat above shortly before raising his complaint. The flat above is owned by the landlord.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of:
   1. A leak from the flat above.
   2. Outstanding window repairs.
3. We have also looked at the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

Our decision (determination)

4. We have found that there was:
   1. Maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of a leak from the flat above.
   2. Service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of outstanding window repairs.
   3. No maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

5. The landlord did not handle the resident’s reports of a leak from the property above in line with its policies. It has not shown that it made reasonable attempts to gain access to stop the leak or that it communicated with the resident about what it was doing.
6. The landlord did not handle the resident’s reports of outstanding window repairs in line with its policies.
7. The landlord handled the resident’s complaint in line with its policy and the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.

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.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

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.

8. The landlord’s leasehold guide says that in the event of a leak coming from a property above, the landlord can be contacted to attempt to resolve the issue. Its repairs policy says that an urgent repair is one where urgent work is needed to prevent damage to the property. It says it will respond to this kind of repair within 3 working days.
9. The resident first reported the leak to the landlord on 10 September 2024 to the landlord’s Home Ownership Service. It was then passed on to the landlord’s repairs department on 11 September 2024. The landlord’s complaint responses and the resident suggest that the leak was reported multiple times between the 10 and 24 September 2024 when a temporary repair was completed.
10. There is evidence that the landlord attempted to gain access to the flat above on 15 September 2024. We have not been provided with comprehensive evidence showing what actions the landlord took to attempt to gain access to the property above. This points to a record keeping failure.
11. The landlord’s records do not show that it took reasonable steps to keep the resident updated about the actions it was taking to repair the leak.
12. The resident complained to the landlord about the effects the leak had on his property and explained that repairs were now needed. The landlord appropriately advised the resident to make a claim against either his own or the landlord’s insurance. This was in line with the information contained in the landlord’s leasehold guide.
13. The delay in resolving the leak caused significant distress and inconvenience to the resident and this was compounded by the lack of communication from the landlord about the leak.
14. The landlord’s compensation policy says that it can make payments for the impact of failures in its service and it will make these on a case by case basis. The policy says that a medium impact on a resident is when the resident has suffered a level of inconvenience and/or distress because of service failure that exceeds what a reasonably tolerant person could be expected to accept. A payment of £150 is within the medium range. This is also in line with a finding of maladministration in our remedies guidance.
15. To reflect the distress and inconvenience caused by the delays in repairing the leak from the flat above, the landlord must pay the resident £150.

16. The lease sets out that the resident is responsible for maintaining the glass of the windows.  The lease and leasehold guide confirm the landlord is responsible for the window frames. The landlord’s repairs policy says that it will attend routine repairs within 20 working days.
17. The resident asked to add the issue of an outstanding window repair to his complaint when he contacted the landlord on 20 September 2024. It is not clear what type of window repair was required and whether this was the responsibility of the landlord to repair. The resident told the landlord that he reported the repair to the window on 18 July 2024 and that nothing had been done to investigate the issue.
18. Once made aware of the issue as part of the complaints process the landlord  arranged an appointment to inspect the windows of the property. This inspection was to take place on 16 December 2024. This is not within the timescale provided in the landlord’s repair policy. This is a failing.
19. We have not seen any evidence that the landlord was made aware of any outstanding repairs to the windows until the resident asked for this to be investigated as part of the complaint.
20. The delay in attending the window repair or explaining to the resident that the repair is not the responsibility of the landlord, is likely to have caused some inconvenience to the resident. The distress and inconvenience caused by this also has a medium impact on the resident. A payment of £100 is within the relevant range in the landlord’s compensation policy, and also in line with a finding of service failure in our remedies guidance.
21. To reflect the distress and inconvenience caused by the failures in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of outstanding window repairs, the landlord must pay the resident £100.

22. The landlord’s complaints policy says that it will acknowledge complaints at both stages within 5 working days of receiving the complaint. It says it will provide an answer within 10 working days of acknowledgement at stage 1 and within 20 working days at stage 2.
23. The resident raised his complaint with the landlord on 19 September 2024. The landlord acknowledged the complaint the next day. It provided a stage 1 response to the complaint on 4 October 2024. This was 10 working days after the complaint was acknowledged and so was in line with the landlord’s policy.
24. The resident asked to escalate his complaint to stage 2 on 10 October 2024. We have not seen evidence that the landlord provided an acknowledgement of this. The stage 2 response was provided on 8 November 2024. This was 21 working days after the complaint was raised. Had the landlord provided an acknowledgement within 5 working days the stage 2 response would have been issued in line with its policy timescale. Additionally, there was no detriment caused to the resident.

Learning

25. The landlord should ensure that it properly documents the actions it takes in response to reports from residents. It should also ensure that it follows its repair policy when these issues have been reported.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

26. The landlord’s records were incomplete and there is no evidence that it properly recorded the actions it took in response to the resident’s reports of a leak from above.

Communication

27. The landlord’s communication with the resident was not always clear, and there were some unanswered emails. During the time of the leak it did not properly keep the resident up to date about the actions it was taking to resolve the issues.