London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202334980)

Background

1. The resident lives in a 2-bedroom flat on the ground floor. The resident is vulnerable as he is elderly. In early October 2023 the resident reported a loss of heating and hot water to the landlord. The landlord repaired the boiler in early November 2023.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about how the landlord handled:
   1. The resident’s report of loss of heating and hot water.
   2. The resident’s complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. We have found that:
   1. There was reasonable redress offered during the landlord’s complaints process in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of loss of heating and hot water in the property.
   2. There was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

We have not made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

Handling of loss of heating and hot water

4. In summary we found that there were a number of failures in the landlord’s handling of the heating and hot water issues:
   1. The landlord did not effectively manage the repair with its contractors leading to delays and missed appointments.
   2. The landlord delayed providing temporary measures to mitigate the impact of the resident having no hot water or heating.

5. These failings meant the resident was without heating and hot water for longer than necessary. The landlord acknowledged all its failures, apologised, and offered compensation which acknowledged the impact on the resident and was sufficient to put things right.

Complaint handling

6. The landlord responded to the resident’s complaint in line with its policy and procedures.

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.

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.

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.

7. The landlord acknowledged delays in repairing the resident’s heating and hot water system. Where the landlord admits failings, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether it resolved the resident’s complaint satisfactorily in the circumstances, took learning and put things right.
8. The resident reported the loss of heating and hot water on 6 October 2023. Both the landlord and the resident agreed the landlord had first attended on 9 October 2023. In the absence of any other evidence, we accept this date as the first attendance of the landlord following the resident’s report. This did not follow its repairs policy which states an emergency repair should be attended within 24 hours to ‘make safe’. Given this was during the winter months, it would have been reasonable for the landlord to have appropriately prioritised the repair and attended it as an emergency one.
9. After the initial visit the contractor said a joint visit was needed with a heating engineer and an electrician. The resident told us he had called the landlord several times in October to chase up when this would happen and asked for it to be expedited. Although we have not seen any evidence of those phone calls, we have seen a note on the landlord’s file on 18 October 2023 that the resident was elderly and vulnerable and it should prioritise the repair. Regardless, the landlord did not act with the required urgency until the resident raised his formal complaint on 31 October 2023. We have seen evidence the landlord expedited the joint visit to 1 November 2023 as a result. While this was reasonable and demonstrated that the landlord took his concerns seriously, its action was considerably delayed.
10. Both the landlord and the resident confirmed to us that the landlord had completed the repair on 6 November 2023. This was 31 days since the resident originally reported the issue and outside reasonable timeframes for heating and hot water repair. The resident said the issue was fixed in 40 minutes by a senior engineer, which the landlord did not dispute. The quick resolution in this visit, indicates that there were multiple avoidable appointments as the issue was resolved quickly in the final appointment.
11. The resident also said that there was further issue until the end of November when he experienced intermittent hot water. While we do not doubt the resident’s words, we have not seen any evidence of this in the landlord’s file. In the absence of evidence we are unable to assess this further period of time. Additionally, during this time the resident was not fully deprived of hot water.
12. We note that the delay in the landlord carrying out this repair caused the resident difficulty as he did not have permanent heating and could not bathe in his home. He was vulnerable due to his age and said that he had a surgery just before these events. He said he had spent a lot of time waiting for contractors over this time period which caused him frustration and inconvenience. He said he also spent a lot of time emailing and calling the landlord to chase this repair which caused him “stress”.
13. Positively, the landlord acknowledged that due to its poor service the resident waited longer without hot water and heating than he should have had. It also said the resident should not have had to keep chasing and following this repair up. It planned to discuss this learning at its monthly meeting with the contractor.
14. We cannot see in October the landlord considered how to mitigate the impact on him or considered this in terms of his vulnerability and time of year. We cannot see that it offered alternative bathing facilities or portable heaters. We can see in later emails the resident advised he had been bathing at friends and had borrowed an oil-filled heater.
15. The landlord first discussed providing heaters on 2 November 2023 which shows a delay in the landlord considering the impact on the resident and putting measures in place to mitigate it. We have also seen evidence of 2 missed appointments to deliver temporary heaters which caused further frustration to the resident. We have not seen evidence that the landlord specifically acknowledged its delay in mitigating the impact of loss of heating and hot water for the resident. The landlord also did not acknowledge its poor communication with the resident.
16. However, its compensation offer of £344 was a considerable step to acknowledge the impact of its failures. This was broadly in line with its compensation policy and within the suggested range for maladministration (£100-£600) in our remedies guidance. The compensation was appropriate and calculated  to take into account:
    1. £134 for the time the resident spent without heating and hot water. This reflects the period of time we have identified in this report that the resident lived with lack of heating and hot water.
    2. £160 for distress, inconvenience, and time and effort. This was appropriate to reflect the resident’s experience as a result of its repair’s delays, missed appointments and communication failures.
    3. £50 for reimbursement for the cost of running an oil-filled radiator and stove. As such the landlord considered any quantifiable financial loss experienced.

17. The landlord’s policy and the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) say the landlord had:
    1. 5 working days to acknowledge the complaint.
    2. 10 working days to respond at stage 1.
    3. 20 working days to respond at stage 2.
18. The landlord acknowledged the complaint within 1 working day. It responded to stage 1 within 5 working days, and at stage 2 within 10 working days. This wasall in line with its complaints policy and the Code.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

19. There was inconsistency in the repair logs and the communication log provided to us.The landlord should consider how it can improve its record keeping.

Communication

20. Positively, the landlord communicated proactively with the resident after his formal complaint. Prior to this we saw a lack of proactive communication which the landlord acknowledged. So further steps can be taken to improve communication early on and while repairs are reported.