London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202338664)

Decision
Case ID	202338664
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	London & Quadrant Housing Trust
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	24 February 2026

Background

1. The resident lives with his partner and 2 children. He complained to the landlord about ongoing issues with a lack of heating and hot water in the property, which he later said had caused mould to develop. The resident’s representative brought the complaint to us on his behalf. For ease of reference, we will refer to the resident and his representative as ‘the resident’.

What the complaint is about

2. The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of intermittent heating and hot water in the property.
3. We have also investigated the landlord’s complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

4. We have found that there was:
   1. Maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of intermittent heating and hot water in the property.
   2. Maladministration in the landlord’s complaint handling.

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

Summary of reasons

Reports of intermittent heating and hot water in the property

5. Whilst the landlord addressed its delays, it failed to acknowledge the report of mould or consider its obligations to assess potential hazards in the property.

Complaint handling

6. The landlord identified its failure to escalate the complaint within a reasonable time. However, it failed to provide clear timeframes in its extension, respond when the resident chased for updates or provide explanations for its delays.

 

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.

Order	What the landlord must do	Due date
1	Apology order The landlord must apologise in writing to the resident for the failures identified in this report. The landlord must ensure: the apology is specific to the failures identified in this decision, meaningful and empathetic it has due regard to our apologies guidance	No later than 24 March 2026
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £942.52 made up as follows:  £762.52 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the property (made up of the offers in its complaint responses plus our additional order of £120)  £180 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date. The landlord may deduct from the total figure any payments it has already paid as offered in its complaint responses and provide evidence of the payments.	No later than 24 March 2026
3	Inspection order  We have made an inspection order because the resident has reported mould in the bathroom of the property. What the landlord must do  contact the resident to arrange an inspection take all reasonable steps to ensure the inspection is completed by the due date a suitably qualified person must complete the inspection provide evidence of the inspection, including the likely timescales to commence and complete the work if the landlord cannot gain access to complete the inspection, it must provide us with documentary evidence of its attempts to inspect the property no later than the due date	No later than 24 March 2026
4	Learning Order The landlord must write to the resident and us, setting out what it has learned from the failures identified in this report and what actions it will take to prevent the same failures from happening again in the future.	No later than 24 March 2026

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
5 January and 28 February 2023	The resident reported no heating or hot water in the property. The landlord carried out repairs.
4 October 2023	The landlord raised a work order following a report of intermittent hot water and no heating downstairs in the resident’s property. The landlord completed a repair the following day.
8 November 2023	The landlord raised a further work order for the same issue. It said the previous repairs had not worked and some pipes needed changing.
11 January 2024	The resident raised a complaint. He said he was unhappy with having no heating for 14 months, especially as there were children in the property.
9 February 2024	The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response. It said it acknowledged there had been numerous heating repairs at the property and had offered compensation when the resident previously complained. It installed a new boiler on 8 February 2024 and apologised, stating it would discuss the contractor’s performance with them. It also offered £367.85 compensation, made up of: £10 under the right to repair scheme £70 for the loss of an individual service/facility – no hot water £70 for the loss of an individual service/facility – no heating £60 for distress and inconvenience £157.85 for 35 days extra electricity used at £4.51 per day
12 February 2024	The resident escalated his complaint. He said the compensation was “insulting” considering the duration of the issue and mould had developed in the bedrooms and bathroom of the property.
4 June 2024	The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response. It said following numerous repairs, the boiler continued to intermittently fail. It carried out a heat survey and subsequently installed a new boiler. It reattended and repaired a hole left by the new boiler installation and had fully resolved the heating issues by 26 February 2024. It apologised for the delay to the boiler repair and for any distress and inconvenience caused and offered additional compensation of £354.67, made up of: £68 for 17 days of no heating and hot water £100 for distress and inconvenience £30 for the time and effort in getting the complaint resolved £80 for the delay in escalating the complaint to stage 2 £76.67 for 17 days extra electricity used at £4.51 a day
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident told us he wanted more compensation from the landlord. He said this was to cover the distress and inconvenience caused by taking time off work for numerous contractor visits and having to use appliances to heat the property. He said the prolonged issues had caused a significant impact on the family’s wellbeing and mental health.

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.

Complaint	Reports of intermittent heating and hot water in the property
Finding	Maladministration

7. The resident reported that he had no heating for 14 months. Whilst it is clear he had experienced ongoing issues with the heating, the records show that after a boiler repair on 1 March 2023, there were no further reports of issues for at least 6 months. It was therefore reasonable for the landlord to assume the repair had resolved the issue.
8. On 5 October and 13 November 2023, the landlord carried out boiler repairs following reports of further issues. It is unclear what dates the resident reported these, however in a later email to the landlord, the resident said he first reported the issue at the end of September 2023. The lack of clarity on dates is a record keeping failure, and we have therefore been unable to assess if the landlord’s responses were reasonable.
9. It is unclear if the repair on 13 November 2023 resolved the issue at the time as there is no evidence of further reports from the resident between then and his complaint.
10. The landlord carried out a boiler survey the day after receiving the complaint. The next working day, it raised a work order to install a new boiler, and it completed the installation 18 working days later. The landlord’s response was reasonable, and in line with its repair policy which states it will complete routine repairs within 25 working days.
11. On 25 January 2024 the resident told the landlord that the cold temperatures in the property were impacting his children. The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) classes excess cold as a category 1 hazard. There is no evidence to show the landlord assessed the temperatures or considered its obligations to keep the property free from hazards and fit for human habitation under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
12. The resident also said his electricity bills had increased due to having to use heaters. The landlord said it would consider compensation once it had resolved the issue. The resident told us the landlord provided the heaters. In its stage 1 response, it offered compensation for increased electricity usage. This was in line with its compensation policy which states it will consider compensation where the resident had no choice but to pay for something because of the landlord’s delay.
13. The compensation offered in the stage 1 response covered a period of 35 days, from just before the complaint was raised. As there is no evidence to show the landlord was aware of any issues following the November 2023 repair, the compensation was reasonable.
14. On 8 February 2024 the resident reported that the newly installed boiler had not resolved the issues, and the house was still cold. The landlord responded and carried out a power flush 6 working days later, within its policy timescales.
15. In its stage 1 response, the landlord acknowledged there had been prolonged issues with the heating and apologised. It addressed its delays, stating it would discuss the issues at length with the contractor, and offered compensation for distress and inconvenience in line with its compensation policy.
16. In his escalation, the resident said the cold temperatures had caused mould to develop in the property. The HHSRS classes mould as a category 1 hazard. There is no evidence the landlord responded to this issue. The resident told us that mould was still present in the property. We have therefore made an order for the landlord to inspect the mould.
17. On 17 February 2024 the resident reported the recent power flush had not worked. By 26 February 2024 the landlord had fully resolved the heating issues. While this was within its policy timescales, frequently reporting issues likely caused the resident inconvenience.
18. On 27 February 2024 the resident reported that the boiler installation had left a hole in his ceiling. In its stage 2 response, the landlord confirmed it had repaired the hole on 30 May 2024. This was 64 working days after the report and outside of its repair policy timescales.
19. In its stage 2 response, the landlord apologised for the delays and offered £130 compensation to recognise the distress, inconvenience, time and effort in getting the issue resolved, in line with its compensation policy. It also offered compensation for 17 days of no heating and hot water and increased electricity usage covering the time between the complaint responses, which was reasonable.
20. Whilst the landlord addressed its delays, it failed to acknowledge the resident’s report of mould. This likely caused the resident distress. We have therefore made orders for the landlord to inspect the mould and pay an additional £120 compensation to more appropriately reflect the impact on the resident, in line with our remedies guidance for failures that have no permanent impact.
21. We have also made an order to apologise to the resident, in line with our dispute resolution principles of be fair and put things right.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Maladministration

22. Our Complaint Handling Code (the Code) sets out how and when a landlord should respond to complaints. In this case, the complaint period covers both the 2022 and 2024 editions.
23. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint on the same day it was raised. This was in line with its complaint policy which says it will acknowledge complaints by the next working day.
24. On 24 January 2024 the landlord requested an extension in providing its stage 1 complaint response. It said it was waiting for information from a contractor and would then provide a response. It issued its stage 1 response 12 working days later. This was not in line with the 2022 Code which said extensions should state a clear timeframe for when the response would be issued and should not exceed a further 10 working days.
25. In his escalation, the resident said he was emailing to follow up an earlier call to the landlord about taking his complaint to stage 2. We have not seen a record of that call. The landlord replied 3 working days later, stating a stage 2 team would review the complaint. This was slightly outside the timescales in its complaint policy which said it would acknowledge an escalation within 2 working days.
26. On 23 February 2024 the resident chased the landlord for an update. The landlord said its stage 2 team was still reviewing the complaint. The resident chased again in March and May 2024, and said he felt ignored. There is no evidence to show the landlord responded to the resident, which likely caused distress.
27. On 28 May 2024, following contact from the resident, we asked the landlord to issue a complaint response. It sent a formal acknowledgement to the resident the same day, stating it would issue its response by 4 June 2024, which it did. Whilst this was in line with the 2024 Code timescales, the overall response time from when it first identified the escalation was unreasonable and required our involvement.
28. In its stage 2 response the landlord offered compensation for the escalation delay. However, it failed to give any explanation for it, which likely caused the resident distress.
29. Whilst the landlord identified its delay, it failed to provide a timeframe in its extension, it did not respond when the resident chased for updates or explain its delays. It also required our involvement. These failures likely caused distress and inconvenience to the resident. We have therefore made an order to pay an additional £100 compensation to more appropriately reflect the impact on the resident, in line with our remedies guidance for findings with no permanent impact.

Learning

30. In its complaint responses the landlord said it would feedback the delays to its contractors but did not outline any meaningful learning from the substantive issue or complaint handling. We have therefore made a learning order.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

31. The landlord has not provided evidence of all reports of repairs or correspondence with the resident. At times, this has impacted our ability to assess its actions.

Communication

32. The landlord failed to reasonably communicate with the resident at several stages throughout the duration of the complaint.