London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202406843)

Decision
Case ID	202406843
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	London & Quadrant Housing Trust
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	20 November 2025

Background

The resident lives with her child in a flat which has communal heating that she pays fixed charges for. She reported ongoing problems with repairs, damp and mould in the years leading up to her complaint to the landlord in January 2024. She said her young son has asthma and rhinitis and she was concerned the repairs had affected his health.

What the complaint is about

The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
1. Repairs to the heating, windows, damp and mould.
2. The complaint.

Our decision (determination)

We found:
1. Severe maladministration in the landlord’s handling of repairs to the heating, windows, damp and mould.
2. Reasonable redress in the landlord’s complaint handling.

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

Summary of reasons

The landlord’s handling of repairs to the heating, windows, damp and mould

The landlord acknowledged its failings in its complaint responses and offered compensation. However, the resident said repairs are outstanding. The landlord failed to complete the repairs within its policy timeframes. Its compensation offer was not proportionate or in line with its policies, when considering the resident’s overall distress, inconvenience, time and trouble.

The landlord’s complaint handling

The landlord acknowledged its complaint responses were delayed and not in line with its policy. It offered compensation for the delay and the resident’s time and trouble pursuing the complaint. This reasonably resolved the matter, as the response was in line with its policies and our remedies guidance.

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.

	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: a senior manager provides the apology 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 19 December 2025
2	Compensation order The landlord must pay the resident £2,000 to recognise the resident’s significant distress, inconvenience, time and trouble in pursuing the repairs to the heating, windows, damp and mould. It must pay this directly to the resident and provide documentary evidence of this to us by the due date. The landlord may deduct from this figure any payments it has already paid in relation to its handling of repairs to the heating, windows, damp and mould.	No later than 19 December 2025
3	Inspection order The landlord must contact the resident to arrange another inspection of her property. It must take all reasonable steps to ensure this is completed by the due date. The inspection must be completed by a suitably qualified person. If the landlord cannot gain access to complete the inspection, it must provide us with documentary evidence of its attempts to inspect the property by the due date. What the inspection must achieve The landlord must ensure that the surveyor: inspects the damp and mould at the resident’s property assesses what repairs it needs to do, including to the resident’s heating system and windows produces a written report with photographs The survey report must set out: whether the property is fit for human habitation and whether there are any hazards the most likely cause of the damp and mould whether the landlord is responsible to repair or resolve the issue together with reasons where it is not responsible a full scope of works to achieve a lasting and effective resolution to the issue (if the landlord is responsible) the timescales to commence and complete the work whether temporary alternative accommodation is necessary either because of the condition of the property or during the works It must communicate the outcome of the inspection to us and the resident by the due date.	No later than 19 December 2025
4	Starting the works The landlord must take all steps to ensure the repairs to the heating, windows, damp and mould are started no later than the due date. If the landlord cannot start the works in this time, it must explain to us and the resident, by the due date: why it cannot start the works by the due date and provide evidence to support its reasons. It must provide a revised timescale of when it will start and finish the works; or the steps it has taken to start the works and provide us with documentary evidence of its attempts to ensure the works were started by the due date. It must provide a revised timescale if it is able to or explain why it cannot. whether suitable alternative accommodation is necessary and will be made available to the resident	No later than 13 January 2026

Recommendations

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

Our recommendations
Once the landlord has fixed the heating, we recommend it considers reimbursing the resident’s heating charges for the time she was without heating or supports her to make a separate claim.
We recommend the landlord pays the £160 compensation it offered the resident for its complaint handling, if it has not already done so. Our finding of reasonable redress is made on this basis.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
5 January 2024	The resident complained to the landlord that her heating had not worked for around one year and she was still being charged for it. She complained she had damp and mould in her property, and her windows would not fully open. She was worried about the impact the conditions may be having on her 8-year-old son’s health.
5 January 2024	The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint and said it would respond by 18 January 2024.
23 January 2024	The landlord apologised to the resident for its delay in replying to her complaint. It said it would respond by 31 January 2024.
7 February 2024	The landlord responded to the resident’s complaint. It said it: was aware her heating had not worked since November 2023, so it arranged to inspect this on 8 February 2024 would consider reimbursing her energy charges once her heating was fixed, and would install a new meter would do a mould wash and inspect her windows added an alert on its systems about her son’s health problems so it could prioritise her repairs It apologised for its failings and offered £760 compensation.
20 February 2024	The resident asked the landlord to escalate her complaint to stage 2.
19 March 2024	The landlord acknowledged the resident’s escalated complaint.
3 April 2024	The landlord responded to the resident’s escalated complaint. It said: it had not resolved her heating issue so escalated this to a manager she could claim for her energy charges to be refunded when it had fixed her heating it had not repaired her windows and would escalate this she had raised concerns about the chemicals used to clear the mould, but it confirmed they were safe It apologised for its failings and offered an additional £160 compensation for her time and trouble and for its delays responding to her complaint.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident asked us to investigate because the landlord had not fixed her heating. She wants the landlord to fix it, compensate her for the issues and to reimburse the heating costs.

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

The landlord’s handling of repairs to the heating, windows, damp

and mould

Finding

Severe maladministration

What we have not considered

The resident said her heating had not worked properly for several years. She began a legal disrepair claim against her landlord and they settled this in early 2021. The resident moved out of her property temporarily while the landlord did the works and returned in early 2023. We have not assessed the landlord’s handling of issues that happened over 12 months before the resident’s complaint. This is because we expect residents to raise complaints with their landlord within a reasonable timeframe.

What we have considered

We have considered events from 12 January 2023, which is when the landlord cleaned mould from the resident’s flat and inspected it. It said to reduce condensation it fitted new extractor fans in her kitchen and bathroom. The resident said her heating was still broken in February 2023, when her MP contacted the landlord on her behalf. They said she had “persistent faults” with the heating and wanted a refund of her rent payments and energy charges. The landlord replied to the MP, it said it knew her communal heating was broken and it ordered a part. It said it had already compensated the resident under a legal disrepair claim.
The MP contacted the landlord again about the repairs on 1 March 2023. The landlord said it completed all the repairs to her lounge window, kitchen units, toilet, basin, and bathroom sealant. It confirmed it installed a part to the communal heating system and did a mould wash. We could not assess if the landlord completed the repairs as its records were unclear. Some of the records said “Legal Disrepair” with little detail and there was no clear evidence it fixed the resident’s windows or heating system at this point.
Landlords should keep thorough records so they can effectively manage their residents repair issues and provide a good service. In this case the information the landlord recorded before and after her complaint was limited and unclear. Such as on 2 February 2024 when its records said the heating repair was “completed” but other evidence shows it was not fixed. The records also said jobs were “cancelled” with no explanation.
The landlord outlined its plans to resolve the resident’s issues in its first complaint response on 7 February 2024. It agreed to inspect her heating, windows, damp and mould. It said it would consider reimbursing her energy charges after it fixed her heating and would install a new meter. Its compensation offer of £760 went some way to remedying the complaint at this point.
Where a landlord admits failings, our role is to consider whether the redress it offered was in line with our dispute resolution principles be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes. We considered the events following its final complaint response and whether the landlord ‘put things right’. This included whether it completed all the repairs within its policy timeframe.
The landlord had not fully inspected or completed the repairs by its stage 2 response on 3 April 2024. It confirmed it was aware from inspecting her property in November 2023 that her heating was broken. Despite knowing this, its response to her repairs was significantly delayed. Its policy timeframes are 24 hours for emergency repairs and 25 days for routine repairs. It said it inspected her heating system on 21 March 2024 and there was an issue with the pipe. However, its final complaint response did not provide a timely resolution for the heating or window repairs.
The landlord inspected the resident’s property again on 22 April and 2 May 2024. It said the possible cause of condensation was due to her heating and window repairs. It raised works for 10 June 2024, but the resident’s relative cancelled this due to being unwell. The landlord was not proactive rebooking the repairs and she reported the heating issue again on 25 June 2024. The landlord’s records say it attended the resident’s property in July 2024, but there is no clear evidence it resolved the heating problem which leaves this part of the complaint unresolved.
The repairs had a significant impact on the resident. She was concerned about the impact of the damp and mould on her son because of his health conditions. She told us she could not open the windows to ventilate her property, and the temporary heating made the air dry. She also asked the landlord on several occasions not to do a mould wash using a certain chemical as she was worried this would affect her son’s breathing.
On 25 May 2024 the landlord said it told the resident’s relative it would temporarily house the resident for a week whilst it did the mould treatment. However, her relative had to cancel the works and there is no evidence it offered to temporarily rehouse the resident after this. Its records said it considered alternative chemicals to treat the mould in September 2024, but its records are unclear whether it did this treatment. In October 2024 we asked the landlord for information about the resident’s complaint and her MP also asked it to consider rehousing her. On 21 October 2024 the landlord apologised for its handling of the issues and offered the resident £120 in vouchers for 6 missed appointments. It said it escalated the repair issues and would attend her property on 7 November 2024, but there was no evidence it did.
We found severe maladministration as the landlord did not complete all the repairs within its policy timeframes. It failed to record its actions and offer clear explanations of its progress. At the time of our investigation the landlord had not fixed the heating or windows and the resident said there was still damp and mould in her property. We ordered the landlord to pay £2,000 to recognise the resident’s significant distress, inconvenience, time and trouble in pursuing the repairs and damp and mould over a prolonged period. We assessed this alongside our remedies guidance where there have been significant failures that have had a severe impact on the resident.

Complaint	The landlord’s complaint handling
Finding	Reasonable redress

The landlord’s policy says it will acknowledge stage 1 and 2 complaints within 5 working days. It will respond to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days and stage 2 complaints within 20 working days, in line with our Code. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s complaint on time on 5 January 2024 and agreed to respond by 18 January 2024. It did not respond by this date, and she chased the landlord on 21 January 2024. On 23 January 2024 it apologised for its delay and agreed to respond by 31 January 2024. However, its service failed as it sent its stage 1 response outside of its timescales on 7 February 2024.
The resident told the landlord she was unhappy with its stage 1 response on 20 and 25 February 2024. However, the landlord did not acknowledge her escalated complaint until 19 March 2024. This was outside of the 5 working day timescale. After acknowledging her stage 2 complaint it responded on time on 3 April 2024.
The landlord attempted to put things right. It apologised for its delayed complaint handling and offered £80 compensation. It also offered £80 compensation for her time and trouble getting the complaint resolved. We have made a reasonable assumption it offered both these amounts in relation to its complaint handling. We therefore found its apology and compensation offers reasonably remedied its complaint handling failures, in line with our remedies guidance.

Learning

The landlord recognised some of its failures in its complaint responses and it was positive it acknowledged the impact on the resident. Especially as she said her son’s health conditions may have been affected by the living conditions. However, it failed to respond to the repairs with the urgency they required and did not use its complaints process to resolve them.

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

The landlord’s repair records were very unclear and contradictory. It recorded several repairs as “cancelled” with no explanation why. It recorded some works as “completed” when the evidence showed they were not. Some records had no explanation of what it had or had not done. The landlord would benefit from improving its repairs recording to provide a good service and better inform its complaints team when things go wrong.

Communication

The landlord’s communication with the resident throughout the complaints process was poor. It gave little notice for repairs appointments and missed some appointments. The resident chased the landlord for responses on several occasions. The landlord would benefit from a process to better manage its repairs and complaints, to ensure they are escalated and actioned in line within its policies.