Read our damp and mould report focusing on Awaab's Law

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202415765)

Back to Top

 

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202415765

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q)

8 August 2025

 

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 the resident’s concerns about communal heating charges.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of a 3-bedroom flat within a building owned by the landlord.
  2. On 17 January 2024 the resident complained to the landlord that he had become aware it had been deducting approximately 60p a day from his energy top-up since the start of his tenancy. He said it had taken his money without his consent or any legal agreement and wanted it refunded.
  3. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on the same day. It told the resident the deductions he had referred to were the ‘daily standing charge’ and it charged this to residents to cover its costs from managing the communal heating system for the building. It said it was not upholding the complaint and would not be refunding him.
  4. The resident escalated his complaint on the same day. He reiterated he considered the landlord had no right to take this money as he had not signed an agreement for this and it had not informed him of the charge.
  5. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 5 March 2024. It reiterated information about the purpose of the daily standing charge from its stage 1 response and stated that the terms of the tenancy agreement required him to pay this. It acknowledged a delay in providing him with a stage 2 response and offered him £20 in recognition of this. It reiterated it would not be refunding the cost of the daily standing charge to him.
  6. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s explanation of the charge and its decision not to refund him and escalated it to this Service to investigate.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident’s complaint to this Service involved 2 issues, namely that:
    1. He disputed responsibility for the daily standing charge and that the landlord had increased the amount since he brought the complaint to us.
    2. He was unhappy with the landlord’s communication with him about the charge, its purpose and how it was calculated.
  2. Though this Service can investigate complaints about service charges we may not consider complaints about the reasonableness or increase of these charges. This is in accordance with paragraph 42.d. of the Scheme which says the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in our opinion, concern the level of rent or service charge or the amount of the rent or service charge increase.
  3. As such the matter of whether the charge is reasonable is not something we can investigate. Complaints that relate to the level, reasonableness, or liability to pay rent or service charges are within the jurisdiction of the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). The resident may wish to seek independent legal advice regarding his rights in this regard. We have investigated his complaint about the landlord’s communication with him about the daily standing charge.

The landlord’s handling of communal heating charges

  1. The landlord has stated the requirement for the resident to pay the daily service charge is part of section 2.5 ‘paying outgoings’ in his tenancy agreement. The relevant clauses in this section state:
    1. “2.5.1. You are responsible for paying your Council Tax, utility charges and any other outgoings in respect of the property if we do not pay them on your behalf.
    2. 2.5.2. If we pay any outgoings on your behalf they will be listed in the Particulars as part of your Total Weekly Charge.
    3. 2.5.4. If you are billed for utilities separately from your Total Weekly Charge, you must pay all billed charges for those utilities whether they are supplied by us or another provider.”
  2. From the Total Weekly Charge set out in section 1.8. of the resident’s tenancy agreement we have seen this only specifies ‘Gross Rent’, it does not list any particulars the landlord pays on his behalf. As such, our view is that the resident’s tenancy agreement requires him to pay the daily standing charge in line with clauses 2.5.1. and 2.5.4. as it does not pay this outgoing on his behalf.
  3. Prior to the complaint the landlord sent the resident a notice on 1 March 2023 informing him of its annual review of heat and hot water charges, which set out what he would be paying from 1 April 2023. The letter described the daily standing charge stating:
    1. The charge was to cover its costs for the metering, billing, administration and customer service costs for managing the heating system.
    2. It adjusts the daily standing charge in line with the UK Government’s Retail Price Index. The increase of this charge for that year to 60p per day was due to the increase in the Retail Price Index.
    3. Residents could contact its energy team if they had any queries about the content of the notice.
  4. In our view the landlord’s communication about the daily standing charge in this notice was appropriate. It clearly explained the purpose of the daily standing charge and the methodology about how it calculated the charges. It also gave him the option of contacting it if he required further information, there is no indication he queried this at the time.
  5. In the resident’s original complaint on 17 January 2024 he raised the concern that the landlord had deducted the daily standing charge without his knowledge, including for periods when he had been away from the property and he had used no heating. It attempted to phone the resident that day to discuss his concern but he was not available. As such it:
    1. Sent the resident a stage 1 response on the same day explaining that the daily standing charge was to cover the direct costs it incurred from managing the communal heating system. It stated this included the gas standing charge it received from the gas supplier, cover for repairs/maintenance and administrative charges for its energy team.
    2. Sent the resident a further email on 18 January 2024, after he raised concerns that he had not agreed to pay the charge, explaining he needed to pay this in line with section 2.5. of the tenancy agreement which he had signed.
  6. In our view the actions the landlord took to respond to the resident’s concerns were reasonable. It explained the basis on which he needed to pay this charge in line with the tenancy agreement, as set out previously in this report. It clearly explained what the daily standing charge covered which was consistent with the information it had previously provided and information on Ofgem’s (the UK regulator for gas and electricity providers) website about standing charges.
  7. Considering the nature of the resident’s concern it may have been useful if the landlord had also explained that a daily standing charge is charged each day by an energy supplier regardless of if any energy is used. However, we do not consider this was so significant to constitute a failing in its communication.
  8. The resident told the landlord following its email on 18 January 2024 he remained dissatisfied with its explanation and still wanted to escalate his complaint but did not provide new information about why he disagreed. Its stage 2 response on 5 March 2024 reiterated the information it provided on 17 and 18 January 2024 about what the daily standing charge was for and where in the tenancy agreement it explained this requirement. This response was reasonable as he did not raise additional concerns for it to respond to.
  9. Separate to the resident’s complaint we also saw that the landlord sent him another annual review notice on 1 March 2024 explaining changes to his heat and hot water charges. It specified the new daily standing charge for the following financial year and that it had been reduced overall as a result of efficiency savings it had made for metering residents. As such, it continued to communicate with him to explain its methodology for calculating the charges.
  10. In summary, we consider that the landlord’s communication with the resident about his concerns with the communal energy charges was reasonable overall. It provided information in his tenancy agreement that he would be responsible for paying utility charges and sent annual reviews to explain the purpose of the daily standing charge and how it calculated this. When he raised specific concerns about this in his complaint it responded promptly about what the charge covered and why he was required to pay this.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme there was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about communal energy charges.