London & Quadrant Housing Trust (202429960)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202429960

London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q)

26 September 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 reports of leaks.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. The property is a 3-bedroom house with 1 bathroom above the living room.
  2. The resident had been reporting leaks in the bathroom since 2014. On 1, 9 and 29 July 2024, the resident reported further leaks in the bathroom. The landlord carried out a repair following the first 2 reports. However, on the third occasion, although it found marks on the living room ceiling, it could not locate the leak.
  3. On 29 August 2024 the resident reported another leak and she submitted a formal complaint to the landlord. She was dissatisfied that the leaks had been ongoing for years and despite the repairs leaks kept on coming back. On 4 September 2024 the resident reported a further leak and the landlord completed a repair on the same day. On 9 September 2024, the landlord carried out repairs to stop water ingress.
  4. On 12 September 2024 the landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response. It acknowledged that the resident had reported 9 leaks since 2019 but the repairs had been attended to in accordance with its repair timeframes. It acknowledged the distress and inconvenience caused by the leak and offered £740 compensation (£270 for distress, £270 for inconvenience and £200 for time and effort). It scheduled a further repair appointment on 23 September 2024 and a post inspection on 24 September 2024.
  5. On 25 September 2024 the resident reported another leak and the landlord responded to this 2 calendar days later. On 4 October 2024 she requested an escalation of her complaint as despite the further repair and post inspection, the leak had returned and she wanted a long-term solution.
  6. On 18 October 2024 the landlord issued its stage 2 response. It acknowledged there had been multiple leaks from the shower however these were due to different reasons such as blockages, water penetration through tiles and sealants, and general wear and tear. It confirmed that on each occasion, plumbers stopped the leak and carried out remedial work in accordance with its policies. It acknowledged the impact on the household and provided advice about improved maintenance. It confirmed the level of compensation offered at stage 1.
  7. The resident was not satisfied with the landlord’s response. She referred the complaint to the Ombudsman and explained that the leaks had persisted for 10 years despite the repairs.
  8. The resident reported further leaks to the landlord after the landlord’s complaint process was exhausted.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident had been reporting leaks in the bathroom since 2014. We have seen evidence of these leaks being unrelated and occurring in different time intervals. The resident raised a formal complaint on 24 August 2024 following leak reports of July 2024. We have seen no evidence of the resident raising a complaint to the landlord at previous stage. While the historical issues provided contextual background to the current complaint, this investigation has primarily focused on the landlord’s handling of the resident’s recent reports leading to the complaint in August 2024. While we appreciate that the situation could be significantly disruptive for the resident, we will not look at any historical events as we expect residents to raise concerns with their landlord within reasonable timescales. This is so that the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to consider the issues whilst they are still ‘live’, and while the evidence is available to reach an informed conclusion on the events that occurred.
  2. Following the completion of the landlord’s internal complaint process, between November 2024 and March 2025, the resident reported 3 further leaks from the bathroom sink and shower tray. Any new issues raised following the end of the landlord’s complaint process will not be considered as part of this investigation. This is because the landlord needs to be given a fair opportunity to investigate and respond to any reported dissatisfaction with its actions fully through its complaints process prior to our involvement. If the resident is dissatisfied with the landlord’s handling of the subsequent issues, she can escalate her concerns with the landlord and follow its process until she exhausts its.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of leaks

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy and the tenancy agreement state that it will maintain fixtures and fittings for water and sanitation, and it is responsible for repairs to hot water and pipework leaks. This reflects the landlord’s obligations under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Its repairs policy states it will respond to emergency repairs within 24 hours and routine repairs in an average of 25 days.
  2. The landlord’s compensation policy states that it will offer compensation or reimbursement in some circumstance, for example if it fails to follow its policies, procedures or guidelines and this has a negative impact on the resident, it delays repairs or if it carries out poor quality repairs.
  3. On 1 July 2024 the resident reported a leak in the bathroom, which was leaking into the living room ceiling. The landlord responded to this report the following day. Following a second report in the same month on 9 July 2024 for uncontainable leak under the bathroom sink, the landlord completed a repair on the same day. On 29 July 2024, the landlord responded to a third report in July 2024 on the following day. These were all appropriate actions.
  4. The resident reported a further leak in the bathroom, which was again leaking into the living room ceiling. We have not seen any evidence that the landlord responded to the resident’s report of a leak in the bathroom made on 29 August 2024, in her complaint. However, following a further report on 4 September 2024 the landlord completed a repair on the same day. The landlord’s failure to respond to the repair reported on 29 August 2024 resulted in a 6 day delay in repair and inconvenience to the resident of having to report a further repair on 4 September 2024. The landlord also responded to a further repair report in 2 calendar days on 27 September 2024.
  5. Aside from the repair request on 29 August 2024, the landlord’s response to the repairs was in accordance with its timescales and depending on what priority had been assigned to the repair. The landlord recognised the resident’s reports as an emergency where necessary and responded on the same day to carry out a repair. Where it assigned routine priority, it still attended to the repairs swiftly. This was appropriate given the nature of the leak and it demonstrated that the landlord took the resident’s concern seriously.
  6. Furthermore, the landlord demonstrated a commitment to resolve the repairs swiftly and responded to these in a meaningful way. It relied on professional advice from contractors about the source of the leak and necessary repairs. The landlord’s actions were reasonable and it is entitled to rely on professional advice.
  7. During the complaint period, the resident reported adverse impact from the reoccurring leaks and water ingress to her living room’s ceiling. Furthermore, the household was inconvenienced by having to raise multiple repairs requests and multiple repair appointments. It is important that landlords can demonstrate they took all reasonable and appropriate steps to repair the issue fully to minimise the adverse impact, distress and inconvenience to the household.
  8. We have seen evidence of multiple historical reports of leaks in the bathroom and a further 6 reports made in the 3 month period (July – September 2024). The leaks were repetitive and always originating in the bathroom, either from the sink basin, shower tray or in the bathroom which was leakinginto the living room ceiling, which alone was reported 3 times in 3 months. While the landlord appropriatelyactioned them, the leaks reoccurred regularly.
  9. The landlord was aware of the history of the leak and its adverse impact. As such,it would have been reasonable to adapt its approach to investigating any underlying issue with the pipework and identifying the best and permanent solution. We did not see any evidence of the landlord consideringan in-depthinvestigation and alternative approach including a specialist inspections and/or CCTV survey of the drainage. This would have been reasonable given the circumstances and amounts to failure.
  10. However, it is noted that there was a long gap of almost 3 years in the report of leaks from the shower and drainage prior to July 2024. The issue was remedied for almost 3 years prior to becoming an issue again. The landlord explained this in its stage 2 response. It also explained that some leaks were due to blockages because of normal buildup of hair which have caused leaks to the trap. Other leaks were caused by water penetration through wall tiling and sealant around shower baseand shower door seals, which was caused by general wear and tear. This was supported by the evidence provided by the landlord. The landlord also provided advice on improved maintenance which could reduce leaks. While this was appropriate, we have not seen any evidence that this information was provided to the resident prior to the stage 2 response.
  11. The landlord acknowledged inconvenience and disruption caused by the repeated visits. Although it did not agree it had been negligent in its approach to these repairs as they were completed within timescales. The total of £720 compensation provided by the landlord falls in the highest range of remedies that can be considered under the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance to recognise severe, significant and serious long-term impact, including physical and/or emotional. For a finding of maladministration to severe maladministration the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance reflects the level of redress to be between £100 to £1000 and above.
  12. Based on the evidence in this case, the landlord’s offer is in line with the highest range of compensation. It offered a considerable amount of compensation given the long gap in reports and that it had acted swiftly to attend and carry out repairs. The offer considered the household’s reported impact despite the long gaps in reports. Therefore, the landlord made a proportionate offer of compensation.
  13. However, as the issue remained ongoing with reoccurring leaks in the resident’s bathroom, some of them related to blockages and given the number of leaks previously reported, the landlord should have explored specialist inspections and diagnostics to investigate this in depth and fully resolve the issue to provide a permanent solution. This is particularly important because the property has only 1 bathroom and the issue causes adverse impact on the household. We have ordered the landlord to undertake a specialist inspections and/or CCTV survey of the drainage.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports about leaks.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks from the date of this report, the Ombudsman orders the landlord to:
    1. Provide a written apology to the resident for the failures identified in this report.
    2. Pay £720 compensation (offered during its complaints process and if not paid already) to the resident in recognition of the inconvenience caused by its handling of leaks.
    3. Undertake a specialist inspections and/or CCTV survey of the drainage. The landlord should provide a copy of the outcome to the resident and us, including any schedule of works, if recommended.
    4. Contact the Service and provide evidence of compliance with the above orders.

Recommendations              

  1. The Ombudsman recommends the landlord to contact the resident to carry out any outstanding repairs.