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Longhurst Group Limited (202122364)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202122364

Longhurst Group Limited

17 October 2022

 

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 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:
    1. The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of outstanding repairs to her roof and to address damp and mould in her property.
    2. The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord of a house.
  2. The resident originally raised a previous complaint with the landlord in January 2021 about the condition of her roof and her property not retaining heat. This resulted in it arranging works to address the roof of the property. The landlord inspected the roof on 13 May 2021 and found that scaffolding was required in order to carry out repairs. This was erected in late August 2021. The resident then raised a stage one complaint with the landlord on 18 September 2021, as the scaffolding had been erected three weeks earlier but no work had yet taken place to her roof.
  3. The landlord’s stage one complaint response of 5 October 2021 apologised for the delay in starting the work to the roof and offered £25 compensation for this. It also said that it would contact the resident after the work was scheduled to be completed on 14 October 2021. She replied to request an inspection after this to assess any damage to the property caused by the holes in the roof, and to address damp and mould in the property, for which the landlord agreed on 6 October 2021 to schedule follow on works as necessary.
  4. After the resident experienced a lack of responses from the landlord to her subsequent communications to it on several occasions on 15 and 24 October 2021, she made a further complaint to it on 17 November 2021 about its poor communication and the length of time it had taken to address her reported repairs. She also highlighted that, during the work, it had broken her garden brush. The resident was unhappy that she had not been contacted after the work, which was promised in the landlord’s stage one complaint response. She also reported that she had draughts coming through her windows and that her front door was not secure.
  5. There was evidence that the landlord had completed the repair to the front door on 11 November 2021, but it only acknowledged her latest complaint to it as another stage one complaint on 23 November 2021. Following a lack of responses from it to correspondence and a final stage complaint escalation request on 8 and 10 December 2021, the resident sought the intervention of the Ombudsman on 7 January 2022.The landlord then issued its final stage complaint response to her on 2 February 2022,which confirmed that it would arrange for a surveyor to inspect the property on 4 February 2022, and it offered her £25 compensation for her unanswered emails.
  6. The resident informed the Ombudsman on 9 March 2022 that she continued to be dissatisfied with the landlord’s response as the repairs had yet to be completed. She was also unhappy with its communication as she had been given little notice or information about a repair appointment made for 8 March 2022, and that it had not responded to her when she attempted to rearrange the appointment. This resulted in the landlord recording the appointment as having failed due to no access.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of outstanding repairs to her roof and to address damp and mould in her property

  1. The tenancy agreement between the landlord and the resident confirms that it was responsible for the repair and maintenance of the structure and exterior of the property. It also had a duty to identify and remedy any potential hazards to health which may exist in the property, such as the presence of damp and mould, in line with the Housing Act 2004. The landlord also had a responsibility to ensure that the property met the Decent Home Standard, a criterion of which is that a property should possess a reasonable degree of thermal comfort.
  2. The landlord therefore had a responsibility to satisfy itself that the property met the Decent Home Standard, that any hazards present in the property were addressed, and to carry out any repairs to defective items which were its responsibility to complete, in line with the tenancy agreement.
  3. The landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy specifies a timescale of 21 calendar days for the completion of an appointed repair. These are non-emergency repairs which do not pose an immediate risk to a person or the property. The landlord was aware that work was required to address holes in the resident’s roof on 13 May 2021 when it identified that scaffolding was necessary to carry out the repairs. It then took an excessive period of time to then complete these repairs on 14 October 2021, five months later. This was considerably in excess of the 21 calendar days specified in its policy and was a failure by the landlord to complete repairs in line with its policy.
  4. The resident informed the landlord on 5 October 2021 that the loft required inspecting for damage resulting from the holes in the roof and that damp and mould was present in a bedroom. It assured her on the following day that follow on repairs would be addressed after the roof repair. The landlord then took until 4 February 2022, four months later, after the resident escalated her complaint to the final stage of the complaints procedure, to carry out an inspection of the property. It therefore unreasonably delayed assessing the repairs required.
  5. There was no evidence that the landlord communicated with the resident about the delay in erecting scaffolding to complete the roof repairs between 13 May and 14 October 2021, nor that it explained why the scaffolding took so long to be arranged. However, there was also no evidence of her contacting it to request updates prior to her stage one complaint on 18 September 2021. Despite this, the landlord would be expected to provide updates to a resident when a repair is delayed for any reason to explain why. Therefore, it was unreasonable that the landlord did not contact the resident to manage her expectations, particularly as the repairs to the roof were part of its resolution to address concerns she raised about the property being cold raised in January 2021.
  6. After the resident raised her stage one complaint with the landlord, despite its assurance that it would inspect the property and address any follow on repairs from the roof defects, there was no evidence that it contacted her to arrange this. It was unreasonable that it provided no substantive response to her about follow on works until its final stage complaint response on 2 February 2022. This was despite the resident contacting the landlord on 15 October 2021 to advise that she did not receive a follow up call after the roof repair as it promised in its stage one complaint response, on 24 October and 17 November 2021 when she complained about its lack of response, and on 8 and 10 December 2021 when she requested the escalation of her complaint.
  7. In conclusion, the landlord delayed unreasonably in responding to the resident’s reports of repairs and communicated poorly with her about these. This resulted in a prolonged delay for the resolution of her repairs and unnecessary additional expenditure of time and effort by her in contacting it. Additionally, these delays were likely to have led to distress and inconvenience for the resident, given that these repairs were linked to her original report in January 2021 that she had difficulty in retaining heat in the property.
  8. The Ombudsman has therefore made the below order for the landlord to pay the resident £400 compensation. This is to recognise its failures over a significant period, which it did not acknowledge in its complaint responses, to complete repairs promptly and communicate effectively with the resident about these.
  9. This award is in accordance with this Ombudsman’s remedies guidance, which provides for awards of compensation of between £100 and £600 where there has been a failure by the landlord which had an adverse effect on the resident that it did not acknowledge or put right. This is because it only offered her £25 compensation for its delay in starting roof repairs on 5 October 2021, with it being recommended to review its repair management and communication procedures below to prevent this from occurring again.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

  1. The landlord’s complaints policy provides for a two-stage complaints procedure. At the first stage it is to provide its response within ten working days, and at the final stage it is to respond within 20 working days. If the landlord is unable to meet either of these timeframes, it is to provide an explanation to the resident and a date for its response, which should not exceed a further ten working days.
  2. The landlord provided its stage one complaint response to the resident on 5 October 2021, which was 11 working days after her complaint on 18 September 2021. This was not a significant delay.
  3. The landlord, however, did not recognise the resident’s complaint on 17 November 2021 as an escalation of her previous complaint. It instead emailed her on 23 November 2021 to acknowledge the complaint at stage one of its procedure. This was unreasonable as the subject matter of the escalation was directly linked to the resident’s previous complaint about her roof and the landlord’s lack of communication about the repairs. This was a failure by it to escalate the complaint appropriately. This required the resident to make further contact with the landlord to escalate her complaint on 10 December 2021.
  4. The landlord then did not provide its final stage complaint response to the resident until 2 February 2022, which was 52 working days after she complained to it again on 17 November 2021. This was an excessive delay, and further effort was required by her to progress her complaint by seeking the intervention of the Ombudsman in order to do so on 7 January 2022.
  5. The landlord has therefore been ordered below to pay £100 compensation to the resident for its failures in the handling of the complaint. This is accordance the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance mentioned above. This is because the £25 compensation that the landlord offered the resident on 2 February 2022 for her unanswered emails was not proportionate to recognise its complaint handling delays and lack of appropriate complaint escalations in her case. It has also been recommended below to review its staff’s training needs in relation to their application of its complaints policy to seek to avoid a recurrence of its failings in the resident’s case.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in:
    1. Its response to the resident’s reports of outstanding repairs to her roof and to address damp and mould in her property.
    2. Its handling of the associated complaint.

Orders and recommendations

  1. The landlord is ordered, within four weeks, to:
    1. If it has not yet completed the repairs reported by the resident, write to her to agree a date on which these will be completed.
    2. Pay the resident the £50 compensation that it previously awarded her, if she has not received this already.
    3. Pay the resident £400 compensation for its failures in its response to her repair reports.
    4. Pay the resident £100 compensation for its complaint handling failures.
  2. It is recommended that the landlord:
    1. Review its procedures for the management of repairs to ensure that they are handled promptly and in accordance with policy.
    2. Review its procedures for communication with residents about ongoing repairs to ensure that they are kept updated on progress and their expectations are managed.
    3. Review its staff’s training needs in relation to their application of its complaints policy to ensure that the policy’s requirements for timely complaint communication, escalations and responses are met in every case.
  3. The landlord shall contact the Ombudsman within four weeks to confirm that it has complied with the above orders and whether it will follow the above recommendations.