Longhurst Group Limited (202222192)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202222192

Longhurst Group Limited

27 June 2023

 

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 the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of his noisy dripping bath taps and shower, and the level of compensation offered for this.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord of a house. The resident has mental and physical health illnesses and a previous history of noise sensitivity, which the landlord is aware of.
  2. The resident reported to the landlord that his over-the-bath shower was dripping on 20 April 2022. He later explained that the constant dripping of water from this and the taps was causing him stress and worsening his mental ill-health. The landlord attended this on 12 May 2022 and found that it needed to order a part. It then re-attended on 26 May 2022, made and cancelled an appointment for 21 June 2022, and visited again 25 July 2022, but it failed to complete the works as it found that the currently containable drip needed further investigation and a new bath and shower.
  3. On 2 August 2022, the landlord rescheduled that day’s appointment to re-attend the resident’s bath and shower to 9 August 2022, as an emergency repair had been reported elsewhere that took priority over this, although he rearranged this to 22 August 2022 as more convenient for him. However, it subsequently cancelled the appointment on 22 August 2022 that morning, for which he submitted a stage one complaint to it on the same day, stating that this repair had been outstanding for four months and was affecting his mental ill-health. The resident later added that there had been six failed appointments where the landlord had either missed the appointment or could not undertake the repairs.
  4. The landlord responded to the resident’s stage one complaint on 9 September 2022. It acknowledged the delays to the repair and apologised for missing two appointments. The landlord also recognised the impact that the repair delay had on the resident’s mental ill-health. It stated that it would attend on 13 September 2022 to replace the resident’s bath, as the dripping taps were permanent fixtures. The landlord additionally offered £210 total compensation, which was broken down into £50 under the right to repair scheme, £50 for his distress, £50 for the repair delay, and £60 for the missed appointments. It also signposted the resident to submit a claim to his water company for his higher usage of water due to the leak.
  5. On 13 September 2022, the landlord again missed the appointment that it had made to replace the resident’s bath. He therefore escalated his complaint to the final stage of its complaints procedure on the same day. The resident stated that he wanted to be compensated further by the landlord with £1,500 for his stress and inconvenience, and for the works to be completed within 72 hours, or for him to be permitted to replace the bath and shower privately and bill it for the cost of doing so. He also asked for an explanation for his missed or cancelled appointments and reported that the dripping taps had caused him difficulty sleeping for the past six months. The landlord subsequently attended on 29 September 2022 and completed works to replace the resident’s bath taps and panel and shower pipe.
  6. The landlord responded to the resident’s final stage complaint on 12 October 2022. It explained that the operative who had been meant to attend on 13 September 2022 had been off sick, and it apologised for not informing the resident of the cancelled appointment. It explained that this had been fed back to its contractors. The landlord also apologised for not prioritising the resident’s works, and it stated that it should have considered the previous delays to these. It acknowledged that this had fallen far short of its 21-day repair timescale, and stated that it would arrange for a surveyor to check the works, offering a further £250 compensation in light of the impact on him.
  7. The resident then complained to this Service that the landlord did not send a surveyor out to assess the works to his bath and shower. He stated that the works were not done to a good standard and needed to have further work done to replace the bath and shower again, as the shower wobbled and fell, narrowly missing his daughter. The resident also said that he would like to be further compensated by the landlord for the delays to the works affecting his sleep and mental ill-health, and for the stress and inconvenience caused to him and his family, seeking improvements for its missed appointments and lack of communication.
  8. The landlord subsequently informed this Service that it had changed repairs contractors in July 2022, and that some outstanding works had been cancelled and not passed over by its previous contractor, including the resident’s. This meant that it had a repair backlog that had delayed its works while it sought to clear the backlog and prioritise urgent or emergency repairs, which did not include his bath and shower, as he still had access to the former and the latter was still useable. Although the landlord did update its residents about this on its website, and it then completed works to fit a new shower arm and shower head holder at the resident’s property on 11 January 2023.

Assessment

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident has stated that he is dissatisfied with the quality of his new bath and shower, and that his sleep, mental ill-health and stress have been affected by the landlord’s handling of the works to these, which is very concerning. However, these matters are outside the scope of this investigation to consider. This is because, under the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, this Service may not consider complaints which are made prior to having exhausted the landlord’s complaints procedure, and there is no evidence that his fresh complaint to it about the new bath and shower has done so yet. The Housing Ombudsman Scheme also states that we may not consider complaints where the resident is seeking an outcome that is not within our authority to provide, and we do not have the authority or expertise to determine liability or award damages for effects on sleep, mental ill-health or stress.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of his noisy dripping bath taps and shower, and the level of compensation offered for this

  1. Under the resident’s tenancy agreement, it is responsible for repairing and keeping in good working order bathroom fixtures and fittings, including baths. The landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy classifies such repairs and containable leaks as routine repairs that will be completed within 28 calendar days. It explains that, if a repair cannot be completed within the timescales, then the order notes must be updated, and the repair monitored. The landlord must also keep the resident informed at all times, and it is required to consider all disabilities and health conditions, understanding how these are affected by repairs, and if there is an extreme detrimental effect on health or physical or mental wellbeing.
  2. According to the repairs and maintenance policy, the landlord should have attended the resident’s bath and shower repair and completed the works within 28 calendar days. However, while it raised the repair in April 2022, this was outstanding until September 2022, which was over five months later. The landlord has explained that it placed a notice on its website explaining that repairs may be delayed in some cases. While it is appropriate to let residents know where delays cannot be helped, this would not automatically make a delay reasonable.
  3. The landlord initially acted appropriately by attending the resident’s bath and shower repair within the repairs and maintenance policy’s 28-calendar-day timescale after he reported this on 20 April 2022 by doing so on 12 May 2022. It nevertheless found that it needed to order a part and arranged for follow on works. The landlord subsequently arranged appointments for 26 May, 21 June, 25 July, 2 August, 22 August and 13 September 2022. However, it finally completed the works on 29 September 2022, therefore either attending or scheduling eight appointments in total for the resident’s works.
  4. A delay in repairs is not always considered a failing if the landlord continued to work on resolving the issue, while managing the resident’s expectations. It had to return again with the necessary materials following its second visit, cancelled the third visit, found that further investigation and a new bath and shower were needed on the fourth visit, cancelled the fifth visit due for another resident’s emergency repair, as well as the sixth visit, missing the seventh visit as its operative was sick.
  5. Overall, the landlord attended and missed appointments an excessive number of times to carry out works that were not necessarily complex, which contributed to the delays to the resident’s works. Additionally, it repeatedly arrived at the property without the correct parts and was unable to undertake any works. The landlord therefore did not effectively manage the resident’s repairs or expectations, or its communications, which was a failing on its part.
  6. Although the landlord’s website highlighted to its residents that its change of contractors in July 2022 had led to a repair backlog that meant that its non-urgent and non-emergency repair services might be delayed, this did not mean that it was excused from providing good customer service. It was still expected to continue to communicate with and manage his expectations effectively in respect of his bath and shower repair after July 2022. Under the landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy, if it failed to keep or needed to cancel a repair appointment, the resident had to be contacted in advance of the original appointment and offered another appointment instead.
  7. However, the resident’s repairs were cancelled on the same day for three of his appointments on 2 and 22 August and 13 September 2022. These were due to an emergency repair elsewhere, a cancellation and an operative’s sickness, respectively. While it would have been difficult for it to have predicted such cancellations, the landlord should nevertheless have contacted the resident to inform him of the cancellations, but it failed to do so for two of the appointments on 22 August and 13 September 2022. This was not appropriate and was a failing on its part in the circumstances.
  8. Moreover, under the landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy, it should consider any disabilities and health conditions of its residents, understand how their circumstances could be affected by a repair, and if there is an extreme detrimental effect on health or physical or mental wellbeing. This Service cannot assess what impact the repair would have had on the resident’s health, but we are able to investigate if the landlord considered the resident’s health and mental wellbeing while undertaking its repairs.
  9. The resident previously reported to the landlord that he has a noise sensitivity that worsens his mental health condition. He also reported to it from at least 22 August 2022 that the outstanding dripping tap repair was affecting his existing health conditions. It therefore would have been appropriate for the landlord to have considered what impact the outstanding repairs were having on the resident, in relation to his mental health conditions, and to have prioritised his repair accordingly, in line with the repairs and maintenance policy. However, there is no evidence that it did so, and it instead explicitly prioritised another resident’s repair ahead of his when it cancelled his appointment on 2 August 2022.
  10. The landlord’s stage one complaint response appropriately acknowledged the delays and apologised for them. It also specifically identified and acknowledged the impact that the outstanding repair was having on the resident’s mental ill-health. It also acted appropriately by offering him compensation in recognition of the inconvenience and stress caused. However, the landlord then failed to attend the repair appointment on 13 September 2022, which had been included in its complaint response. This was not appropriate as, according to this Service’s complaint handling code, when offering a remedy, landlords should clearly set out what will happen and by when, in agreement with the resident where appropriate, and any remedy proposed must be followed through to completion.
  11. In its final stage complaint response, the landlord acted appropriately by explaining why it had failed to attend the missed appointment on 13 September 2022. It apologised for not informing the resident of the cancelled appointment, or for prioritising his repair. The landlord stated that it had learnt from this error and had fed this back to its contractor to prevent a recurrence. It again recognised that there had been further delays until the repairs were completed on 29 September 2022. To assure the resident that the works would be of an appropriate quality, the landlord agreed to send a surveyor to inspect the bath and shower works. It also offered him a total of £460 compensation, highlighting the impact due to his particular circumstances.
  12. Under the landlord’s compensation procedure, awards of £250 to £700 may be made for cases where there have been considerable failings, but there may have been no permanent impact on the resident. This includes a failure over a considerable period of time to act in accordance with policy, such as a failure to address repairs, and this accords with this Service’s remedies guidance’s recommendations for awards of £100 to £600. The procedure also states that the landlord will pay the resident £10 compensation if it cancels an appointment without at least one hour’s notice if foreseen, or at least half an hour’s notice if unforeseen.
  13. Therefore, the £460 total compensation awarded by the landlord to the resident, which included £60 for its missed appointments at short or no notice, would have been considered reasonable, had it followed through with its assurances in its final stage complaint response. This is because this was within the range of compensation recommended by its compensation procedure and this Service’s remedies guidance to proportionately recognise the effect on him of approximately four months’ repair delays from April to September 2022, and of at least three appointments being cancelled at short or no notice.
  14. However, the landlord did not send a surveyor to the resident’s property to assess the works to replace his bath and shower after these were completed on 29 September 2022. He then complained that the quality of the works was not good, and that further works needed to be undertaken. These works to fit a new shower arm and shower head holder were subsequently completed over three months after the original remedial works were carried out on 11 January 2023. This was inappropriate and exceeded the landlord’s repairs and maintenance policy’s 28-calendar-day repair timescale by over two months.
  15. Again, in line with this Service’s complaint handling code, when offering a remedy as part of its complaint response, the landlord must follow this through to completion. It was therefore unreasonable for it to have failed to send a surveyor to the resident’s property to confirm the quality of its remedial works of 29 September 2022, as it had assured him that it would do so in order to ensure their quality. The fact that later works were required to put these right on 11 January 2023 demonstrates that a surveyor’s inspection would have highlighted any issues with the quality of works sooner, preventing further delays, which was a further failing in the circumstances that the landlord did not put right.
  16. The landlord has therefore been ordered below to apologise to and pay the resident the £460 compensation that it previously awarded him, plus another £200 compensation. This is in recognition of any further distress, inconvenience, time and trouble that he experienced from its lack of a surveyor’s inspection of its remedial works to his bath and shower, and its subsequent delay in putting these right.
  17. This is in line with the landlord’s compensation procedure’s and this Service’s remedies guidance’s above recommendations for a failure over a considerable period of time to act in accordance with policy, which have been applied to a delay that was approximately half the length of its previous delay. It has also been ordered below to review its staff’s and contractors’ training needs in relation to their application of its repairs and maintenance policy’s repair timescales for vulnerable residents and outstanding long-term repairs, and of this Service’s complaint handling code to remedies offered as part of its complaint responses.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s reports of his noisy dripping bath taps and shower, and the level of compensation offered for this.

Orders

  1. The landlord is ordered to:
    1. Write to the resident within four weeks to apologise for any further distress, inconvenience, time and trouble that he experienced from its lack of a surveyor’s inspection of its remedial works to his bath and shower, and its subsequent delay in putting these right.
    2. Pay the resident compensation totalling £660 within four weeks, which is broken down into:
      1. The £460 compensation that it previously awarded him, if he has not received this already.
      2. A further £200 compensation in recognition of it failing to follow through on its offer of redress to him.
    3. Review its staff’s and contractors’ training needs in relation to their application of its repairs and maintenance policy’s repair timescales for vulnerable residents and outstanding long-term repairs, and of this Service’s complaint handling code to remedies offered as part of its complaint responses.
  2. The landlord shall contact this Service within four weeks to confirm that it has complied with the above orders.