Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (202119152)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202119152

Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing

8 November 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 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 response to the resident’s report of a loss of heating and hot water.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord. There are vulnerabilities in the property; namely, the resident has children in the property who have asthma.
  2. The heating and hot water at the property is supplied via a District Heating System.
  3. The resident reported on 25 October 2021 that she had no hot water or heating in the property. The landlord attended the property on 28 October 2021, and subsequently ordered the required part for the repair.
  4. The resident complained on 9 November 2021. She stated that she had received no communication from the landlord in regard to when her heating and hot water would be restored and only received temporary heaters upon her request. Furthermore, the resident said that she had had to boil water in the kitchen to provide hot cleaning water for her and her children which she believed to be a hazard to her and her family. The resident ultimately remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s handling of the repair, and the poor communication.
  5. The repair was completed on 23 November 2021, with full hot water and heating restored on the same day.
  6. The landlord provided its stage two response on 11January 2022. It apologised for the inconvenience caused by the delays in repairing the heating. However, it stated that the delays were caused due to a new Heat Interface Unit (HIU) unit having to be ordered. Therefore, it acknowledged failures in its service and awarded the resident £170 compensation for those failures, and the time and trouble caused.
  7. The resident referred this matter to this Service on 14 February 2022. She remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s handling of the repair and the communication surrounding the delays. As a resolution the resident would like an increased offer of compensation in recognition of the distress and inconvenience caused.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures.

  1. The landlord’s repairs policy states that emergency repairs should be attended to within 24 hours of being reported. An example of an emergency repair is a total loss of heating.
  2. The repairs policy states that where requested by the resident, temporary heaters will be supplied within 24-hours. If a replacement part is required, the repair may take an additional seven days.
  3. The compensation policy states that for failures in its service, it should consider compensation between the ranges of £50 to £350. For a medium failure, the landlord should consider compensation between £51 to £150. This is for incidents where there had been several errors and a repair are repeatedly not resolved.
  4. The compensation policy also states that compensation for time and trouble should be considered where the resident has taken time to complaint, which would not have happened if the service failure did not occur. Payments of between £51 to £100, would be considered where the landlord recognises that there has been a long delay to the resident, in which the resident has had to chase the landlord several times.

Assessment.

  1. The resident reported having a loss of heating and hot water on 25 October 2021, as such the landlord would be expected to attended within 24-hours. However, it did not attend until 28 October 2021 which was two working days outside of the timescale given for an emergency repair in its repairs policy. It has been noted that the landlord initially contacted the wrong contractor on 25 October 2021, however, this is was rectified and the correct contractor contacted the same day.
  2. The landlord stated that for the repair to be completed a specialist part was required. As per its policy, this would automatically add an additional seven days to the repairs timeframe, this should be considered from the date the landlord attended the property. The landlord attended the property and requested a quote for the new part on 28 October 2021, meaning the repair should have been completed by 8 November latest. However, the part was not installed until 23 November 2021 an additional 11 working days outside of its policy obligations.
  3. From the evidence provided, there were delays to the landlord acquiring the required part for the repair, the pump for the HIU being obsolete and a compatible alternative needing to be sourced, which was unavoidable. However, whilst these incidents can occur, the landlord should have kept in communication with the resident during the timeframe as to assure the resident that it was working to repair the boiler as soon as possible. This lack of communication meant that the resident continued to chase the landlord for updates on the repairs and have an unnecessary level of involvement in the repair.
  4. Given the delays in its restoration of heating and hot water to the resident’s property and poor communication, it was appropriate for the landlord to apologise to the resident and offer compensation. The landlord offered the resident a total of £170 compensation which comprised of £70 for the failure in its service and £100 for the time and trouble caused. Whilst the £100 offered by the landlord for the time and trouble caused to the resident was reasonable, given that the period of time the resident was without heating and hot water fell within the winter months, the £70 offered by the landlord for the failure of its service was not proportionate to the impact its failure would have had on the resident and her family. A finding of service failure has therefore been made and the landlord ordered to pay the resident a further £80 compensation, bringing the total payable for the delay in restoring the resident’s heating and hot water to £150, this being in line with the maximum amount given in the landlord’s compensation policy for a medium failure. The overall compensation payable to the resident is therefore £250.
  5. With regards to the resident’s dissatisfied with the delay in the landlord providing temporary heaters. As per the landlord’s repairs policy the landlord would only provide a resident with temporary heaters upon request and would not be an automatic process. Therefore, the landlord provided the heaters as per the resident’s request and complied with its repairs policy.
  6. The resident also raised concerns about an increase in her energy bills during the period she had to use the temporary heaters. In its final response the landlord asked that the resident provide supporting documents, October to November 2020 and October to November 2021, and said that if it was deemed that that there was excessive electric used during this time it would reimburse the additional cost. This was a reasonable approach by the landlord given that it is responsible for providing repairs to the resident’s heating and hot water system and it did not restore her heating and hot water within the timescales given in its repairs policy. It has therefore also been recommended that the resident provides the landlord with evidence requested and that the landlord consider awarding additional compensation for any quantifiable financial loss, which may have occurred as a result of its delayed repairs.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its response to the resident’s report of a loss of heating and hot water.

Orders and recommendations

Order

  1. That within 28 calendar days of this determination, the landlord is to pay the resident the £170 compensation offered in its final response, if it has not already done so, plus an additional £80 bringing the total compensation payable to £250.

Recommendation

  1. That on provision of the necessary evidence by the resident, the landlord considers awarding additional compensation for any quantifiable financial loss, which occurred as a result of its delayed repairs.