Midland Heart Limited (202015312)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202015312

Midland Heart Limited

17 September 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 handling of boiler repairs in the resident’s property since May 2020 and his request for compensation.

Background

2. The resident is a tenant of the landlord.
3. The resident initially reported that the pressure on his boiler kept dropping on 20 May 2020. An operative attended on 11 June 2020 and fitted a new pump to rectify the issue. They identified that there were signs of previous leaks but no leaks on the day. Boiler was left working.
4. The resident reported that he had no heating and hot water on 24 September 2020. An operative attended on the day of the report but was unable to complete work as they reported unacceptable behaviour from the resident. Following this, two operatives were required for future visits to the property. Operatives attended on 6 October 2020 and identified that a new thermostat was required. They reported that the resident refused to have a new thermostat installed and became aggressive. The operative disconnected the thermostat and the resident was able to control the heating and hot water via the manual controls on the boiler.
5. The resident raised a complaint via the Ombudsman in May 2021 as he was dissatisfied with the delay in repairing his boiler, specifically the thermostat. The landlord responded at the time and did not uphold the complaint. It advised that following the previous visits, the resident had been informed that he would need to make contact if he wanted the thermostat to be replaced as this had previously been refused. The thermostat was then fitted on 16 June 2021.
6. In February 2022, the resident asked for his complaint to be escalated; he was dissatisfied that the repair to his boiler from May 2020 remained incomplete. He advised that the situation had worsened and that there had been poor communication by the landlord.
7. In response the landlord outlined the previous works undertaken and advised that it could find no service failure in its handling of the matter. It completed an independent inspection of the heating and hot water system on 4 May 2022 and established that the system was working and safe to use. On 5 May 2022, operatives undertook works to replace several valves, the hot water cartridge and a plinth heater which may have been leaking.
8. The resident referred his complaint to this Service as he remained dissatisfied with the response provided by the landlord and its lack of response to his request for compensation.

Assessment and findings

9. The tenancy agreement confirms that the landlord is responsible for repairs required to the heating and hot water system in the resident’s property. The resident is responsible for reporting repairs. The landlord’s website details timescales for specific repairs. It confirms that urgent repairs should be attended to  within 24-72 hours depending on the landlord’s repairs ‘status’ available on its website. Routine repairs should be completed within 14 days and standard routine repairs should be completed within 20 working days.
10. In this case, following the resident’s initial report that his boiler pressure kept dropping on 20 May 2020, the landlord acted appropriately by arranging for an operative to attend within its 20-working day non-emergency timescales. There is no evidence to suggest that the resident continued to report the same issue following the repair carried out on 11 June 2020.
11. Following the resident’s reports of having no hot water or heating on 24 September 2020, the landlord acted appropriately and in line with its published timescales by arranging for an operative to attend on the same day. The evidence shows that no work was completed as the operative left the property due to unacceptable behaviour from the resident. It should be noted that it is not the Ombudsman’s role to determine what happened on the day, but to determine whether the landlord acted appropriately in all circumstances.
12. The landlord has a duty of care to its staff to ensure that they have safe working environments. In view of the reported abusive behaviour, it was reasonable for the landlord to instruct two operatives to attend future visits to the property, even though this caused a slight delay in the follow up visit taking place. It is noted that finding two operatives was likely to be more difficult at this time due to the impact of Covid-19,and therefore somewhat outside of the landlord’s control. Operatives reattended the property on 6 October 2020 which was approximately seven working days after the initial appointment. The timeframes here were reasonable, although it would have been helpful for the landlord to have provided further details to the resident at this stage, to confirm the next steps in line with its policy on unacceptable behaviour, to manage his expectations more effectively.
13. The operatives established that the thermostat needed to be replaced to rectify the issue. The evidence shows that the resident refused this, which he has not disputed. Ultimately the contractors acted appropriately by disconnecting the thermostat to allow the resident use of his heating and hot water through the boiler controls, noting that he would need to call in and book an appointment for the thermostat if he changed his mind. There is no evidence to suggest that the resident had asked for this to be installed until he raised his concerns in May 2021 stating that it had not been completed. The landlord then installed a thermostat on 16 June 2021, which was a reasonable timeframe as the resident did not require the use of a thermostat to use his heating and hot water.
14. The resident escalated his complaint on 19 February 2022 as he believed that the initial repair raised in May 2020 was incomplete and had worsened. It was reasonable for the landlord to raise a new complaint at this stage as the resident’s initial complaint related to the thermostat specifically rather than repairs since May 2020. Whilst it is clear that the resident had further concerns about the previous repairs, there is no evidence to suggest that he had raised these concerns with the landlord at the time. It would be the resident’s responsibility to report any repair issues and there is a lack of evidence to suggest that he did so.  As such, the landlord did not have the opportunity to address his concerns at an earlier date.
15. Once it was made aware of the resident’s ongoing concerns, the landlord took reasonable steps to carry out an independent inspection of the boiler on 5 May 2022 and ultimately found that it was working and safe to use. The report following the inspection indicated that several parts needed to be upgraded to prevent issues in the future and the landlord acted reasonably by completing these the day after the inspection.
16. In summary, the landlord took reasonable steps to attend repairs that it had been made aware of and there is no evidence that it acted unreasonably in its handling of the matter. As such, no financial compensation is warranted.

Determination

17. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of its handling of boiler repairs in the resident’s property since May 2020 and his request for compensation.

Recommendations

18. It is recommended that the landlord reviews its unacceptable behaviour policy to make it clear what would happen should its contractors or staff be subject to abusive behaviour.