Midland Heart Limited (202101408)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202101408

Midland Heart Limited

8 June 2021


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of reports of pipe blockages and leaks into the Resident’s property.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The Resident asked the landlord to raise a formal complaint on 12 April 2019 as she was unhappy with how blockages and leaks in the property had been handled and was seeking damages.
  2. The landlord issued a complaint response on 19 May 2019 awarding £120 compensation and directing the Resident to their contractor’s insurer regarding damages.
  3. The Resident was unhappy with the landlord’s complaint response so asked to escalate her complaint. The landlord issued a final complaint response on 2 October 2019.
  4. The landlord’s final complaint response said that it would not provide a further review of the complaint as it was satisfied that it had taken reasonable steps to resolve the issues raised by the Resident.
  5. The final complaint response explained that the landlord’s internal complaints process was complete, and the Resident should contact this Service if she remained unhappy. The response included the contact details for this Service.
  6. On 16 April 2021, the Resident contacted this Service and explained that she did not have a response to a complaint made to the landlord in May 2019.
  7. This service made enquiries and the landlord provided a copy of the final complaint response dated 2 October 2019. This Service forwarded the Resident a copy of the landlord’s final complaint response on 20 April 2021.
  8. The Resident replied the same day explaining that the delay in her approaching this Service was because her legal representatives had been handling the case.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 39 (d) of the Scheme states that the Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, were brought to the Ombudsman’s attention normally more than 12 months after they exhausted the member’s complaints procedure.
  2. The Ombudsman believes it is important that complaints are dealt with at the earliest opportunity. The sooner a complaint is brought, the quicker it can be put right and the damage from any service failure is minimised. The longer a complaint waits, the less likely it is that contemporaneous records will be accessible, and the parties account of events becomes less reliable. It is for these reasons that the Housing Ombudsman Scheme puts a time limit on bringing complaints.
  3. In this instance, the landlord issued its final response to the complaint on 2 October 2019 and at the time, provided the Resident with information about how they could pursue their complaint with this Service if they were not satisfied.
  4. The complaint was not brought to this Service until 18 months later. The resident explained that the delay was caused as she brought her complaint to another service before approaching the Ombudsman. The landlord’s final response provided the resident with information about how to bring their complaint to this Service. While it may be frustrating if another service took a long time to provide a response, asking another service for assistance did not mean the resident could not also approach this Service and I am satisfied that 12 months is a reasonable timeframe in which to have done so.
  5. I am satisfied that, in accordance with paragraph 39 (d) of the Scheme, the Ombudsman cannot consider this complaint.