Newark and Sherwood District Council (202511147)

Background

1. The resident lives in a house that was owned by the landlord. She reported outstanding repairs affecting the use of the bathroom including leaks through the kitchen ceiling. The landlord acknowledged it delayed in resolving the issues causing significant impact on the resident. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s response to:
   1. Bathroom repairs.
   2. The associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was service failure in the landlord’s response to bathroom repairs.
4. There was reasonable redress in the landlord’s complaint handling.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Summary of reasons

5. The landlord recognised its delayed action and lack of communication in resolving bathroom repairs. While it partly put things right for her through its apology, renewal of the bathroom and compensation offer it did not reflect upon the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident.
6. The landlord delayed in responding to the stage 1 complaint, however, it recognised its failure and apologised to her.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration, or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

Our investigation

The complaint procedure

What we found and why

The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that’s happened or comment on all the information we’ve reviewed. We’ve only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

7. The landlord was under a duty to repair the bathroom fixture and fittings including any associated work to the structure of the property for example walls, floors, and ceiling within a reasonable time of being given notice of an issue. This is set out in the written tenancy agreement and the implied terms in section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
8. The resident stated that bathroom repairs had been outstanding for several years. To ensure fairness and in alignment with the landlord’s complaint investigation, we will focus on events from 2023 through to the landlord’s stage 2 complaint response in May 2025. However, as issues continued after the final response, we will refer to those where relevant.
9. In March 2025, the resident raised a complaint about outstanding bathroom repairs, stating that the issues had worsened since 2024. Although she did not specify which works were incomplete, photographs showed the tiles around the bath were in poor condition.
10. The landlord issued its stage 1 response later in March 2025, apologising for the delay and lack of communication. It arranged a full bathroom inspection for early April 2025 and committed to complete any required work. The landlord acknowledged its failures and offered £465.05 compensation, calculated as 5% of the weekly rent (£98.84 2023 to 2024, £106.45 for 2024 to 2025) for the period from 28 July 2023 to 31 March 2025 – around 87 weeks.
11. Around April 2025, the resident escalated her complaint, stating that the bathroom was in an unacceptable condition. She reported mould, holes in the floor, and expressed fear of using the shower because water had affected the kitchen electrics. She also said the bathroom had not been fully functional since November 2024.
12. The landlord issued its stage 2 response in late May 2025. It confirmed that a new bathroom suite was required, along with repairs to the flooring and walls and full redecoration. The landlord scheduled the work to begin in June 2025 and recalculated its compensation offer of 20% of the weekly rent from the date of the resident’s initial report through until the date the works were scheduled to commence. This resulted in total compensation of £2,049.52, reflecting significant failures over a 2-year period.
13. According to our remedies guidance, this level of compensation is appropriate where the resident has experienced a significant adverse impact over a protracted period. Given that the use of an essential room was significantly impacted for a prolonged period, it was appropriate for the landlord to increase its compensation offer based on a 20% deduction in rent over the 2-year period of delays. However, there was delays completing work up until 20 June 2025. Therefore, we have ordered the landlord to pay compensation based on a 20% rent deduction (£109.32) for the 2-week period –  9 June 2025 to 20 June 2025). This amount of compensation totals £44.00.
14. Furthermore, the calculation of compensation based on a deduction of rent does not reflect the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident. The resident was significantly impacted by the delayed bathroom work and therefore we have made an order for the landlord to pay the resident £400 compensation to reflect the distress and inconvenience caused to her over a significantly prolonged period of 2 years. We have therefore ordered the landlord to pay the resident £2493.52 compensation (including the £2049.52 it had already offered her). For these reasons we have found service failure with the landlord’s handling of bathroom repairs.

15. The resident raised a complaint on 9 March 2025. The landlord acknowledged the stage 1 complaint on 10 March 2025 and issued its response on 31 March 2025.
16. Under the Complaint Handling Code (the Code – 2022), landlords should acknowledge a stage 1 complaint within 5 working days and respond within 10 working days. The landlord responded within 15 working days, outside of the Code’s timeframe. While this was inappropriate, the landlord recognised its failure and apologised to the resident. We see the landlord’s actions to be reasonable in the circumstances.
17. The landlord’s records do not show when the resident escalated her complaint. However, the landlord acknowledged the stage 2 complaint on 30 April 2025 and responded on 20 May 2025—around 14 working days later—meeting the Code’s 20-working-day target.
18. Overall, the landlord recognised its delay in responding to the resident at stage 1 and apologised. The landlord’s actions were therefore appropriate to put things right for the resident.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

19. The landlord should record the date a resident raises a complaint to provide a clear audit of its complaint handling and timeframes to ensure compliance with our Code.

Communication

20. The landlord’s poor communications let it down. The landlord should review this complaint to ensure it identifies and implements lessons learned.