North Tyneside Council (202118139)
REPORT
COMPLAINT 202118139
North Tyneside Council
23 October 2024
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
- The complaint is about:
- The landlord’s handling of repairs to the property.
- The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of anti-social behaviour.
- The landlord’s alleged harassment and surveillance of the resident.
- The landlord’s issuance of a Notice of Seeking Possession.
- The Ombudsman will also investigate the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.
Background
- The resident lives in the property, owned by the landlord, under a secure tenancy. The property is a 1-bedroom first floor flat and the resident has lived there since January 2017. The landlord does not have any vulnerabilities recorded for the resident.
- On 31 July 2020 the resident wrote to the landlord to say that he had been getting abuse because he had been speaking to the children living in a children’s home across the road from him. This Service has not seen any evidence of a response from the landlord.
- On 13 August 2020 the landlord sent a stage 1 response to a complaint about damage caused by the landlord’s contractors. The resident said that damage was caused whilst a new bath and windows and doors were being installed. The landlord apologised for damage caused to the bathroom and arranged follow up work. It said that there was no record of damage being complained about following window and door replacement and he had confirmed at the time he was happy with the work.
- On 29 April 2021 the landlord wrote to the resident about his concerns about the renewal of a pedestal and sink in the bathroom. He said that the contractors carrying out this work had caused damage to his belongings. The landlord wrote to him again on 8 May 2021 about concerns he had about cladding installation being delayed. It confirmed it had booked an appointment to carry out the work.
- On 4 November 2021 the resident contacted this Service to say he was unhappy with the way a sensitive issue had been handled. We explained that this was not something that fell under our jurisdiction. He contacted us again on 4 April 2023 asking us to raise a complaint to the landlord on his behalf.
- On 5 April 2023 the landlord issued a Notice of Seeking Possession (NOSP) to the resident.
- This Service contacted the landlord on 3 June 2023 to ask it to raise and respond to the resident’s complaint. The landlord wrote to the resident on 20 July 2023 saying that it would not be investigating his complaint as the issues occurred more than 12 months before he raised the complaint.
- The resident contacted this Service on 20 July 2023 and said that the non-repair issues were not more than 12 months old. He asked us to investigate the complaint.
Assessment and findings
Jurisdiction
- What the Ombudsman can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is governed by the Scheme. When a complaint is brought to this service, the Ombudsman must consider all the circumstances of the case, as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
- According to paragraph 42(c), the Ombudsman may not consider complaints which concern matters which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, were not brought to the attention of the member as a formal complaint within a reasonable period which would normally be within 12 months of the matters arising.
- This is so that the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to consider the issues whilst they are still ‘live’, and while the evidence is available to reach an informed conclusion on the events that occurred.
- The resident complained to the landlord in 2020 about damage caused by contractors when carrying out work to his bathroom. The landlord sent a stage 1 response on 13 August 2020, however there is no evidence the resident let the landlord know he remained unhappy or asked for the complaint to be escalated to stage 2.
- He raised further concerns in 2021 about damage caused by contractors and installation of cladding, to which the landlord sent ‘pre-complaint responses’ in April and May 2021. There is no evidence that the resident responded to ask the landlord to raise these as formal complaints.
- The resident contacted this Service on 4 April 2023 and asked us to forward his formal complaint to the landlord. This was more than 12 months after theses repairs issues occurred. Therefore his complaint about the landlord’s handling of repairs is outside the jurisdiction of this Service.
Scope of the investigation
- The resident has told this Service that the landlord has been harassing him for more than 5 years. No evidence has been provided to show that the resident complained about this to the landlord before asking this Service to do so on his behalf in June 2023.
- In line with paragraph 42(c) of the Scheme, this investigation will only consider the landlord’s actions in the 12 months prior to the complaint being raised.
Anti-social behaviour
- The Ombudsman expects a landlord to take appropriate action in line with its anti-social behaviour (ASB) policy when a resident reports incidents of ASB. The landlord has said that it has no record of the resident reporting ASB to it in the 12 months prior to the complaint being raised.
- The Ombudsman does not consider there to have been maladministration by the landlord in relation to its handling of ASB. No evidence has been provided of any reports of ASB during the period under investigation, therefore there the landlord was not required to take any action in relation to ASB.
Harassment and surveillance
- The resident has told this Service that he has seen vans belonging to the landlord parked outside his property and he feels they are ‘spying’ on him. He also said that he felt that he was followed around the shops, and he believes this was by the landlord’s staff. This Service appreciates that this could have been a distressing situation for the resident.
- The landlord has confirmed to this Service that the van parked outside the resident’s property was there for a contractor to carry out routine repairs in the street. It checked the vehicle tracking which showed that this vehicle had only been in the street on that one occasion. The landlord has provided a legitimate reason for its vehicle to be in the vicinity of the resident’s property.
- Whilst this Service has seen no evidence of the landlord acting inappropriately towards the resident, it has failed to demonstrate that it took his concerns seriously. It has not provided any evidence that it investigated his reports of harassment at the time he raised this. It should have looked into his concerns and provided him with reassurance that its staff were not watching or following him.
- The Ombudsman considers there to have been service failure by the landlord in relation to its alleged harassment and surveillance of the resident. The landlord’s investigation into the location of its van was reasonable to support its position that it has not harassed the resident. However, it failed to carry out this investigation until this Service was involved. It should have fully investigated the resident’s concerns and the time he raised them, and provided this explanation to him at that time.
- An order has been made for the landlord to pay the resident compensation of £100. This amount is to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused to him by its failure to investigate his concern and provide reassurance.
- If the resident remains concerned that he is being watched and/or followed, he could raise this matter with the police, should he wish to.
Notice of Seeking Possession
- The tenancy agreement sets out the resident’s responsibilities. It says that the resident should not do anything that causes or is likely to cause a nuisance, annoyance or disturbance to anyone living, visiting or working in the area. It says that if the resident does this, it may lead to their eviction.
- On 5 April 2023 the landlord sent the resident a Notice of Seeking Possession (NOSP) due to the conduct of his tenancy. It said that the grounds for this NOSP was that on 2 March 2023 he had harassed and assaulted another person outside the property.
- The resident has told this Service that the allegation is untrue, and that he was the one that was assaulted. However, the landlord has provided the evidence it relied on to show why it issued the NOSP.
- It is not this Service’s role to determine whether the events which led to the issuance of the NOSP did or did not happen. The Ombudsman considers the landlord to have taken reasonable action in line with the tenancy agreement based on the information available to it. The landlord has confirmed that the NOSP expired as there were no further incidents reported.
- The Ombudsman does not consider there to have been maladministration in its issuance of a NOSP. The landlord is entitled to take action where there has been a breach of the tenancy agreement. The evidence provided demonstrates that the landlord acted reasonably in line with the tenancy agreement.
Complaint handling
- Landlords must have an effective complaint process to provide a good service to their residents. An effective complaint process means landlords can fix problems quickly, learn from their mistakes and build good relationships with residents. The landlord’s complaints policy says that it will acknowledge a complaint within 5 working days and send its stage 1 response within 10 working days of the acknowledgement. It says it will acknowledge escalation within 5 working days and send its stage 2 response within 20 working days of acknowledging the escalation request.
- This Service sent the complaint to the landlord on the resident’s behalf on 3 June 2023. The landlord acknowledge receipt of this to us on 5 June. The landlord sent its response to the resident on 20 July, more than 10 working days after it acknowledged the complaint.
- The landlord did not investigate any of the resident’s complaint points, saying that matters were over 12 months old. However, the information provided by both parties shows that not all of the complaint issues were historical. It was therefore inappropriate for the landlord to refuse to investigate the issues that had been made in time.
- The landlord’s response should have given the resident the opportunity to escalate the complaint within its internal complaints process, however it did not do this. The response only gave the resident the option to refer the complaint to this Service. The landlord therefore did not deal with the complaint in line with its complaints policy.
- The landlord has told this Service that it did not investigate the non-repairs issues because they all related to an ongoing investigation by the police. The Ombudsman appreciates that this ongoing investigation was not in the landlord’s control. However, this does not mean the landlord was not required to follow its complaints policy.
- The landlord should have provided a detailed explanation to the resident of why it would not investigate some points further and could have signposted him to the police for further information. The resident’s allegation of harassment and surveillance by the landlord did not relate to any ongoing police investigation. So, the landlord should have investigated this matter and provided a full response.
- The Ombudsman considers there to have been maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s complaint. Whilst there were matters that were raised more than 12 months after the issues occurred, the landlord should not have disregarded the complaint in full. It should have investigated the ongoing issues and provided a clear response to the resident. It should also have provided him with the opportunity to escalate his concerns with them, rather than directing him straight to this Service.
- An order has been made for the landlord to pay the resident compensation of £200 to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by its failure to fully respond to the complaint.
Determination
- In accordance with paragraph 42(c) of the Scheme, the resident’s complaint about the landlord’s handling of repairs to the property is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
- In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was:
- No maladministration by the landlord in relation to its handling of the resident’s reports of anti-social behaviour.
- Service failure by the landlord in relation to its alleged harassment and surveillance of the resident.
- No maladministration by the landlord in relation to its issuance of a Notice of Seeking Possession.
- Maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s complaint.
Order
- The landlord to pay the resident compensation of £300 broken down as follows:
- £100 in relation to the alleged harassment of the resident.
- £200 in relation to complaint handling.
- The landlord to provide a written apology to the resident.
- The landlord to provide evidence of compliance with the above orders to this Service within 28 days of this report.
- The landlord to carry out a review of its complaint handling process to identify what led to the failures in its handling of this complaint to ensure that this is not repeated. The landlord to provide a copy of this review to this Service within 8 weeks of this report.
Recommendation
- The landlord to contact the resident to discuss his ASB concerns and open an ASB case if appropriate.