Norwich City Council (202327130)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202327130

Norwich City Council

21 May 2025

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 repairs to the resident’s front door and adjacent wall.

Background

2. The resident is a secure tenant and lives in a 3 bedroom terraced property. Her tenancy started in March 2001.
3. The resident made a service request to the landlord by way of a letter dated 1 August 2022 and provided a list of repairs. She listed several issues including to her front door and the adjacent wall. She explained that the door usually refused to close, or to lock dependant on the weather. It required so much force that she had to request help to close or lock her door in winter. She also said the wall plaster had come away through slamming the door. She said she had reported these issues many times. The landlord did not respond to her letter.
4. The resident raised her complaint with the landlord on 26 May 2023. She said it had not repaired her front door which she requested on 1 August 2022. She said because of this, the right hand glass panel of her door had broken. She told the landlord it needed to replace it urgently.
5. The landlord provided its stage 1 response on 2 June 2023. It confirmed:
   1. It received the resident’s letter in August 2022 but due to human error it did not refer the repairs to its contractor to attend and repair. As such, it did not raise a repair request and this caused the delays she experienced.
   2. Its contractor said they had never received a request to attend her property for any defects about either the windows or doors they installed. It had since asked that they attend to assess and repair the front door and fragmented glass panel.
   3. It scheduled this for 8 June 2023, and they would contact her with further information about the appointment soon.
   4. It apologised for the inconvenience and distress caused.
6. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and escalated her complaint on 12 June 2023. She explained who she reported her concerns about her front door to within the landlord’s organisation. She said to resolve the issue, the wall next to the door also needed a repair as she reported in her letter of 1 August 2022.
7. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 27 June 2023. It explained what its records showed. It confirmed:
   1. It received her letters in August 2022 where she reported the front door issue. Its contractor confirmed they originally installed the door on 25 January 2018. The contractor said they had never received any requests to attend her property until they received the request to assess and repair the front door and fragmented glass panel in 2023.
   2. The contractor attended to inspect the door and found that it was clashing with the frame. They believed the continual slamming of the door, led to both the broken sealed unit in the door and the damage to the plasterworks next to the frame.
   3. Therefore, they did not class the replacement of the sealed unit to be a warranty issue, but instead down to misuse and not arranging to inspect/ adjust the door, as necessary.
   4. They had since provided a quote to replace the sealed unit. This was awaiting approval from senior management in its property services. It had raised an order for an external wall repair with a target completion date of 13 August 2023.
   5. The scheduling team would contact her as soon as possible to attend at the earliest availability for the repair. Its senor technical administrator had reviewed the previous stock condition survey photo of the front door, and it was in good condition at the stock survey conducted on 21 March 2019.
   6. Due to its system transfer, it could not find any email record of the surveyor reporting any issues at that time. Its housing support team leader did not have any recollection of her raising problems with the front door during 2018.
   7. Its external surveying contractor conducted a stock survey on 3 February 2023 on its behalf. They noted some damage around the door frame, namely wall plaster damage near the chain lock mechanism. They also noted her report to the surveyor that the lock got stuck in the frame occasionally.
   8. It apologised for the inconvenience and distress the matter caused.
8. The resident wrote to us on 1 November 2023 and explained her complaint was about a glass panel in the front door and the damaged wall next to the door handle which remained in disrepair. She explained her reports since August 2018, and the actions taken to tighten the upper hinge of the door on 8 June 2023. This resolved the clashing of the door on the frame. She explained she wanted the landlord to repair the broken glass panel and the wall next to the door handle as soon as possible.

Post complaint

9. The landlord’s contractor asked it for assistance in January 2024 with contacting the resident. They said that they had tried to contact her between 15 and 18 January 2024 to complete outstanding works but could not do so.
10. We contacted the landlord in May 2025 to request further information. The landlord told us it completed works to the external wall, and had raised queries to ensure it completed the works to the door, as it was unsure if its contractor had made contact with her.

Assessment and findings

Repairs to the resident’s front door and adjacent wall

12. The landlord’s repairs policy defines routine repairs as those it aims to attend with 60 days by appointment. It says these are repairs for non-urgent failed or damaged items that do not adversely affect the resident’s use of their home. It explains this includes major plastering repairs. Its policy says its target in completing the works is 60 working days.
13. The resident raised her concerns with the landlord on 1 August 2022, received by the landlord on 2 August, however as it acknowledged, it did not log her concerns at the time. While we understand that errors occur, we would usually expect a landlord to ensure it properly records all repair requests to allow it to address them promptly. The landlord’s failure to log the repair led to the resident raising her complaint.
14. The landlord also completed a stock condition survey in February 2023 which identified issues with the doorframe and noted the resident’s reports around the door getting stuck in the doorframe. The landlord has not shown that it took any action or raised any works around this, and this was unreasonable.
15. The resident then raised a complaint, on 26 May 2023, and it appears, this prompted the landlord to raise the repair on 31 May 2023. This represents a delay of over 9 months and this was unreasonable. It confirmed on 9 June 2023 that its service engineer had inspected the resident’s door. They confirmed that the door clashed on the frame. It believed the slamming of the door led to both the broken sealed unit in the unit door and the damage to the plasterworks adjacent to the frame.
16. The resident explained to us that the landlord’s contractor tightened the upper hinge of the door on 8 June 2023 which resolved the clashing against the frame. This means that it completed this aspect of the repair within 8 days of raising the issue and this was appropriate.
17. The landlord then said in its stage 2 response on 27 June 2023 that it had logged the repairs to the outside wall and targeted completion was due on 13 August 2023. The resident told us that the broken glass panel and the adjacent wall remained outstanding on 1 November 2023.
18. The landlord recently told us on 13 May 2025 that it had completed the repairs to the outside wall, but it is unclear when as it did not provide a date. It explained that its contractor tried to contact the resident in January 2024 to complete the rest of the works to the door but could not reach her.
19. The landlord said in May 2025 that it had raised 2 work orders to check the door in terms of the locking mechanism and the glass. This was because it was unclear whether they ever contacted the resident following their email in January 2024. It also explained it no longer used that contractor. We acknowledge that that access issues may have contributed to the delays in completing the works. However, we would have expected the landlord to be proactive in its handling of the repairs to ensure it completed them promptly after the stage 2 response given the already acknowledged delays.
20. Based on the information provided, as at May 2025, it is unclear whether the landlord has completed all the necessary repairs. It is however clear that they remained outstanding until at least January 2024, because the contractor was looking to contact the resident at this time. It is unclear what led to the delays following the stage 2 response. This represents a delay between August 2022, when the resident first raised the repair with the landlord and January 2024 of around 17 months.  The delays in its response to the issue were unreasonable.
21. The delays in the landlord’s handling of the issue also highlight concerns with its record keeping practices. This is because it failed to log the resident’s service request, it failed to provide a date for completion of works to the outer wall, and at the time of writing this report, the landlord was unsure whether it had completed the repairs to the door and glass.
22. Based on the delays in it taking appropriate action and its record keeping concerns, we find that there was maladministration with the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s door and adjacent wall.
23. The landlord’s compensation policy says that where its high quality standards fall down, it will try to put things right and make sure it does not happen again. It accepts in some circumstances it has failed to deliver its promised commitment, some form of compensation may be the appropriate way to apologise. It provides the example of major avoidable delay in completing a repair within the stated or agree timescale as such an occasion which may warrant compensation.
24. The landlord apologised to the resident and looked to resolve the situation by completing the repairs. The repairs remained outstanding as at January 2024. Whilst its apology goes some way in trying to put things right, we do not believe it goes far enough. This is because its actions do not go far enough to address the level of inconvenience caused to the resident. This is because for example, she raised the issue multiple times with the landlord before it realised its error.
25. It also has not shown that it was proactive in ensuring it completed the repairs as they remained outstanding into January 2024, and potentially further. The landlord also did not acknowledge the level of delay at the time, in its responses. As such we believe in line with its policy it should have considered compensation. Based on this we order the landlord pay the resident compensation for its failings.

Determination (decision)

25. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman scheme, there was maladministration with the landlord’s handling of repairs to the resident’s door and adjacent wall.

Orders

26. Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord must:
    1. Provide the resident with an apology around the failings identified in this report.
    2. Pay the resident compensation of £450 for the delays and inconvenience caused to the resident around the repairs.
    3. If the matter remains outstanding, provide the resident with a proposed date to begin the necessary repairs with details of what repairs are required. If the repairs to the front door are completed the landlord must provide evidence of this.
    4. Provide proof of compliance with these orders.