Orbit Group Limited (202225322)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202225322

Orbit Group Limited

18 July 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

  1. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
    1. Reports of damp and mould in the resident’s property.
    2. The associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy. The property is a four-bedroom house.
  2. The resident suffers from Crohn’s disease. The resident also has children in the property, one of whom suffers from severe asthma, as well as a child under a year old.
  3. The resident reported damp and mould in the property as far back as November 2022. Following this, the resident raised a complaint with the landlord which it answered at stage 1 of its complaints process on 5 April 2023. As part of this response, the landlord committed to completing works to rectify the mould. A compensation award of £1,537.76 was also made. The landlord’s contractors had an appointment to complete a mould treatment on 9 June 2023 but were unable to complete these works when they attended.
  4. The resident called the landlord on 12 June 2023 to raise a new complaint about its handling of the damp and mould. She was unhappy with the landlord’s contractors being unable to complete the works and with the progress that it had made resolving this since her previous complaint. The landlord provided a complaint response on 30 August 2023, upholding the resident’s complaint. It confirmed it had raised work orders for all of the outstanding works throughout August and offered her £530 compensation for the delays in doing so.
  5. The resident responded to the landlord on 11 September 2023, escalating her complaint to stage 2 of the complaints process. The resident said she had sent previous e-mails requesting this to a member of the landlord’s staff but had received no acknowledgement. The resident also said that she was unhappy with the amount of compensation the landlord had offered. The resident spoke with the Ombudsman who asked the landlord to provide its stage 2 response to the resident.
  6. The landlord provided the Ombudsman its stage 2 complaint response in February 2024 (dated 15 December 2023). It explained a surveyor had visited the property and advised that mould treatment was needed to the ground floor and bedroom whilst pointing works were required at the front of the building. It said these works had been scheduled for 12 December 2023 and 2 January 2024. For the delay in completing these works, the landlord offered the resident £1,190 compensation, made up of the £530 offered at stage 1 (which it quoted as £570), £400 for the distress and inconvenience, £70 for service failure and £150 for delays in providing the stage 2. Whilst a copy of this was provided to the Ombudsman, the resident was not provided with a copy until several months later.
  7. The resident confirmed to the Ombudsman on 14 March 2024 that she wished for us to consider her complaint. She was unhappy that the stage 2 complaint response was never provided to her. She said she was not willing to accept the compensation as her repairs remained outstanding and there were vulnerable children in the property. The resident informed the Ombudsman in May 2024 that the works remained outstanding and that she had not received the promised contact from the landlord regarding completing the works.

Assessment and findings

The scope of this investigation

  1. The resident has said that the damp and mould has potentially had a negative affect on the health of the inhabitants of the property. It is beyond the remit of the Ombudsman to decide on whether there was a direct link between the landlord’s actions and the resident or her children’s ill health. The resident may wish to seek independent advice on making a personal injury claim if she considers that health has been affected by any action or failure by the landlord. While the Ombudsman cannot consider the affect on health, consideration has been given to any general distress and inconvenience which the resident experienced as a result of any service failure by the landlord.

The landlord’s handling of reports of damp and mould

  1. The landlord’s repair policy has 3 timescales for completing repairs. For emergency repairs, it says it will complete these within either 4 or 24 hours depending on the job, for routine repairs it says it will complete these within 28 days, and for major repairs it says 90 days.
  2. When the resident raised her complaint in April 2023, the damp and mould had been ongoing for over 6 months. By this time, the landlord had undertaken 2 separate inspections, however no substantive works had been completed following either of these. Prior to the complaint being raised, there was an appointment where contractors attended but were unable to complete any works. Whilst the reason for this is not clear, this indicates that the landlord was not effectively managing the works. Nor does it appear the landlord was fully aware of what works needed to be completed at the resident’s property, despite the inspections.
  3. Given the length of time between the reports, and the previous inspections, it would have been appropriate for the landlord to have undertaken a new damp and mould survey of the property as part of its response to this issue. The landlord took a significant amount of time to complete this, taking until December 2023 to conduct a new inspection. This delay represented a failure in service from the landlord.
  4. The landlord (as part of its stage 2 complaint response)committed to performing mould treatment and pointing works on 12 December 2023 and 2 January 2024. The landlord’s records do not accurately demonstrate if appointments were in fact raised for this date, and if they were, why the necessary works were not completed.
  5. This delay in completing the works will likely have led to damp and mould worsening in the property causing the resident additional distress and inconvenience. The landlord’s failure to complete the works that it committed to as part of the stage 2 complaint response represented maladministration in its handling of damp and mould in the resident’s property.
  6. As of May 2024, damp and mould remains in the property. The works raised by the landlord as part of its response to this complaint do not appear to have been completed. The resident mentioned remaining outstanding works on the dry wall, the roof, guttering and thermal lining. This means that the resident, and her two vulnerable children – one of whom suffers from severe asthma and one a child under the age of 1 – have been living with the effects of damp and mould for a significant period of time.
  7. This is especially concerning since the landlord did not consider any risk assessments or take any specific action to expedite the work despite being told that there was a premature newborn within the property. Considering the vulnerabilities of the resident and her children, it would have been appropriate for it undertake some kind of risk assessment in order to determine the potential effects of any delays in completing the works. The landlord’s failure to tailor its approach or take any action despite these reports again represented a failure in service.
  8. The landlord has recognised as part of its December 2023 stage 2 complaint response that it failed to manage and complete the works as it should have done. However, as part of its stage 2 complaint response, it also indicated it would manage the works to completion. Whilst it represented good practice to offer this, it has failed to fulfil this commitment. From the available evidence, it appears it failed to properly communicate both internally and with the resident about the progress of the works. The resident has been forced to continually chase updates from both the complaints department and its damp and mould team. This additional distress and inconvenience appears to be due to the landlord’s failure to co-ordinate properly between these two departments.
  9. The resident has also informed the landlord that her possessions have been damaged by the effects of the damp and mould. The landlord has failed to answer this point. It should write to the resident confirming if it is willing to provide her with compensation for these items. If the landlord is not willing to pay this as a gesture of goodwill, it should provide her with the details for its insurer and instructions on how she can raise a claim in relation to the damaged items.
  10. The landlord did recognise failings and awarded compensation of £1,537.76 in April 2023 and £1,040 in December 2023, totalling £2,577.76 for the impact of damp and mould. This amount is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance which recommends figures in this range where there has been a significant failure from the landlord that has caused a severe long-term impact.
  11. Although the compensation award was proportionate, the landlord’s failure to complete the works and honour the commitments it made in its complaint responses represented maladministration and a failure to learn lessons in accordance with the Ombudsman’s dispute resolution principles.
  12. The landlord should perform a full damp and mould survey of the resident’s entire property – inside and out. The landlord should then provide the resident with a detailed plan, with specific timescales, for completing the works. The landlord also needs to perform a risk assessment, considering the vulnerabilities of the inhabitants of the property and detailing how it intends to fulfil any recommendations made in this. It should provide the resident with a copy of both of these.

The landlord’s handling of the associated complaint

  1. The landlord’s complaints policy has 2 stages. At stage 1, the landlord says it will provide an acknowledgement to the complaint within 5 working days, and its response within a further 10 working days. At stage 2, the landlord says it will provide an acknowledgement within 5 working days and its complaint response within 20 working days of this.
  2. At stage 1, the landlord took 57 working days to provide its complaint response. It did, on 2 occasions, send the resident updates explaining its need for an extension. Whilst it was good practice for the landlord to inform the resident of any potential delays, it would also have been good practice and fair for it to provide the resident with additional compensation for these delays. The delays in providing this, whilst the damp and mould was ongoing, undoubtedly caused additional distress and inconvenience for the resident.
  3. The resident requested an escalation of her complaint to stage 2 of the complaint process on 11 September 2023, with the landlord dating its stage 2 complaint response on 15 December 2023. This was a delay of 69 working days. This was significantly outside of the timescales specified in the landlord’s complaints policy and represented a failure in service from the landlord.
  4. The resident has told the Ombudsman that she was not provided with a copy of this and has provided evidence to show that she chased the landlord for a copy of the stage 2 complaint response. The resident was forced to do this on multiple occasions and did not receive the response for several months. The Ombudsman has not seen evidence of the exact date this was sent to the resident, although the resident has told the Ombudsman that this was not until March 2024.
  5. The landlord has not provided the Ombudsman with any evidence that it did in fact send this to the resident around the time the letter is dated. The landlord’s failure to promptly send the resident the final response represented a significant failure and caused additional distress and inconvenience to the resident.
  6. The landlord acknowledged its delays at stage 2, providing the resident with £150 compensation for this (in addition to the £40 it offered for complaint handling in its August 2023 response). However, this does not also account for the several months where the landlord had failed to actually send a copy of this to the resident. Given this, the landlord should increase its offer of compensation to £290. This is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance which recommends figures in this range for a failure which adversely affected the resident.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of reports of damp and mould in the resident’s property.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

Orders

  1. It is ordered that within 4 weeks of the date of this letter the landlord:
    1. Write to the resident to apologise for the service failures identified in this report.
    2. If it has not already done so, pay the resident £2,867.76 compensation, consisting of:
      1. £2,577.76 for its failures dealing with the reports of damp and mould
      2. £290 for its failures handling the associated complaint.
    3. Perform a full damp and mould survey of the resident’s property. Once this has been completed, within a further 2 weeks, the landlord should:
      1. provide the resident with a full diagnosis of the cause of damp and mould and a detailed plan and timescale for completing the works this recommends (in line with the timescales mentioned in the landlord’s repairs policy);
      2. make a new compensation award to reflect the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident from December 2023 (when its last award was made) up to the date of the final works it sets out in the above plan of works.
    4. Perform a risk assessment of the property considering the potential harm to the resident and her children. Again, the landlord should provide the resident with a detailed plan of how it intends to carry out any recommendations within 2 weeks of this being carried out.
    5. Write to the resident to outline its position on providing compensation for any personal items damaged by the effects of damp and mould. If necessary, it should provide her with the details of its insurer so she can raise a liability claim.
    6. Provide evidence to the Ombudsman that it has done so.