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REPORT COMPLAINT 202225956 Sage Housing Limited (SHL) 24 September 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 […]
The complaint is about the landlord's handling of: repairs to the boiler damage to the resident’s personal belongings following a leak complaint handling.
The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of: Reports of rats in the property. The associated complaint.
The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould in the property.
The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s report of: A flea infestation. Damp and mould.
The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of multiple repairs to her property. The Ombudsman has also considered the landlord’s complaint handling.
The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s: eviction from the property. concerns about asbestos, and repairs to the bathroom, boiler, front door. concerns about the gas safety check completed in December 2022. concerns about the external post box. reports of antisocial behaviour (ASB). the complaint. We have also considered the landlord’s record keeping. It was apparent the landlord understood the issues the resident raised in June 2022 related to matters that had already exhausted its complaints process. We acknowledge that it was initially unclear that her concerns related to new issues. However, by March 2023 we had clearly set out the resident’s ongoing concerns to the landlord. Despite this, it did not provide its stage 1 response until 20 July 2023. This was well outside the target response time of 10 working days. Instead, it sought to address issues outside of the complaints process, through updates to the resident in April and June 2023. While local resolution is reasonable in some circumstances, in this case a clear request had been made for a complaint response. As set out in the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code), landlords must ensure that efforts to resolve resident’s concerns do not result in any unreasonable delay. Nor should they obstruct access to the complaints procedure. By failing to provide a timely response to the issues raised in March 2023 the landlord unreasonably delayed the complaint. That would have caused the resident unnecessary distress and inconvenience and delayed her access to an independent review by the Ombudsman. The landlord’s stage 2 complaint response was timely. However, the officer who responded to the stage 1 complaint also provided this response. That was not in line with the Code, which requires a stage 2 review to be undertaken by a different person. By doing so the landlord missed the opportunity to provide the resident with an independent review of the stage 1 complaint. We have ordered that the landlord remind its complaint handling staff that stage 1 and stage 2 complaint responses should be provided by different officers. We have set out earlier in the report other failings in the landlord’s handling of the complaint. For instance, it did not acknowledge or apologise for the appointments being attended on dates/times not pre-agreed by the resident. This would have given her the impression it was dismissing her concerns. Overall, we have found maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint. We have ordered that the landlord make an award to her to recognise the impact of its failings.
The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of: Hot water repairs Front door repairs.
The complaint is about the level of compensation offered by the landlord for the time it took to resolve damp and mould on a bedroom wall in the resident’s property.
The complaint is about: The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of a leak into her bathroom and damage to the ceiling. The landlord’s handling of the associated complaints.