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Places for People Group Limited (202227269)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202227269

Places for People Group Limited

13 February 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:
    1. The resident’s reports of damp and mould.
    2. Repairs to the resident’s property.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, we have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident has been an assured tenant of the landlord since 2006.
  2. The resident contacted the landlord in December 2022. He reported that he had damp and mould in his home and that other parts of his home were in disrepair. It treated his concerns as a stage 1 complaint and apologised that it had not resolved the damp and mould issue. It also found that it had not completed repairs. To put things right it completed a damp and mould survey and assured the resident it would complete the repairs it recommended.
  3. The resident remained dissatisfied and escalated his complaint to stage 2 in February 2023. In its stage 2 response the landlord apologised and offered the resident £150 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by its delay in completing the outstanding repairs.  It agreed to complete several repairs to the property.
  4. The resident submitted a disrepair claim in the county court on 28 May 2024. The details of the disrepair claim are the same as the matters complained about to this Service.

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 42 (e) of the Scheme states “The Ombudsman cannot consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, concern matters where a complainant has or had the opportunity to raise the subject matter of the complaint as part of legal proceedings.”
  2. When the resident escalated his complaint to this Service in November 2023 (prior to submitting his legal claim), it fell within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman to consider and was duly progressed for investigation. It was then on 28 May 2024 that he submitted his disrepair claim to the county court, which can affect the Ombudsman’s ability to investigate a complaint
  3. This Service has considered the details of the resident’s complaint and the details of his disrepair claim. The resident’s disrepair claim is in respect of the landlord’s handling of repairs to several parts of his home. Also mentioned in his particulars of claim is that the landlord’s failure to complete repairs has resulted in damp and mould in his home. These matters are the same as the complaint that the resident brought to this Service. As the Court will be considering these matters in due course, the resident will have the opportunity to raise his concerns about the issues with the landlord’s handling of repairs and damp and mould.
  4. In accordance with paragraph 42e of the Scheme, the complaint relating to the landlord’s handling of resident’s reports of repairs and damp and mould are outside of jurisdiction and this Service cannot investigate further.