Richmond Housing Partnership Limited (202224965)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202224965

Richmond Housing Partnership Limited

26 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 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 response to the resident’s reports of various repairs in the property.

Background

2. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, a housing association. The resident moved into the 3-bedroom property under a mutual exchange in June 2021. She has a mental health condition, a mobility disability and epilepsy.
3. The resident explained that, since moving to the property there were issues of leaks, damp and mould. In November 2021 there was an uncontainable leak which caused water to pour through the kitchen ceiling through the electrics, sockets, and smoke alarm. An emergency job was raised within 24 hours to make safe the electrics, but the contractor could not find the source of the leak. Follow up repairs were raised, but only one of them was completed in January 2022. Remedial works, including to damaged ceilings and plastering, were raised but then cancelled, in February 2022.
4. An electrician attended on 7 April 2022 to fix a faulty socket in the kitchen, but the resident reported that further issues were outstanding on 12 April 2022. She listed issues including: some windows were unable to open; there was a breeze from some of them when closed; an external light had not been fixed; there was a leak from a chimney breast; the walls were reported as being blown and crumbling; and there was a broken banister. In response the landlord arranged a surveyor inspection and repairs were identified.
5. On 20 May 2022 an electrician attended to carry out further repairs to electric sockets.
6. On 7 June 2022 the resident complained to the landlord about a separate issue and raised outstanding repairs to the walls, outside light, and windows. The following day, the landlord apologised for the delay in getting back to her and said it would chase the contractor about outstanding works.
7. Some works were recorded as being carried out, but on 2 August 2022 the resident emailed the landlord detailing various works that were still outstanding. The landlord acknowledged this as a complaint the same day and issued its stage 1 response on 15 August 2022, as follows:
   1. It detailed repairs it had marked as complete, but said that due to an issue with the subcontractor, it was unable to undertake large scale repairs and so these were sent to a surveyor for them to reassign to a new contractor.
   2. It apologised for the delays and failure to complete repairs, and offered £100 compensation as a gesture of goodwill comprised (£50 for failure to complete the repairs, and not fixing a broken window, and £50 for delays and stress experienced).
8. In September to October 2022 the resident called the landlord multiple times about ongoing repairs and appointments. The landlord advised that its contractors reported a lack of access, which the resident disputed and raised further concerns about. Works were raised and scheduled for October 2022 and then extended to November 2022. Repair records indicate that some works were completed while others remained outstanding as the contractors cancelled works or stated that more time was required.
9. On 17 November 2022 the resident emailed the landlord to complain about the lack of progress despite the acknowledged outstanding repairs. The landlord logged the stage 2 complaint on 23 November 2022 and arranged to discuss the complaint with the resident, before it provided its stage 2 response on 21 December 2022 as follows:
   1. It listed the various works, which included repairs to the living room and kitchen ceiling (as before), remedial decoration work throughout the property, the railing to be repaired and secured, and repairs to the bathroom ceiling and plastering.
   2. A surveyor was scheduled for 3 January 2023 to inform an action plan to address the developing repairs.
   3. The original contractor’s repairs required revision and further works were identified, so a new contractor would be arranged to attend.
   4. It apologised for the delays and the impact on the resident and the property, as well as the communication about the repairs which were delayed or not provided when she reported issues to it.
   5. It offered an additional £250 for chasing the complaint and repair delays, and £200 for poor communication, inconvenience, and in personal impact (total £450).

Events after the end of the landlord’s complaints process

10. The resident reported that the same surveyor who attended in the past visited in January 2023 (as per the stage 2 response) and acknowledged that the outstanding issues were not acceptable.
11. In its submission to the Ombudsman the landlord explained that it had relaunched its repair services in May/June 2023 after problems ending its contract with a previous provider, and dips in their services in the 18 months prior to the end of their contract (which encompassed the period of the resident’s repairs). Therefore, there was a spike in jobs being passed to the new contractors and a longer period of time for them to catch up. It also explained challenges it experienced with appointing specialist contractors to complete work appropriately.
12. The resident further reported that she has continued to experience delays in repairs and problems with the landlord’s communication, and she did not understand why the landlord was attributing delays to the contractor who was no longer working for it. She explained that there was recently scaffolding put up to investigate the chimney (in September 2024), but she had to chase the landlord for details of this as well as for redress which it had delayed in paying, so there were still issues with its communication.
13. The landlord said that in Summer 2023 plastering work was completed and repairs to kitchen units were also completed. In 2024 the kitchen was upgraded.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

14. The resident has raised more recent concerns about issues which have arisen after the end of the landlord’s complaint process in December 2022. As no evidence has been provided of these issues having exhausted the landlord’s complaints process, the Ombudsman is not currently able to investigate them (reflected at paragraph 42.a of the Scheme). If the resident remains dissatisfied, she may wish to raise a new complaint with the landlord so that it has the opportunity to investigate and resolve these issues in the first instance.

The landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of various repairs in the property

15. The Tenancy Agreement states that the landlord will keep and maintain the property in good repair, including: the structure and exterior, repairs to guttering, drains, chimneys and flues, water and heating installations and electric lighting. The landlord should carry out repairs within a reasonable timescale set out as 24 hours for emergency repairs and 20 working days for other repairs under its Repair Policy. The landlord will proactively minimise and avoid missed appointments by communicating ahead of time with residents, and also in the event of cancellation. The landlord has not disputed its repairing responsibilities in this case.
16. The events of the resident’s complaint relate to multiple repairs raised following the leak in November 2021. The landlord reasonably engaged in emergency repairs initially to make safe electrics to address the immediate risks to the resident. However, it failed to follow up and appropriately plan, complete, or communicate regarding the associated and developing repairs.
17. The repairs to the sockets were partially addressed in January 2022 but not completely as the resident explained that there remained an outstanding repair to the external light. She explained that she had mobility issues and suffered a fall in the past, so the landlord should have responded and assessed the impact of the broken light with her. Further works were carried out in April and May 2022, to the lights and electrics, but this was beyond the 20 day timescale set out in the Repair Policy and was therefore not reasonable.
18. The repairs to the walls, ceilings, chimney, bathroom and banister were outstanding from April to August 2022 (when some were completed) and then December 2022 at the close of the complaint when the landlord set out its action plan to address the rest. The evidence shows partial engagement with repairs and that the landlord raised work orders, but these were not completed within a reasonable timescale and remained outstanding beyond the close of the complaint, which has been unreasonable.
19. The landlord explained that it had experienced difficulties with its contractors, which is acknowledged. However it failed to undertake reasonable steps to communicate with the resident proactively as per its Repair Policy standards, or to arrange interim or temporary steps to mitigate the impact of repairs for the household, during the period of the delayed works. It is also understood that the issue with contractors had been rectified, yet the resident was still reporting delays in repairs to the chimney which had been raised during the complaint period, and issues with communication, which is unreasonable.
20. Overall, there has been maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of repairs. She experienced significant time and trouble and distress and inconvenience and explained the impact on her mental health. She took steps to withhold rent at one point due to her frustration with the delays from the landlord’s repair service and chasing the landlord for resolution.
21. The landlord acknowledged the service failures in the delays to repairs, communication, and the personal impact on the resident, and offered a total of £550. Whilst this was resolution focused and reflected the Ombudsman’s dispute resolution principle of ‘putting things right’, it was not proportionate to the failings identified in this report. This included a period of approximately a year of outstanding and delayed repairs, lack of communication on timescales and plans to complete works, and repeat visits by surveyors without resolution.
22. Therefore, in line with the Ombudsman’s Remedies Guidance, an increased sum of £900 compensation is ordered (inclusive of the amount already offered) to be fair and reasonable for the impact of time and trouble and distress and inconvenience which the resident has experienced. This takes into account both the problems the landlord experienced with its contractors and evidenced attempts by the landlord to engage repairs, with its overarching repair obligations and evidenced failure to provide reasonable repair and communication services as referenced under its Repair Policy.

Determination

23. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports of various repairs in the property.

Orders

24. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Pay the resident £900 (inclusive of the redress already paid) for time and trouble and distress and inconvenience associated with its response to reports of repairs.
    2. Provide the resident with an action plan for any outstanding repairs to the chimney.