Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (202533584)

Background

1. The resident reported that the kitchen window at the property was cracked. The landlord installed a new window, and an extractor fan within the window. The resident complained because he was unhappy with the time it had taken the landlord to complete the works. He said that he wanted compensation and an apology.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
   1. The resident’s cracked kitchen window.
   2. The associated complaint

Our decision (determination)

3. There was reasonable redress which satisfactorily resolved the complaint about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s cracked kitchen window.
4. There was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Reasons

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s cracked kitchen window

5. The landlord’s repairs policy states that it will attend to routine repairs within 20 days. The resident reported the cracked kitchen window on 22 May 2025 and the landlord attended 13 days later on 4 June 2025. This was within its repairs policy timescale.
6. On 4 June 2025 the landlord assessed the window and determined that a replacement window and extractor fan were required. It then attended the property on 13 June 2025 to complete these works. This was also within its repairs policy timescale.
7. However, the landlord was unable to fit the extractor fan on the 13 June 2025 due to an issue with the window. This was subsequently completed on 1 July 2025. The evidence shows that this was an unfortunate but unavoidable delay.
8. The landlord awarded the resident £100 compensation in recognition of the distress and inconvenience the delay had caused him. This offer aligns with our compensation guidance, which suggests awards within this range where there has been a minor failure by the landlord in the service it provided.
9. The resident told us, on 15 May 2026, that the extractor fan in the window was “wobbly” and had been “fitted the wrong way round”. This complaint issue occurred since the complaint exhausted the landlord’s complaint procedure. We have no power to investigate complaints which the landlord has not had the chance to put right first. Therefore, we have no power to investigate this, but we have recommended that the landlord contacts the resident regarding the matter.

The associated complaint

10. The landlord operates a 2-stage complaints procedure. In line with our statutory Complaint Handling Code (‘the Code’), it will acknowledge complaints within 5 working days and issue its stage 1 and stage 2 responses within 10 and 20 working days respectively.
11. The landlord’s stage 1 complaint acknowledgement was issued outside of its published timescale, resulting in an overall delay of 3 working days in responding to the complaint. However, we note that these delays were of short duration and would have had minimal impact on the resident. The stage 2 response was also issued within the policy timescale, and both responses were of acceptable quality. We therefore consider an apology to be sufficient to put things right.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.