Sanctuary Housing Association (202126016)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202126016

Sanctuary Housing Association

4 July 2023

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 relates to the landlord’s handling of birds nesting and defecating on the resident’s balcony.
2. This Service has also considered the associated complaint handling and offer of compensation.

Background

3. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord.
4. The landlord has confirmed the resident first reported an issue with birds using an external light on their balcony for nesting in October 2021. The issue was made worse by the birds defecating on the balcony, which resulted in the resident making a further report to the landlord in January 2022. The resident had attempted to clean the balcony using disinfectant, but this had proven ineffective.
5. The resident contacted this Service in April 2022 as the landlord had not been responding to correspondence or returning telephone calls. The resident stated that their balcony was unusable due to the extent of the bird issue.
6. The landlord acknowledged a complaint from the resident in April 2022. It raised a subsequent work order for the balcony to be cleaned and preventative measures to be installed – to stop the birds from nesting.
7. The landlord issued an “interim” complaint response in April 2022. The response acknowledged there had been service failure related to recordkeeping and raising work orders within an appropriate amount of time. The landlord also referred to complaint handling failures.
8. In May 2022, the landlord provided its stage one complaint response. The landlord referred to the resident’s complaint points and its findings during the investigation. These were:
   1. It had initially attended the resident’s property and identified the issue to be the responsibility of the local council.
   2. The resident’s complaint had been received in February 2022 but was not recorded as a complaint at the time.
   3. A work order should have been raised on 10 March 2022, but it had not.
   4. The landlord acknowledged the resident’s suggestion that scaffolding was required to complete the work.
   5. The work would commence within 28 days of the date of the response.
9. Given the failings identified in the landlord’s investigation, it offered the resident total compensation of £100. This was for the “trouble and inconvenience” caused and for “future impact of work issues”. The resident accepted the offer and requested a specific start date so they would be able to prepare the balcony for cleaning.
10. The work remained outstanding in July 2022 which the landlord explained was due to the resident having not agreed to access to the balcony via their property. This was because of their concerns that bird faeces would be carried through the property from the balcony, which the landlord acknowledged as being “highly contaminated”. The landlord agreed to reopen the resident’s complaint at stage two of the complaint process, because of the ongoing delay.
11. In August 2022, the landlord confirmed with the resident that scaffolding would be the only way to access the balcony safely from outside the building. It had raised this as a “priority” work order. The landlord requested an extension to the stage two complaint response deadline but said it will issue another “interim” response. The response acknowledged that the landlord had fallen short of the expected standard. The landlord also stated that:
    1. A request for scaffolding had been made on 24 June 2022 and a quote received on 20 July 2022.
    2. A stage two complaint response had been delayed due to the work order still being outstanding.
12. The landlord contacted the resident in September 2022 to explain there had been further delays with the scaffolding, but it had requested a start date from the relevant contractor. The landlord requested a further extension to the stage two complaint response deadline due to the delay with the scaffolding.
13. The landlord issued a complaint response in October 2022, which it confirmed was its final response. In the response, the landlord said:
    1. The contractor had attempted to erect scaffolding in September 2022, but this had been prevented due to vehicle access being blocked.
    2. A new work order had been raised with a different contractor and had been requested as a priority.
14. The landlord also made a compensation offer of £802.62. This was made up of £400 for actions and inaction leading up to work completion; £200 for complaint handling failures; £202.62 as a 3% rent reduction for the issue preventing “quiet enjoyment” of the property.
15. The resident remained unhappy with the landlord’s response and the amount of compensation offered. The resident referred to the offer and explained how they could not understand how an offer could be made when the work remained outstanding. They outlined the impact the issue was having on their health, particularly during the summer months without the use of their balcony. To resolve the issue, the resident requested for the landlord to speed up the work and increase the amount of compensation offered.
16. This Service has seen evidence that confirms scaffolding was in place and work would be carried out before 21 October 2022. The landlord confirmed that repair work had been carried out and completed to the block ventilation system in October 2022. This had been a method of entry used by the birds. However, the cleaning of the resident’s balcony and installation of preventative measures was not completed until 12 May 2023.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of birds nesting and defecating on the resident’s balcony

17. While there was suggestion that the resident’s issue with birds nesting and defecating on their balcony was the responsibility of the local council, the landlord has since made it clear that it was responsible for resolving this. Therefore, it had a duty of care to respond to the resident and provide a resolution within a reasonable and appropriate amount of time. Where it did not, this Service has considered whether the landlord took proportionate action to put things right for the resident.
18. The landlord first acknowledged the resident’s report of issues with birds on their balcony on 27 October 2021. Until 12 May 2023, the agreed work to clean the balcony and install measures to prevent the birds from returning remained outstanding. This meant the resident had lived with the issue for a total of 562 days without a repair. This was a substantial amount of time for the resident to live with a situation which the landlord acknowledged as being “highly contaminated”, especially given the impact the resident said this was having on their health and wellbeing.
19. The associated compensation policy states the landlord will consider compensation for “the overall time, trouble, and inconvenience suffered and whether this was reasonably foreseeable; consideration of the household vulnerabilities; recognition of any failure to follow [landlord] policies and procedures.”
20. This Service understands that there had been issues which were somewhat out of the landlord’s control which had added to delays, such as the need for scaffolding. However, failure to act following the resident’s first report in October 2021, and not logging work orders when they should have been, made the situation worse and amounted to unreasonable delays.
21. The landlord identified that the overall time taken in addressing the bird issue had been unreasonable. It also acknowledged that the resident had been living without the use of her balcony while the issue had been ongoing. Given the failings it identified, the landlord should have taken action to provide a suitable resolution for the resident. In its stage two complaint response the landlord offered £602.62 for failings directly related to the bird issue. An offer of £202.62 as a 3% rent reduction and £400 for actions and/or inactions “leading up to work completion”.
22. The compensation policy refers to room loss and says, “compensation for loss of external areas will normally be considered only between 1 April and 30 September…”. The policy does not provide a specific percentage reduction for loss of a balcony, but does provide percentages for other rooms. Given the percentages applied to rooms such as the kitchen (30%) and living room (10%), this Service agrees a reduction of 3% for a balcony is appropriate. The Ombudsman has also found the approach to only apply the reduction to months of the year when a balcony is more likely to be used to be fair.
23. While this Service has found the landlord’s offer of compensation to have been proportionate at the time it was offered, the landlord has confirmed the bird issue remained outstanding until 12 May 2023. Therefore, it must adjust the offer of compensation it made to bring it in line with the continued delays post complaint. The adjusted offer should include:
    1. A recalculation of the rent reduction for the months it is applicable (April to September).
    2. The landlord should also pay an additional £300 for the distress and inconvenience over seven months between the offer of compensation at stage two and the date work was completed.

The associated complaint handling

24. The landlord’s complaint policy refers to the timescales involved in acknowledging and responding to complaints. These are:
    1. A complaint should be acknowledged within five working days.
    2. For stage one complaints “…propose resolution to the customer within 10 working days; however, there are occasions where this is not possible. Staff will inform the customer if this the case and confirm when a response will be provided.”
    3. Stage two complaints “…will receive a written response within 20 working days of the complaint being escalated, either by email or letter. Where it is not possible for a full response to be provided, the complaints handler will discuss this with the customer and agree an extension to the timescale for response. If appropriate, staff will provide an interim response to the customer explaining their findings so far, and when a full response will be provided.”
25. Throughout the complaint process, the landlord acknowledged complaint handling failures which had impacted timeliness. From the date the complaint was first acknowledged to the date the landlord issued its final response, the resident’s complaint remained unresolved for a total of 126 days. This was due to landlord errors such as not appropriately logging the complaint and meant it missed opportunities to resolve things sooner.
26. The landlord’s compensation policy sets a limit of £150 for “significant difficulties” experienced by a resident when making a complaint. The offer made for complaint handling (£200) exceeds this amount, recognising that the poor complaint handling the resident had been subject to was worthy of a higher amount. The offer made was proportionate to the failings identified by the landlord and falls in line with the amount the Ombudsman would recommend for such failings, considering the Remedies Guidance (published on the Ombudsman’s website). The Guidance suggests awards in this range for cases where there have been failings by the landlord which affected the resident, but there may be no permanent impact from these failings.

Determination

27. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, this Service has found maladministration by the landlord in its handling of birds nesting and defecating on the resident’s balcony.
28. In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, this Service has found that the landlord offered reasonable redress for failings related to the associated complaint handling.

Orders and Recommendations

Orders

29. The landlord should recalculate the rent reduction to include compensation for applicable months between 10 October 2022 and 12 May 2023.
30. The landlord should pay the resident the £600 offered during the complaint process, if not already done so, for the action/lack of action and complaint handling failures.
31. The landlord should pay the resident an additional £300 for distress and inconvenience caused by the delays experienced following the completion of the complaint process.
32. The landlord should confirm compliance with the above orders within four weeks of the date of this report.

Recommendations

33. The landlord should run refresher training for all relevant staff on complaint handling, particularly providing appropriate acknowledgments and responding within the policy deadlines.
34. The landlord should also consider refresher training for staff on logging repair orders, to ensure appropriate and timely action is taken.
35. As it was something acknowledged in its own investigation, this Service recommends the landlord conducts a review of its recordkeeping process to prevent further failings.