From 13 January 2026, we will no longer accept new case enquiries by email. Please use our online complaint form to bring a complaint to us. This helps us respond to you more quickly.

Need help? Other ways to contact us.

South Tyneside Council (202331185)

Back to Top

 

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202331185

South Tyneside Council

12 September 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 repairs to the roof.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant under an agreement dated April 2002. The property is a three-bedroom house.
  2. On 16 January 2023 the resident reported that repairs were needed for his roof. The landlord arranged a repair appointment for 8 February 2023.
  3. The landlord was unable to complete repairs on 8 February 2023 as it had not arranged for scaffolding to be in place for the appointment. The landlord made further appointments for 20 April 2023 and 1 June 2023. The landlord was again unable to complete repairs at these appointments as there was no scaffolding in place.
  4. The resident raised a complaint on 18 August 2023. He was unhappy with the number of appointments that had been made and that repair works were still outstanding.
  5. The landlord responded at stage 1 on 4 September 2023. It said:
    1. Sorry for the delays in completing the roof repair and for poor communication while arranging the work.
    2. It had arranged for the works to be completed on 13 September 2023 and that scaffolding would be in place for the appointment.
    3. It had found that staff records were not good enough and this had led to multiple visits to the resident without the scaffolding being arranged for the appointments.
    4. Sorry for any inconvenience that had been caused and offered £50 in compensation.
  6. The landlord was unable to complete repairs on 13 September 2023 as scaffolding was not in place before repair staff attended. The scaffolding was erected later in the day and the repair appointment was postponed.
  7. The resident said he was dissatisfied with the stage 1 response and asked that his complaint be escalated to stage 2. He was unhappy that the landlord had not completed the repairs on 13 September 2023 as it said it would. He felt there was poor communication from the landlord and was frustrated with multiple missed appointments. He told the landlord that he could not sleep in his bedroom because of the noise of the wind from the roof. He said that £50 compensation was an insult. The landlord acknowledged the stage 2 request on 20 September 2023.
  8. The landlord responded at stage 2 on 31 October 2023. It said:
    1. It acknowledged missed appointments due to the lack of scaffolding but confirmed that it had completed works on 21 September 2023.
    2. Sorry for the amount of time it had taken to complete the repairs.
    3. It had identified that staffing changes had meant that scaffolding was not requested from contractors in time for repair appointments. It has put measures in place to ensure this does not happen again.
    4. It had spoken to the resident on 3 October 2023 about his complaint. During the call the resident raised that scaffolding had been erected on his property on 25 September 2023 when it was not needed as work was complete.
    5. It acknowledged that the scaffolding was put in place in error and arranged for it to be removed on 1 November 2023. It said sorry for the mistake.
    6. Sorry for the inconvenience caused to the resident.
    7. It awarded a £215 in compensation. This was broken down as £50 for poor communication, £60 for delays in completing work, £75 for stress and inconvenience and £30 for delays removing the scaffolding.
  9. The resident remained dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and approached this Service to investigate his complaint. He said:
    1. He felt that that £265 compensation was not enough for the inconvenience caused to him by the delays in repairing the roof.
    2. He had had to sleep on the sofa for over 8 months. He was unable to sleep in his bedroom because of the noise from wind coming through the broken tiles.
    3. It took a lot of time to continually chase the landlord for updates and push for repairs to be completed.
    4. He was frustrated at the number of times he had to wait in for repair appointments, only for them not to go ahead.

Assessment and findings

  1. When a landlord acknowledges failings, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider whether the landlord’s redress appropriately addressed the issue and resolved the resident’s complaint. In doing so, we apply the Dispute Resolution Principles; be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes.
  2. The landlord’s compensation policy says it will award £30 compensation when outstanding repairs are not carried out and up to £75 for inconvenience caused to a resident resulting from a delay to service.
  3. The resident reported that the roof of the property needed repair on 16 January 2023. The landlord logged this as a routine repair and arranged for an appointment to complete the works on 8 February 2023. This is in line with its policy that says it will respond to routine repairs within 20 working days. This is a good initial response by the landlord and shows that it followed its repairs policy.
  4. The landlord could not complete the repair work on 8 February 2023. To complete the work scaffolding needed to be in place. The landlord failed to arrange to have this installed prior to the appointment. The landlord made further appointments to complete the work on 20 April 2023, 1 June 2023 and 13 September 2023. At all 3 appointments the landlord was unable to complete the repair works as it failed to have scaffolding in place prior to the appointments. The resident said he had to wait in on these days and was frustrated when repairs did not go ahead as planned.
  5. The resident complained about the delays in carrying out repair work on the roof and the number of missed appointments. The landlord’s repair policy says that routine repairs should be completed in 20 working days. It took 174 days to repair the roof which was an unreasonable delay. The landlord has acknowledged that it caused delays in completing works as it failed to arrange contractors to install scaffolding on time. It explained that poor staff record keeping led to the failure to instruct the contractors to install scaffolding.
  6. The landlord explained how it had tried to put this right. In its stage 2 response it said it had put measures in place to prevent the issue with scaffolding happening again. It apologised in both its stage 1 and stage 2 responses for the delay to complete works and offered £60 in compensation at stage 2. The landlord’s compensation policy says it will award £30 compensation when outstanding repairs are not carried out and so the amount it offered at stage 2 is in line with its policy. The landlord’s actions show that it took steps to learn from outcomes and put things right.
  7. The resident complained about the landlord’s communication regarding the repairs. It is clear that the resident contacted the landlord multiple times to chase repairs and missed appointments. The resident said this was time consuming. The landlord acknowledged and apologised for poor communication in its stage 1 response and awarded £50 compensation for this in its stage 2 response. This amount is in line with its compensation policy when there is inconvenience caused by a delay in service and the action taken shows that the landlord made attempts to put things right.
  8. The resident complained that the landlord incorrectly installed scaffolding on his property on 25 September 2023. At this time the repair work to his roof was complete and scaffolding was not required. In its stage 2 response the landlord explained that its roofing contractor had ordered the scaffolding contractor to erect the scaffolding in error.
  9. The landlord explained how it had tried to put this right. In its stage 2 response it said it had arranged to have it removed on 1 November 2023. It said it had spoken to the contractor to ensure this does not happen again. It apologised for the error on behalf of its contractor and awarded £30 in compensation for the delay in removing the scaffolding. This amount is in line with its compensation policy when there is inconvenience caused by a delay in service. This was a reasonable response by the landlord. It showed that it accepted the error and took steps to put things right.
  10. The landlord also apologised for any inconvenience caused to the resident at both stage 1 and 2. It awarded £50 in compensation at stage 1 and another £75 in compensation at stage 2 for any stress and inconvenience caused. This amount is in line with its compensation policy and shows that it acknowledged the inconvenience to the resident caused by its delays.
  11. Through the complaints process the landlord has acknowledged each failing that the resident has complained about. It has explained how the failings occurred and how it will prevent them happening again in the future. It has apologised and offered a total of £265 in compensation. This amount is in line with its own compensation policy. It also reflects the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for when a landlord acknowledges service failure that has caused inconvenience to a resident and delays in getting matters resolved. This is reasonable action of the landlord and shows that it has had regard for the Dispute Resolution Principles when dealing with the resident’s complaint.
  12. In the Ombudsman’s view, the steps the landlord has taken and the compensation it has offered are overall proportionate to the identified failings, and we find they amount to reasonable redress. The landlord has considered how its failings would have impacted the resident in the remedies it has made. There would have been a finding of service failure had the landlord not identified its failings and taken appropriate action to try to put things right.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53.b. of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord made an offer of redress which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, satisfactorily resolves the matter of the landlord’s handling of repairs to the roof.

Orders and recommendations

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord pay the resident the £265 compensation it awarded through the complaints procedure if it has not done so already. The Ombudsman’s finding of reasonable redress is based on the understanding that this compensation is paid.