Southend on Sea City Council (202411019)
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Case ID |
202411019 |
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Decision type |
Investigation |
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Landlord |
Southend on Sea City Council |
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Landlord type |
Local Authority / ALMO or TMO |
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Occupancy |
Secure Tenancy |
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Date |
27 November 2025 |
- The resident and his family live in a 3-bedroom mid-terrace house. The tenancy began on 8 August 2017. The resident and one of his children have physical disabilities.
What the complaint is about
- The resident’s complaint is about the landlord’s:
- Handling of an error with the boiler installation.
- Complaint handling.
Our decision (determination)
- We found the landlord responsible for:
- Maladministration in its handling of an error with the boiler installation.
- No maladministration in the landlord’s response to the associated complaint.
We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.
Summary of reasons
- The landlord installed the boiler incorrectly. The landlord did not recognise this for 5 years from when the resident started raising concerns. Although it acknowledged this failure, it has not offered appropriate compensation that reflects the impact caused to the resident.
- The landlord responded to the complaint in line with its policy and procedures.
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.
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Order |
What the landlord must do |
Due date |
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1 |
Compensation order
The landlord must pay the resident £500 (inclusive of the £300 previously offered) in recognition of the distress and inconvenience caused. This must be paid directly to the resident by the due date. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of payment by the due date. |
No later than 06 January 2026 |
Recommendations
Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.
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Our recommendations |
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It is recommended that the landlord consider compensation for the increased gas usage during the period the boiler was installed incorrectly. This is something the landlord said it would do once the resident provided a full year of gas bills following the boiler repair. The resident has provided that information to this Service, and we have shared it with the landlord. The information shows the resident has used approximately 3,033 kWh a year less in gas since the boiler was repaired. |
Our investigation
The complaint procedure
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Date |
What happened |
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5 February 2024 |
The landlord’s contractor swapped the flow and return pipes on the boiler as they were installed incorrectly when the boiler was replaced in 2017. |
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18 April 2024 |
The resident raised a complaint. He requested compensation for what happened, including reimbursement for increased gas usage. |
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7 May 2024 |
The landlord provided its stage 1 response. It:
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16 May 2024 |
The resident escalated his complaint to stage 2. He said that £300 was not enough for the extra gas costs and the distress and inconvenience he was caused. He had provided copies of gas bills showing charges from 2021 forward and information to show his usage had gone down since the boiler was fixed. |
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10 June 2024 |
The landlord provided its stage 2 response. It maintained its position from stage 1. |
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27 June 2024 |
The landlord wrote to the resident to follow up on its stage 2 response. It:
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Referral to the Ombudsman |
The resident brought his case to us as he is not happy with the level of compensation the landlord offered for the impact of the boiler being installed incorrectly. |
What we found and why
The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that’s happened or comment on all the information we’ve reviewed. We’ve only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.
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Complaint |
The handling of an error with the boiler installation |
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Finding |
Maladministration |
- The repair records show a job was raised in January 2017 to replace the boiler with a target completion date of April 2017. In January 2024, the landlord identified that the boiler had been installed incorrectly, and it fixed this on 5 February 2024.
- The records show the resident started raising concerns about the boiler in 2019. There were at least 10 appointments related to the heating system from 2019 to 2024, prior to when the installation error was identified and fixed. Several of these appointments were in response to the resident saying that the radiators and water were not getting hot enough. At an appointment in February 2023, the contractor said the radiators were not getting hot even when the thermostat was set high and said more investigation was needed. There is no record that any follow up action was taken to investigate further at this point and this was a missed opportunity to resolve the issue sooner.
- The appointments were missed opportunities for the landlord and/or its contractors to further investigate and identify the error when the boiler was installed. It was not reasonable that the issue took approximately 5 years to identify, given the number of times the resident called with concerns about the boiler and heating system.
- In its complaint responses, the landlord offered the resident £300 in compensation for distress and inconvenience, time and trouble, and any potential increased gas consumption. The resident did not accept this. It has installed environmental monitoring equipment at the property which was a reasonable thing to do to assist the resident in understanding his energy usage.
- When the landlord provided its complaint responses in May and June 2024, it had copies of energy bills showing charges back to April 2020 but did not have enough data showing the resident’s energy usage after the boiler was fixed to compare. It agreed to reconsider the issue of the energy cost once it had more information about usage going forward. This was a reasonable offer and shows it was open to receiving new information and considering additional payments towards energy costs.
- The resident has given us an energy bill showing readings to February 2025. While the landlord has not had this information, there is now enough data for the landlord to decide what payment is reasonable for increased energy costs due to the error in the boiler installation. This is because there is usage from 2020 to 2024 to compare to the one-year period from 2024 to 2025 following the repair, and this shows how much the usage went down after the repair. From 26 April 2020 to 12 February 2024, the resident used an average of 2.25 units of gas a day, which converts to 24.93 kWh (kilowatt hours) a day. From 12 February 2024 to 12 February 2025, the resident used an average of 1.50 units of gas, which converts to 16.62 kWh a day. We have made a recommendation for the landlord to consider the cost of the increased gas usage of approximately 3,033 kWh a year (8.31 kWh a day) for the period the boiler was installed incorrectly.
- The resident told us that he thinks the boiler may have used more electricity when it wasn’t working property. In reviewing the electricity consumption data, the resident did not use more electricity during the period prior to when the boiler was fixed.
- In addition to the increased gas costs during this 7-year period, there was a significant impact on the resident and his family:
- The house took longer to heat up which the resident states impacted the family’s comfort and caused concern given there are family members with disabilities.
- The resident continued to chase the landlord as he was concerned something was wrong with the heating system.
- The resident paid more for gas usage, leaving fewer financial resources available for other expenses.
- We do not find the £300 the landlord offered is sufficient, given the number of failings identified in this decision, the time taken to identify the issue and the missed opportunities to do so, and the cumulative impact to the resident.
- Although the landlord acknowledged its error and apologised, the response did not offer an award for distress and inconvenience that was proportionate to the failings identified in our investigation and the impact to the resident. Therefore, we have found maladministration. We have ordered the landlord to pay £500 (including the £300 previously offered) for the distress and inconvenience caused.
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Complaint |
The handling of the complaint |
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Finding |
No maladministration |
- The landlord’s complaint policy says it will acknowledge complaints within 5 working days, respond within 10 working days at stage 1, and within 20 working days at stage 2. The landlord followed its policy timeframes when responding to the resident’s complaint at both stages.
Learning
- In its stage 1 complaint response the landlord said it would discuss the case with its contractor to see how it can identify similar issues more quickly in the future. This demonstrates the landlord aiming to learn from this complaint.
Record keeping and communication
- We did not identify any concerns with the landlord’s record keeping or communication in this case.