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Southern Housing (202101782)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202101782

Southern Housing

30 June 2025

 

Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this.

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
    1. Reports of issues with the hot water system.
    2. Request for compensation for high energy costs.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, we have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident held an assured shorthold tenancy with the landlord, which ended on 27 June 2021. The property is a 3-bedroom flat.
  2. The resident made a complaint to the landlord on 2 July 2020. She said the issues with the hot water system had been ongoing for “years” and were still not resolved. She said its contractor had attended the property approximately 20 times, but they had been unable to identify an issue with the hot water system. This had resulted in her spending thousands of pounds on heating up water due to the system not working correctly.
  3. On 24 July 2020, the landlord provided its stage 1 response. It said it had reviewed the repair history for the property and while it could see reported issues with the hot water system, these had been addressed within its repair timescales. It said it had reviewed the energy bills the resident had provided and could not see a significant increase. The landlord said it had not identified any service failure and therefore, it was unable to make an offer of compensation to the resident.
  4. The resident made a further complaint to the landlord on 7 April 2021. She said the issue with the hot water system was still ongoing. Due to the length of time that had passed since it had provided its stage 1 response on 24 July 2020, the landlord logged the resident’s concerns as a new complaint.
  5. On 12 May 2021, the landlord provided its stage 1 response. It said it had not received a repair request for the hot water system for 11 months and on the contractor’s last visit, a part was replaced, with the system left in full working order. It said it would organise for an electrician to attend to investigate further. The landlord offered £50 compensation made up of £25 for delays and £25 for service failure. It advised the resident of the process for escalating her complaint if she remained dissatisfied.
  6. In emails to this Service between August 2021 and November 2021, the resident said she had moved out of the property but still wished to pursue her complaint. She said she had contacted the landlord on 3 September 2021 asking to escalate her complaint, but it had not responded.
  7. On 25 February 2022, we contacted the landlord. It said it had reviewed its records and could not see it had received an escalation request from the resident, but it would contact her. On the same day, the landlord emailed the resident and said it had not received her complaint escalation. It asked her to advise it of the reason she remained dissatisfied and the outcome she was seeking which would enable it to review her request.
  8. The landlord followed its email up with a telephone call to the resident on 16 May 2022, but was unable to contact her. Its records suggest she sent an email to the landlord on 17 May 2022, in response to which it tried to contact her by telephone, but it was not able to reach her so it left a voicemail.
  9. In correspondence with us between May 2023 and September 2023, the resident said she had not received a final response from the landlord.
  10. Following communication from this Service, the landlord contacted the resident on 1 November 2023 to confirm its final position. It said it was unable to re-open and investigate her complaint as its last contact with her was on 16 May 2022 which was outside of its policy timescale (12 months).

Reasons

  1. Paragraph 42.a of the Scheme states that “The Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, are made prior to having exhausted a member’s complaints procedure, unless there is evidence of a complaint-handling failure and the Ombudsman is satisfied that the member has not taken action within a reasonable timescale.”
  2. Paragraph 42.c of the Scheme also states that “The Ombudsman may not consider complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, were not brought to the attention of the member as a formal complaint within a reasonable period which would normally be within 12 months of the matters arising.”
  3. The resident said she asked the landlord to escalate her complaint on 3 September 2021. Upon request, she has not provided us with a record of this correspondence. We do not dispute the resident’s claims, but our findings must be based on documentary evidence. The landlord’s complaint records do not indicate that it received an escalation request from the resident.
  4. Upon receiving contact from this Service, the landlord did what it reasonably could to contact the resident to discuss her escalation request. However, its records indicate that it did not receive a response from her until 17 May 2022, which was more than 12 months after the stage 1 response was issued on 12 May 2021. The landlord attempted to contact the resident back on this date but was unsuccessful, and its records indicate it did not receive any further contact from her after this time to discuss the complaint escalation.
  5. The landlord has not had the opportunity to respond to the complaint at stage 2 of its internal complaints procedure. There is no evidence to suggest that a failure in the complaint process led to this, and the landlord acted in line with its relevant policies.
  6. Therefore, in accordance with paragraphs 42.a and 42.c of the Scheme, this complaint is not one that this Service can consider and is outside of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to investigate.