Southern Housing (202344926)

Decision
Case ID	202344926
Decision type	Investigation
Landlord	Southern Housing
Landlord type	Housing Association
Occupancy	Assured Tenancy
Date	21 January 2026

Background

1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord, and she has limited mobility. In September 2022 the landlord arranged an inspection of the resident’s pathway and porch. Also, in November 2022 the landlord asked its contractor to provide a quote for the porch repairs. The porch and pathway repairs were completed in February 2025.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
   1. Repairs to the resident’s pathway and porch.
   2. Events which have not exhausted the landlord’s complaint process including repairs to the resident’s fence and side gate.
   3. The associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. The landlord made a reasonable offer of redress, which in our opinion, resolved the errors in its  handling of repairs to the resident’s pathway and porch.
4. The issues the resident raised which have not exhausted the landlord’s complaints process are outside of our jurisdiction.
5. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

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

Summary of reasons

6. The landlord acknowledged there were delays in completing the pathway and porch repairs and offered the resident sufficient compensation to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused.
7. The resident has raised issues which have not exhausted the landlord’s complaints process, including repairs to her fence and side gate. We have no power to investigate complaints which the landlord has not had the chance to put right first and there is no evidence that the issues about the fence and side gate have exhausted the landlord’s complaints process. Therefore, we have not investigated these matters. The resident can raise a separate complaint to the landlord about these issues if she wants to.
8. There was a delay in the landlord providing its responses at stage 1 and 2 of its complaints process and it failed to acknowledge the delay.

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.

Order	What the landlord must do	Due date
1	Compensation order   The landlord must pay the resident £150 to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling errors.   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 18 February 2026

Recommendations

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

Our recommendations
We recommend the landlord pays the resident its original offer of £705 compensation made during its complaints process if it has not already done so. The Ombudsman’s finding of reasonable redress for the landlord’s handling of repairs to the pathway and porch is based on the understanding that this compensation will be paid.
We recommend the landlord responds to the resident’s concerns about the repair issues related to the fence and side gate if it has not already done so.

 Our investigation

The complaint procedure

Date	What happened
16 May 2023	The resident complained about the delay in the landlord completing repairs to the porch, pathway and fence which were still outstanding. She also said she was unhappy that she was recently told that the fence was her responsibility to repair.
28 March 2024	The landlord sent the resident is stage 1 complaint response. It apologised for the delay in raising the required repairs to the front pathway and fence. The landlord explained due to the length of time that had passed since the original quote was provided for the pathway works, it had contacted the contractor to check the quote was still valid so it could raise a work order for the works. The landlord offered the resident £140 compensation to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by the outstanding repairs.
,15 April 2024	The resident escalated the complaint. She said there had been no communication on what repairs had been agreed, and she said the pathway and porch repairs remained outstanding. The resident also said that 2 of her family members tripped and injured themselves due to the repairs to the pathway remaining outstanding.
29 May 2024	The landlord sent the resident its stage 2 complaint response. It apologised for not keeping the resident updated about the repairs and apologised that some of the resident’s family members had been injured. The landlord acknowledged that pathway repairs had been outstanding for over 1 year. However, it said part of the delay was due to an issue with pests which had to be resolved before the pathway works could be carried out. The landlord also confirmed its contracts manager was in the process of reviewing the works required to the porch and its surveyor needed to reattend and inspect the porch before obtaining further quotes. It explained it could not provide a specific date for the completion of the repairs but confirmed it would keep the resident updated. The landlord also increased the resident’s compensation offer from £140 to £705 to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by the outstanding repairs to the pathway and fence.
Referral to the Ombudsman	The resident asked us to investigate the complaint. She explained she wanted all the repairs completed.

 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.

Complaint	Repairs to the resident’s pathway and porch
Finding	Reasonable redress

9. In September 2022, the landlord inspected the resident’s pathway and porch after the resident reported repair issues. It then asked its contractor to provide a quote for the porch repairs. After this, the landlord did not take further action for a considerable period of time, and the repairs remained outstanding. This delay did not comply with its repairs policy, which states it aims to complete repairs in 1 visit and in as little time as possible.
10. The landlord failed to take any further action until April 2023 which is when it carried out an inspection of the resident’s front and side pathway. The contractor reported that the pathway was very uneven and slippery and required works to resolve the issue. The contractor also identified a rat infestation outside of the property caused by rubbish at the front of the property. It confirmed the rat infestation needed to be resolved before it could carry out any works to the pathway. We recognise this part of the delay would have been outside of the landlord’s control. The landlord acted appropriately by arranging for its pest control contractor to attend the property in June 2023 to resolve the rat issue.
11. After the pest control contractor attended, there were further delays in the landlord completing works to the pathway and the porch. By this point, the resident had already submitted a complaint to the landlord about the outstanding repairs. The considerable delay by the landlord in resolving the repairs was unreasonable and it also failed to keep the resident updated about the pathway and porch repairs.
12. The pathway inspection identified the pathway as uneven and slippery, and the resident had limited mobility. The resident also told us she believed the uneven pathway was a trip hazard and she reported to the landlord that a family friend slipped over due to the repair issues with the pathway. We acknowledge this has been a very difficult time for the resident. However, it would be fairer, more reasonable, and more effective for the resident to make a personal injury claim for any injury caused through the courts or the landlord’s liability insurance. The courts are best placed to deal with this type of dispute as they will have the benefit of independent medical advice to decide on the cause of any injury and how long it will last. We’ve not investigated this further. We can decide if a landlord should pay compensation for distress and inconvenience.
13. It is positive that the landlord acknowledged in its complaint responses that there were delays in completing the repairs to the pathway and the porch. It also apologised that the resident’s family friend had been injured by the pathway and confirmed it had completed a health and safety report relating to this. The landlord offered the resident £705 compensation to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by the delays in completing the repairs. The amount of compensation offered by the landlord complies with the Ombudsman’s approach to compensation set out in our remedies guidance published on our website. The remedies guidance suggests awards of £600 to £1000 where there has been a serious failure by the landlord, which had a significant impact on the resident. It was also sufficient to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by the landlord’s delays.
14. The landlord confirmed in its stage 2 complaint response that it could not provide a specific completion date for the repairs but said it would keep the resident updated.        In July 2024, it carried out further inspections of the pathway and porch. The inspections identified that some trees needed to be removed before the works could start because the roots were causing ground movement. However, the landlord could not progress with the tree removal because a protester chained themselves to one of the trees and also objections were raised via a solicitor about the removal of the trees. We recognise this part of the delay was outside of the landlord’s control.
15. In December 2024, the landlord received confirmation from its contractor that it could progress with the porch works without removing some of the trees. The contractor recommended removing the existing porch and installing a canopy. The landlord explained to the resident that topsoil movement had pulled the porch away from the property, so installing a replacement porch would not be appropriate. We recognise that the resident preferred a full porch replacement. However, the landlord’s surveyor provided a reasonable explanation for installing a canopy instead, and the landlord was entitled to rely on the professional advice of its surveyor and contractors.

16. After this, there was a short delay in the works starting because the resident wanted to check with her occupational therapist about the suitability of the proposed porch works and how it would affect her access to the property. The landlord’s contractor completed the porch works in February 2025, and in the same month it carried out the required pathway works. Although the landlord completed both repairs, there were considerable delays before they were completed. As noted above, the landlord offered sufficient compensation and the compensation proportionately reflects the impact of the delay of the repairs on the resident and amounts to reasonable redress for this aspect of the complaint.

Complaint	The handling of the complaint
Finding	Maladministration

17. The landlord’s complaints process has 2 stages. The timeframes in the landlord’s complaints policy are the same as the timescales referenced in the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) which sets out our expectations of landlords’ complaints processes. The Code states a stage 1 response must be sent within 10 working days from the complaint being logged, and a stage 2 response within 20 working days.
18. The resident submitted her initial complaint to the landlord on 16 May 2023. Following this, the landlord issued it stage 1 complaint response to the resident on 28 March 2024. It took the landlord approximately 10 months to provide its stage 1 complaint response. The complaint response was considerably late and outside the 10-working day timescale referenced in the Code and the landlord’s complaints policy.
19. On 15 April 2024, the resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s complaints process. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 29 May 2024. The landlord’s response was slightly late and outside the 20-working day timescale referenced in the Code and the landlord’s complaints policy.
20. The landlord did not acknowledge its delay in providing its stage 1 and 2 complaint responses. It would be appropriate for the landlord to pay the resident £150 compensation to recognise the distress and inconvenience caused by this. The compensation awarded is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance referenced above and in line with the compensation range for cases where there have been errors by the landlord which caused distress and inconvenience to the resident but there may be no permanent impact from the errors.

Learning

Knowledge information management (record keeping)

21. The landlord’s records were detailed enough for us to investigate its overall handling of the complaint.

Communication

22. There was very limited communication from the landlord to the resident when she initially reported the repair issues with the pathway and porch.