Southwark Council (202204107)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202204107

Southwark Council

17 November 2022


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:
    1. response to the resident’s reports of a loss of heating and hot water, and related missed appointments.
    2. complaints handling and record-keeping.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant. The landlord is a local authority.
  2. The resident first reported being without heating and hot water on 14 March 2022. Appointments were booked for 16 and 21 March 2022, however, contractors failed to attend on both occasions. The landlord’s contractors subsequently attended on 23 March 2022 and carried out repairs, which reinstated the resident’s heating and hot water.
  3. The resident made a formal complaint on 17 March 2022 due to the missed appointments.
  4. The landlord has advised this service that it provided a stage one response on 30 March 2022 where it offered £50 compensation, however, the landlord has also advised it cannot find a copy of its stage one response in its records.
  5. The resident made further reports of intermittent heating and hot water loss on 16 and 26 May 2022. Repairs were completed on 6 June 2022.
  6. The resident requested an escalation of her complaint through this service on 30 May 2022 as she was dissatisfied with the landlord’s handling of repairs and the missed appointments.
  7. The landlord provided its stage two response on 21 June 2022. It acknowledged its failures and awarded £154 compensation, being £50 for the missed appointments, £84 for the outages, and £20 for the delays.
  8. The resident referred her case to this service as she was dissatisfied with the landlord’s handling of the repairs and the level of compensation awarded.

Assessment and findings

Heating and hot water

  1. The resident’s tenancy agreement states that the landlord is responsible for repairs needed to installations for the supply of heating and hot water in the property. The landlord’s repairs policy states that the loss of heating is considered an emergency repair. Between the period of 1 October and 31 March each year, this will be attended to within 24 hours. Between 1 April and 30 September each year, this will be attended to within three working days.
  2. The Ombudsman considers it best practice that where delays or missed appointments are expected or occur, the landlord should contact the resident, explain the reason for the delay and provide an expected completion date for the repair.
  3. In this case, the resident reported that she did not have working heating or hot water on 14 March 2022. The landlord booked an appointment for 16 March 2022. Given that this was prior to 1 April in the year, the landlord should have arranged an appointment within 24 hours. In any event, its contractor failed to attend the appointment on 16 March 2022 despite the resident chasing updates on three occasions. The landlord advised that its contractors were late, but someone would attend on that day, which ultimately did not happen. A further appointment was booked for 21 March 2022; however, the landlord’s contractors failed to attend again.
  4. Following the resident’s further reports of heating issues on 16 May 2022, the landlord appropriately attended within its timescales on this occasion.
  5. In its stage two response, the landlord appropriately acknowledged its failures and attempted to put things right by offering £154 compensation, namely £50 for the missed appointments, £84 in recognition of the outage period and £20 for the delays. The compensation was also in recognition of a cancelled appointment on 26 May 2022 due to its contractor’s illness.
  6. The Ombudsman understands that the periods without heating and hot water would have caused distress for the resident, and the missed appointments would also have caused frustration. Had the landlord not recognised this impact in its formal response, there would have been a finding of maladministration in this case. The Ombudsman’s own remedies guidance suggests compensation from £100 in instances of maladministration. Given that the landlord recognised its errors and sought to put things right prior to the complaint being investigated by this service, and given that the compensation is in line with this service’s guidance, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, there has been reasonable redress offered by the landlord for its service failures.
  7. The Ombudsman finally notes that following further reports from the resident, the landlord carried out additional inspections in August 2022 and, on this occasion, discovered that a pipe for the valve was warned down and considered a hazard. Having made such a discovery, the Ombudsman would expect the landlord to carry out the required repairs in line with its repair responsibilities. Should this not have occurred, a recommendation had been made that the landlord contact the resident and provide updates on the status of the repair.

Complaints handling and record-keeping

  1. The Ombudsman’s complaint handling code states that the landlord should issue a formal response within 20 working days from the resident’s formal complaint of escalation request. The Ombudsman further expects landlords to keep clear and detailed record-keeping to provide evidence when information is disputed. 
  2. In this case, although the landlord issued a stage two response within its timescales, the landlord failed to provide evidence of its stage one response, due to its poor record-keeping.
  3. The resident raised a formal complaint on 17 March 2022 and contacted this service on 30 May 2022 as she reported not having received a stage one response. Although the landlord informed this service that a stage one response was issued on 30 March 2022, it also advised this service that its formal response could not be located in its system.
  4. The resident, in this case, informed this service that she did not receive a stage one response; therefore, the Ombudsman would expect a landlord to have an effective record-keeping and to provide the evidence required by this service. Indeed, it is vital that landlords keep clear, accurate and easily accessible records to provide an audit trail. If there is disputed evidence and no audit trail, this service may not be able to conclude that an action took place or that the landlord followed its own policies and procedures.
  5. It is clear from the evidence that the landlord failed to provide such evidence in this case due to its poor record-keeping. Given that the resident disputes she received a stage one response, this service cannot conclude that a stage one response was provided.
  6. This, along with the landlord’s poor record keeping, amount to maladministration in the circumstances, for which compensation is appropriate. An amount of £100 compensation has been ordered being £50 for the failure to demonstrate a stage one response was provided, and £50 for the landlord’s poor record keeping. A recommendation has also been included below for the landlord to improve its record keeping. 

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 53(b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, and in the Ombudsman’s opinion, there was reasonable redress offered by the landlord for its service failure in respect of its response to the resident’s reports of a loss of heating and hot water, and related missed appointments.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in respect of its complaint handling and record keeping.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. The Ombudsman orders the landlord to pay compensation of £100 for any distress and inconvenience caused to the resident because of its poor complaint handling and record-keeping.
  2. This amount must be paid within four weeks of the date of this determination.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord to reiterate its offer of compensation made in its stage two response, if this is yet to be accepted.
  2. The landlord is recommended to provide an update following its inspection in August 2022, if not already done so.
  3. The landlord to take steps to establish a system of record keeping that ensures that all contact from a resident (and any representatives) is recorded and retained so that it can be provided to this service upon request, in response to a complaint.