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Sovereign Network Homes (202341137)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202341137

Sovereign Network Homes (Formerly Network Homes)

14 October 2024


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. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of reports of water ingress, damp and mould.

Background

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy. The property is a 3-bedroom flat. This is on the top floor of a mid-rise building.
  2. There is a child under the age of 5 living in the property.
  3. The resident has had issues with water ingress from the roof of the property for several years. She previously raised a complaint about this which the landlord upheld at stage 2 of the complaints process with it providing £199 compensation on 28 April 2023.
  4. Following this complaint, the landlord attended to provide a temporary fix, completing a mould wash and a stain block to affected areas on 4 May 2023. The landlord instructed a surveyor to visit the property on 9 May 2023. The survey stated it needed to undertake further investigation of the roof, and that it needed to erect scaffolding in order to perform more testing. The landlord failed to either erect scaffolding or perform an inspection following this. The resident continued to chase the landlord for updates from May 2023 to October 2023.
  5. The resident wrote to the landlord on 13 November 2023 to raise a new complaint. She was unhappy that the earlier complaint had not resulted in a fix for the water ingress, saying that this continued to get worse and that she felt the landlord’s handling of the matter had been negligent and unproductive. The landlord responded on 28 November 2023, providing its stage 1 complaint response. It said that it had raised the repair in September 2023 with contractors attending and providing a quote on 24 October 2023. The landlord had rejected this quote however as the cause of the water ingress was not determined yet. It said that it needed to perform a leak detection survey. It apologised for not reaching out to advise of the delay and its constraints. It said it would follow up with the resident once it had conducted the survey and would consider compensation once it had completed this.
  6. The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 of the complaint process on 1 December 2023. She said she was unhappy with the landlord’s continued visits without actually performing any works to fix the water ingress. She was unsure why a third survey was needed despite the previous surveys proposing repairs which the landlord had not performed. She informed the landlord that the water stains and subsequent damp were worsening in the flat.
  7. The landlord sent its stage 2 complaint response on 22 January 2024. It upheld the resident’s complaint, offering her £975 compensation. This consisted of £30 for a missed appointment, £20 for the delays in its stage 2 complaint response, £370 for the impact of the 37-week repair delay, £370 for the distress of this delay and £185 for the time and trouble this had caused. It also apologised for the delay and said that its contractors had attended on 12 January 2024 and that it was still awaiting the report from this visit. It said that once it had received this, it would be in a position to move forward with arranging the repairs.
  8. The resident wrote to the Ombudsman on 13 February 2024, asking us to consider her complaint. She said that she had been suffering with the ongoing leaking roof since 2020 and that there had been no concerted effort from the landlord to resolve the issue permanently. She advised that, to resolve her complaint, she would like additional compensation, for the landlord to redecorate all of the affected areas and for it to permanently address the root causes of the water ingress. The Ombudsman spoke to the resident this month and she reported that no works have begun.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident has stated that this leak has been ongoing as far back as 2020. The resident previously complained about the landlord’s handling of this matter and the landlord awarded compensation for this in a stage 2 complaint response dated 28 April 2023. As the resident did not bring the earlier complaint to the Ombudsman, the matters considered in this earlier complaint do not form a basis of this investigation. The Ombudsman has however noted these events for context.

The landlord’s handling of water ingress, damp, and mould

  1. The landlord’s repair policy says it will attend to emergency repairs within 4 hours and to routine repairs within 5 working days of a resident report. For complex or planned repairs, the landlord says it will aim to complete these within 90 working days, but also that it will provide residents with an estimated completion date. The water ingress in this instance stems from a problem with the roof. Given the nature of this repair, the landlord would be expected to complete it in line with its complex repair timescales.
  2. The landlord’s previous stage 2 complaint response, sent in April 2023, said that it would be seeking a ‘permanent fix’ for the water ingress. To date, the landlord has still not begun works, or outlined to the resident exactly what works it will be undertaking. It is unreasonable that the landlord has made little progress with diagnosis or resolution since then.
  3. The landlord appears to have undertaken 2 surveys of the property in May 2023, and had contractors out to the site again to inspect in September and October 2023. The landlord’s contractors undertook a third inspection on 12 January 2024. The initial survey in May 2023 only looked at the interior of the property, despite the landlord being aware that there were issues with the roof of the property causing water ingress, damp and mould. The May 2023 survey states that the landlord needed to undertake a ‘further investigation of the roof’. It recommended that the landlord erect scaffolding and undertake a water test of the roof surface.
  4. Despite a surveyor recommending this additional investigation, the landlord did not take any of these actions and performed no roof follow up works. When the landlord sent contractors out again in September and October 2023, it appears that they also recommended the same course of action the original survey had recommended. Given this, it is unclear why the landlord sent out contractors for an inspection, knowing that they would be unable to access the roof to do so. This was a clear failure by the landlord in managing the repair and in its knowledge management.
  5. At the time the landlord wrote the stage 2 complaint response, it said it was still waiting for a report from the 12 January 2024 visit. The landlord’s records do not accurately document the purpose of this visit, or what it inspected at that time. It remains unclear to the Ombudsman if the landlord has performed a water dye test as recommended by the May 2023 survey.
  6. The landlord did perform a mould wash and a stain block to the interior of the property in May 2023. Whilst it was good practice to do so whilst it was investigating the root cause of the problem, the landlord’s delay in actually undertaking the necessary thorough inspections have rendered these actions insufficient.
  7. The landlord is aware that there is a child under the age of 5 in the property. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the landlord undertakes all of the actions available and necessary to limit exposure to damp and mould of both the child and the other household members. Damp and mould represent potential health hazards and in this instance the landlord has not demonstrated that it took this into account and treated the matter with the necessary urgency. The resident has reported that this failure has resulted in damp and mould returning.
  8. The landlord recognised its failings in January 2024 and offered the resident £955 compensation for failures relating to the repairs, and the inconvenience its failures caused (in addition to £20 for complaint handling failures). It was appropriate for the landlord to acknowledge its failings and make a significant compensation award.
  9. However, the roofing works remain outstanding 9 months on and it is unclear if the landlord has any plan to bring about a resolution for the resident and her family. This means that 22 months after the leaks re–emerged and 18 months after the end of the previous complaints process, the landlord has failed to provide a permanent resolution. No works have begun, and the resident has no indication as to when these may start. This is despite the local authority having apparently issued an Environmental Protection Act notice to the landlord in April 2024.
  10. Given the continued failings after the end of the most recent complaints process, the Ombudsman is of the view that the landlord has failed to put things right. It has also not demonstrated that it learned any lessons from the outcomes of either of the complaints it has considered during 2023 and 2024. The Ombudsman has therefore made a finding of severe maladministration.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was severe maladministration in the landlord’s handling of reports of water ingress, damp and mould.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord must write to the resident to provide:
    1. An apology for the failures identified in this report.
    2. A diagnosis of the cause of water ingress and a full schedule of works for completion of roofing repairs and the related damp and mould in the property with timescales for doing so.
    3. A named single point of contact who will offer fortnightly updates to the resident while works are ongoing.
    4. Confirmation of how, and when, it will post-inspect these works to ensure they have been successful.
    5. Commit to award additional compensation from the date of this report to the eventual date roofing works and internal remedial repairs are completed.
  2. If it has not obtained a diagnosis yet for the cause of the water ingress, the landlord must arrange a full independent survey of the property within 4 weeks of the date of this report. Within 2 weeks of that inspection, the landlord must provide the resident with a copy of the report and plan for works, inclusive of the details ordered in paragraphs 26b to 26e above.
  3. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord must pay the resident compensation of £1,975 for the distress and inconvenience caused by the failings identified in this report (this is inclusive of the £975 it awarded through its complaints process).
  4. In accordance with paragraph 54g of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, within 12 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to conduct a senior management review of this case. It should create an action plan to demonstrate how it will avoid similar failings in future. This should be inclusive of, but not limited to, its processes and procedures for:
    1. Diagnosing roof leaks at mid- and high-rise buildings, including how it ensures contractors have necessary access.
    2. Ensuring it can respond adequately where residents report recurring leaks even after repairs have been attempted.
    3. Making decisions and carrying out follow-up actions where a contractor or surveyor recommends a roof renewal.
  5. The landlord must reply to this Service with evidence of compliance with these orders within the timescales set out above.