Stonewater Limited (202206316)
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REPORT
COMPLAINT 202206316
Stonewater Limited
25 September 2024
Our approach
What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the 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
- The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s report of service charge payments for garden maintenance not being conducted.
Determination (jurisdictional decision)
- 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.
- After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
Summary of events
- The property is a 3-bedroom house which the resident purchased under a right to buy (RTB) scheme in 2019.
- In May 2022, the resident complained to the landlord that he was paying service charges for garden maintenance when this service had not been provided since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
- In June 2022, the resident complained to the landlord again, with the assistance of this Service, about the garden maintenance and paying for services that were not being provided. The landlord provided its stage 1 response on 1 June 2022. The resident escalated his complaint, and the landlord issued its stage 2 response on 22 October 2022.
- The resident informed this Service in November 2022 that he had accepted the resolution offered to his complaint. However, he said that if the garden maintenance issue was not resolved by March 2023, when new contractors would be appointed, he would make a further complaint.
- The resident contacted this Service in May 2023 to say that he remained unhappy as the garden maintenance service had not improved. There is no evidence of a new formal complaint completing the landlord’s internal complaint process, regarding the events of 2023 onwards.
- In June 2023, the Ombudsman confirmed that the original complaint would be considered further and in May 2024, it was accepted for investigation. At this point, further information was requested from the landlord to assist the investigation, including details of the occupancy arrangement in place. The complaint was then allocated to a caseworker for investigation in September 2024.
Reasons
- Paragraph 25 of the Scheme sets out who can make complaints to the Ombudsman, primarily people who are or have been in a landlord/tenant relationship with a member landlord. This includes people who have a lease, tenancy, licence to occupy, service agreement or other arrangement to occupy premises owned or managed by a member. The person must have been in a landlord/tenant relationship with the member at the time the issues complained of arose.
- While the resident was once in a landlord/tenant relationship with the landlord, he subsequently exercised his right to purchase the freehold of the property under the RTB scheme in 2019. As a result, he did not have the requisite landlord/tenant relationship with the landlord when the issues complained of arose, in 2022.
- Paragraph 41.a of the Scheme says that the Ombudsman cannot consider complaints which were not referred to the Ombudsman by one of the people who can use the Scheme under paragraph 25. As the resident does not meet the requirements of paragraph 25, he is not able to bring his complaint to the Ombudsman for investigation. It is, therefore, outside our jurisdiction and will not be considered further.
- It is acknowledged that it has taken the Ombudsman a long time to reach this decision, and we apologise for any inconvenience this delay has caused. Due to the volume of cases we are currently considering, we are unable to begin investigating complaints as soon as they are referred to us. It is only at the point of investigation that the evidence is considered in detail and, in this case, the jurisdictional limitations of the occupancy arrangement were identified immediately upon allocation.
- If the resident has ongoing concerns about the garden maintenance and associated service charges, he may wish to raise a new complaint with the landlord. However, he will still be unable to bring such a complaint to the Ombudsman for investigation. The resident may also wish to challenge the level of the service charge via the First Tier Tribunal (Property Services).