The Guinness Partnership Limited (202126013)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202126013

The Guinness Partnership Limited

24 March 2023

 

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:
    1. Handling of repairs required to the bathroom floor of the property.
    2. Handling of the resident’s associated formal complaint.
  2. The Ombudsman has also considered the landlord’s record keeping.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the property, a two bedroom medium rise flat, owned by the landlord.
  2. The resident complained, through contacting this Service in February 2022, about the delay in repairing his bathroom floor which he advised he initially brought to the attention of his landlord in April 2021. He stated that the floor needed to be sealed and linoleum installed. He had earlier complained about the works in an email to the landlord of 2 August 2021.
  3. In its stage one decision, of 7 March 2022, the landlord apologised for the resident’s experience with the repair. It informed the resident that the issue was out of scope for investigation due to it being over six months old. It explained that it had sourced a new flooring contractor on 4 January 2022 and had booked the repair for early January, which was subsequently cancelled by the resident who requested rescheduling after 25 January 2022.  After its contractor was unable to make further contact with the resident on several occasions to rebook the appointment it cancelled the repair as per its repairs policy. The landlord confirmed that the resident made direct contact with the contractor and booked an appointment for 7 March 2022 to complete repairs 14 March 2022.
  4. The resident requested that the landlord escalate his complaint and, on 6 April 2022, the landlord reaffirmed its stage one position that they cannot investigate historic issues. The resident made a further request to escalate his complaint on 8 April 2022.
  5. In its final decision of 27 April 2022, the landlord stated that the repairs were raised on 13 July 2021, and its contractor attended in August 2021 but was unable to complete the repairs and the floor covering remained outstanding.  This was due to issues with sourcing a flooring contractor which was resolved 4 January 2022. It repeated the events narrated in its stage one decision and that the repair was completed on 14 March 2022. It maintained that it could not investigate the issue as it had occurred over six months prior to the complaint being made. However, it explained that as it was ongoing, the rule should not have been applied. It apologised for this, and offered a goodwill gesture of £75.
  6. The resident was dissatisfied with the final response and considered the compensation of £75 as inadequate.

Assessment and findings

Scope

  1. The resident’s complaints about the conduct of certain staff members of the landlord and the regarding the contact restriction order have not been investigated in this report. This is because the issues are the subject of separate complaints being dealt with by this Service under other case references.

The landlord’s handling of repairs required to the bathroom floor of the property.

  1. This Service has considered the evidence provided by the resident indicating that he requested that the landlord does not undertake the works to the bathroom between September 2021 and 24 January 2022. This, he stated, was due to ongoing court proceedings in relation to the contact restriction order sought by the landlord against him.
  2. In its stage two final response the landlord apologised for the lengthy delays, due to the sourcing of a flooring contractor, which was not resolved until 4 January 2022. It further cited the resident’s requests to delay the works from early January until 24 January 2022.
  3. This investigation is unable to ascertain the cause of the delay to the repair between September 2021 and 24 January 2022. But considers, on the basis of the evidence, that it was due to a combination of factors. These factors refer to the resident’s request to the landlord and the landlord’s failure to source a suitable flooring contractor. Therefore, this investigation will focus on the delays leading up to this point and from 25 January 2022 up to the completion of the works.
  4. It is noted that, whilst the landlord and the resident disagree about the date the repair was first reported, the landlord has not submitted reports and repair logs to support its position. The evidence indicates that the resident first raised the issue of a leak causing damage to his bathroom floor in his email to his landlord on 13 April 2021. Whilst it is acknowledged that the relationship between the parties had become impacted by multiple ongoing disputes, the landlord’s obligations to complete repairs in a timely manner remains.
  5. The investigation shows that the resident himself cancelled the repair booking for early January 2022, requesting it was made after 24 January 2022.  When the contractor attempted to arrange repairs after 24 January 2022, they were unable to contact the resident having made three or more contact attempts.  This is in line with the repairs policy and is reasonable.  The resident then made direct contact with the sub-contractor and the repair was undertaken successfully on 14 March 2022.
  6. The resident has stated that he feels ignored by the landlord, and the landlord has not submitted evidence that it followed-up or investigated these matters and arranged a repair at that time. The landlord’s repairs policy provides, in clause 9, that routine repairs should be completed within 28 calendar days. The evidence demonstrates that the repair was not assessed for over fifteen weeks between 13 April 2021 and 2 August 2021. By failing to act timeously when the repair was first reported, the landlord caused further delays and inconvenience to the resident and prolonged the adverse effect the issue caused him. The lapse delay was not reasonable and is contrary to the landlord’s repair policy.
  7. This Service further observes that, whilst the landlord apologised for the lengthy delay in replacing the bathroom floor, its final response was inadequate and did not accept responsibility for its failure to investigate the issues with the bathroom floor when it was first raised by the resident by email on 13 April 2021. It did not acknowledge the impact of the lengthy delay to the repair which totalled eleven months offered no redress beyond booking in the repairs. This Service concludes that there were significant failings in the landlord’s actions and compensation was warranted in the circumstances.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s associated formal complaint

  1. The evidence provided to the Service suggests that the resident first complained regarding repairs to his bathroom floor in an email to his landlord on 2 August 2021. There is no evidence that the landlord acknowledged this as a formal complaint and did not in fact acknowledge the resident’s complaint until 28 February 2022 after being requested to do so by this Service.
  2. The Ombudsman’s complaints handling code defines a complaint as “an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents.” It is clear from the language used in his email of 2 August 2021 that the resident was making a complaint about the repairs to his bathroom floor. Thus, it would have been reasonable and in line with the landlord’s complaints policy to have investigated the complaint at this point.
  3. The landlord’s failure to recognise a formal complaint in relation to this issue caused lengthy delays in its complaints handling, and was not reasonable, prolonging the impact on the resident by taking 152 days until its stage one response.  This is against the complaint handling target of ten working days.
  4. It is noted that in its stage two response the landlord acknowledged its failure to fully investigate the complaint at stage one due to applying its own policy incorrectly. When the resident requested escalation on 24 March 2022, this was not actioned until he requested escalation a second time on 8 April 2022. This led to further delays in resolving their complaint and time and trouble incurred by the resident. Whilst the landlord has offered £75 in compensation for this failure this Service has considered that this does not go far enough to recognise the prolonged delays by its failure to initially recognise a complaint and its failure to escalate the complaint.

The landlord’s record keeping

  1. It is noted that evidence submitted by the landlord is not contemporaneous and it has not provided to the Service full copies of all correspondence, repair logs and reports that it has relied on as part of its internal complaints process and final response. Without this evidence the landlord is unable to demonstrate that it acted reasonably.
  2. The Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that “The member must provide copies (without charge) of any information requested by the Ombudsman that is, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, relevant to the complaint. This may include the following records and documents: a. the member’s policies and procedures; b. any internal files, documents, correspondence, records, accounts or minutes of meetings, in hard copy or electronic form. This includes records relating to similar cases where the Ombudsman needs them to establish consistency of practice.”
  3. The landlord is expected to keep robust records to provide an audit trail, and to enable the Ombudsman to determine whether it followed its policies and procedures. In this instance, there was a failure on its part in the form of poor record keeping from the initial report, as the landlord did not provide comprehensive records in relation to the reports of damage to the bathroom floor and when this was first investigated by them.
  4. This Service has also considered that the landlord submitted evidence of two stage two final response letters, both dated 27 April 2022, but showing conflicting amounts of compensation of £75 and £25. Furthermore, the letter offering £25 compensation states “whilst I am satisfied that there were no failings in us completing the repair to your bathroom flooring…”  This statement is omitted from the letter offering £75. Whilst all further correspondence references a goodwill gesture of £75 to be awarded to the resident, it is unclear whether the landlord sent both versions of the letter to the resident. This is lacking in clarity and is further evidence of poor record keeping by the landlord.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in relation to its handling of the repairs to the resident’s bathroom floor.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in handling of the resident’s complaint.
  3. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its record keeping.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within four weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is required to provide evidence to this Service of compliance with the orders as follows:
    1. Pay the resident compensation the total sum of £450 comprising:
      1. £250 in recognition of the inconvenience and stress caused by the its delays to repairing the bathroom floor.
      2. The total sum of £150, including the £75 already offered, in recognition of its complaint handling.
      3. £50 for its poor record keeping on the issue.