Trafford Housing Trust Limited (202202308)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202202308

Trafford Housing Trust Limited

10 October 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 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 handling of the resident’s reports of heating issues within the property.

Background

  1. The property is described as a walk-up flat located on the ground floor, and is a newly built property on a shared ownership basis between the landlord and the resident. The resident’s tenancy commenced on the 23 September 2021.It is worth noting that the landlord had raised the radiator specifications with the original builder of the property s well as the manufacturer.
  2. The resident reported issues with her radiators within her property not reaching a suitable temperature on 24 October 2021. The landlord attended the property as an emergency call–out on 25 October 2021, where it found the radiators to be working. The resident remained dissatisfied with both the output and the size, believing them to be inadequate to heat the property. This resulted in the landlord conducting a formal investigation with the builder, who in turn contacted the electrical contractor that installed the radiators as well as the manufacturer of the radiator. The findings of this investigation were provided to the resident on 28 January 2021, which concluded that the radiator outpour and panel sizing were adequate, meeting the building regulations at the time the property was built.
  3. The resident disputed this, raising this as a formal complaint to landlord on the same day, because she believed that the radiators remained defective as they were insufficiently heating the property to an acceptable standard.
  4. The landlord, in its final response to the complaint, confirmed that the radiators were working adequately, having found no defects or issues during its investigation. It confirmed that the specifications were correct, and the radiators met the relevant building regulations when built. As a result, it looked to take the matter no further and suggested the resident look to make a claim through the National House Building Council (NHBC) association for any alterations to the heating of the property.
  5. Ultimately, the resident remained dissatisfied with this response, raising her complaint with this Service on 14 June 2022. She has requested an appropriate heating survey be carried out within the property, and a door installed at the end of her corridor to prevent cold air/draughts from entering. She also wishes for extra insulation or a resolution for the heat loss through her utility cupboard where a vent exists, as an appropriate remedy. The resident, in her communications to this Service on the 6 March 2022, has requested compensation for the additional stress this has caused over the nine months.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. In her communications to the landlord, the resident has stated that due to the panel radiators not reaching an optimal output, she believes she has been mis-sold the property. This matter is outside the scope of this investigation because such a claim is more appropriately decided by the courts, and, therefore, the resident should seek legal advice if she wishes to pursue this aspect of her complaint further.
  2. The resident’s requests for both a door to be installed within her corridor and extra insulation and/or a heat-loss prevention to be provided in her utility cupboard, are not included in this investigation. This is because, in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, we cannot investigate complaints which have not exhausted a landlord’s complaints procedure, as landlords need to be given the opportunity to respond first. The resident should contact the landlord directly about these matters, should she still require these outcomes. As a result, this report focuses on the resident’s reports of the heating assessment within the property.

Relevant Policies

  1. The resident’s home user manual states that all new homes provided come with a new home warranty period of twelve months starting from the date the property was handed over to the landlord. If the landlord believes the repair to be the responsibility of the builder, it will contact the builder to carry out the repair rather than the landlord’s own contractor.
  2. The resident’s home user manual states that urgent repairs, such as faulty plumbing, water leaks or faulty heating, will be attended to within five working days.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of heating issues within the property

  1. In response to the resident first reporting issues with her radiators on the 24 October 2021, the builder’s contractor attended the following day, where it tested and reviewed the radiator panels to find that they were running hot, appearing to work correctly identifying no defects. While the resident disputes this, it was reasonable for the landlord to rely on the opinions and expertise of its suitably qualified staff/contractors. The resident raised further concerns that both the output and size of the radiators was inadequate to heat her property, raising this as a formal complaint on the 7 December 2021. The resident submitted her reply from the manufacturer of the radiators she received on 17 January 2022, further disputing that the radiators were defective.
  2. The landlord had, appropriately, conducted a formal investigation into the radiator specifications, given the resident’s concerns. It had contacted the manufacturer, the builder’s contractor, and its own electrical contractors for information. It appropriately signposted the resident on 25 January 2022 during its investigation, looking to manage her expectations, by stating that the information she received on 17 January 2022 would be inaccurate, as this was only based on room sizes alone and not the other thermo insulative properties of the building.
  3. The landlord relayed its findings formally in its stage one outcome on 1 February 2022.It informed the resident it had spoken to the building contractor who advised that the heat-loss calculations, were completed correctly and to the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) standards. The report, provided to the resident on 28 January 2021, further highlighted that “the installation (at the property) is not only satisfactory from an installation point of view, but also from a heat loss calculation perspective”.
  4. It is noted that while the calculations do not specify if this was based on the building as a whole, or just the resident’s property, as per her concerns, it does, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, satisfactorily evidences that the landlord took an appropriate, evidence led approach to show that the heating installed within the property was adequate from a specialist’s perspective. As a result, the landlord decided that it could take the matter no further, appropriately signposting the resident to the NHBC to make a claim via the warranty. Although it remains unclear on the progression of the claim, as such, the Ombudsman gives the landlord the recommendation below to follow up on the resident’s claim with the NHBC, and offer any clarity on the matter where appropriate.
  5. However, in cases where a landlord is receiving reports of inadequate heating to a property, the Ombudsman would expect the landlord to address the matter directly by conducting a heat loss survey (or appropriate report), within a reasonable timeframe. While the landlord’s evidence suggests it attended the property on 25 October 2021 and later “before Christmas” in its communications to the resident on 8 February 2022, it is unclear as to what steps the landlord has taken to respectively measure the temperature within the property, and ensure the resident that her heating system is appropriately working.
  6. The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (the HHSRS), offers landlords a risk-based tool to enable them to consider potential hazards.  This is useful as landlords have a responsibility to help keep properties free from category one hazards, which includes excess cold. Guidance for the HHSRS sets out that a healthy indoor temperature is approximately 21C, and that temperatures below 16C may pose serious health risks. With this in mind, and noting the resident’s concerns that the property is not heating to the minimum level, the landlord was responsible for checking the thermal efficiency of the property to determine if the temperature within the property was adequate or not under the relevant regulations. This was not forthcoming in this case and the evidence the landlord has submitted does not specify if any such assessment took place.
  7. The Ombudsman would expect a landlord to keep a robust record of its contacts and visits to a property when carrying out an assessment. When there is a disagreement in the accounts between the landlord and the resident in regard to the condition of the property, the onus would be on the landlord to provide documentary evidence showing how it satisfied itself that the assessment had been completed to a satisfactory standard. In this case, the landlord has not evidenced dates of attendance or appropriate inspection notes, and therefore the Ombudsman highlights its failing on poor record keeping. It is therefore given the recommendation below on staff training and the importance of keeping accurate notes.
  8. We note the impact this had on the resident was considerable, as the property would have been exposed to the winter months (December to March), without substantive evidential proof that the landlord had checked the radiators were heating to an acceptable output. Given that the landlord first attended the property for this issue on 25 October 2021, the Ombudsman concludes that the length of time, trouble, and distress this has caused the resident was unreasonable under the circumstances, and would therefore expect the landlord to offer suitable redress.
  9. In light of the identified service failures identified above, an overall determination of maladministration has been found. Compensation reflecting these failures has been calculated with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance, for cases involving maladministration with no permanent impact upon the household, together with additional orders and recommendations as outlined below.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in respect of its handling of the resident’s reports of heating issues within the property.

Orders

  1. The landlord is ordered to pay the resident compensation of £200 for the service failures identified. This amount is to be paid directly to the resident.
  2. The landlord is ordered to attend the property and carry out an inspection/assessment of the radiator panels within the resident’s property. This is to ensure they are reaching optimal temperatures in line with the HHSRS guidelines, prior to the winter months beginning (December – March).
  3. Following the inspection, the landlord is to write to the resident (and this Service) confirming if the property reaches optimal heating levels in line with both the build specification and the HHSRS guidelines.
  4. The above orders are to be completed within 28 days of this report, with evidence of compliance to be provided to this Service by the same date.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord is recommended to contact the resident in regard to her request for a door to be installed at the end of her corridor hallway, and her request for extra insulation/heat-loss in her utility cupboard to proceed as a separate complaint if it has not already done so.
  2. The landlord is recommended to review its staff training needs in relation to the importance on keeping robust, accurate records of all jobs, inspections, and dates of attendance, to help prevent any miscommunication occurring in the future.
  3. The landlord is recommended to follow-up on the enquiries made to the NHBC and relay this information back to the resident to help progress any claims outstanding and offer clarity on the progress/issues of the claim.