Westminster City Council (202212282)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202212282

Westminster City Council

28 February 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:
    1. The compensation provided by the landlord to the resident following repeated heating and hot water repairs.
    2. The landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord.
  2. The resident first reported no heating or hot water in January 2022. An engineer visited the following day and left the boiler working. After several further reports from the resident that she had no heating or hot water, and several visits from engineers to get it working, the landlord assessed the heating system and decided, on 14 February 2022, it needed to be upgraded. On the same day the resident raised a complaint to the landlord. Her complaint stated that work done on the boiler, while it was working in February 2022, had caused subsequent failures, and that there had been missed appointments.
  3. The landlord responded on 25 February 2022. It offered compensation of £68 for a week (8 to 15 February) without heating and hot water as well as compensation for the use of two heaters during this time. The resident escalated her complaint on 1 March 2022, where she disputed some of the landlord’s findings. She stated she was without heating and hot water for twenty-two days and wanted to be compensated for that, as well as disputing her boiler being left working on several occasions. From March to June 2022, the resident made further reports of having no heating or hot water. In June 2022, the boiler, and most of the heating system, was replaced.
  4. The landlord provided its final complaint response in July 2022, where it offered additional compensation of £158 for the time it took to investigate and respond at stage two of the complaint process.
  5. The resident brought her complaint to this Service because she was dissatisfied with the level of compensation offered by the landlord.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

  1. As per the tenancy handbook, the landlord is responsible for keeping in good working order the equipment that supplies heating and hot water.
  2. As also explained in the tenancy handbook, loss of heating or hot water between 1 November and 30 April should be attended within two hours and made safe within twenty-four hours. Loss of hot water and heating between 1 May and 31 October is considered “urgent”, with a three-day response time.
  3. The landlord’s complaints policy states that complaints should be acknowledged within two working days. A stage one response will be made within ten working days and a stage two response within twenty working days. If more time is needed to investigate, the resident will be notified with the landlord explaining the reason for the delay and when a full response will be sent.

Repairs to and replacement of the boiler

  1. There is no disputing that the heating and hot water failing at any time is frustrating and inconvenient, additionally so in the colder months. Landlord’s have a responsibility to repair and maintain heating systems, but there are no guarantees that the heating system will not potentially be interrupted by equipment failures or any number of other reasons. Only if there is evidence that a landlord’s actions, or inaction, led to or contributed to the breakdown, or caused delays repairing it, would a landlord be expected to consider providing compensation for the impact on the tenant.
  2. In this case, no clear evidence that the heating breakdowns the resident experienced were due to any specific failings by the landlord has been seen in this investigation. Nonetheless, there were shortcomings in how the landlord responded to some of the resident’s reports.
  3. It took five months for the landlord to resolve the issue with the resident’s boiler. The landlord has stated to this Service that the new boiler was delayed due to an asbestos survey that needed to be done first. However, there has been no evidence provided to this Service showing that the landlord explained this to the resident. This was unreasonable because while there are many valid reasons why repair deadlines are missed, basic good practice is for the landlord to keep the resident updated and informed until the repair is resolved.
  4. From January 2022 to April 2022, the resident reported no hot water or heating three times. Records show that engineers attended within the landlord’s target of two hours on only one occasion: on 8 February 2022. On that occasion the resident was left with two heaters as the hot water and heating could not be re-established. On the other occasions, response times were between twenty-three hours and three days, which were outside the landlord’s response targets for a loss of heating and hot water.
  5. From May to June 2022, the resident reported no hot water or heating once. Records show that engineers attended within the landlord’s target of three working days (for the summer period). This was reasonable as it was in line with its repairs timescale.
  6. In the resident’s complaint she said there had been multiple missed appointments. The landlord acknowledged this in its stage one and final response. Evidence shows there were two missed appointments (14 February 2022, and 25 February 2022). While it is reasonable that the landlord offered compensation for one of the missed appointments, as per its compensation policy, it was unreasonable not to offer compensation for the other missed appointment.
  7. Overall, some of the landlord’s response times to the resident’s repair reports, its communication with the resident about the time needed to replace the boiler, and its handling of the missed appointments show service failings. The landlord partly remedied these in its final complaint response, but the level of compensation it offered was not wholly proportionate to the scale of the delays. Accordingly, the resident’s complaint was not fully remedied.

Complaint handling

  1. When the resident made her stage one complaint the landlord acknowledged it the following day and provided its response within ten working days. This was in line with its complaints policy. When the resident escalated her complaint, the landlord acknowledged it ten working days later and apologised for the delay. It stated it would respond by 7 April 2022. On 7 April 2022, the landlord stated it needed more time to investigate and would respond by 25 April 2022. While the landlord was late with its escalation acknowledgement, it was reasonable, and in line with its complaints policy, that it apologised for the delay and provided a new deadline and explanation.
  2. However, the landlord only provided its final response on 12 July 2022. While it offered more compensation for the delay, it gave no explanation. Furthermore, the resident chased a response or update multiple times after 25 April 2022. The landlord did not provide one and in several instances did not respond to her. This was unreasonable as it was poor customer service, and not in line with its complaints policy.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in respect of the compensation provided by the landlord to the resident after repeated heating and hot water repairs.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in respect of the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Orders

  1. In light of the inconvenience, frustration and distress caused to the resident, the landlord is ordered to pay the resident a total of £450. This breaks down as follows:
    1. £300 for its handling of the heating and hot water repairs.
    2. £150 for its handling of the complaint.
  2. This amount is inclusive of the £158 already offered by the landlord. Payment must be made within four weeks of this report, and evidence provided to this Service.