Summary: Ms X complained about heating and hot water at her temporary accommodation. We found fault by the Council through delay and poor complaint handling which meant Ms X paid for communal heating she did not receive and caused her avoidable inconvenience. The Council has agreed to apologise, reimburse some of the heating and hot water costs and make a symbolic payment to Ms X. The Council will also ensure tenants receive adequate information about communal heating systems.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains the Council has unfairly charged her for heating and hot water at her temporary accommodation.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
4. Before considering a complaint, the Ombudsman should be satisfied the Council has had an opportunity to investigate and respond to a complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5))
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(1), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

6. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

8. The following is a summary of key events. It does not include everything that happened.
9. Ms X moved into temporary accommodation provided by the Council on 9 December 2024. The property uses communal heating and hot water using a district heating system. There is also an immersion heater that can be used in emergencies. There is no gas supply at the property.
10. The Council has explained that the heating is provided through a district heating system due to the original design of the properties. For all this type of property, the charges are included in the tenancy agreement and are collected directly from residents. The heating charge is based on a commercial contract and does not benefit from an effective price cap and is not covered by housing benefit or universal credit payments.
11. Ms X says she was not advised about the communal heating system or that she was paying an amount towards this when she moved into the property. Ms X further says she had no access to the communal heating system until May 2025 but relied on her own electric heating and the immersion heater for hot water.
12. The Council has provided a copy of the initial email it sent to Ms X dated 8 December 2024 about her tenancy. The email had 9 attachments including documents setting out the Council’s and tenant’s responsibilities, the Council’s lettings standards and how to report a repair. The information about the property says it has no gas and the heating type is recorded as ‘dhr’ and the hot water type as ‘dh’. The information provided advised Ms X to contact the energy supplier to change the electric meter to her name and provided a website link and telephone number with information about how to do this. There was no specific information about the communal district heating system.
13. Ms X’s tenancy agreement set out the weekly rent was £228.36 which included the following weekly charges:

• £11.79 for water rates
• £16.61 for service charge
• £58.09 for hot water and heating
• £141.87 for rent

14. The above tenancy agreement which was signed by Ms X on 7 December 2024 also sets out that the Council will provide at least 24 hours notice to inspect the property and carry out repairs except in an emergency when tenants must give immediate access.

Ms X’s reports about the heating system

15. Ms X complained to the Council on 2 May 2025 about a lack of heating and hot water in her property. Ms X said an engineer had to open valves to provide her with access to the system and manually adjust a thermostat on 1 May 2025. Ms X said she had been charged £60 a week for heating and hot water and sought a refund of the payments she had made. Ms X also said the communal heating and hot water was too expensive.
16. On 22 May 2025 the Council attempted to access Ms X’s property. The Council was unable to enter the property and left a card advising they would visit again on 11 June 2025. The Council provided a copy of a photograph of Ms X’s door and card dated 22 May and its system notes which state an SMS message was queued to be sent on 19 May and an email was sent on 19 May about the appointment. A further email reminder about the appointment was sent on 21 May with an email sent at 10.04am to say the operative was on their way. There is also a note that ‘follow on appointment’ made for 11 June.
17. However, the Council attempted to visit Ms X’s property of 29 May rather than 11 June. I have seen no evidence that the Council informed Ms X of this visit in advance. On 29 May 2025 the Council attempted to access Ms X’s property without success. It is not clear whether any card was left and the photograph provided on the access report is of the communal door only and the card left is out of focus so no details can be seen. The Council’s system records refer to an appointment reminder with no details and that on the day of the appointment a message was sent at 3.13pm to say the operative was on their way.
18. There is inconsistent information about contact with Ms X on 11 June 2025. The Council’s records timed at 8.30am say Ms X let the operative in to the property but she was due to leave for work but also that ‘knocked but no answer carded’. The Council says an operative spoke to Ms X and that no visible leak was identified but due to boxing in place a follow-on order was raised to complete a full inspection on 17 June.
19. However, Ms X telephoned the Council on 16 June 2025 and stated she was unaware of an appointment being made for 17 June and to complain that no operative attended on 11 June. The Council has not provided a specific access report for this date.
20. The Council attempted to access Ms X’s property on 17 June 2025 without success. A card was left requesting Ms X to call back. The photograph appears to show the communal entry phone with a card left on top dated 17 June and timed at 3pm. Therefore, it is not clear if Ms X received this card. The Council’s system records say a reminder email was sent on 16 June with a message also sent on 17 June to say the operative was on their way timed at 2.48pm.
21. The Council confirmed on 19 June 2025 that it had made an appointment for 10 July 2025. On 10 July 2025, the Council attempted to access Ms X’s property without success. A card was left with a new appointment date of for 28 July 2025. The Council has provided a photograph of Ms X’s door with a card dated 10 July timed at 8.20am. Ms X telephoned the Council the same day and says she was not aware of the appointment and that she was home but no one came to the property.
22. The Council confirmed the issue affecting the heating was fixed on 16 July 2025.

Council’s complaint response to Ms X

23. The Council responded to Ms X’s complaint of 2 May 2025 at Stage 1 of its complaint procedure on 10 June 2025 and apologised for the delay. This set out it was waiting for a response from the team that managed the communal heating and hot water systems so it could not confirm any reimbursement. The Council would follow this up by 20 June 2025. This letter sets out how Ms X could escalate the complaint to Stage 2 of its complaint procedure and wrongly provided the details of the Housing Ombudsman if Ms X remained unhappy with the outcome.
24. Ms X sought to escalate her complaint to Stage 2 of the Council’s complaint procedure on 24 June 2025 as she had not received any further update as promised.
25. The Council provided a response to Ms X’s escalation request on 23 July 2025 and upheld her complaint. This sets out that works were carried out and completed on 16 July 2025 but were delayed partly due to access issues. The Council acknowledged a prolonged period of 11 weeks without constant heating or hot water and offered to reimburse the cost of 5.5 weeks of heating and hot water at £58.09 per week rather than the whole period as it had been unable to resolve the issue sooner due to not being able to access the property. The Council apologised for the inconvenience and offered £232.36 to Ms X. This figure is incorrect and should have been calculated at £319.50 (please see paragraphs 31 and 32 below). This letter again wrongly advised Ms X she could refer her complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. The response did not address the issue of no access to the communal system between 9 December 2024 and 1 May 2025.
26. Ms X brought her complaint to the Ombudsman at the end of July 2025. I have not investigated events after this period as Ms X would need to complain to the Council in the first instance (please see paragraph 4 above).

Analysis

27. The Council’s complaint response does not address the issue Ms X had originally raised about not having access to the communal system between 9 December 2024 and 1 May 2025 when an engineer opened up valves. Ms X made the point she had been paying a weekly charge but with no access to the communal system had relied on her own electricity.
28. Ms X’s signed tenancy agreement sets out the separate weekly cost of heating and hot water. However, there is no evidence the Council explained the communal district heating system to Ms X at the start of her tenancy. The Council should provide adequate information about this type of system to tenants at the start of their tenancy and I make a recommendation about this below.
29. On balance, it would appear Ms X did not have access to the communal system until 1 May 2025 and there were subsequent repair issues which meant she did not have consistent access until July 2025. This meant Ms X was paying a weekly amount of £58.09 for communal heating and hot water she did not receive.
30. The Council’s repair records also suggest it did not properly inform Ms X in advance of all the appointments to her property. There is also an inconsistency in the quality of the records for the visits made.
31. As set out above, the Council offered a payment of £232.36 to Ms X at the conclusion of its complaint procedure. This Council set out that the weekly cost was £58.09 but it would only offer 5.5 weeks rather than 11 weeks due to issues with access. However, 5.5 weeks at £58.09 would be £319.50 rather than the £232.36 offered.
32. The Ombudsman clarified the amount offered to Ms X at an early point in our investigation with the Council but did not receive an adequate response. On responding to my formal enquiries, the Council accepted it had made a mistake in its letter to Ms X and confirmed it should have offered her £319.50. The Council confirmed it had paid Ms X £232.36 but would contact her to pay the additional amount to bring the total paid to the correct amount of £319.50 and provide an apology.
33. In view of the issues identified above I do not consider this action and additional payment provides a suitable remedy to Ms X.
34. There was also delay in the Council’s complaint handling and the Stage 1 response did not attempt to address the issues raised by Ms X due to a failure of its own department to respond to the complaints team. This meant Ms X had to escalate her complaint and the subsequent response also failed to address all the issues raised and then miscalculated a proposed remedy payment. This fault will have caused Ms X avoidable time and trouble.

Back to top

Action

35. The Council will take the following action within one month of my final decision:
1. write to Ms X to apologise for the failure to fully address her complaint, the delay in dealing with the issues affecting her heating and hot water and the error in the calculation of its remedy payment;
2. reimburse Ms X for the weekly cost of the communal heating and hot water she did not have access to for the period 9 December 2024 to 1 May 2025;
3. reimburse Ms X for the weekly cost of the communal heating and hot water in full for the 11 weeks she did not have consistent access between May 2025 and July 2025;
4. make a symbolic payment to Ms X of £100 for her avoidable time and trouble due to the faults in the Council’s complaint handling; and
5. review the information provided to new tenants in properties with a communal district heating system to ensure it includes adequate information about the heating and hot water system.
36. The Council’s complaint handling policy is in line with our published guidance – the Complaint Handling Code. However, we have identified fault with how it has dealt with this complaint because it did not fully address the issues raised and provided incorrect information. In order to prevent similar faults from happening, the Council should review how it is applying its policy in practice, using this decision as part of that review, and tell us what action(s) it will take to improve the way it deals with complaints.
37. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
38. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

Back to top

Decision

39. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman