Summary: Ms X complained about the way the Council handled her reports of disrepair at her privately rented property. Ms X said this meant she had to live in a property without adequate heating and hot water. We have not found fault with the Council for the way it handled Ms X’s reports of repairs.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the way the Council responded to her reports of disrepair at her property.
2. Ms X said as the Council did not investigate the issues she reported and she had to live a property without adequate heating and hot water.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. As part of this investigation I considered the information provided by Ms X and the Council. I discussed the complaint over the telephone with Ms X. I sent a draft of this decision to Ms X and the Council and considered comments received in response.

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What I found

Law and guidance

6. Private tenants may complain to their council about a failure by the landlord to keep the property in good repair. A council has powers to enforce against landlords where it identifies a hazard which puts the health and safety of the tenant at risk. These powers involve use of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).
7. The HHSRS applies a risk based approach to different hazards associated with poor quality housing. It includes consideration of matters such as damp and mould, personal hygiene sanitation and drainage, electrical hazards and structural safety. Category 1 hazards are the most serious. Councils have legal powers to require landlords or property owners take immediate action to remedy these. Councils have discretion to take enforcement action if a category 2 hazard is identified.
8. The Council’s Regulation and Enforcement policy says the Council will when considering enforcement action, where appropriate and where reasonably practicable, discuss the circumstances with those suspected of a breach and take these into account when deciding on the best approach.

What happened

9. There has been extensive correspondence between Ms X, the Council, Ms X’s Landlord and the property Agents. In this section I have just summarised the key points and have not referred to every single piece of correspondence.
10. In August 2022, Ms X moved into private rented accommodation.
11. In early December 2022, Ms X contacted the Council’s Private Sector Rented team about heating issues in the property. Ms X told the Council three out of eight radiators were not working. Prior to this Ms X had raised the issues with the property Agents.
12. On 16 December 2022, the Council contacted the property Agents and reported the issues Ms X raised. The Council told the Agents to bring this to the Landlord’s attention and repair the issues within 21 days. The Council also wrote to Ms X explaining it had contacted the Agents.
13. On 22 December 2023, the Agents told the Council Ms X had heating except for one radiator. The Agents explained that to rectify this issue the entire house could need re-piping, which is costly and would take time, leaving Ms X without any heating. The Agents explained it was looking into doing this when the weather became warmer.
14. The Agents also emailed Ms X and said to her it had sent several engineers to the property to try to repair the radiator. The Agent explained a contractor said there was only radiator which did not work unless all the others are switched off and the Landlord would look at re-piping the property but wanted to wait until the weather was warmer as it was such a big job. The Agent explained the Landlord had bought Ms X a heater to use.
15. On 22 December 2023, the Landlord contacted the Council and told it had provided Ms X with a heater and offered her a one off payment towards heating costs. The Landlord said they initially had the repairs assessed in late November 2022, then sent several different contractors round to the property on 5, 8 and 9 December 2022 who were unable to repair the problems. On 15 and 20 December 2022, the Landlord said they sent a new contractor round who carried out works which fixed the radiators.
16. In early January 2023, a contractor visited Ms X’s property. The contractors report said there had been five other heating engineers who attended the property to inspect the issues but were unable to resolve matter. The contractor said it attended the property to inspect it on 10, 14 and 15 December 2022 and on 17 December 2022 carried out works. The contractor said at the time of this visit all radiators were working and they explained to Ms X that all radiators could not be turned on at once as there were issues with the pipework. A solution to this would be changing the pipe work which was a big job.
17. On 9 January 2023, the Agent sent a copy of this report to the Council. The Agent explained it was looking to obtain quotes for the pipework but this particular contractor who prepared the report said they would not work with Ms X again.
18. In late January 2023, the Council’s Private Sector Housing team contacted Ms X to see if the issues had been resolved. Ms X reported they had not been. As a result the Council’s Private Sector Housing team passed the matter to its Environmental Health team. On 2 February 2023, the case was allocated to an Environmental Health Officer (EHO).
19. The EHO contacted Ms X on 6 February 2023 and Ms X reported the radiator in the kitchen and child’s bedroom was not working. The EHO contacted the Agents on the same day who said they were waiting on several quotes for works to refit larger pipes.
20. On 20 February 2023, the EHO contacted Ms X again to see if anything further had happened. Ms X said no works had been carried out to the property. On the same day the EHO contacted the Agents about this.
21. In early March 2023, Ms X emailed the Council and told it she did not have heating after an engineer visited the property and damaged the boiler. The EHO contacted the Agents to report this and the Agent told the EHO they would look into this.
22. Following this the EHO was off work on sick leave and returned on 24 April 2023. During this time there was no contact from Ms X.
23. On 25 April 2023, the EHO contacted the Agent and left messages for an update by telephone and email. In early May 2023, the EHO chased up a response from the Agents and contacted Ms X who reported the radiators on the ground floor were not working. The EHO again contacted the Agents and told them of Ms X reports about the radiators not working on the ground floor.
24. On 12 May 2023, the Agents said contractors had been booked for the following week to assess the parts needed, or if able, to carry out repairs.
25. On 26 May 2023, the EHO contacted Ms X who said contractors had visited but had not repaired the issues. Ms X said contractors told her the small pipes in the house needed refitting. On the same day the Agents contacted the EHO and said it had asked the Landlord for payment for the works of £700.
26. At the end of May 2023, the Agents confirmed contractors had been appointed by the Landlord and the works approved.
27. On 14 June 2023, Ms X reported to the EHO that she had no hot water. The EHO contacted the Agents about this on the same day.
28. In July 2023, emails between the EHO, Landlord and Agents showed the Landlord decided to give Ms X a section 21 notice to vacate the property. The Landlord said there had been issues with Ms X allowing workers access to the property and the Landlord was moving back to live in the property. Further email correspondence showed Ms X had been made aware there was an emersion heater at the property.
29. Following further correspondence from the EHO to Ms X and the Agents, all parties confirmed on 18 August 2023 the works had been completed.
30. Ms X moved out of the property in September 2023.

Ms X’s complaint

31. Ms X complained to the Council in August 2023 and said it did not do enough to resolve her heating issues with her landlord.
32. The Council provided its response to Ms X in late August 2023. The Council said:
• An Environmental Health Officer carried out investigations and found there was an issue with water pressure due to the piping used at the property. However everything was in working order except one radiator in Ms X’s son’s bedroom.
• The records showed the agent attempted to carry out repairs in Ms X’s son’s bedroom but contractors were not allowed access.
• When Ms X initially reported issues with heating and hot water in November 2022, the Council wrote to her landlord and asked it to resolve things. The Council said this was standard practice.
• After Ms X told it she was still not happy the Council continued to work with all parties to oversee the repairs.
• The officer decided there was nothing enforceable under the Housing Act 2004 and Ms X’s property was not uninhabitable.
33. Ms X asked the Council to consider her complaint at the next stage in September 2023. Ms X said the Council did not reallocate her case to another officer when the officer dealing with her case was off sick.
34. The Council provided its final response to Ms X in early November 2023. The Council did not uphold the complaint. The Council said it did not reallocate the matter as it did not consider Ms X’s property was uninhabitable.

Analysis

35. Ms X initially reported repair issues to the Council in December 2022. At this stage the case was with the Council’s Private Sector Housing team. After receiving Ms X’s reports the Council contacted the Landlord and asked it to look into the issues Ms X raised and complete any repairs. The Council also received a report from a contractor who had visited Ms X’s property which said there was one radiator which was not working whilst all others were turned on.
36. The Council received correspondence from Ms X and the Agent which confirmed the Landlord provided her with temporary heating in late 2022. This also said the Landlord wanted to wait until the weather improved before carrying out piping works as these would take at least a week and cause Ms X to be without any heating at all. Following on from this the Council contacted Ms X to see if the issued had been resolved. As Ms X reported they had not it referred the matter to its Environmental Health team.
37. It was appropriate for the Council to raise Ms X’s concerns with the Agents and Landlord in the first instance. After doing this the Council received information which suggested the issues had been partially resolved and Ms X had been provided with temporary heating in the meantime. I have not found the Council at fault for how its Private Sector Housing Team handled her reports.
38. After the Council checked in with Ms X again in late January 2023 she told it there was still issues with the heating so the Private Sector Housing team passed the case to the Environmental Health team in early February 2023 to look into.
39. Once the Council passed the case to its Environmental Health team in February 2023 and Ms X confirmed the issues were still ongoing, it contacted the Agents.
40. The Council’s records showed that the EHO was in regular contact with Ms X and the Agents regarding the management of the works up until they were completed. In March 2023, there was a period where the EHO was off sick and no action was taken on the case, however Ms X did not make any reports about the issues at the property during this timeframe and it was not until the Council contacted her again that she told it there were still issues with the heating.
41. As the Council believed the works would be carried out and the parties were in the process of arranging contractors and access to the property, I am satisfied it has shown why it did not visit Ms X property and carry out an inspection.

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Final decision

42. I have completed my investigation and found there was no fault by the Council.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman