Bolton at Home Limited — case 202126641

REPORT COMPLAINT 202126641 Bolton at Home Limited 12 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 The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of a leak in her bathroom.

Determination In accordance with paragraph 55(c) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress following the Ombudsman’s intervention which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint. How the complaint was resolved The resident raised a leak in her bathroom on 25 February 2022, the landlord attended the same day and made the leak safe, but informed the resident follow-up works would be required. The leak re-occurred on 27 February 2022, and it was attended to on 28 February 2022 and made safe again.

The landlord re‑attended the resident’s property on 14 March 2022 to complete the repairs. The resident subsequently raised a formal complaint in March 2022. The resident said that, whilst the plumber made the bathroom safe, the leak had reoccurred and damaged her property. The resident asked the landlord to replace her flooring which had been damaged as a result of the leak and offer compensation in the region of £1,500. The landlord agreed to install new flooring in the resident’s hallway and bathroom and offered the resident £500 compensation in light of the poor service received in relation to the delays in repairing the shower.

The landlord also confirmed that during a visit to her property on 25 May 2022, the shower was fully functioning and no leak was present after the earlier repairs. The resident referred her complaint to this Service on 23 August 2022, saying she remained unhappy with the compensation offered and requested for this to be increased to around £1,500. Subsequent to this referral, the Ombudsman contacted the landlord about this case on 3 December 2022, including to ask for the supporting information for this investigation.

The landlord contacted this Service on 22 December 2022 saying, following a review of the case, it wished to increase its compensation offer to the resident to £750. This Service contacted the resident on 20 February 2023 to enquire if the increased offer of £750 compensation resolved her complaint satisfactorily. The resident subsequently informed this Service that this resolved her complaint appropriately. Therefore, as the landlord has expanded its offer of redress to offer additional financial compensation; and given the resident is satisfied with this offer there is no outstanding dispute to the Ombudsman to investigate.

This determination is contingent on the landlord completing the offered actions that is, installing new flooring in the resident’s hallway and bathroom and paying her compensation of £750.