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We've recently received a determination on a Housing Ombudsman case that was raised by one of our tenants, who was unhappy with the service she received in relation to repairs to her home. The tenant has been experiencing damp issues in her home since April 2022. Our handling of the repairs was found to be inadequate, with delays, poor communication, and a lack of coordination.
We have completed various works to rectify the cause of the damp and are due to complete the necessary repairs within the next six weeks. We have also agreed to redecorate damaged areas of the tenant's home and we've offered additional compensation to acknowledge the inconvenience caused. We will use this case to improve our communication with tenants regarding repairs, as well as our record keeping. To ensure a clear understanding of promised deliverables and completed works, especially in cases of staff, manager, or contractor turnover, we will remind staff to maintain adequate records.
During a complaint investigation one of our tenants was disappointed we did not offer more advice around home contents insurance, which may have prevented the inconvenient expense of replacing damaged goods. Our Realising Potential Specialists check if tenants have taken out home contents insurance at four-week & six-month intervals and reward them with five Tenancy Sustainment Licence points annually on proof of policy; however we realised we could offer more support and advice as to how to take out a policy and why we encourage it.
We created a new page on our website to offer more information on home contents insurance which also provides links to comparison websites so tenants can gather quotes for an appropriate policy. We want to ensure our tenants are as well informed as possible about their home and how best to safeguard their property.
We noticed that although we were responding quickly to initial reports of damp and mould within tenant's homes, we weren't always following up to check whether the initial action we took did completely resolve the issue.
We strengthened our processes to ensure that after any damp and mould action there is always a review to ensure that the steps we have taken have been successful. We will proactively make contact with tenants three months after any works, and if the problem has been resolved we will still get back in touch again after six months just to be certain. If for whatever reason the problem has not been resolved we will again follow up at three and six months after any new repairs action, and will be monitored closely by our specialists.
During our tenant event in May, our tenants said that they wanted more investigation before negative points are applied, especially in relation to the gas safety checks. They felt that sometimes it came across as an accusation, and they wanted the chance to speak to someone about it first.
In response to this, we agreed that we'd send a message before any points were applied – letting them know that they’ve missed an appointment which could result in negative points and could we discuss this further (giving them the opportunity to let us know why it was missed). We give them 48 hours to come back with a response.
This has worked well so far, with tenants responding positively and are grateful for the opportunity to explain why the appointment was missed.
As a digital-first organisation we always prefer to communicate with our tenants via our portal, something which makes us unique and our tenants really like about us.
On one occasion a member of the public wanted to speak to us about a tree that had fallen from a Twenty11 home into their private garden and wanted to resolve the situation swiftly.
Our policies insisted on a digital-only approach to communication for tenants; however we didn’t consider how we can be flexible around communicating with members of the public in relation to a Twenty11 home. This caused frustration for this member of the public and prolonged the resolution.
We recognised that although tenants are fully aware of our digital approach when they join us, our approach might not always be appropriate for members of the public who may need to speak to us in relation to a Twenty11 home. We updated our policy to highlight that in these situations we do still prefer to communicate digitally via email or webchat, however if this is not appropriate our staff can telephone members of the public to provide a swift resolution where required.
Our tenant attempted to call our out-of-hours service to record that they had no hot water. Unfortunately the call did not connect so they logged the issue via the Twenty11 tenant portal; however this was also not picked up by our repairs service for another 48 hours. When arranging an appointment the tenant informed us that they would not be able to be present at the home until after 5:30pm, resulting in the repair request being unable to be booked in due to being outside office hours.
We regularly ensure our emergency contact numbers are correct on our website and undertake test calls to ensure the connections are in full working order.
Our out-of-hours emergency service is largely a 'make safe' facility and where a more thorough repair is required we do require appointments to be made before 5:30pm, Monday - Friday.
Since this complaint we have however been utilising Saturday appointments more widely for tenants who do work full-time and need more flexibility in order to rectify any repairs.