Complaint reference 17808 - Complaint handling, Repairs

01 Sep 09 | Ombudsman Case Digests

The complainant has been the assured tenant of the landlord since May 2004. She complained about the landlord’s handling of her reports of a noisy extractor fan and also about the compensation offered by the landlord in relation to the matter.

Noisy extractor fan

The complainant first raised the issue of noise from the extractor fan in her neighbour’s property at Number 6 in September 2006 when the tenants moved back into Number 6 following a water leak and electrical works. There was no evidence from either party to corroborate the nature, frequency or substance of their communications but in December 2006 the kitchen fan at Number 6 was replaced and the bathroom fan cleaned and serviced. In January 2007 the bathroom fan was replaced. On 5 March 2007 a works order was raised for overhaul of an extractor fan (it is unclear which fan) as it was ‘very noisy’ and this was completed around three weeks later, within the target time.

There were no further reports of problems until July 2007 when a works order was raised for the kitchen fan to be checked and renewed because of a complaint that it was ‘too noisy.’ Contractors attended and completed a renewal of the fan a week later.

Compensation offered

When the complainant made a complaint about the fan the landlord offered her £30 of vouchers as a gesture of goodwill and in recognition of any inconvenience she may have experienced. This was later increased to £75. The complainant disagreed with the amount of compensation offered as she stated there had been noise from the kitchen extractor fan for approximately twelve months from 8pm until 6am each night. She requested £1,176 on the basis of £3 of compensation per night for a period of 56 weeks.

The landlord’s compensation policy allows for a goodwill gesture in circumstances including those where there has been an unreasonable delay in providing a service, a failure to provide a service to a published standard or failure to follow policies, procedures or guidelines or there has been a loss of facilities or amenities. The landlord had not identified a service failure in dealing with the extractor fan at Number 6 and so it was appropriate to offer a goodwill gestures to recognise any inconvenience.

At the panel hearing it was noted that the initial repair was dealt with promptly but that the landlord spent a total of 36 days dealing with two different repair orders requested by the complainant on 3 January 2007 and 28 February 2007. On the basis of £3 per day for 36 days, the landlord proposed compensation of £108. Although it was not evident that the landlord had delayed in completing these repairs. However, the Panel offered compensation "...to reflect [the] longer than expected repairs performance".

Determination

We concluded that there was no maladministration because the landlord responded to the reports in line with the time targets. Also since the landlord undertook works to rectify the problems with the extractor fan it was not obliged to compensate the complainant for the entire period of time that she experienced noise nuisance. It was appropriate to offer a goodwill payment; the amount of which was a matter for the landlord’s discretion.