The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Miss B says the Council failed to tell her about the rent and service charge amounts before she moved into her accommodation failed to provide her with weekly or monthly statements, withheld service charges from her housing benefit reimbursement, failed to explain how the service charge amount had been calculated and delayed resolving fire safety issues in her building. There is no fault in how the Council dealt with the rent and service charge issues. The Council has delayed carrying out some works identified in fire risk assessments. An apology and action to resolve the outstanding issues is satisfactory remedy.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss B, complained the Council: failed to tell her about the rent and service charge amount when she moved into her accommodation; failed to provide her with weekly or monthly rent and service charge statements; unreasonably withheld service charges from her housing benefit reimbursement; failed to explain how the service charge amount had been calculated, despite her request: and delayed resolving fire safety issues in her building.
Miss B says the Council’s actions have caused her frustration.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended) We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) 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) The Housing Ombudsman deals with complaints about the management of permanent local authority housing tenancies. But LGSCO has jurisdiction regarding complaints about the management of interim or temporary accommodation provided under a homelessness duty.
How I considered this complaint
As part of the investigation, I have: considered the complaint and Mrs B's comments; made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided.
Mrs B and the organisation had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
What I found
What should have happened The 1985 Housing act (the Act) says a local housing authority may make such reasonable charges as they may determine for the tenancy or occupation of their houses. The Act says the authority shall from time to time review rents and make such changes, either of rents generally or of particular rents, as circumstances may require.
Landlords and freehold owners of residential buildings have a legal duty to ensure a fire risk assessment is carried out to identify and remove any fire risks and hazards, or to reduce these as far as possible. In rented properties, landlords are responsible for ensuring that the properties meet fire safety standards.
What happened - rent and service charge Miss B presented to the Council as homeless. On 25 May 2021 the Council wrote to Miss B with an offer of temporary accommodation. The Council’s letter said the accommodation charge, which included an amount for furniture and services, was £117.01 week. The letter told Miss B she should not delay paying charges pending the award of any benefits as she would be liable for some charges over and above her benefit award. The licence was attached to the Council’s letter.
The Council emailed Miss B on 27 May 2021 to reiterate the rental charge which was due each Monday in advance. The email explained housing benefit would not cover the service charge and therefore Miss B was asked to pay some money on a weekly basis to cover that.
Miss B signed to accept the licence in June 2021.
The Council wrote to Miss B on 3 September 2021 to tell her about her housing benefit award. The Councils letter told Miss B housing benefit would cover £101.33 of her rent, leaving Miss B £15.68 to pay. Miss B had some arrears of housing benefit due and the Council deducted from those arrears the unpaid service charge element which was outstanding.
In February 2022 the Council exchanged emails with Miss B about her rent account. During those discussions the Council reminded Miss B housing benefit only covered £101.33 of her rent as it did not cover the additional costs such as heating and electricity which was the service charge.
Miss B asked the Council to provide a copy of rent statements from the beginning of the tenancy and an invoice for service charges made. The Council sent Miss B a rent account statement which set out the charges since August 2021.
The Council notified Miss B about an increase in her rent and service charge from April 2022. That letter told Miss B she would need to pay the service charge herself which it said covered heating, water and sewerage charges.
The Council wrote to Miss B on 14 April 2022 to tell her she had breached her hostel licence as she had removed the fire alarm recently installed in her room, was refusing to allow contractors into her room to install a fire blanket and was refusing to pay her service charge, resulting in arrears of £110.40. The Council set out the actions Miss B was required to take, which included paying the service charge and setting up a repayment plan to pay the arrears. The letter said failure to comply with the actions outlined could result in the Council issuing Miss B with a notice to vacate the hostel. Miss B told the Council she would not pay the service charge as she was disputing it and the Council had breached the contract by not supplying her with the details she had asked for.
The Council wrote to Miss B again in June 2022 about her service charge arrears. The Council later wrote to Miss B to tell her about its intention to evict her for breach of the hostel licence. The Council placed that eviction on hold, pending the outcome of the Ombudsman’s investigation.
Miss B subsequently asked the Council for a breakdown of the service charge, which the Council provided on 24 June 2022. When providing that breakdown the Council explained the heating charge was worked out as heating for Miss B’s room as well as a contribution to the other parts of the building that she used, including the bathroom, toilet and laundry room.
What happened - fire safety in the building The Council owns the building Miss B is living in. The Council arranged for a fire safety assessment in 2014. That assessment identified some issues and made some recommendations for the Council to undertake. That included carrying out a review of the risk assessment each year and a full fire risk assessment every two years.
The Council arranged for a further fire risk assessment in 2021. That assessment made numerous recommendations. One of those recommendations related to the need to carry out fire alarm tests and keep records. That had also been a recommendation from the 2014 assessment. The assessment noted that the assessor had been unable to confirm the fixed electrical installations has been subject to inspection by professional contractors in accordance with British standards requirements as the assessor did not have access to the electrical intake/riser cupboard as it was locked.
In its response to my enquiry the Council said it had taken action to address the recommendations from the 2021 fire risk assessment. The Council said the following actions were outstanding and provided estimated timescales to complete those actions: for the recommendation on testing of the fire alarm system every two weeks and keep records the Council said it had ordered a book to be provided within one month so the warden could record the tests carried out; for the recommendation for person centred risk assessments or personal emergency evacuation plans the Council said it would endeavour to put those in place within six months; for the recommendation to provide fire safety information relating to the premises on site for any attending fire and rescue service the Council said it had ordered a premises information box and emergency response plan; and for the recommendations about signage on doors the Council said it had arranged for the signs to be in place within one month.
Analysis Miss B says the Council failed to tell her about the rent and service charge amount for her accommodation when she moved into the hostel. The evidence I have seen satisfies me the Council wrote to Miss B to make an offer of accommodation on 25 May 2021. I am satisfied that letter set out the amount Miss B was liable for each week. That amount was £117.01. I am satisfied that was the rent plus service charge for the property. I appreciate the letter did not say how much of the £117.01 per week was a service charge. However, the letter made clear Miss B would be liable for some of the charge over and above any housing benefit award, which is the service charge amount.
I am also satisfied the licence Miss B signed made clear that in signing she was accepting responsibility to pay her rent including any other related charges for services such as heating and lighting. The Council also emailed Miss B on 27 May 2021 and in that email made clear the rent amount was made up of a rent charge and a service charge. That email also told Miss B housing benefit would not cover the service charge. Given the information provided to Miss B before she moved into the property I am satisfied she should have known that in accepting the property she would be liable for a service charge as part of her rent, that this would not be covered by housing benefit and that this was included in the overall rent charge of £117.01.
I have seen nothing in the documentary records to suggest Miss B queried the amount of service charge before she moved into the property. Had Miss B had concerns about how much the service charge would be I would have expected her to query that before she moved in. As I am satisfied the Council’s information made clear the total amount charged for the week, the fact that included service charges, that those service charges were not covered by housing benefit and as Miss B signed to accept that when she signed the licence I have no grounds to criticise the Council.
Miss B says the Council failed to provide her with weekly or monthly rent and service charge statements. Having considered the documentary evidence there is nothing in the licence signed by Miss B to suggest the Council agreed to provide weekly or monthly rent and service charge statements. I am satisfied though the Council had confirmed to Miss B the amount of rent charge she would have to pay before she accepted the property. It also wrote to her when it decided to increase that charge. As there is no requirement for the Council to provide weekly or monthly rent and service charge statements I have no grounds to criticise it.
Miss B is concerned the Council withheld and paid service charges from her housing benefit reimbursement. Miss B says the Council should not have done that as it had not told her about the service charge amount or issued invoices. As I said in the previous paragraph, I have seen no evidence to suggest the Council is required to provide invoices before making a service charge. Instead, in signing the licence for the property Miss B agreed to pay the rent and service charge. I am satisfied when the Council wrote to Miss B about her housing benefit award in September 2021 that letter set out the amount of service charge which was not covered by housing benefit. As I am satisfied the information provided to Miss B before she accepted the property made clear she would be liable for the service charge for the property I cannot criticise the Council for removing the amount owed in service charges from the lump sum payment of housing benefit.
Miss B says the Council failed to explain how it has calculated the service charge amount despite her requests. The documentary evidence I have seen satisfies me the Council provided Miss B with a breakdown of how the service charge she was required to pay is calculated in its letter of 25 February 2022. I am also satisfied the Council provided the same breakdown in its email of 24 June 2022, when it also explained that the heating charge was calculated both based on heating the room allocated to Miss B as well as a contribution to heating the other parts of the building she could use. As I am satisfied the Council provided the breakdown as requested, I have no grounds to criticise it.
Miss B says the Council delayed resolving fire safety issues in her building. Miss B is concerned about this because she says the action the Council was identified as having to take in 2021 were also issues raised in the 2014 fire safety report. I have considered both the 2014 fire risk assessment and the 2021 assessment. Having considered those assessments there is only one item I can identify which was mentioned in both assessments. That was the need to carry out fire alarm tests and keep a record on site. It is clear from the 2021 assessment this has not been carried out as at the time of the Council’s response to my enquiry, in 2022, the book had still not been ordered. Failure to put in place the recommendations between 2014 and 2021 is fault, as is the delay putting the procedure in place following the 2021 assessment. I recommend the Council prioritise this to ensure two weekly fire testing is carried out and a record kept on site. Given it was not completed following the 2014 fire risk assessment I recommend the Council monitor the site over the next three months to establish that it has been put into place. The Council should also apologise to Miss B for not putting that in place earlier. I do not consider any further remedy appropriate.
It is clear though that there are some remaining recommendations from the 2021 fire safety assessment which have not yet been put into place. The Council has addressed each of those areas in its response to my enquiry and advised of the timescales for action. One of those is to put individual person centred risk assessments and personal evacuation plans in place within six months. However, in the report produced in December 2021 the target completion time for that work was within 3-6 months. That timescale has already been exceeded by the Council and is fault. I therefore recommend the Council prioritise putting in place person centred risk assessments and personal evacuation plans within two months of my decision.
I am also concerned about how the Council has approached its fire safety responsibilities in relation to this building. I have seen no evidence to suggest the Council carried out any fire safety assessments of the building between the 2014 assessment and the 2021 assessment. That is despite the fact the 2014 assessment recommended a review of the risk assessment every year and a full fire risk assessment every two years. The Council has not completed that in this case and that is fault. That initially concerned me because the 2021 assessment raised some potentially significant concerns about inadequate compartmentation to the roof spaces which could increase the likelihood of fire or smoke spread from inside the loft space to the common hallways. It seemed unlikely that was an issue which had arisen in the last 12 months. This is why it is concerning the Council has not carried out a full fire risk assessment every two years, as recommended in 2014. I recognise though, from the Council’s recent communications, that resolving this issue is complex and therefore it has installed some additional fire safety measures to deal with any issues. Nevertheless, failure to act on the recommendations from the 2014 fire risk assessment is fault. I recommend the Council put in place a procedure to ensure the necessary fire risk assessments are undertaken when required and provide evidence to the Ombudsman within two months to show how that will be addressed going forward.
The final issue concerns the failure to inspect the electrical wiring in the building at the time of the 2021 assessment. The 2021 assessment records this could not be inspected because the electrical intake/riser cupboards were locked. I am concerned about that given the Council owns the building and I would therefore have expected the Council to have made access to the electrical cupboards available to the person carrying out the inspection. The Council says it provided the person carrying out the inspection with contact details for the manager to obtain keys. Clearly that did not work in this case though. That again surprises me because I would have expected the manager to have known of the date and time of the visit to ensure he/she was available to provide the keys to the relevant cupboards. So, failure to ensure the fire risk assessor had access to all parts of the building is fault. I recommend the Council ensure in future fire safety assessments the person carrying out the assessment has access to all the areas of the property required to complete a full assessment and that the manager is available to enable access if necessary. I also recommend the Council confirm to the Ombudsman within two months of my decision that it has checked the certification/records of periodic inspections of the electrical installations in the property, in accordance with the recommendations from the 2021 assessment and provide evidence of that.
Recommended action Within one month of my decision the Council should apologise to Miss B for failures relating to fire safety issues within the building, as outlined in this statement.
Within two months of my decision the Council should: provide evidence to the Ombudsman that it has begun regular fire alarm testing at Miss B’s building and that it is keeping a record of those tests. The Council should then monitor the records for the next three months to ensure the tests continue to take place; put in place person centred risk assessments and personal evacuation plans for the building; put in place a procedure to ensure the necessary fire risk assessments are undertaken each year/every two years and provide evidence to the Ombudsman to show how that will be addressed going forward; provide evidence to the Ombudsman that it has checked the certification/records of periodic inspections of the electrical installations in the property, in accordance with the recommendations from the 2021 assessment.
Final decision
I have completed my investigation and found fault by the Council in part of the complaint which caused Miss B an injustice I am satisfied the action the Council will take is sufficient to remedy that injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman