Decision Report 201401055

Summary

Miss C suffers from a medical condition and lives in an association property served by electric storage heaters. She informed the association that these were not heating her home sufficiently and requested that gas central heating be installed. She said that gas central heating would relieve some of her medical symptoms. The association ensured that the heating system was working correctly and replaced two faulty heaters. They then said that if a medically qualified person recommended gas central heating for Miss C then they would be able to apply for a grant to cover the cost it. The association said that otherwise they had no plans to update the heating in her building for another few years.

Miss C complained that it was unreasonable of the association not to install gas central heating and that they had given her conflicting advice. During our investigation we found that the association had the discretion to decide when and how to upgrade the heating systems. They had fulfilled their responsibilities by ensuring the current heating system was functional and, therefore, we did not uphold this complaint. We also did not uphold Miss C's complaint that she had been given conflicting advice, as we found that the association had suggested reasonable options and investigated possible options presented to them by Miss C.