Peabody Trust (202326137)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202326137

Peabody Trust

12 May 2025

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 response to:
1. the resident’s concerns about her rent account.
2. the resident’s complaint.

Background

The resident has an assured tenancy with the landlord which began on 26 October 1998. The landlord is a housing association. The resident lives alone. The landlord said it does not have any vulnerabilities recorded for the resident.
The resident’s representative sent correspondence to the landlord and brought the complaint to the Ombudsman on her behalf. For ease of reference, we have referred to the resident and her representative as ‘the resident’.
On 2 November 2021, the landlord said a payment of £545.09 was added to the resident’s rent account in error. It said it reversed this amount from the resident’s account on 27 July 2023.
The resident made 3 payments on 10, 17 and 24 July 2023 totalling £435 which were not credited to her account until 22 September 2023.
The resident raised a stage 1 complaint on 16 or 17 September 2023. She said:
1. she was concerned about the landlord’s communication about her rent account and felt it was not listening to her. She said her income officer had not contacted her or offered support.
2. she wanted the landlord to refund the £45 credit she said it had told her she had in her rent account.
3. she was concerned about the impact of the landlord merging with another organisation on her rent account.
4. she said she wanted the landlord to investigate, explain and rectify her rent account issues.
5. the rent account issues had caused her stress, lack of appetite and disturbed sleep, and she feared being evicted. She said she could not cope mentally and had to reduce her work hours.
6. she wanted the landlord to contact her representative if it needed to arrange a meeting as the matter was causing her distress.
The landlord issued a stage 1 complaint response on 26 September 2023. It said:
1. it had found 3 payments totalling £435 that the resident had made in July 2023. It said these were not added to her account when she paid them as she had not included the payment reference. It asked her to include a reference when making payments in future.
2. it had added the £435 to her account which was now up to date.
3. it apologised for the distress caused and said it would feed back to its relevant teams to avoid or resolve errors and to explain them quickly.
4. it offered £250 compensation for time, trouble, inconvenience, and poor customer service.
The resident asked the landlord further questions on 27 September 2023 and said she did not feel the issue was resolved on 30 October 2023. She requested that the landlord only contact her representative.
The resident contacted the Ombudsman, and we contacted the landlord on 11 March 2024 asking it to respond to the resident’s complaint. We said she wanted her rent accounts from before and after the landlord merged to be linked and for the landlord to clear her rent account.
The landlord issued a stage 2 complaint response on 18 March 2024. It:
1. apologised that the resident found it hard to engage with the landlord about her rent account.
2. upheld the complaint as it should have responded to the resident’s follow up points and it did not fully investigate or identify the root cause of the issue.
3. said it had identified a payment added in error on 2 November 2021, which was reversed on 27 July 2023 as it was not the resident’s.
4. said it was unsure why it had told the resident she was in £45 credit. It said it could only send a resident’s credit on their rent account minus a month’s rent. It said she was in arrears of £470.06 so they could not transfer her money.
5. confirmed the resident’s representative was its main point of contact.
6. said it had attached a statement of the resident’s rent account.
7. recognised the resident should not have had to send follow up emails and contact the Ombudsman.
8. offered £300 for its rent enquiry failures and £200 for its complaint handling failures.
In referring the complaint to the Ombudsman, the resident said she was unhappy with the landlord’s stage 2 response. She said she was extremely distressed and feared eviction. She said the issue had impacted her sleep and eating. She was unhappy with the landlord’s service standards and wanted it to update her about her rent account.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about her rent account

The resident’s tenancy agreement says payment of weekly rent is due in advance on the Monday of each week and the resident agrees to pay rent weekly in advance. The landlord’s rent collection procedure confirms rent for a weekly tenancy should be paid 1 week in advance.
The landlord’s rent collection procedure says:
1. it should call, message or email a resident as soon as their rent account falls into arrears.
2. it will discuss the cause of the rent arrears and benefit entitlement.
3. once it has called the resident, it generates an arrears letter automatically.
4. it will try to agree an affordable payment plan at all stages.
5. it should offer support at the earliest opportunity where appropriate.
The landlord’s compensation policy says when considering a complaint, it will consider someone’s time, trouble and inconvenience and will pay the following where there has been service failure:
1. between £201 and £400 where there has been low impact and high effort or high effort and low impact.
2. between £401 and £600 where there has been high impact and high effort to resolve.
Our Spotlight Report on Knowledge and Information Management outlines the importance of landlords keeping good records. It highlights that once information has been created, it should be stored and maintained appropriately.
The resident said the landlord contacted her by phone from around August 2023 to discuss her arrears. She said she called and spoke to the landlord multiple times by phone when she received letters from it. She said she was often in distress or crying.
The landlord has no call logs between 1 May 2023 and 18 March 2024 in relation to this matter as it said it had changed its phone system. The landlord said the resident attended its offices on 8 August 2023 but has no notes from this meeting. The landlord’s failure to maintain adequate records has impacted this Service’s ability to carry out a thorough investigation.
From 31 May 2020 until 26 September 2022, the resident’s rent account showed she was in credit, save for 1 day. If the landlord had not incorrectly credited an amount to the resident’s account on 2 November 2021, her rent account would have been in and out of arrears from 26 September 2022. However, as the landlord did not reverse the incorrect payment until 27 July 2023, the rent account did not show that she was in arrears until 15 May 2023.
When the account fell into arrears from 15 May 2023, there is no evidence the landlord contacted the resident until 26 June 2023. This was not in line with its rent collection procedure. It would have been reasonable and in line with this procedure for it to alert her to the fact her account was in arrears and offer support at the earliest opportunity.
The resident’s rent account shows that she was in and out of credit during June 2023. The landlord sent the resident a letter on 26 June 2023 which said she had fallen behind with payments and owed £259.67 on 25 June 2023. It offered her advice and assistance. This reflected the resident’s rent account and was appropriate and in line with its rent collection procedure.
The resident began to make consistent weekly payments just over her rent amount from 10 July 2023. However, payments on 10, 17 and 24 July 2023 totalling £435 were not credited to her account. It was appropriate for the landlord to identify the payments and credit them her account on 22 September 2023, and to inform the resident.
On 27 July 2023, the landlord reversed the payment of £545.09 which it said it had previously added to the resident’s rent account in error. It would have been reasonable for the landlord to have informed the resident of this.
The landlord sent the resident a letter on 1 August 2023. It said she had fallen behind with payments and owed £926.51 on 30 July 2023. It offered her advice and assistance. This reflected the resident’s rent account and was appropriate and in line with its rent collection procedure. However, given that she had recently been making regular weekly payments more than her rent liability, the increase in arrears from 26 June 2023 may have been confusing to her. It would have been helpful for the landlord to provide a rent account statement and consider the sudden arrears increase to help the resident understand her rent account and the payments she had made.
The resident said she contacted the landlord, and her income officer advised her to come into its office on 8 August 2023. She said an income officer advised her the arrears letters were sent in error, checked her account, and confirmed she was £45 in credit. This was different to information previously provided, and her rent account showed arrears of more than £900 at this date. The landlord confirmed this visit but has no records of it, which has limited our assessment of the information the landlord provided to the resident.
The landlord sent the resident a letter on 14 August 2023 which said she owed £925.21 arrears on 13 August 2023. It said she had not responded to previous contact. Given that the resident had spoken to the landlord and attended a meeting on 8 August 2023, this was not reasonable and may have caused the resident distress.
The landlord’s letters of 26 June 2023, 1 August 2023, and 14 August 2023 all refer to the resident being able to set up a direct debit. However, they state in bold that payment is needed within 7 days. There is no evidence the landlord attempted to agree an affordable payment plan with the resident at all stages, which was not in line with its rent collection procedure.
On 6 September 2023, the landlord sent the resident a letter which said she owed £922.61 and had to start paying urgently. It said it had booked an appointment with her at its office on 13 September 2023. It is unclear whether this appointment took place. The letter said it understood the resident may not be able to pay this at once and offered advice and assistance and highlighted that her rent was due in advance. This was in line with the landlord’s rent collection procedure and the resident’s tenancy agreement.
The landlord’s letter also said if the resident did not engage with it, it could start legal action and serve a notice of seeking possession. The resident said she was extremely distressed when she received this letter. She said she told the landlord this and said she was confused as she had not recently missed a payment.
There is no evidence the landlord made proper attempts to discuss the cause of the resident’s rent arrears considering the significant and sudden increase, and her saying said she had not missed a rent payment. This was not in line with its rent collection procedure. It would have been reasonable for the landlord to identify the incorrect payment of £545.09 and its impact on the resident’s rent account at stage 1 of its complaints process.
In its stage 1 response, it was reasonable for the landlord to ask the resident to make sure she included a reference number in all payments. It was also appropriate and in line with our dispute resolution principles for the landlord to apologise for poor customer service, offer compensation for the distress caused and set out its learning from the complaint.
However, it would have been helpful for the landlord to confirm the resident’s account balance, and it may have been confusing to say her account was ‘up to date,’ as she was in arrears of £486.31. It would also have been reasonable for the landlord to respond to the resident’s request for £45 to be refunded to clarify its position on this.
The resident sent a signed authority for her representative to correspond with the landlord on her behalf on 25 September 2023. On 27 September 2023, she sent further questions to the landlord. She asked:
1. why she had received letters that she owed £922.61 if there was only a £435 discrepancy.
2. whether the rent accounts were linked when the landlord merged.
3. it to confirm that she did not owe arrears and send her £45.
4. it to send all correspondence to the representative as the resident was very distressed.
The resident chased the landlord for a response to her questions on 6 and 15 October 2023.
On 23 October 2023, the landlord’s income team sent the resident a letter which said she was in arrears of £483.71 on 22 October 2023 and offered advice and assistance. This reflected the resident’s rent account and was appropriate and in line with its rent collection procedure. However, it also said she had not responded to previous contact. This was unreasonable and would have likely been confusing for the resident, given that she had been awaiting a response to her letter of 27 September 2023.
On 23 October 2023, the landlord’s complaints team emailed the resident. It:
1. apologised for the delay.
2. explained that when the landlord merged, it used new programmes, staff required training, and this could have led to errors causing incorrect figures.
3. said she had £483.71 arrears and invited her to contact it if she did not expect this.
4. said she should contact the service charge team to request a £45 refund.
5. said it could arrange to only correspond with the representative.
It was appropriate for the landlord to apologise for the delay and confirm the resident’s arrears. It was appropriate for it to address her concerns about the landlord merging. However, it failed to identify whether there were any outstanding issues relevant to the resident’s account specifically.
Given that the resident had requested the landlord refund £45 in her initial complaint, it would have been reasonable for the landlord to give a substantive response to this request within its complaints process.
On 30 October 2023, the resident emailed the landlord and said:
1. she had received a letter about arrears and had called the landlord’s income team multiple times. She said she paid her rent on time every week and did not feel the landlord was trying to resolve her rent account concerns.
2. it previously said she was £45 in credit. She disputed she was in arrears.
3. the landlord should deal with her refund request as part of the complaint.
4. she had asked the landlord to only contact her representative, but her income officer had called her today. She asked why the landlord was still calling and writing to her.
It was appropriate for the landlord to confirm that the resident’s representative was its main point of contact in its stage 2 response. However, having agreed to only correspond with her representative, it would have been helpful for it to explain why it had contacted her and confirm if, and when it may contact her instead of her representative.
The landlord did not contact the resident or her representative about her rent account after October 2023, until its stage 2 response on 18 March 2024. This was despite her account continuing to be in arrears. The resident recently told us she did not know if she was in arrears. This was not appropriate or in line with the landlord’s rent collection procedure.
In the landlord’s stage 2 response, it was reasonable for it to address the resident’s claim she was in £45 credit on 8 August 2023, and to admit it did not know why it had said this. The landlord accurately reflected the resident’s rent account by stating she had arrears of £470.06. It was appropriate for the landlord to confirm it could not transfer money to the resident as she was not in credit. Its statement that it could only transfer any credit minus a month’s rent correctly reflected the resident’s tenancy agreement obligation to pay rent in advance, although her rent was due weekly, not monthly.
In summary, there were failures of service in the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about her rent account in that it:
1. did not provide call logs with the resident, in line with knowledge and information management good practice and its rent collection procedure.
2. did not contact her to discuss the reason for her arrears or offer support when she first fell into arrears.
3. did not consider or attempt to agree an affordable payment plan with the resident at all stages.
4. gave unclear information about her rent account and whether she was in arrears.
5. sent her correspondence that did not reflect her attempts to contact it.
6. failed to provide updated communication about her rent account from October 2023.
7. did not notify the resident it had incorrectly credited and reversed a payment from her rent account or consider the impact of this on her account earlier.
8. unreasonably delayed in responding to her queries.
9. did not respond appropriately to her request to only contact her representative.
The resident said she had disturbed sleep, worry and lack of appetite. She said she feared being evicted, could not cope and cried on the phone to the landlord. She said she had to reduce her work hours and felt unable to deal with the matter herself due to stress. The resident had to contact the landlord multiple times to resolve the matter and had to involve this Service to obtain a stage 2 response.
In its stage 2 response, the landlord acknowledged that it did not conduct a thorough investigation and should have identified the incorrect payment earlier. It offered £300 compensation in relation to her rent enquiry. The landlord apologised for the communication difficulties and acknowledged the resident should not have had to send follow up emails and contact the Ombudsman to receive a response. However, it did not acknowledge all the failures identified in this investigation and the offer of £300 was not proportionate to the failings identified.
We have therefore found maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about her rent account. We have ordered the landlord to pay £420 for its handling of the resident’s concerns about her rent account, inclusive of the £300 already offered. This is in line with the landlord’s compensation policy and our remedies guidance.
We have ordered the landlord to confirm when it will contact her representative and when it may contact her instead, as the resident reported that the landlord contacted her after agreeing to only contact her representative. In line with the landlord’s rent collection procedure, we have also ordered it to contact the resident about any outstanding arrears, send an up-to-date rent statement and offer to discuss a repayment plan for any arrears.
The resident said she was concerned about the impact of her arrears on her ability to move. We have therefore recommended that the landlord offers to discuss this with the resident and/or signposts her to support agencies if appropriate.

Complaint handling

The landlord’s complaints policy says:
1. it will log complaints within 5 working days and respond within 10 working days.
2. it will not deal with a request for service through its complaints procedure.
The Complaint Handling Code 2022 (the Code) said that:
1. a service request is a resident’s request requiring the landlord to take action to put something right. A complaint should be raised when the resident raises dissatisfaction with the response to a service request.
2. if all or part of the complaint is not resolved to the resident’s satisfaction at stage 1 it must be progressed to stage 2 of the landlord’s procedure.
The landlord’s compensation policy says it will make an award for between £151 and £250 for poor complaint handling involving extensive failure to follow the complaints policy or procedure, or to investigate a complaint correctly, causing a significant impact on the complainant.
The resident raised a service request about the issues with her rent account by 8 August 2023. On 16 or 17 September 2023, the resident expressed dissatisfaction with the landlord’s handling of her rent account issue and asked it to deal with her complaint as a stage 2 complaint. There is no evidence the landlord had an opportunity to respond to a complaint before this and it was therefore appropriate for it to deal with it as a stage 1 complaint.
The landlord logged the resident’s complaint on 20 September 2023, and responded on 26 September 2023, in line with its complaints policy timescales.
The resident’s questions on 27 September 2023 suggested there were parts of complaint that she did not think had been resolved. It would have been reasonable and in line with the Code for the landlord to consider escalating the complaint to stage 2 at this point.
On 30 October 2023, the resident said she did not feel the problem was fixed. She said she did not want the complaint to be closed. It would have been reasonable and in line with the Code for the landlord to escalate the complaint to stage 2 at this point. We asked the landlord to respond to the resident’s complaint on 11 March 2024 and it sent a stage 2 acknowledgement email to her on 12 March 2024.
The landlord sent a stage 2 complaint response on 18 March 2024, around 5 months after the resident told the landlord she did not feel it had resolved the complaint at stage 1. This was a failing in its complaint handling, and an unreasonable delay. It delayed a resolution to the complaint and restricted the resident from access to the landlord’s complaints procedure and the Ombudsman.
In its stage 2 response, the landlord acknowledged it should have responded to the resident’s follow up questions. However, it said the resident had not escalated her complaint and did not acknowledge that it had not resolved the complaint to her satisfaction.
The landlord offered £200 for complaint handling in its stage 2 response. It acknowledged a poor stage 1 response and delay in responding to further enquiries. The level of compensation was in line with its compensation policy and our remedies guidance.
However, it failed to identify that it should have escalated the resident’s complaint to stage 2 earlier or learn from this failure, which is not in line with our dispute resolution principles to be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes. We have therefore found service failure in the landlord’s handling of the complaint and have ordered it to set out its learning from the failures identified in this report.

Determination

In line with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about her rent account.
In line with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s complaint.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

Within 28 days of the date of this report, the landlord must:
1. write to the resident/her representative and:
  1. provide a written apology for the failures identified in this investigation.
  2. set out what it has learnt from the failures identified in this investigation and what actions it will take to prevent the same failures from happening again in the future.
  3. confirm when it will contact her representative and when it may contact her instead.
  4. send an up-to-date rent account statement.
  5. offer to discuss an affordable repayment plan for any arrears.
2. pay the resident a total of £620 compensation, made up of:
  1. the £300 it offered at stage 2 plus an additional £120 for the distress and inconvenience caused by the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns about her rent account.
  2. the £200 it offered at stage 2 for the distress and inconvenience caused by the landlord’s handling of the complaint.
  3. the landlord may deduct the £500 it offered at stage 2 if this has already been paid.
  4. the landlord should pay any compensation not already paid, directly to the resident. It should not offset the compensation against any arrears.
The landlord is to provide evidence of compliance with the above orders to this Service within 28 days of the date of this report.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the landlord contacts the resident to discuss whether any current or previous arrears will affect her ability to move and/or signposts her to relevant support agencies if appropriate.