Clarion Housing Association Limited (202123575)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202123575

Clarion Housing Association Limited

29 March 2023

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

1. The complaint is about the landlord’s decision to charge the resident following the termination of a previous tenancy, and its subsequent decision to offset compensation against this outstanding balance.

Background

2. The resident is an assured shorthold tenant of the landlord.
3. The matter giving rise to the complaint is that in May 2021, the resident complained to the landlord about delays to the repair of his boiler, misinformation regarding appointments and cancellation of appointments with less than 24 hours’ notice. The landlord responded to the complaint confirming that the repair would be prioritised and the date that the contractor would attend to the property to make the repair. In addition, the landlord awarded the resident £120 in compensation for the missed appointments, delays to repair and misinformation regarding appointment dates.
4. The compensation award was credited to the resident’s rent arrears for a previous property that the resident had signed up for in November 2019 but had never moved in to.
5. In September 2021, the resident complained to the landlord about the compensation award of £120 being credited to his rent arrears and asked for it to be paid to him directly. He was on full Housing Benefit and as such considered that he should not be in arrears. Further, the resident confirmed that although he signed up for a previous property in November 2019, he had never moved in and he had called the landlord’s representative the next day to cancel the tenancy and hand back the keys. He had been advised at the time that he did not owe any money.
6. The landlord responded in early October 2021 confirming that the resident had signed up for the previous property in November 2019 and was required to give four weeks’ notice. The resident would have been liable for four weeks’ rent at the time, and as such it could not uphold the request for the compensation to be refunded directly to the resident. It apologised “if this was not made clear to [him] at the time”.
7. The resident escalated the complaint a few days later in October 2021. He again set out the circumstances around the cancelation of the tenancy and that he was told he would not have to pay anything or if he did he would receive a letter. Consequently, he wanted the rent arrears to be written off and the £120 compensation to be paid directly to his account. Also, he reminded the landlord that he did not have online access to the rent portal and so was unaware he was in arrears.
8. In its stage two complaint response of November 2021, the landlord stated that it had reviewed the complaint and determined that the resident was told he would need to give four weeks’ notice. The landlord stated that it had reviewed its records and there were no notes to say that it had agreed to end the tenancy with immediate effect or that there would be no charges associated. Accordingly, it considered there was no service failure, and that it acted in line with the terms and conditions of the tenancy.
9. The resident has advised this Service that he remains dissatisfied with the landlord’s response and seeks full payment of the compensation and for the arrears to be waived. He does not believe that this matter was handled appropriately.

Assessment and findings

10. The Ombudsman has been given a copy of the signed tenancy agreement for the resident’s previous property, an assured shorthold monthly starter tenancy signed 1 November 2019. The agreement states that, “the terms and conditions of this tenancy are set out in this agreement and the Terms and Conditions of Tenancy”. The agreement provides no details of the resident’s obligations where a tenancy is brought to an end, but the Terms and Conditions document outlines that a four week notice period is required to terminate the tenancy.
11. The landlord’s position is that in accordance with these terms, the tenancy came to an end one month after notice was given on 1 December 2019. Accordingly, the landlord set out that rent needed to be paid for this period.
12. The resident’s position regarding the cancelation of the agreement and handing back the keys the next day is set out above. On his recollection it does not appear that he was told about the four week notice period and with regards to rent, he states that he was told at the time that he did not owe anything or would otherwise receive a letter. He did not receive any letter about rent or rent arrears for the previous property and states that the first time this issue came up is following the decision to award him £120 compensation in May 2021. These issues appear to have been raised in the stage two complaint to the landlord (as well as not having access to the online portal).
13. The landlord’s Arrears Policy sets out its recovery principles which includes:

“5.1. We will be proactive in assisting customers and make all reasonable attempts in contacting them to notify them of any arrears.

5.2. We will maintain contact with our customers insofar as possible throughout the period that they have arrears on their accounts”.

14. The Ombudsman has seen no evidence that the resident had been notified about the rent owed for the previous property or that he was in arrears. In a letter dated 27 January 2023 and following the referral and investigation by the Ombudsman, the landlord undertook a further review of the matter and conceded that it could “find no evidence that [it] advised [the resident] of the notice period at sign up of the property nor did [it] make [the resident] aware of the arrears on [his] rent account. [It] also acknowledge[d] that [the resident] had no online access to view [his] rent account and that this was not considered in the formal complaint”.
15. As such, it is clear that the resident would have been unaware that terminating his tenancy shortly after signing the agreement would still result in a months’ charge. The absence of this information meant that the resident was unable to make an informed decision about whether terminating the tenancy was the right choice. Had the landlord shared this information at the time, this matter may have been dealt with differently.
16. What’s more, this Service is aware that despite the landlord’s arrears policy, and more than a year and a half passing, the resident was never made aware of the outstanding balance and as the landlord has acknowledged, did not have access to the online portal. The resident would therefore never have known that there were arrears, and was not given the opportunity to challenge this after the charge was applied.
17. In the landlord’s final response, it suggested that its review of the complaint had demonstrated that the resident had been informed at sign-up about the requirement to provide four weeks’ notice. It subsequently concluded that there was no service failure and declined to waive the arrears. Since confirming for itself that this was not the case however, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, it would have been reasonable to have considered this.
18. The letter awarding the resident £120 compensation for the boiler repair issue provides that “should there be any arrears on your rent account…the compensation will be offset against the arrears”. The landlord’s Compensation Policy also states that compensation payments will be used to offset rent or other arrears. However, the Compensation Policy also provides that “each case will be considered individually” and the landlord will “ensure fairness and consistency when considering compensation request[s]”.
19. Having considered the circumstances which resulted in arrears on the resident’s rent account, it does not seem fair that the compensation award of £120 was applied to the rent arrears. Given that the resident was eligible for full housing benefit, offsetting the arrears with the compensation amount was particularly unfair in this case.
20. The Ombudsman notes that an additional discretionary compensation award of £120 was offered to the resident in the landlord’s letter dated 27 January 2023. However, in the Ombudsman’s view, this was not sufficient in putting things right. It has subsequently been determined that there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of matters.
21. The Ombudsman is aware from recent email correspondence from the resident that there has been further inconvenience and adverse impact as further compensation awards (relating to matters outside of this complaint) have similarly been offset against the outstanding arrears stemming from the previous property.

Determination

22. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s decision to charge the resident following the termination of a previous tenancy, and its subsequent decision to offset compensation against this outstanding balance.

Orders

23. Within 28 calendar days of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Award the resident £734.78 compensation to recognise its handling of this matter, the time/ trouble, distress, and inconvenience. This is equivalent to the rent amount the landlord has sought to charge the resident and should be applied to the rent account to satisfy the arrears.
    2. Pay the resident any compensation which he has been entitled to but which the landlord has sought to offset against the arrears derived from the previous address. At minimum, this should include the £120 awarded in September 2021 and the £120 awarded in January 2023.