London Borough of Camden Council (202321315)

Back to Top

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202321315

Camden Council

10 June 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

  1. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
    1. A home loss payment to the resident.
    2. The resident’s rent account.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord, which is a local authority. He occupied a flat (the property) in a block of similar properties. The landlord was not the freeholder of the block. It required the resident to move from his property as it was surrendering the lease and returning the property to the freeholder. The resident moved out on 4 July 2021 and moved to another of the landlord’s properties.
  2. The landlord’s records from January 2022 showed that it still had not made a firm decision on making home loss payments to residents who it had asked to move. Its records from March 2023 showed that it still had not determined how it would allocate its funds to make the payments to the affected residents.
  3. In August 2023 the resident chased the landlord for an update. It confirmed to him that it would add interest to the payment to cover the period it had been outstanding for. The landlord also said it would offer payment to cover the resident’s moving costs.
  4. The resident chased the landlord twice for updates on 7 and 19 September 2023. The landlord issued a notice of seeking possession of his new property on 25 September 2023 due to rent arrears. The resident raised a stage 1 complaint with the landlord on the same day about its lack of communication and its delay in paying the home loss payment.
  5. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response to the resident on 19 October 2023. It acknowledged that it had failed to pay the resident promptly “due to a lack of clear guidance and internal procedures”. The landlord also apologised for sending him letters about his rent arrears and said it should have noted his account to prevent any action. It confirmed that it would pay him £7,002.18, which was the home loss payment amount of £6,500 plus £502.18 interest, and £250 compensation for his time and trouble.
  6. The resident escalated his complaint to the final stage of the landlord’s complaints procedure on 22 October 2023. He asked for further compensation to reflect the effect on his mental health. The landlord issued its final stage complaint response to him on 26 October 2023. It acknowledged that he had said he had incurred other costs in moving and said it would consider paying these on receipt of evidence. The landlord repeated its earlier offer of £7,002.18 for the home loss payment plus interest and £250 for his inconvenience.
  7. The resident received a letter from the landlord on 14 November 2023 which threatened court action over his rent arrears. On 23 November 2023 the landlord asked him for evidence of his additional moving costs which he was unable to provide.
  8. On 11 February 2024 the landlord paid the resident £7,175.18, which was the total of the home loss payment of £6,500, interest of £502.18, and an additional £173 towards moving costs. On 30 April 2024 it sent him another letter about rent arrears, which said he had not responded to its notice of seeking possession on 25 September 2023.

Assessment and findings

The landlord’s handling of a home loss payment to the resident

  1. Under section 29 of the Land Compensation Act 1973 (the Act), the landlord is obliged to compensate residents when it requires them to move out of their properties. The Act applies when the resident has a legal interest in the property, such as a tenancy agreement which grants them the right to live there.
  2. The landlord’s home loss and disturbance payments guide says it pays standard allowances for various costs involved when a resident needs to be moved. These are so “the household being moved should not be worse off financially because they have had to move”.
  3. The landlord has not provided us with a copy of the resident’s tenancy agreement for his former property. However, it is not disputed that he was the landlord’s tenant at the property and therefore had a legal interest in it. In accordance with the Act above, the landlord had a legal duty to make the home loss payment to the resident.
  4. The landlord did not pay the resident the home loss payment until 11 February 2024, after approximately 2 and half years. This was also 4 months after its final stage complaint response which confirmed that it would be paying him. This was an excessive delay which would have caused distress and inconvenience to the resident as he was awaiting a significant amount of compensation for a very long time.
  5. The landlord acknowledged, in its stage 1 complaint response, that its internal procedures and guidance for handling the payment were inadequate. Its internal records showed that it did not consider that it needed to pay a home loss payment to the residents of the block until 7 January 2022, 6 months after the resident had already moved out. Its internal records also showed that in March 2023, approximately a year and a half after the resident had moved out, it had still yet to identify how it would budget for the home loss payment. While the landlord said, in its complaint responses, that it would review its procedures to avoid the same issues in the future, we have not seen evidence of this, and we will therefore order the landlord to carry out a case review.
  6. Where a landlord delays in the service it provides to a resident, we would expect it to keep the resident informed, explain why there was a delay and provide updated timeframes. The landlord has not provided a complete history of contact between itself and the resident since July 2021. However, the evidence available shows that, from August 2023, the resident needed to spend time and trouble in chasing the landlord for updates. This was unreasonable as the landlord did not evidence that it updated the resident appropriately.
  7. The landlord paid a further £173 to the resident after its final stage complaint response. This was in line with its home loss and disturbance payments guide above, to take into account his costs in moving. This was reasonable considering that the resident had not provided evidence of his additional costs and there was a lack of evidence that his moving costs were significantly more than the landlord has paid. This showed that the landlord had considered the reasonable costs he may have incurred while moving. This payment was intended to restore the resident to the financial position he would have been in if he had not needed to move. Therefore, it is separate from the compensation for his distress and inconvenience.
  8. It was also reasonable that the landlord added £502.12 to the home loss payment to the resident. This accounted for the interest the resident may have lost out on from not being paid promptly. This is also separate from the compensation for distress and inconvenience.
  9. However, the landlord offered the £502.12 for interest in its stage 1 complaint response on 19 October 2023, and it was a further 4 months before it paid the resident on 11 February 2024. It did not adjust the interest calculation and therefore failed to consider he may have lost out further during those additional 4 months. The landlord should now pay the resident interest at the same rate that it paid previously, for the period between October 2023 and February 2024.
  10. It was positive that the landlord offered the resident £250 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused by its delay in paying him. However, this amount was not proportionate to the inconvenience he experienced. The delay of 2 and half years was excessive, and the resident would have been inconvenienced in paying for his own costs in moving to and furnishing a new property without having the home loss payment at the time, to help with these costs. He would also have experienced uncertainty and distress during the long wait for payment from the landlord.
  11. Overall, the landlord’s handling of the resident’s home loss payment amounts to maladministration. We order it to pay him compensation of £500 to recognise the distress and inconvenience he experienced, and the time and trouble he spent, over a significant period. This award of £500 is in accordance with our remedies guidance, which is available to view on our website. This sets out that awards of compensation between £100 and £600 are appropriate when the landlord’s failure led to an adverse effect on a resident, over a prolonged period.

The landlord’s handling of the resident’s rent account

  1. It is ordinarily reasonable for a landlord to contact a resident about their rent arrears, as payment of rent is a contractual term of a tenancy agreement. However, in the circumstances of this case, it was unreasonable that it pursued the resident for rent arrears while it had yet to pay him the home loss payment which would have cleared his arrears.
  2. The resident incurred costs in being required to move to a new property, which the landlord had not yet reimbursed him for. This disadvantaged him financially. The landlord failed to show it considered that the resident may have been financially affected by the move.
  3. There was no evidence that the landlord noted the resident’s file appropriately until 5 October 2023, after the resident told it that he was being pursued for rent arrears. This was unreasonable given that it should have been aware it owed him money since July 2021.
  4. Despite the landlord noting the resident’s file, it then went on to threaten court action for rent arears on 14 November 2023 and 30 April 2024. This was unreasonable and showed that its internal procedure had failed. It was particularly unreasonable that the landlord’s letter on 30 April 2024 said that the resident had not responded to its notice of seeking possession on 25 September 2023. This was despite the resident complaining to the landlord in response to the letter and the home loss payment made to the resident’s rent account on 11 February 2024, which cleared the arrears.
  5. While there were arrears present on the resident’s rent account in April 2024, these were significantly lower than before and had accrued from February 2024 onwards. It was unreasonable, in the circumstances, that the landlord did not restart its rent arrears collection process for the newly accrued arrears rather than referring to the previous notice seeking possession in September 2023. In not restarting the process it took a heavy-handed approach which was likely to have caused the resident avoidable distress. 
  6. The landlord’s handling of the resident’s rent account amounts to maladministration. We will order the landlord to pay the resident compensation of £500 to recognise the distress it caused him. This is in line with our remedies guidance above.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration by the landlord in its handling of:
    1. A home loss payment to the resident.
    2. The resident’s rent account.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks, the landlord must provide evidence to the Ombudsman that it has complied with the following orders:
    1. Pay the resident compensation of £1,000. This replaces its previous offer of £250, which can be deducted from the total if it can evidence it has already paid this. The compensation comprises of:
      1. £500 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its handling of the home loss payment.
      2. £500 for the distress and inconvenience caused by its handling of the resident’s rent account.
    2. Calculate the further interest which accrued between October 2023, when the landlord last calculated interest, and February 2024, when it paid the home loss payment to the resident. It must show the Ombudsman how it arrived at the figure and pay this amount to the resident.
    3. Write to the resident to apologise for the failings identified in this investigation. This apology should come from a senior member of staff at director level or above and comply with the guidance for apologies set out in our remedies guidance.
  2. Within 8 weeks, the landlord must provide evidence to the Ombudsman that it has complied with the following order:
    1. Carry out a review of its handling of this case. This must be led by a senior manager and consider the failings identified in our report. This must include, but does not need to be limited to:
      1. Why there was no procedure in place for making a home loss payment to the resident.
      2. Why it took so long to recognise that the landlord had a legal duty to provide the home loss payment.
      3. How it could have communicated more clearly and promptly with residents about their entitlement to the payment.
      4. Identifying other residents which may have been affected by the same failings identified in this investigation.

Recommendations

  1. If the landlord identifies other residents affected by its failures in making the home loss payments, it should pay them compensation proportionate to the level of delay, distress and inconvenience they experienced.
  2. Following the case review ordered above, the landlord should consider developing a policy and procedure for handling home loss payments and providing staff training on this.