One Housing Group Limited (202442815)

Background

1. The resident pays a variable service charge. On 21 August 2024, the landlord sent her a final notice for service charge arrears. The resident complained the arrears amount was wrong and it had only given her 2 weeks to pay. She remained dissatisfied after completing the landlord’s complaint process because she felt it had not investigated sufficiently or offered enough compensation. She was also unhappy with its handling of her complaint.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s:
   1. Response to the resident’s concerns after receiving a service charge arrears letter.
   2. Complaint handling.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was reasonable redress in the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns after receiving a service charge arrears letter.
4. There was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Reasons

5. The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that happened or comment on all the information we reviewed. We have only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

Response to the resident’s concerns after receiving a service charge arrears letter

6. The resident complained the landlord’s arrears letter of 21 August 2024 gave the wrong arrears amount and asked her to pay within 2 weeks. She told the landlord she did not have faith it had calculated her service charges correctly.
7. We can see the landlord had written to her earlier in August 2024 saying there were errors in the final service charge reconciliation (the Actuals) it had sent her in May 2024. Its letter confirmed it was due to credit her account by the end of September 2024 to correct the error and gave the amount of arrears that would remain after the correction. It said its Income Team may still contact her about her arrears.
8. The landlord may have avoided the complaint if had referred to the intended correction in its arrears letter of 21 August 2024. However, we are satisfied the resident knew about the intended correction and the balance of arrears she would owe afterwards.
9. The landlord’s stage 1 complaint response of 7 October 2024 confirmed it had made the correction and gave a good explanation of why it had been needed. It confirmed the amount of arrears left on the account and asked the resident to contact the relevant team to discuss payment options. It also confirmed it had addressed further concerns she had raised about the Actuals. It apologised and offered compensation of £50 for her inconvenience. The landlord’s response was reasonable.
10. In her escalation request, the resident said she felt the landlord had not investigated properly. She also felt the compensation was not enough to reflect the time she had spent contacting it or the emotional distress caused by the arrears letter.
11. The landlord apologised again it its stage 2 response of 12 December 2024. It summarised the process it had followed in making its service charge demands and the information it had sent to her previously to explain the charges. It said it would not check the Actuals for 2019-20 again because it had already done so twice and felt they were correct. In our view, this was a reasonable position for the landlord to take.
12. It was reasonable it said it would check the Actuals for 2020-21 and 2021-2022 to make sure they were correct. This shows the landlord had taken the resident’s concerns seriously. We can see it wrote to her on 19 February 2025 to tell her the outcome and included a breakdown of the charges and copies of the relevant invoices.
13. The landlord should have addressed the resident’s point about the compensation offered and distress caused by its arrears letter in its stage 2 response. However, its apologies, explanations and offer of £50 compensation were sufficient to resolve the matter complained about. This is because:
    1. It was reasonable for the landlord to send an arrears letter given the resident’s account was in arrears.
    2. While the letter asked her to pay within 2 weeks, it also invited her to contact it if she was not able to which was reasonable.
    3. The landlord is entitled under the lease to charge interest on any payments which are more than 14 days late. It acted reasonably in not charging the resident interest on the arrears owed.
    4. It also gave reasonable explanations and supporting information within reasonable timeframes in response to the resident’s concerns its charges may have been wrong.

Handling of the complaint

14. On 21 August 2024, the resident complained about receiving the arrears letter. The landlord arranged for the relevant team to contact her but it did not log the complaint until 16 September 2024 after it had spoken with her about the letter. In our view, the landlord should have logged the complaint sooner.
15. Once it had logged the complaint, the landlord handled it in line with its Complaint Policy and the Complaint Handling Code (the Code) at stage 1.
16. Its stage 2 acknowledgement of 11 November 2024 said the complaint handler would call the resident. There is no evidence the landlord did call her and this was a service failure. The landlord gave its stage 2 response on 12 December 2024 which was 4 days later than the 20-working day timescale required by its policy and the Code.
17. While this was a short delay, there was some inconvenience to the resident because she chased the landlord for a response on 10 December 2024. We have ordered the landlord to apologise and pay compensation for the inconvenience caused.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.