Slough Borough Council (202104296)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202104296

Slough Borough Council

6 April 2022


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 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 administration of the resident’s rent account.

Background

  1. The resident is a tenant of the landlord.
  2. The resident’s complaint is about a reduction in the credit balance of her rent account during April 2021, which she believed was due to the landlord having made adjustments to this account and requested a copy of her rent statement for on 20 April 2021.
  3. The resident submitted her stage one complaint to the landlord on 30 April 2021, and her final stage complaint to it on 10 June 2021, that she was unhappy that the landlord had not provided a statement for her rent account for the month of April 2021, when the credit balance of the account had reduced that she attributed to incorrect adjustments to the account by it.
  4. The landlord explained in both its stage one and final stage complaint responses to the resident on 4 May and 15 July 2021, respectively, that the discrepancy in the credit balance on her rent account was due to a scheduled increase in both her rent and contents insurance charges, in addition to a reduction in her housing benefit. It confirmed that it had not made any adjustments to her rent account.
  5. The resident subsequently referred her complaint to this Service as she was dissatisfied with the landlord’s administration of her rent account, as she had not received notification in advance of any adjustments being made to this. She was also dissatisfied with its delays in responding to her initial enquiry, in processing her refund of the credit balance that she requested on 27 July 2021 and received after 27 August 2021, and in providing her with rent statements.

Assessment and findings

Policies and procedures

  1. The landlord’s annual rent and service charge increase document confirms that it will give residents 28 days’ notice of a rent increase.
  2. The landlord’s website confirms that its tenants will be sent a rent statement four times per year, which will show the weekly rent, any housing benefits payments, the net rent due, the payments made since the last rent statement, the details of any service charges or other adjustments, and the balance on the rent account.

Scope of investigation

  1. It is understood that the resident’s complaint concerns the information she was provided about the rent and service charges, and the landlord’s response to the queries she had raised about these charges. Although this Service cannot investigate complaints about the level or increase of rent or service charges, or determine whether rent or service charges are reasonable or payable. However, we can consider complaints that relate to the collection of service charges, their administration, or how information about service charges was communicated, in line with the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

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

  1. Following the resident’s query regarding the administration of her rent account, the landlord was obliged to review her account, and explain its conclusions to her in a timely manner. In this case, it did carry out an investigation into her concerns and did provide its response within a timely manner.
  2. For instance, following the resident’s stage one complaint on 30 April 2021, the landlord reviewed the resident’s rent account. It subsequently explained, in both its stage one complaint response of 4 May 2021 and in its final stage complaint response on 15 July 2021, that the credit balance on her rent account was reducing because her rent had increased from £121.02 to £122.85 per week from 5 April 2021.
  3. The landlord additionally confirmed to the resident that the housing benefit credit to her rent account had reduced from £119.16 to £105 per week from 5 April 2021. As a result, the subsequent shortfall between her rent and housing benefit was paid for using the credit funds in her rent account, which was shown by the rent statements that it gave her with its complaint responses that demonstrated that the account had not been incorrectly adjusted by it. As such, the landlord responded appropriately in investigating the resident’s concerns and in informing her of its findings within a timely manner, which was provided to her within one working day of her stage one complaint.
  4. Moreover, with regard to the resident’s request for rent statements, the landlord evidenced that it issued her with rent statements in May, July, September and December 2021. This was in line with its obligation from its website to issue rent statements to the resident four times in a calendar year. Additionally, following the resident’s request for the landlord to provide her with rent statements on 20 April 2021, it provided these with both its stage one and final stage complaint responses to her.
  5. The landlord provided the first of these additional rent statements in its stage one complaint response on 4 May 2021, which was nine working days after the resident’s initial enquiry requesting these. This was a reasonable timescale for it to respond to her, and is additionally within the ten-working-day standard response timescale for responses to formal complaints in its complaints policy. Therefore, no failing has been identified for the timeliness of the landlord’s response to the resident’s initial enquiry requesting a copy of her rent statement from it.
  6. In respect of the rent increase on 5 April 2021, the landlord was obliged by its annual rent and service charge increase document to inform the resident of this 28 days prior to the increase. It told this Service that it had informed her of the rent increase on 14 February 2021, but no other evidence was provided to support this. Additionally, the landlord provided us with a copy of a letter that it had issued to the resident advising her of her rent increase in March 2021, however this did not confirm the date when this was issued. As a result, it is  not clear that it had given her the 28 days’ notice that it was obliged to provide, and therefore a concern has been identified about its record keeping 
  7. This Service would expect a landlord to keep a robust record of communications with residents that it was obliged to provide to them, and yet the evidence of this was not clear in this case. It is vital that it keeps clear, accurate and easily accessible records to provide an audit trail of its mandatory communications. If we investigate a complaint, we will ask for the landlord’s records of this. If there is disputed evidence and no audit trail, we may not be able to conclude that an action took place or that it followed its own policies and procedures.
  8. This Service recognises that there could be issues with communication not being received if sent via letter. Therefore, the landlord has been recommended below to consider its communications with its residents regarding rent increases, and explore alternative methods to improve the reliability of the delivery of important communications.
  9. The resident has also raised concerns to this Service over the length of time taken by the landlord to refund the credit balance held in her rent account. It requested her banking information from her in order to process the refund on 27 April and 15 July 2021. The resident subsequently provided this information to the landlord on 27 July 2021, however it needed additional details to complete the refund due to her building society account, which she provided to it on 10 and 18 August 2021.
  10. The refund was then processed in the week commencing 16 August 2021, and was reflected in the resident’s associated rent statements, although she did not receive this until after 27 August 2021. Nevertheless, it informed her on 6 August 2021 that it was experiencing delays due to its strict financial controls to properly check and authorise all of its payments, which had caused it a backlog. Therefore, no concerns have been identified for the landlord’s delay in administering the resident’s credit balance refund from her rent account, as this was delayed by it having to request further information to process the refund and a backlog, which it appropriately informed her of in advance.
  11. In summary, the landlord evidenced that it issued rent statements to the resident every three months, and that it had attempted to inform her of the upcoming rent increase prior to this. Following her complaint regarding the reduction in the credit balance on her rent account, it offered a reasonable explanation to her and provided supporting evidence of this by way of rent statements. The landlord also processed the refund of the credit balance in the resident’s rent account once it had received her relevant banking information to do so after a delay it had informed her of.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration by the landlord in respect of its administration of the resident’s rent account.

Recommendations

  1. It is recommended that the landlord:
    1. Consider its communications with its residents regarding rent increases, and explore alternative methods to improve the reliability of the delivery for important communications.
    2. Review its record keeping practices to ensure that it retains appropriate evidence that it has operated in line with its policies, procedures and other obligations regarding its mandatory communications with its residents.