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Sovereign Network Group (202348390)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202348390

Sovereign Network Group

10 October 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 the resident’s:
    1. Rent account and the accuracy of the information it provided.
    2. Associated complaint.

Background

  1. The resident is an assured tenant under an agreement that began on 31 March 2014. The landlord is a housing association. He lives in a 1-bedroom studio flat in sheltered housing. He is 79 years old and has health vulnerabilities, which he made the landlord aware of during the complaint process.
  2. The landlord sent the resident a rent and service charge information booklet on 28 February 2023. It showed the new weekly charge was £247.20 from 3 April 2023, which was £110.27 rent and £136.93 service charges. He provided that information to his local council, which confirmed it would award housing benefit of £247.20 per week.
  3. The landlord sent the resident rent arrears warning letters on 17 August and 14 November 2023. The letters warned of possible eviction if he did not contact it or bring his account up to date.
  4. The resident raised a complaint to the landlord across multiple emails between 2 and 14 December 2023. He said the rent and service charge information booklet was misleading, and he only reduced his standing order as the council confirmed his housing benefit would cover the whole amount. He disputed the amount of arrears on his rent account. He said he proposed a repayment plan in August 2023, but the landlord ignored it and sent a further warning letter. He wanted an explanation of the arrears.
  5. The landlord responded at stage 1 of its complaint process on 19 December 2023. It said the resident had underpaid over the last 2 years and had an arrears balance of £332.02. It confirmed it would not take any court action for eviction proceedings.
  6. The resident said he was dissatisfied with the landlord’s response over multiple emails between 1 and 14 January 2024. He said it had not addressed all complaint points. He said he was a frail and vulnerable 78-year-old man and had endured a 4-month threat of eviction unnecessarily. He further queried and disputed the rent account balance and said it had provided conflicting information.
  7. The landlord provided its final complaint response on 30 January 2024. It apologised for not addressing all complaint points in its stage 1 response. It said housing benefit was always paid 4 weekly in arrears, and the true arrears balance was always shown after housing benefit was applied to the rent account. It apologised the rent account statement it provided gave a different account balance from its letter. It said it was satisfied the arrears balance was accurate. It also confirmed he was responsible for all rent, and the warning letters it sent were standard as part of its rent recovery process.
  8. The resident brought his complaint to us as he wanted an apology from the landlord and compensation.

Assessment and findings

The rent account and the accuracy of the information it provided

  1. When the landlord provided its rent and service charge information booklet on 28 February 2023, it did so in the same format as previous years. It gave a detailed breakdown of all services charges, showing weekly charges for individual heating was £32.12 and individual water was £7.59. The information provided was in the correct format.
  2. It is unclear what information the resident gave to his council regarding the rent and service charges.  If there was an error, it is not the fault of the landlord.
  3. The landlord sent a letter to the resident on 31 March 2023 with revised service charges. It said there was an error in its rent and service charge information booklet, as it had omitted a 40 pence service charge for an alarm monitoring system. It clarified 35 pence of the charge was ineligible for housing benefit. It again gave a full breakdown of all services charges, clarifying the weekly charges for individual heating of £32.12 and individual water of £7.59 were ineligible for housing benefit. Although it had initially made an error with the information provided, it rectified the error within a reasonable time, and the overall impact was minimal due to it relating to a 40 pence charge.
  4. The resident emailed the landlord on 25 May and 7 June 2023. He said he had no reason to think housing benefit would not cover the full £247.20 until the council wrote to him on 23 May 2023. The council had told him it would reduce the housing benefit award to £207.54 per week. He told the landlord he would pay the shortfall as soon as possible. He received 2 automated email responses that said the income team would contact him. It never contacted him, which was a failure.
  5. The landlord then sent a rent arrears warning letter on 17 August 2023. It said he had rent arrears of £731.59. It said he needed to make a payment to clear the account or contact it within the next 3 days to make an agreement to clear the arrears by instalments to avoid further action. It said if he did not take action, it would serve a Notice of Seeking Possession which is the first stage in legal proceedings to repossess his home.
  6. According to the landlord’s income collection procedure, it says personal contact is an essential first stage of arrears recovery. It says it does not rely on letters unless all attempts to make personal contact have failed. As the resident made contact with the landlord by email on 25 May and 7 June 2023, which it did not respond to, we consider the letter warning of a Notice of Seeking Possession to be inappropriate.
  7. The resident responded by email on 21 August and 13 September 2023 and said he had already paid £158.99 on 12 June 2023 towards the shortfall in payments caused by the housing benefit issue. He said he had received no response to the emails he sent and would increase his payments to £39.71 the following week. The landlord did not respond to his proposal of payments, which is inappropriate.
  8. The landlord then sent a rent arrears warning letter on 14 November 2023 (incorrectly dated as 4 November 2023). It said he had rent arrears of £1,007.30. It said if he broke his tenancy agreement, it had the right to seek permission to evict him. There was still time to stop any action if he contacted it by 21 November 2023. As the resident had contacted the landlord and made a proposal of payments, we consider it inappropriate that it progressed to the next stage of its procedure without trying to make personal contact.
  9. The landlord provided a rent account statement with its letter of 14 November 2023. It showed an arrears balance of £759.70, which differed from the arrears balance of £1,007.30 shown on the accompanying letter. We consider this discrepancy of contradictory account balances to be a failure by the landlord. This would have caused confusion and uncertainty for the resident.
  10. The resident emailed the landlord on 17 and 19 November 2023. He queried the discrepancy between the debit account balances provided of £759.70 and £1,007.30. He also disputed the arrears balance for the start of year and wanted the housing benefit and service charge arrears separated. The landlord did not respond to any of those queries other than to advise how to raise a complaint on 30 November 2023, which was inappropriate.
  11. In its stage 1 complaint response of 19 December 2023, the landlord explained how some of the arrears balance had accrued since 1 January 2022. However, it did not explain why the account had arrears before 1 January 2022. It also said when it received a payment of £1,000 from an RAF charitable fund, it put the rent account into arrears of £668.98. Although that was factually accurate, it did not then explain it received a housing benefit payment the following day that put the rent account into a credit balance of £162.18. The information provided was not as clear as it could have been and caused further confusion, which was a failure.
  12. When the landlord provided its final complaint response of 30 January 2024, it apologised that the balance on the rent account statement did not match the letter in November 2023. However, it did not explain the letter had been misdated, which could have helped address some of the confusion. It also provided more incorrect information that did not match the rent account. It said as of 14 November 2023 the rent account was in arrears of £759.70, which was inaccurate, would cause further confusion and is a failure.
  13. In summary, the landlord did not respond to the resident’s emails querying the arrears and offering a payment plan. It sent letters warning of a Notice of Seeking Possession before attempting personal contact. It provided conflicting and contradictory rent account balances in its letters compared to the rent account statements. We understand these failings contributed to unnecessary stress, anxiety and inconvenience to a resident who is vulnerable.
  14. Therefore, we are ordering the landlord to apologise to and pay the resident £250 compensation. This is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for such failings resulting in maladministration that adversely affected the resident.

The associated complaint

  1. Under the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code) landlords must ensure they acknowledge a complaint within 5 working days. They must respond to the complaint within 10 working days of the acknowledgment at stage 1. They must also acknowledge an escalation request within 5 working days and provide a final response within 20 working days of the date of acknowledging the escalation request. The landlord’s complaints policy is compliant with the above requirements of the Code.
  2. When the resident first showed dissatisfaction on 2 December 2023 the landlord acknowledged it and raised a complaint 2 days later. This was in line with the Code and the landlord’s own complaint policy.
  3. When the landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response of 19 December 2023, this was 11 working days after the date of the acknowledgement. This was not within the timescales of the Code and the landlord’s own complaint policy. However, we acknowledge the resident had told the landlord it did not need to meet the deadline.
  4. In its stage 1 complaint response of 19 December 2023, the landlord did not address all complaint points and queries raised by the resident, which is a failure.
  5. The resident showed dissatisfaction with the landlord’s complaint response in several emails from 1 to 14 January 2024. We have seen no evidence the landlord acknowledged these and confirmed it had escalated the complaint to stage 2. This is not in line with the Code and the landlord’s own complaint policy. This was a failure.
  6. When the landlord issued its final complaint response of 30 January 2024, this was 20 working days from the resident’s email of 1 January 2024. It therefore responded within the appropriate timescales. It apologised for not addressing all complaint issues in its stage 1 response. It apologised that it completed the complaint before he had provided all evidence, and that the rent statement balance did not match the warning letter it sent. It did not offer any compensation. This was a further failure.
  7. Landlords must have an effective complaint process to provide a good service to its residents. An effective complaint process means landlords can fix problems quickly, learn from its mistakes and build good relationships with residents. In this case, the landlord did not address all concerns in its stage 1 response. It did not appropriately acknowledge the escalation request. It did not offer any redress for its complaint handling failures. The Ombudsman therefore finds service failure.
  8. We are ordering the landlord to pay the resident £100 compensation for the time, trouble, and inconvenience caused by its complaint handling failures. This is in line with the Ombudsman’s remedies guidance for such failings resulting in service failure.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was maladministration in respect of the landlord’s handling of the rent account and the accuracy of the information it provided.
  2. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was service failure in respect of the landlord’s handling of the complaint.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

  1. The landlord must within 28 days of the date of this determination:
    1. Provide the resident with an apology for the failings outlined in this report.
    2. Provide the resident with a full rent account statement showing all debits, credits and account balances since the start of the tenancy.
    3. Pay the resident total compensation of £350, which is made up of:
      1. £250 in recognition of the time, trouble, distress, and inconvenience caused by its failures to appropriately handle the resident’s rent account and the accuracy of the information it provided.
      2. £100 for the time, trouble, and inconvenience caused by the landlord’s complaint handling failures.
  2. All payments must be paid directly to the resident and not credited to the rent account unless otherwise agreed by the resident.