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The Guinness Partnership Limited (202322309)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202322309

The Guinness Partnership Limited

12 March 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 rent account at the end of the tenancy.

Background

  1. The resident is a secure tenant of the landlord. The property had 3-bedrooms and the landlord is a housing association. The resident’s weekly rent was £123.79 for the timeframe relevant to this complaint.

Summary of events

  1. On 5 September 2023, the resident complained about the rent charged at the end of her tenancy. She told the landlord that she had paid 4 weeks rent as per her tenancy agreement and the landlord’s request for more rent was causing her stress.
  2. The landlord issued its stage 1 response on 19 September 2023. It said:
    1. It found the resident had provided notice on 1 August 2023 via a web form and as per its policy the tenancy end date was 3 September 2023.
    2. On 1 August 2023, the balance was £245.60. It continued to charge weekly rent and received 3 weekly payments from the resident. However, at the time of its stage 1 response there was an outstanding amount of £233.78.
    3. It did not uphold the resident’s complaint but apologised for the stress and inconvenience caused.
  3. The resident escalated her complaint to stage 2 of the landlord’s internal complaints process on 26 September 2023. She said it had charged her 5 weeks rent instead of 4 weeks. The landlord issued its stage 2 response on 28 September 2023. It said notice was given on 1 August 2023 and when it spoke to the resident that day, it told her the notice period was 4 weeks from the following Sunday. It explained that the end date was 3 September 2023 and a balance of £233.78 was due. It changed its policy on 7 August 2023 to 4 weeks’ notice period from the date of written notice.
  4. The resident remained unhappy with the landlord’s response and asked this Service to consider her complaint further.

Assessment and findings

Handling of the rent account at the end of the tenancy

  1. The tenancy agreement explains that to end the tenancy at least 4 weeks’ written notice must be given. It says weekly rent is due in advance on Monday each week. The landlord’s notice to quit guidance from February 2021 says the notice period begins when it has received a minimum of 28 days or 1 months written notice. The guidance also says:
    1. A periodic tenancy (runs from week to week) notice period would be at least 4 weeks or a month.
    2. All its weekly periodic tenancies require notice to end on a Sunday. It explains how it calculates notice periods and says a secure weekly tenancy would require 4 weeks written notice ending on a Sunday.
  2. The landlord’s letting procedure from March 2021 includes a process map which says after notice has been given, a tenancy ends either at day 28 or 1 month. It also explains that on day 3, of receipt of the written notice, it would send a tenancy confirmation letter and confirm the end of tenancy.
  3. The resident has told this Service that she initially attempted to give notice to end her tenancy on 29 July 2023. But when she called the landlord, it told her no one was available in the relevant team for her to speak to. While what the resident has said is noted, the evidence available does not refer to a telephone call from 29 July 2023. This was not mentioned within the resident’s complaint or escalation request either. However, it is not disputed that the resident gave the landlord written notice to terminate the tenancy on Tuesday 1 August 2023.
  4. The landlord’s stage 2 response said it told the resident on 1 August 2023, that the notice period would be 4 weeks from the following Sunday. However, it took the landlord until 15 August 2023 to send the resident the tenancy confirmation letter. This timeframe was not in line with its lettings procedure (of 3 days), and meant it told the resident this information formally on day 15. This was not appropriate, especially as the resident told it she would be leaving the property around that date.
  5. The landlord had applied its notice to quit guidance from February 2021, which says a periodic tenancy notice would be at least 4 weeks, or a month, and the notice would end on a Sunday. However, the tenancy agreement and lettings procedure, do not refer to the notice ending on a Sunday. The tenancy agreement says 4 weeks’ notice is required and the lettings procedure says 28 days or 1 months’ notice is required. The landlord’s policies were not consistent at that time and would have caused confusion.
  6. It is noted that on 7 August 2023, the landlord changed its policy to 4 weeks’ notice, removing the reference to tenancies ending on a Sunday. While this was reasonable, the landlord missed an opportunity to accept its policies prior to 7 August 2023 were inconsistent and put things right.
  7. Overall, the resident gave the landlord written notice on 1 August 2023, the landlord took 15 days to issues its confirmation letter, exceeding its policy timeframe by 12 days. At that time the landlord’s policies were inconsistent and it missed opportunities to acknowledge this and put things right as part of its internal complaints process. The resident would have been caused some confusion about the notice period and how the landlord had calculated her rent during this time. The landlord’s delay in issuing its confirmation letter may have added to this. The landlord’s failings here amounts to a service failure.
  8. When deciding what is fair in all the circumstances, the Ombudsman has decided it is reasonable to apply 4 weeks’ notice period from 1 August 2023 to 29 August 2023. The evidence shows a charge for £123.79 was applied to the rent account on 28 August 2023. The weekly rent of £123.79 divided by 7 amounts to £17.68 (daily rent charge). The daily rent charge multiplied by 2 (to account for 28 and 29 August 2023) equals to £35.36. The weekly rent of £123.79 minus £35.36 equals £88.43. The landlord should refund the quantifiable financial loss, the rent charge, of £88.43.
  9. It is noted that the outstanding balance on account is £233.78, the amount of £88.43 can be deducted from this. It is unclear from the information provided if the landlord has charged rent in advance. As such, the Ombudsman has ordered the landlord to check the remaining balance is correct and confirm if further funds should be refunded.
  10. In light of the failings identified, the Ombudsman considers it appropriate to award financial compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident. When deciding an appropriate remedy, this Service’s remedies guidance has been considered and a compensation payment of £75 has been decided as appropriate to acknowledge the distress and inconvenience caused to the resident. This amount falls within the service failure banding of this Service’s remedies guidance.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme there was a service failure in the landlord’s handling of the rent account at the end of the tenancy.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of the date of this report, the landlord is ordered to:
    1. Apologise to the resident for the failings identified within this report. This should be in writing and a copy of the apology should be provided to this Service.
    2. Refund £88.43 from the resident’s rent account.
    3. To check the outstanding balance of the rent account is correct and confirm if further funds should be refunded. It should explain its findings, in writing to the resident and this Service.
    4. Pay the resident £75 compensation for the distress and inconvenience caused.