Yorkshire Housing Limited (202207417)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202207417

Yorkshire Housing Limited

16 June 2023

 

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. This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of a rent payment at the start of the tenancy.

Background

  1. The resident holds an assured tenancy that began on 4 February 2019. The landlord has told this Service the resident has severe learning difficulties.
  2. The property is a ground-floor flat with one bedroom. This property was an extra care property. The resident has since moved to another property.
  3. When the tenancy commenced the landlord asked the resident to pay £892.76. This amount was the equivalent of four weeks rent. On 11 July 2019, the resident’s representative queried this payment with the landlord. The landlord responded and explained it took this payment because the tenancy agreement required the resident to pay rent a month in advance. The resident’s representative followed this up on 23 July 2019. The resident also contacted the landlord to discuss this on 30 August 2019, 5 November 2020 and 15 March 2022. On each occasion, the landlord explained the payment.
  4. The resident raised a complaint on 24 March 2022. She was unhappy about the upcoming increase in her rent and service charges. She also told the landlord she thought the landlord had incorrectly charged her £892.76 at the beginning of her tenancy.
  5. The landlord provided its stage 1 response on 28 March 2022. It discussed the complaint over the phone with the resident and broke down the charges the resident was unhappy about. It also arranged a home visit for 14 April 2022, where it would discuss the charges with her. The resident said on 20 May 2022 that she would like to escalate her complaint to stage 2 as she thought the landlord should not have taken this payment from her. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 17 June 2022. The landlord again did not uphold her complaint. It said the information it gave at stage 1 was correct. It also said it would arrange a home visit to discuss this with the resident.
  6. The resident brought her complaint to this Service on 12 July 2022. She remained dissatisfied that the landlord had taken £892.76 in one lump sum at the start of the tenancy. The resident felt it was too much as she was due to pay £27.28 per week. The resident would like this payment to be refunded.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

  1. The resident stated she was unhappy with the reasonableness of catering charges being part of the service charge. This Service cannot consider complaints about the level or cost of service charges. This is because these complaints are for the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to determine. The resident can seek free and independent legal advice from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) (https://www.lease-advice.org) about proceeding with a case.

The landlord’s handling of a rent payment at the start of the tenancy.

  1. The tenancy agreement states: ‘the payment of weekly rent is due in advance on the Monday of each week’. As the resident received full housing benefit every four weeks (in arrears), the landlord took payment to cover the first four weekly charges. The landlord did this to prevent the resident from falling behind on her rent payments. This was an appropriate course of action to take.
  2. At the end of the tenancy, the resident’s rent account was at the correct balance. The landlord had not taken any additional money from the resident. It adjusted the resident’s payment throughout the tenancy to ensure the resident only paid what she should have. Its actions were fair in doing so.
  3. Although the resident has said she did not understand what this payment was for, this Service does not have sufficient evidence to say that the landlord did not explain this correctly. The resident signed the tenancy agreement and moved into the property. To do so, she would have needed to make this payment to be compliant with the tenancy conditions.
  4. When the resident asked the landlord about the payment, its staff visited the resident twice to explain the rent account statement. The landlord did this as the resident had told it this was the best way for her to understand. They did this when answering the resident’s complaint at stages 1 and 2 of the complaints process.
  5. The landlord has not made an error in dealing with the resident’s queries about the rent account. The landlord treated the resident fairly and sympathetically.

Determination

  1. In line with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration the landlord’s handling of a rent payment at the start of the tenancy.