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One Housing Group (202006720)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202006720

One Housing Group

16 February 2021


Our approach

Under our early resolution process, the Ombudsman works with the resident and landlord to explore the issues in dispute, identify the matters that remain outstanding and assist in reaching an agreed settlement.

The complaint

  1. The complaint is about:
  • The accuracy of service charge invoicing
  • The administration of rent account

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 55 (c) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, the landlord has made an offer of redress to the complainant which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint satisfactorily.

How the complaint was resolved

  1. The resident is an assured tenant of the landlord, their tenancy began on 04 June 2018.
  2. In May 2020 the resident reported issues with the service charge increase for 2020-2021. In July 2020, the resident raised a formal complaint for the issues he had noticed in relation to:
  • Overcharging of his rent and service charge account
  • Bulk waste invoices incorrectly recharged due to confusion with another address
  1. The landlord issued it final response on 12 August 2020. It admitted errors in the bulk waste invoices calculation due to confusion concerning the resident’s address and another address. The landlord stated that a review was necessary to be carried out in order for the correct charges to be allocated to the correct address and an adjustment would be issues in September 2020. The landlord further removed the charge which occurred due to adding a balancing charge of £372.20 from 2018/2019 to the 2020/2021 budget for the property. The landlord processed a £107.00 refund of the overpayments for the period April 2020 to July 2020. It awarded compensation of £50.00 for the inconvenience and frustration caused to the resident
  2. The resident brought the complaint to the Housing Ombudsman on 08 October 2020 explaining that they remained dissatisfied with the following:
  • The delays and the uncertain information the landlord was providing in relation to the bulk waste invoices
  • No adjustment to the invoices had been issued in September 2020, as set out in the landlord’s final response.
  • The resident was unable to identify whether the overcharge issue was resolved due to the discrepancy in the landlord’s records and their resident portal.
  1. Following our involvement on 25 January 2021, the landlord contacted the resident directly. The landlord apologised for the delays in dealing with the adjustment of bulk waste invoices. It explained that a larger issue was identified in relation to invoices and it would take much longer than expected to complete a review. The landlord provided internal documents to the resident to prove that actual overcharge for the period April 2020 to July 2020 of £107.00 was refunded in 15 installments of £7.14 to mirror the 15 weeks of overcharged prior to the resident raising this issue. The landlord further apologised about the issues with the resident portal and explained that the matter had been escalated to its IT team.
  2. On 03 February 2021, we contacted both parties in order to facilitate the mediation.
  3. The resident explained that as an outcome, they were seeking the following:
  • The landlord to provide a deadline for the adjustments to the bulk waste invoices to be issued
  • The landlord to provide proof other than internal document that the overpayment of £107.00 had been refunded to the resident’s account.
  • The landlord to offer compensation of £500.00 for the stress, inconvenience and frustration the issues have caused to the resident.
  1. The landlord responded on 08 February 2021:
  • The landlord was not in position to provide a deadline for the adjustment of invoices due to the scale of the errors with invoicing. However, following further discussions, the landlord agreed to provide 3- monthly updates directly to the resident about the process of reviewing the bulk waste invoices.
  • The landlord had made arrangements for fixes to be applied to the resident portal on 26 February 2021 in order for the information on the portal to reflect the actual resident account. Hence, the resident would now be able to verify that their refund had been applied.
  • The landlord agreed to offer £500.00 in recognition of the stress and inconvenience caused to the resident.
  1. In a telephone conversation of 10 February 2021, the resident agreed to the proposed by the landlord resolution of 08 February 2021.
  2. Paragraph 55 (c) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme states that:
    1. “At any time, the Ombudsman may determine the investigation of a complaint immediately if satisfied that the member has made an offer of redress following the Ombudsman’s intervention which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, resolves the complaint satisfactorily. This will result in a finding of ‘resolved with intervention’.”
  3. I am therefore satisfied, following the intervention of this Service, that the landlord has now taken actions to remedy the matters raised which resolve the complaint satisfactorily.

Recommendations

  1. The landlord should arrange for the payment of £500.00 compensation to be made to the resident within the next four weeks and provide confirmation of payment to this Service.
  1. The landlord to provide 3-montly updates to the resident until the final adjustments to the bulk waste invoices for the resident’s address are issued.
  2. The landlord to update the resident in case of any delays in relation to the IT fixes of the resident portal.
  3. The Ombudsman would like to thank the parties for participating in our mediation process. This case is now closed.