Hyde Housing Association Limited (202308949)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202308949

Hyde Housing Association Limited

5 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:
   1. Concerns about her rent account and payment plan.
   2. Associated complaint.

Background

2. The resident is an assured shorthold tenant of a 2-bedroom flat, owned by the landlord, where she resides with her partner and 2 young children. The landlord has no recorded vulnerabilities for the resident.
3. The resident made a complaint to the landlord around October 2022, after receiving a notice for rent arrears. It responded at stage 1 of its complaints process and agreed a repayment plan to cover rent and arrears.
4. The resident complained to the landlord on 10 May 2023, stating it had given her conflicting information. She had a payment plan in place but had received text messages saying that she had no repayment plan and needed to pay more. She explained her financial situation and said it had failed to listen or provide any support.
5. The landlord sent its stage 1 response to the resident on 7 July 2023. It confirmed that she was on a monthly repayment plan but had missed a payment in June 2023. A new agreement had been made and she needed to budget appropriately for the months where she received no universal credit (UC).
6. The resident asked the landlord to escalate her complaint on 20 July 2023. She said it had taken 8 weeks to respond to her complaint and she had not missed a payment when she raised her concerns. Her complaint was about its text messages which said she had no plan in place. It was not listening and she was struggling financially which was affecting her mental health.
7. The landlord sent its stage 2 response on 1 August 2023. It repeated its stage 1 response and explanation of her rent arrears.
8. The resident was unhappy with the landlord’s response and brought her complaint to us. She said it had not addressed her concerns and had focussed on events after her complaint was made.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

9. In the resident’s correspondence with the landlord she said that she and her children had health concerns. Its actions and the situation had affected her mental health.
10. The courts are the most effective place for disputes about personal injury and illness. This is largely because independent medical experts are appointed to give evidence. They have a duty to the court to provide unbiased insights on the diagnosis, prognosis, and cause of any illness or injury. When disputes arise over the cause of an illness/injury, oral testimony can be examined in court. Therefore, the resident’s assertion that the landlord’s actions affected her mental health is better dealt with via the court.
11. We can, however, consider any failings by the landlord which may likely have caused distress and inconvenience.

Concerns about her rent account

12. The landlord’s income policy says that it will ensure that residents are aware of the importance of making rent payments on time. All residents, including those on full housing benefit or UC, are expected to make a regular payment until accounts are paid on time. It will ensure that tenants are given sufficient information and support. It will provide staff with appropriate training including handling vulnerable customers and mental health awareness.
13. The tenancy agreement states that “you agree to pay the total rent and all other charges due on the first day of each period when it is due”.
14. Following the resident’s complaint in October 2022, an agreement was made for her to pay rent plus £10 each month toward her arrears. The repayment plan would be in place until December 2024. It made a referral to its financial support team to provide money and debt advice to her.
15. In the resident’s complaint on 10 May 2023, she said that she had received 3 text messages that day, stating that she had no payment plan in place. She advised the income team that she had a plan to pay rent plus £10, but its income officer was adamant there was no plan on its system. The messages said that she needed to pay an additional £40 each month but she could not afford this and was struggling to find money for her gas and electric.
16. The resident said that her arrears were due to her partner’s wages being paid 4-weekly. In some months, she received no UC housing element as he had been paid twice in that month. She asked why £10 was no longer sufficient which it had previously agreed.
17. In the landlord’s stage 1 response, it said that she was on a monthly payment plan for rent plus £10 toward her arrears. It acknowledged that the resident’s partner was paid 4-weekly, and due to receiving 2 payments in some months, this reduced or eliminated the UC payment. But this did balance itself over the year.
18. The landlord said that the resident needed to budget appropriately to ensure she made her monthly payments. She had failed to do this and could not decide to withhold a rent payment because she received no UC. It had informed her when the breach occurred, and she had agreed to pay rent plus £20. It was prepared to take no further action as long as she understood why she was in breach and made the payments.
19. The landlord’s response was factual and clarified its position in relation to the resident’s arrears. We appreciate that the way the resident’s UC is calculated and paid would cause budgeting issues. It appropriately referred the resident to its financial support team and reminded her that she needed to account for these periods. But it is her responsibility to ensure payments are made in line with the terms of her tenancy agreement. By not doing so, she would not meet the agreed payment plan and therefore would be in breach of her tenancy conditions.
20. That said, the landlord failed to respond to the resident’s complaint points. She believed she had a payment plan in place and was confused after receiving text messages in May 2023, stating she did not. Its delayed complaint response resulted in focussing on the missed payment in June 2023. This occurred a month after raising her complaint. It failed to explain why it had sent messages in May, prior to missing a payment, or why she needed to pay more than the agreed amount. The tone of its response also lacked empathy.
21. In her escalation request the resident repeated that she had been told her plan did not exist. She said she could not be expected to make rent payments from her partner’s wages when she received no housing element from UC.
22. The landlord’s records of 21 July 2023 referred to the previous complaint and payment plan. It said that the resident had been told that there was no plan on file and her payments were not enough despite being previously agreed. Its records also referred to offering further financial debt support. Its automated texts were sent due to the missed payment in June 2023. If its system failed to see a payment it would automate a text or recovery action.
23. The landlord’s stage 2 response repeated the information from stage 1. It explained that its system sent automated texts when it received no payment.
24. The landlord’s response again focussed on the missed payment from June 2023. Its records of 21 July 2023 clearly demonstrate that it was aware of her complaint points. It is not clear why it again failed to address these in its response. It is likely that the payment plan details were missing from its system, as asserted by its income officer, which had resulted in the text messages. It missed an opportunity to direct the resident to DWP or UC to discuss the difficulties she was having with the frequency of her partner’s wages. It would also have been helpful to have liaised with its financial support team to discuss her situation.
25. In summary, while the landlord’s responses were accurate and factual, it failed to provide an explanation or fully address the resident’s complaint. Its response was delayed which resulted in its focus being on a missed payment over a month after she raised her complaint. We have, therefore made a finding of service failure.

Associated Complaint

26. The landlord operates a 2-stage complaints process. It acknowledges complaints within 5 working days and responds at stage 1 and 2 within 10 and 20 working days respectively. This is in line with our Complaint Handling Code.
27. There were some failings in the landlord’s complaint handling. The resident raised her complaint on 10 May 2023. She received an automated email response thanking her for emailing its complaints team. It said it would review her concerns and contact her as soon as possible.
28. The resident chased the landlord on 3 occasions before it acknowledged her complaint on 29 June 2023. This was 35 working days after she raised her complaint and not in line with its 5 working day timescale.
29. The landlord responded at stage 1 of its complaints process on 7 July 2023, 8 working days later. However, it should have responded by 1 June 2023, 15 working days after receiving the complaint. Its response failed to apologise for the delays or demonstrate any learning. For these reasons we have made a finding of service failure.

Determination

30. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns about her rent account and payment plan.
31. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme there was service failure in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s associated complaint.

Orders and recommendations

Orders

32. Within 4 weeks of this report, the landlord is ordered to take the following actions and provide evidence of its compliance:
    1. Pay directly to the resident, and not offset against any arrears, the sum of £150 broken down as follows:
       1. £100 for time and trouble for its failure to respond to the resident’s concerns about her payment plan.
       2. £50 for distress and inconvenience for its complaint handling failures.
    2. Send a written apology to the resident for the failings identified in this report.

Recommendations

33. The landlord should update its records to reflect the resident’s health and mental health vulnerabilities.