Mosscare St. Vincent’s Housing Group Limited (202304859)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202304859

Mosscare St. Vincent’s Housing Group Limited

3 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 and associated arrears.

Background

2. The resident is an assured tenant of the property, a 2-bedroom house. His tenancy began in September 2017 and ended in May 2022.
3. In October 2018, the landlord took the resident to court over his increasing rent arrears. The resident’s rent accounts were scrutinised at court, and he was ordered to pay an additional sum each month to cover the arrears. The account was cleared in May 2021.
4. In January 2022 the landlord contacted the resident as his account had fallen into arrears again. On 11 February 2022 the resident complained to the landlord that his rent account was incorrect.
5. The landlord issued its stage 1 complaint response to the resident on the same day. It stated it had examined his rent account from the start of his tenancy and confirmed that the outstanding areas where correct. The landlord explained:
   1. The local authority had overpaid housing benefit in 2017, which had led to his rent account being debited for the overpayment.
   2. The resident was subject to an active court order and was at risk of losing his home if he continued to breach it.
6. The resident escalated his complaint on 14 March 2022 and stated he believed there were missing universal credit and housing benefit payments on his rent account. The landlord issued its stage 2 complaint response on 19 May 2022 and provided a comprehensive breakdown of the resident’s account, along with a written explanation as to how his benefits were applied to the account. The landlord concluded that the arrears were correct, and it would not uphold his complaint.
7. The resident remained dissatisfied and brought the complaint to this Service.

Assessment and findings

Scope of investigation

8. The Ombudsman encourages residents to raise complaints with their landlords in a timely manner, so that the landlord has a reasonable opportunity to consider the issues while they are still ‘live’, and while the evidence is available to reach an informed conclusion on the events which occurred. As the substantive issues become historical it is increasingly difficult for either the landlord, or an independent body such as the Ombudsman, to conduct an effective review of the actions taken to address those issues.
9. In his correspondence with us, the resident has raised other matters that have not been through the landlord’s complaint process, such as repairs to a toilet. In the interest of fairness, the scope of this investigation is limited to matters which completed the landlord’s internal complaints procedure on 19 May 2022. This is because the landlord needs to be given a fair opportunity to investigate and respond to any reported dissatisfaction with its actions before the involvement of this Service.
10. The resident has informed us he believes his rent account is incorrect due to missing payments from Universal Credit and housing benefit. The Ombudsman is unable to determine whether there are any missing payments. This would be within the knowledge and remit of the individual benefit providers. The resident is advised to contact the agencies responsible for these payments should he wish to pursue this matter further. The scope of this investigation is limited to the landlord’s handling of the resident’s concerns.
11. This complaint involves a large volume of correspondence and other documents. While not all documents and events are explicitly referred to, all have been examined and taken into account during this investigation.

The resident’s rent account and associated arrears

12. Following the resident’s rent arrears being cleared in May 2021, the account fell back into arrears soon after. The landlord contacted the resident in August 2021 to encourage him make small additional payments to prevent him from breaching his court order. In December 2021, the landlord awarded the resident’s rent account a hardship payment to help with the increasing arrears.
13. The landlord contacted the resident on 14 January 2021 to discuss his rent arrears. A record of the call noted the resident said he only wanted to be contacted by email before hanging up. The landlord contacted the resident again on 17 January 2022 and stated he needed to make payments, or he would be in breach of his court order. The resident agreed to make a payment by 4 February 2022.
14. When the resident complained to the landlord on 11 February 2022 that his account was incorrect, he queried the amount of rent that been charged in November 2017. The landlord attempted to call the resident back the same day to discuss his complaint but was unable to reach him, despite leaving a voicemail.
15. The landlord sent the resident a comprehensive response to his complaint the same day and included a copy of the resident’s full rent account. It assured the resident that it had examined the account from the start of his tenancy and could find no errors. The landlord also explained that a housing benefit credit had been made in error in 2017, and on the request of the local authority, it had debited the overpayment from his account. It confirmed that the resident was in rent arrears of £1,145.42 and encouraged him to bring his payments back in line. This was a swift and reasonable response from the landlord.
16. The resident contacted the landlord on 14 and 16 February 2022 with further questions relating to his rent account. The landlord responded by email on 17 February 2022 and offered to meet with the resident face to face to go through his rent account in detail. The resident contacted the landlord by phone the same day. The landlord’s records state the resident was abusive and threatened the operative who offered to meet with him.
17. The resident continued to contact the landlord by email throughout February 2022. He stated that he believed there were 3 Universal Credit payments missing and a further £500 missing from housing benefit. The landlord responded to the resident on 28 February 2022 and provided a further, comprehensive explanation of his rent account. The landlord explained:
    1. An overpayment was removed from his account at the request of the local authority who recalculated his benefit and decided he was no longer entitled to receive it.
    2. In October 2018, the court awarded a suspended possession order, which included the payment of court costs (£325), which were added to his rent account.
    3. In May 2021, his account went into credit and all deductions from his Universal Credit were stopped, meaning the rent had to be paid by the resident directly.
    4. Universal Credit includes 1 skipped payment a year due to the way the payment system operates, and this continued to cause confusion for a number of tenants. However, the correct amount was paid over the 12-month billing period.
18. The landlord continued to respond to the resident’s queries by email throughout March 2023. Each response it provided was prompt, addressed the questions the resident asked, and provided explanations were appropriate. On 14 March 2022 the resident escalated his complaint. He stated his queries had not been answered and he was unhappy that the arrears were increasing.
19. The landlord arranged a panel hearing for the resident’s complaint to be discussed. The landlord contacted the resident on 19 April 2022 and invited him to attend. The resident declined and the landlord advised the resident he could make a submission that would be presented on his behalf. The hearing took place on 6 May 2022 and the resident did not make a submission.
20. The landlord’s stage 2 response, dated 19 May 2022, confirmed that there were no missing payments from the resident’s rent account and that he was responsible for the arrears. As well as providing further written explanations of the payments and debits on the resident’s rent account, the landlord said:
    1. It appreciated the resident did not want to meet in person and it had tried to explain everything as clearly as it could.
    2. It suggested if the resident did not want to communicate with the landlord further, he should speak to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to enhance his understanding.
21. In summary, the landlord’s responses to the resident were timely, relevant, and informative. The landlord recognised the subject matter was confusing for the resident and constantly adapted its communication style to accommodate this and provide simpler explanations. The landlord also offered a face-to-face meeting, which was no longer appropriate following a phone call with the resident on 17 February 2022. It also signposted the resident to other agencies for support. It would be fair to say that in this case, the landlord went above and beyond its responsibilities in dealing with the resident’s rent account queries.
22. This leads to a determination of no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s rent account and associated arrears.

Determination

23. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Scheme, there was no maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s rent account and associated arrears.

Orders and recommendations

24. There are no orders or recommendations for the landlord.