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Together Housing Association Limited (202327211)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202327211

Together Housing Association Limited

30 April 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 resident’s concerns about the landlord’s handling of his rent account.

Background

  1. At the time of the complaint the resident held an assured tenancy with the landlord. His tenancy agreement said that his rent was due on a Monday every week, in advance. The resident said he claimed Universal Credit to help with his housing costs and he received those payments on a monthly basis.
  2. Between September 2020 and June 2022 the resident contacted the landlord on several occasions about his weekly rent payments. He said he paid his money into his rent account monthly, and he wanted the landlord to collect it monthly too. The landlord said it could not alter the frequency of the collections, but he could still pay his rent monthly if this suited him better.
  3. The resident complained to the landlord on 4 October 2022. He raised concerns that his account was in arrears for part of the month due to the weekly rent collections and he alleged that the landlord was overcharging him. The landlord responded on 6 October 2022. It said it would not alter the frequency of the collections as it was legally obliged to charge all its residents rent in accordance with the terms of their tenancy agreements. It confirmed the resident paid his rent regularly and his account was only slightly in arrears during part of the month.
  4. The landlord’s records show that the resident complained about the management of his rent account again on 10 November 2022. The notes say that he thought the landlord’s weekly collection of his rent was causing his account to be in debt during the last week of every month. The landlord replied on 29 November. It said that his account was sometimes in arrears, and encouraged it not to be. It referred to a section of his tenancy agreement which says “If we accept payment from you at any other time you are still responsible for paying the rent every Monday”.
  5. The landlord’s records show the resident raised the issue again on 16 May 2023. It replied on 22 May, and gave a further response on 19 July. It reiterated its previous position and told the resident his rent was due weekly in advance, but he could still pay it monthly. It attached a rent statement and confirmed that his account was currently in credit. The landlord referred the resident to the Service.
  6. The resident confirmed he left the property in March 2024 and he is no longer a tenant of the landlord. He said the landlord told him that his account was in arrears of £33.63 when he left. The resident said that he believes that he was overcharged.

Assessment and findings

Scope of the investigation

  1. In his complaint, the resident explained his concerns date back to 2020. There is no evidence of a formal complaint to the landlord until October 2022. The Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about issues which were not brought to the attention of the landlord as a formal complaint within a reasonable period which would normally be within 12 months of the matters arising. This report will therefore centre on the issues leading up to the resident’s complaint in October 2022.
  2. The landlord has not accepted the resident’s concerns as a complaint and has asked the Service to review its responses to the resident to determine whether it needed to open one. We have exercised our discretion to not refer this back to the landlord. Instead, in this report we have assessed the landlord’s responses to the resident’s concerns that he raised from October 2022 up until its final response on 19 July 2023.

The resident’s concerns about the landlord’s handling of his rent account.

  1. The landlord’s policy says that “for those tenants who receive Universal Credit and other associated benefits, Together Housing supports the principle that tenants take responsibility for managing their rental payments”.  In this case, the landlord was acting in accordance with its policy in allowing the resident to manage how and when he paid his rent.  
  2. It is evident that it had been distressing for the resident to learn that his account had been in arrears for part of every month. He raised concerns about being overcharged as he said “It seems to me that you don’t want to change my account setting to monthly so you can get more money”. The landlord demonstrated that it’s response to the resident’s concerns on 29 November 2022 was appropriate. It confirmed that the resident was a “regular payer”. It said that his account had “only slightly shown a small amount of debt” and thanked the resident for his “prompt payments”. It raised no concerns to the resident about the management of his rent account.
  3. Tenants are legally bound to pay their rent as per the terms of their tenancy agreement. The landlord appropriately advised the resident of this in its response in November 2022. It said his contract required him to pay his rent weekly (in advance). Landlords are not obliged to amend a tenancy agreement to reflect the frequently at which a resident chooses to pay their rent. As such, its response to the resident was reasonable.
  4. The landlord’s records show the resident complained to the landlord again in May 2023. In its response, the landlord attached a copy of its previous reply from November 2022 and a copy of the resident’s latest rent statement. It said “rents are charged weekly in advance on a Monday and although you can choose to pay your rent monthly we will continue to charge the rent weekly in advance”. As this was in line with the resident’s tenancy agreement, it was a reasonable response.
  5. The landlord has shown that its explanations to the resident’s concerns of his account management were reasonable. Such as on 22 May 2023, when it said his account was currently in credit, but it would fall into a small amount of arrears in the week before he made his monthly payment.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was no maladministration in relation to the resident’s concerns about the landlord’s handling of his rent account.