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Westward Housing Group Limited (202339011)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202339011

Westward Housing Group Limited

19 May 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 arrears and changes to his direct debit rent payments.

Background

  1. The resident is a leaseholder of the landlord under a shared ownership scheme. The landlord is the freeholder of the property.
  2. The resident paid his rent monthly to the landlord via direct debit. In April 2022 the landlord increased his charges for the new financial year and amended his direct debit payment accordingly. However, an administrative error meant his payment for April 2022 was not taken. It wrote to him on 21 April 2022 to advise him of this and asked him to pay the missing payment for that month. The missing amount was not paid, so in April 2023 it amended his direct debit to cover his monthly rent along with an overpayment to pay off the arrears.
  3. The resident complained to the landlord on 13 October 2023. He said it had been adding a £52 monthly payment on top of his rent without his permission since April 2023. He disputed that he was liable for the missing rent payment from April 2022 as the same month there had been a significant repair issue at the property which meant he had to vacate it while repairs took place. He wanted it to refund any overpayments it had taken as well as pay him compensation.
  4. The landlord provided its stage 1 response on 23 October 2023. It said the resident was liable for the missing rent payment from April 2022, and it had notified him of the issue as soon as it occurred. It said its external payment provider would have notified him that his direct debit was being amended to make payments towards the arrears from April 2023 onwards. Nonetheless, it recognised the issue had caused him distress and offered £50 compensation.
  5. The resident escalated his complaint on 30 October 2023. He said no one had contacted him to advise of a change to his direct debit. He maintained that he felt he was not liable for the missing rent payment from April 2022 as the issue was down to an administrative error and was not his fault.
  6. The landlord provided its stage 2 response on 9 January 2024. It maintained that the resident was liable for the missing rent payment from April 2022. However, it did acknowledge that upon further investigation, neither it nor its external payment provider had notified him of adding an overpayment to his direct debit. It apologised for this and agreed to repay him 4 months’ worth of overpayments it had taken. It also agreed to pay a further £50 compensation for the error. In total it offered the resident £321 compensation.
  7. The resident remained unhappy, as he considered he was due a refund for 6 months overpayments and disputed he was responsible for the arrears. He raised this with the landlord, which maintained its position.
  8. The resident escalated his complaint to the service in May 2024. He said he wanted the landlord to clear his rent arrears and pay him compensation for the distress the issue it had caused.

Assessment and findings

  1. The resident’s lease says he is responsible for paying his rent. If for any reason his rent account falls into arrears, he would be obligated to pay this. The landlord would be obliged to make the resident aware of any rent increases, provide information about the rent account, and communicate with the resident clearly. It would also be expected to alter the resident’s direct debit to ensure that the correct amount of rent was being paid and communicate any changes to him.
  2. Part of the resident’s complaint was that he believed his was not liable to pay the missing rent payment from April 2022. He said the landlord had admitted there had been an administrative error which led to the direct debit payment not being taken and this was not his fault. He also said that in the same month there had been a significant repair issue at his property that meant he had to live elsewhere while repairs were completed. He believed he was therefore not liable to pay rent for April 2022. In its responses while the landlord confirmed there had been an administrative error, it said it wrote to him the same month to make him aware of the missing rent payment and that he was liable to pay this.
  3. The evidence supports the landlord’s response. The landlord wrote to the resident on 21 April 2022 and advised him of the error that occurred on 1 April 2022. The letter was clear in explaining that while his direct debit would continue as normal from 1 May 2022, he was liable to pay the outstanding rent amount of £400.47. When this amount was not paid, it wrote to him in November 2022 and February 2023 to remind him to pay these arrears. We have not seen any evidence that it told him he would not have to pay rent in April 2022 because of the repair issues at his property. Nothing in the resident’s lease provides exceptions to his regular rent obligation.             
  4. The landlord’s actions around the arrears were appropriate. It notified him of the error in good time and was clear that he was liable to cover the missing amount of £400.47 as per the terms of his lease. It gave him the opportunity to pay the arrears throughout the 22/23 financial year and contacted him about this. It was right to maintain he still owed rent for April 2022 despite the repair issue, as this was in line with the terms of his lease.
  5. In bringing his complaint to us, the resident said the landlord had taken money from him via direct debit without his authority. He said it had amended his direct debit payments from May 2023 onwards, adding a £55.25 overpayment on top of his monthly rent amount. He said it had not notified him of this change.
  6. The landlord’s stage 1 response confirmed it had amended the resident’s direct debit from May 2023 onwards. This amendment reflected his new monthly rent amount for the 23/24 financial year, and an overpayment to start paying off his arrears. It said its external payment provider would have notified him of the change but still offered £50 compensation as a gesture of goodwill for any distress caused. Had this information been correct, its actions would have been appropriate.
  7. However, when the resident escalated his complaint to stage 2, he maintained neither the landlord nor its external payment provider had notified him of the direct debit changes. In its Stage 2 response, the landlord confirmed that upon further investigation it had failed to tell him about its plans to add an overpayment to his direct debit. It apologised for this, recognised this was a failure and offered to repay the resident the overpayments it had taken between July and October 2023, equalling £221. It also offered a further £50 compensation for the distress caused. In total it offered him £100 compensation as well as the £221 repayment.
  8. The landlord’s failure to notify the resident about adding an overpayment to his direct debit was not in line with the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee. The guarantee says that a provider can amend the direct debit agreement but must notify the account holder of any changes at least 10 working days beforehand. The landlord recognised this failure in its final response and offered to repay the overpayments it had taken which. That was appropriate in the circumstances of not properly notifying him. The £50 compensation it offered was in line with the Ombudsman’s Remedies Guidance for the failure and was reasonable.
  9. When escalating his complaint to us, the resident queried the landlord’s calculations on how much it had taken in overpayments via his direct debit. In its stage 2 response it said it had taken 4 overpayments between July and October 2023. It therefore offered to repay these which totalled £221. On 6 February 2024 he emailed it to say he believed it had taken 6 months of overpayments from May to October 2023. Therefore, it should amend its offer accordingly. The landlord responded that it had notified the resident it would be taking an overpayment via his direct debit for May 2023 on 6 April 2023. As such it maintained it only owed him 4 months’ worth of overpayments.
  10. We have not seen any evidence to support the landlord’s claim that it notified the resident about taking any overpayments. While it did write to him to say his direct debit would be increasing to reflect an increase in the monthly rent charge for the new financial year. It did not mention taking any overpayments to cover his arrears. It also confirmed it did not do this in its stage 2 response. Its offer to repay £221 of overpayments was therefore incorrect. It should have amended the amount to reflect the 6 months of overpayments it took between May to October 2023, and it was a failure to not do so.
  11. In summary, it was appropriate for the landlord to maintain the resident owed the arrears on his rent account and it communicated this clearly. After he did not clear arrears, it should have notified him of its plan to amend his monthly direct debit to include an overpayment but failed to do so. While it was appropriate to apologise for this and offer compensation, its calculations on how much it would pay back for the overpayments taken was incorrect. This was another failure on its part.

Determination

  1. In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure by the landlord in its handling of the resident’s rent arrears and changes to his direct debit rent payments.

Orders

  1. Within 4 weeks of this report the landlord is ordered to pay the resident compensation of £531.50. This is comprised of:
    1. £321 already offered in its complaint responses.
    2. £110.50 for the overpayments taken by direct debit in April and May 2023.
    3. £100 compensation for the failures identified in this report.