Summary: Mr X complained the Council should not have repossessed his garage because it failed to collect direct debits for his garage rent. He says it also did not allow him access to his garage rent account online. We found there was no failure to collect direct debits. The Council did fail to resolve the issue with Mr X’s online account, but we found this did not cause the repossession so the fault we identified did not cause injustice to Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council acted unreasonably when it repossessed a garage he rented from it. He says that he set up a direct debit instruction to make the payments, but because of fault by the Council, it did not claim the payments when it should have. Mr X also complained the garage team at the Council was uncontactable, the Council stopped paper billing and he could not access the garage rent account via his “My Southwark” account. This made it hard to monitor his payments.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I spoke to Mr X and considered the information he provided to us. I asked the Council for information. I considered its actions and response to Mr X’s complaint.
5. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

6. Mr X complains the Council acted unreasonably when it repossessed his garage.
7. The Council told us that as soon as arrears occur, it sends a reminder letter asking for payment. It appears that arrears built up during the summer of 2020 without reminder letters being sent. The Council stated at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic they put chasing arrears for garage accounts on hold while the Council established people’s circumstances.
8. The Council told us when it returned to normal practices following the initial COVID-19 pandemic, it sent a reminder letter in August 2020. At this point the arrears had reached £377.44. The Council sent further reminders in September and October. It sent a Notice to quit in November, followed by a further reminder in December 2020. Mr X cleared the arrears at that point which prompted the Council to reverse its possession proceedings.
9. Mr X told us he believed there was a problem with the Council’s systems which resulted in the Council not claiming garage rent direct debits from his bank account. He told us a member of staff in the rent team told him there was a problem with his name on the direct debit. His view was that this may have prevented the Council claiming direct debits for garage rent successfully. Mr X drew a comparison between his rent and council tax accounts and the garage rent account. He stated the direct debits for rent and council tax were claimed successfully, but his garage rent was not. Mr X told us the problem with his name was corrected on the garage direct debit and it was reset towards the end of 2020.
10. However, in 2021 arrears occurred again. The Council issued reminders on 12, 19 and 26 January as arrears were building up. In February 2021 it sent a notice seeking possession and a further chaser letter was sent on 3 March. On 12 March the Council took possession of Mr X’s garage.
11. The Council stated it was unaware of any problems in its systems that prevented it claiming direct debits. It stated, if there was such a problem, it would have affected multiple users. This had not been the case. The Council provided a copy of Mr X’s account statements which showed that some payments had been received successfully. The same bank details had been used to collect Mr X’s garage rent since February 2019. As some payments were successfully claimed by direct debit in this period, it seems unlikely that the name and account details were incorrect.
12. The Council stated in Mr X’s case it applied for the direct debits from Mr X’s bank account and his bank returned them unpaid. The Council provided us with copies of its records which showed the payments being taken by direct debit but returned by the bank unpaid.
13. Mr X did not provide bank statements or any other evidence that shows the Council failed to collect the direct debits.

My Southwark – Online Account

14. My Southwark is an online account with the Council which can provide people with access to the details of their rent accounts. It is also possible to view garage rent accounts online via My Southwark. Mr X provided evidence that he contacted the Council on several occasions to ask for his garage rent account to be added to his online service so he could monitor it.
15. The Council accepts that there was an issue with some accounts that prevented someone’s garage rent accounts being linked up with other accounts they used ‘My Southwark’ for. This could be resolved by staff at the Council manually, but when Mr X raised this issue, it was not resolved, so Mr X did not have access to his garage rent account via My Southwark when he could have done.

Was there fault by the Council

Direct Debit Payments

16. I found there was no evidence that the Council had failed to collect the direct debits for Mr X’s garage rent. The Council provided evidence that direct debits were claimed, but these were returned unpaid. This does not appear to have been through any fault of the Council.

Communication about arrears/Access to My Southwark

17. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 the Council did not issue reminders when garage rent fell into arrears. We have established that Mr X also did not have access to details of his garage rent via the My Southwark online account. I found the Council failed to properly respond to Mr X’s requests for access to his garage account. It was aware of the issue and how this could be fixed. It was not fixed for Mr X when he raised it – this was fault. The Council offered an apology to Mr X about this when responding to our enquiries.
18. The Council says it knows of no problems with contacting their garage rent team. I have been unable to confirm whether or not there were persistent difficulties as Mr X has stated. I also recognise that in 2020 the Council had not sent reminder letters. This may have meant Mr X was unaware of the returned direct debits for garage rent in 2020. However, there was some onus on Mr X to monitor his bank account to make sure payments were being made correctly. Overall, I found that the issues in 2020 did not lead to significant injustice for Mr X. This was because the Council agreed to reverse the action it had started to take possession of the garage and Mr X cleared the arrears.
19. In 2021, payments were again returned unpaid, and this did result in the repossession of the garage. However, there is evidence that the Council had re-started sending reminders by this time. It sent numerous reminders in 2021 to advise Mr X of arrears. So, while Mr X did not have access to his garage rent account on ‘My Southwark’ the Council had made him aware of the arrears. This gave Mr X the opportunity to rectify the missed payments. In addition, I would expect rent payers to monitor their bank accounts to some extent to ensure that all their bills were being paid correctly.
20. I found, given there was no fault in the collection of direct debits, and because the Council made Mr X aware of his arrears in 2021, the Council was not at fault for the repossession of Mr X’s garage.

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Final decision

21. There was fault by the Council but this did not lead to injustice for Mr X. I have now completed my investigation and closed my file.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman