Summary: Mrs B complained that the Council tried to recover a rent arrears debt from 2016/17, over four years’ later and without any explanation or evidence. This has caused her significant distress and time and trouble trying to resolve it. We found the Council at fault. The Council has agreed to write off the debt and check no other tenants have been affected in the same way.

The complaint

1. Mrs B complained that the London Borough of Ealing (the Council) sent her an invoice for rent arrears of £1409 which she says does not owe. She believed it was connected to housing benefit changes since 2016/2017 which were covered in detail in the Council’s stage two response dated 12 March 2020. She says she is owed money as she paid too much rent for the period she was in the temporary accommodation. This situation has caused her significant distress and time and trouble in trying to resolve it.

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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 an organisation’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 have considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant, made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided. Mrs B 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

5. Between August 2016 and February 2017, Mrs B lived in temporary accommodation provided by the Council under homelessness legislation. Mrs B said she and her son lived in two rooms of a hostel which were in very poor condition.
6. The rent statement starts from 5 September 2016 and shows a weekly rent of £513.50. This included service charges which were not covered by housing benefit. In November 2016 Mrs B started to receive housing benefit of £409.40 a week, backdated to the start of her tenancy. This meant there was a shortfall of £104.10 each week, which Mrs B was liable to pay.
7. The statement shows that the Council received total payments of approximately £1500 from Mrs B towards the shortfall but this was insufficient to cover the amount she owed. By the time she left the arrears were £824.85. The Council says she did not notify it that she had moved, until 12 February 2017 and so there was an overpayment of £584.86 of housing benefit which was added to the rent account, creating a total of £1409.71.
8. From the end of February 2017 her housing benefit account was subject to a complicated series of underpayments and overpayments over the next three years. These were finally resolved in March 2020 and the Council said Mrs B owed £31.98 which she paid. None of these transactions affected the rent account for the hostel accommodation from 2016/17.
9. The Council first sent Mrs B an invoice for the outstanding rent arrears in May 2021, over four years after the debt arose. The Council offered no explanation for the debt. In June 2021 Mrs B submitted an appeal against the debt because she believed it was connected to the housing benefit overpayments. The Council did not reply.
10. The Council sent a recovery letter on 21 February 2022 for the debt, again with no explanation and demanded payment within 14 days.
11. On 9 March 2022 Mrs B complained to us. On 22 March we contacted the Council to query what had happened to the appeal request.
12. On 23 March 2022 the Council responded to her appeal request. It said the debt was not from the housing benefit service but from corporate collections and so there was no right of appeal against it.
13. We decided to investigate the complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council said that when Mrs B moved to different accommodation in February 2017 with a private landlord, unconnected to the Council, it wrongly set up a dummy rent account linked to Mrs B’s previous address and arrears. But because the new address did not show any rent arrears it did not notify her of the debt. Following a restructure in 2021 the debt came to light, and it sent her the invoice on 14 May 2021 (see paragraph 9 above).

Analysis

14. The Council was at fault for failing to notify Mrs B for over four years that she owed rent arrears. It must have a been a shock to receive the invoice in May 2021 for a significant debt with no prior warning or explanation. The Council was further at fault for failing to provide any explanation for the debt or evidence of how it arose. This caused Mrs B to submit a lengthy appeal because she believed it was connected to her complicated housing benefit history. The Council could have admitted in May 2021 that it was responsible for the error which led to the debt lying undiscovered for such a long period and that the debt was for rent arrears unconnected to the housing benefit issues.
15. The Council then failed to respond to Mrs B’s appeal request until we intervened nine months later. Instead, it sent out another brief recovery letter with no explanation and asked for payment within an unreasonably short time frame. This was also fault. This caused Mrs B further distress and frustration.
16. From the evidence provided I do not think it was reasonable for Mrs B to have known she owed the debt. From the rent account it appears the Council took over three months to determine her housing benefit entitlement; so, she would not have been aware until mid-November 2016 how much rent she had to pay. The Council has not provided any evidence that it told Mrs B about the debt until May 2021.
17. I have also considered the fact that it is very difficult for Mrs B to effectively challenge the debt after such a long period. She has provided proof of payments for the addresses she lived in more recently but not going back to 2016.
18. I understand that the debt is public money, but given the lack of information combined with the excessive delays, I do not consider the Council has acted fairly or proportionately in seeking to recover the money from Mrs B.

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Agreed action

19. In recognition of the injustice caused to Mrs B I recommended the Council (within one month of my final decision):
• writes off the debt and confirms this in writing to Mrs B; and
• checks that no other tenant has been affected in this way by the restructure in 2021.
20. The Council has agreed to my recommendations.

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Final decision

21. I consider this is a proportionate way of putting right the injustice caused to Mrs B and I have completed my investigation on this basis.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman