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Calico Homes Limited (202009798)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202009798

Calico Homes Limited

16 December 2021


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 response to the resident’s reports about the rent arrears that accrued whilst in occupation at the property.  

Background and summary of events

Background

  1. The resident was previously an assured tenant of the landlord at the property. The tenancy ended in September 2019. The complaint relates to the arrears that accrued on the resident’s rent account whilst he was in occupation.
  2. The evidence available to this investigation confirms that the resident made reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB) about a neighbour whilst occupying the property. This investigation has not investigated the landlord’s response to these reports as this sits outside of the complaint under investigation. Any reference to these ASB reports is included within this report for contextual purposes only. The resident had the opportunity to progress down the landlord’s complaints process whilst the incidents he reported occurred; he would then have had the opportunity to bring the complaint to the Ombudsman within a reasonable timeframe, however, whilst the landlord has referred to a previous complaint in relation to the resident’s ASB reports, there is no evidence of this complaint having exhausted the landlord’s complaints process, or the issue having been brought to the attention of the Ombudsman within a reasonable timeframe.

Summary of events

  1. The resident gave notice that he intended to terminate his tenancy at the property in August 2019 as he was dissatisfied that his car had been ‘constantly vandalised’. Prior to his decision to terminate the tenancy, there was also evidence of reports he had made to the landlord about a neighbour, relating to noise disturbance, parking and his car being vandalised (June 2019).
  2. The landlord confirmed that there were arrears on the resident’s rent account at the end of the tenancy (originally detailed as amounting to £1,101.04, with a tenancy end date of 29 September 2019). It entered into a discussion with the resident in relation to the arrears, and, on 10 September 2019, the resident confirmed that he would set up a standing order to repay the outstanding balance of £600 on the account, with the remainder of the debt having been written off by the landlord. By this stage it is clear that the overall arrears had also been reduced from the original figure listed above, as the amount detailed for a write off was £410.42.
  3. In December 2019, the resident contacted the landlord about setting up a payment plan for the arrears at a rate of £30 a month from the end of January 2020 onwards, as this was when he expected to be paid from a new job. The landlord accepted this proposal.
  4. In August 2020, the resident asked if the remainder of the arrears could be written off as he was out of work and had been struggling to keep up payments with his debts. The landlord responded, on 18 August 2020, to confirm that it was unable to write of the remainder of the arrears on the account (£779.68), though it would accept a lower monthly repayment plan, down to £10 a month. The landlord also said that it had received only one £30 payment towards the arrears since the end of the tenancy, which the resident disputed. The landlord identified the payments that had been made and apologised for its error. There then followed a brief email conversation in which the landlord and resident discussed, and failed to agree on the outstanding balance.
  5. The resident brought his case to the Ombudsman on 1 December 2020. He asked if he ‘had a case in regards clearing the remaining rent arrears as I was having a difficult time when I was living there with neighbours’. In a call with this Service on 10 February 2021, the resident said that he had complained about ASB at the time (2019) but the landlord had been unable to do anything. He said that it was unfair of the landlord to pursue the arrears as he would not have vacated the property if it had resolved the ASB issues. The resident was encouraged to raise a further complaint with the landlord, though it was also explained that there may be jurisdictional issued with any Ombudsman consideration of the issue, due to the time that had elapsed since he left the property.
  6. The resident contacted the landlord on 25 February 2021, registering a formal complaint about the issues he experienced at the time of his tenancy and stating that he did not wish to continue to make payments towards the arrears. The landlord responded the following day to say that it understood his complaints on this issue to have been dealt with previously and that it had been agreed that the arrears would continue to be due from him; to this end it asked if he wished to make an agreement to repay the outstanding sum at a lower rate.
  7. The resident was not satisfied with this response. He responded to the landlord on 27 February 2021to say that the issue had impacted upon his mental health and that he had lost his job and had his car vandalised. The landlord responded (3 March 2021), to say that it had no evidence of him having appealed the decision to require the payment of arrears back in 2019. It also detailed that he had paid £370 to date of the total amount due of £600, leaving an outstanding balance of £230. The landlord reiterated that it would be able to enter into an agreement for the balance at a reduced rate.
  8. The Ombudsman discussed the case with the resident in early March 2021 and noted that the landlord responses detailed above did not present as formal complaint responses under its complaints procedure. The Ombudsman wrote to the landlord (17 March 2021) requesting that it confirm its position as to the status of the complaint, including whether it had provided its final response on the case.
  9. Following the Ombudsman contact, the landlord agreed to send its final position on the case to both the resident and this Service. On 26 March, the landlord provided this final response which said that:

a)     The resident had complained about ASB in May 2019, this was responded to by the landlord through its complaints process, with further support offered (mediation and assistance with possible re-housing) but declined by the resident.

b)     Upon termination of the tenancy, arrears of £1,010.42 remained outstanding. The landlord agreed to write off £410.42 of this sum, with the remainder to be paid off at £50 per month by the resident.

c)     Since the end of the tenancy, the resident had made regular standing order payments of between £5 and £40 per month, with the balance at 1 March 2021 sitting at £230.

d)     Following the resident’s recent reports of financial difficulty, the landlord had offered to agree a repayment plan at a reduced rate, though the resident had ‘appeared to refuse this offer’ and approached(?) the Ombudsman. It confirmed that it was unable to write off the arrears and encouraged the resident to agree the reduced repayment plan to get the debt cleared.

  1. The resident requested that the Ombudsman progress his case on 14 April 2021 as he remained dissatisfied. In a call with this Service on 23 April, he said that the landlord had not responded with any empathy to his situation, that he had experienced ‘abuse and harassment’ from his neighbours whilst in occupation at the property and that he believed that writing off his rent arrears would be appropriate.
  2. In a further call with the Ombudsman on 27 May 2021, the resident said that he had lost his job due to the actions of his neighbours whilst living at the property. He also said that the landlord had not pursued the rent arrears for nine months after he left the property and that it had failed to identify payments that he had made when he contacted them about it. He also said that police involvement in relation to the neighbour issues he had experienced might be having a detrimental impact upon his ability to secure a new job.
  3. The Ombudsman requested relevant information from the landlord in relation to the investigation of the case. On 17 June 2021, the landlord provided the requested evidence, this included information from the resident’s rent account which confirmed that it had ended the tenancy earlier than required (8 September 2019 rather than 29 September 2019) and that, since the completion of the complaints process, it had received further payments of £25 towards the arrears, leaving a balance of £205.
  4. The landlord also provided the full rent account, from the commencement of the tenancy in September 2018, all the way through to 16 June 2021. Following the decision to end the tenancy on 8 September, the arrears stood at £913.30. Following this, the rent account detailed payments totalling £498.62 were made, plus an amount written off of £209.68 (date of write off 16 June 2021), leaving the balance at £205. It is not known if further payments have been made to date.

Assessment and findings

  1. It is not disputed that the resident left the property with rent arrears that had accrued whilst he was the tenant of the property. Having signed the tenancy agreement, he had agreed to be bound by the covenants therein, including the requirement that he meet his rental liabilities. As such, in the normal course of events, it would be appropriate for the landlord to pursue the arrears in full.
  2. Whilst this investigation has not investigated the ASB issues that he reported whilst he was the tenant, it is clear from the resident’s complaint and his contact with the Ombudsman that he felt unable to continue with his tenancy due to his experiences whilst living there. It is not clear whether the landlord agreed to write off a part of these arrears on account of these ASB reports, or whether it did so on account of the financial difficulties that the resident raised with it when discussing a repayment plan. In any case, it amounted to a reasonable exercise of discretion on its part to have worked with him to set up a plan that both parties considered affordable.
  3. The landlord has also confirmed that it agreed to end the tenancy at an earlier date than required by the terms of the tenancy, doing so with effect from 8 September 2019, rather than 29 September 2019. Again, the landlord’s decision here amounted to a reasonable exercise of discretion. Having made this decision, the rent account information provided by the landlord confirms that the arrears stood at £913.30 at the end of the tenancy. This differed from the information provided by the landlord in its final response to the resident dated 26 March 2021, which detailed a figure of £1,010.42 outstanding when it entered into the original repayment plan that saw £410.42 written off and an amount of £600 remaining repayable.
  4. It is not known whether the decision to bring forward the tenancy termination date came before the original repayment plan. However, there is an important distinction between sums written off through a landlord’s discretionary powers and monies that are no longer owed on account of a decision to amend a tenancy end date. The final complaint response reiterated the write off figure used in the original repayment plan of £410.62, though the write off figure contained within the resident’s rent statement amounted to £209.68, a difference of more than £200.
  5. Whilst a landlord’s ability to write off rent arrears sums owed is entirely discretionary, it is of concern that there is a significant anomaly between the information contained within its complaint correspondence and the rent account information provided. Having confirmed the amount of the debt written off through its final response to the resident, the Ombudsman would expect this figure to be reflected in the resident’s rent account statement. In the circumstances, it is considered reasonable to recalculate the rent account using the higher write off figure as this would ensure consistency with the landlord’s position as confirmed through the complaints process.
  6. It is not known if the arrears figure showing within the evidence (£205 at 16 June 2021) remains outstanding. If so, given the sums involved, the Ombudsman considers it a reasonable remedy to award compensation to reflect this figure in full, thus leaving the resident with no further sum to pay. In the event that the arrears have reduced to a lower figure, or have been paid off entirely, then the Ombudsman considers it reasonable for the landlord to award the resident compensation of £200 to reflect this service failure.

Determination (decision)

  1. In accordance with paragraph 54 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was service failure with respect to the landlord’s response to the resident’s reports about rent arrears he accrued whilst living at the property.

Reasons

  1. The landlord demonstrated a reasonable exercise of discretion in agreeing to end the tenancy early and also by agreeing to write off a proportion of the arrears when agreeing a repayment plan with the resident. However, having confirmed the amount to be written off as part of its final response, it was concerning to note that the actual rent account included a different (lower) write off figure. In the circumstances, it is considered reasonable for the landlord to award compensation to reflect this inconsistency.

Orders and recommendations

Order

  1. The landlord to pay the resident £200 in compensation, or, if the rent arrears remain at the level detailed within the rent statement provided (£205), the landlord to award that sum to the rent account such that nothing remains payable.
  2. The landlord to confirm compliance with the above order within four weeks of this investigation.