Clarion Housing Association Limited (202006472)

REPORT

COMPLAINT 202006472

Clarion Housing Association Limited

24 November 2022

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

This complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s:
1. Request for the rent arrears to be waived.
2. Request for a management move.
3. The related complaint.

Background and summary of events

Background

The resident’s tenancy commenced on 8 January 2019. The resident is a tenant of the landlord.
The property is described as a one-bedroom flat.
The resident is a survivor of domestic abuse.
The landlord’s tenancy agreement obliges the resident to pay the rent in advance on a monthly basis.
The landlord’s allocation policy sets out how it will allocate housing and has the following priority bands: high priority, urgent, priority and those with no priority. Those placed in the urgent band are assessed as needing to move otherwise there will be a risk of homelessness. This group consists of victims of crime, serious anti-social behaviour (ASB) or domestic abuse that puts their life at risk and it is considered no longer safe to remain in the property.
Furthermore, the status will be awarded once it has received written evidence from the police or another agency. It will only assist residents who are willing to move to an area where it is able to allocate properties directly. If it cannot do so as the Council has 100% nomination rights, it will refer the resident to the Council’s Homeless Persons Unit (HPU).
In addition, it will try to take account of the resident’s preferences regarding their choice of area they wish to move to for rehousing. However, the priority is to move the resident to a place of safety. It will not generally rehouse residents that have rehousing related debt except where the resident has been making regular repayments towards the debt for at least three months. The exception to this is where the missed rent payments are a result of domestic abuse.
The landlord’s management transfer policy applies when a resident has experienced serious ASB, that puts their life at risk. The policy explains that it will:
1. Make an offer on a permanent basis, offer the first suitable property on a “like for like” basis.
2. If the transfer is approved for a tenant that has rent arrears, the arrears/debt will be added to the new tenancy agreement. If a suitable property is not readily available, it will be reviewed on a frequency dictated by the risk to the victim.
3. It aims to identify a suitable property and rehouse the resident within three months. After that period, it will advise the resident to increase the areas that they wish to move to. In serious risk cases, it may consider applying to other local authorities, housing providers and the private rented sector to find alternative accommodation.
The landlord’s arrears policy outlines that rent payments are due as defined in the tenancy agreement and that residents are responsible for making rent payments in full and on time. It will not agree to changes to the tenancy for residents with arrears except where an emergency move is required as defined in its allocations policy or those impacted by welfare reforms. Furthermore, residents who have arrears will not be recommended for a transfer or be allowed to undertake a mutual exchange until the arrears have been cleared, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
The landlord’s complaints procedure has two stages. At the first stage complaints are answered within 10 working days and within 20 working days at the final stage.
The landlord’s compensation policy sets out how it calculates discretionary compensation, on a case-by-case basis to take ownership of its mistakes.

Summary of events

The landlord’s internal records show that on 3 April 2019, it experienced difficulty setting up the rent account for the resident as there was an error linked to a previous rent account.
On 7 July 2020, the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) sent a complaint by secure mail to the landlord on behalf of the resident. The complaint described the resident’s current circumstances and that she was a survivor of domestic abuse which had been confirmed by the police on 2 May 2019. It stated that the landlord had delayed in finding permanent accommodation until 1 November 2019. Furthermore, the email requested that the landlord respond to the following questions:
1. Why it delayed in providing alternative housing for the resident?
2. Why did it take until July 2019 to approve the management transfer for the resident?
3. Why did it delay in informing the resident that she had to sign up to its home connections site to choose her areas of preference?
4. Why did the landlord wait for the officer dealing with the resident to go on leave before it offered the resident a tenancy on 1 November 2019?
5. Why did it take the landlord just under six months before it found the resident another tenancy?
6. The landlord was aware that the resident could not remain in the tenancy. Therefore, why didn’t it recommend that the resident terminate the tenancy which would have removed her rent liability whilst it looked for alternative accommodation?
7. It requested that the landlord write off the former tenancy arrears of £3773.87.
The resident completed the landlord’s complaint form on 20 August 2020. The resident complained that she had experienced a severe delay in the landlord finding her alternative accommodation considering that the police had confirmed that she was a survivor of domestic abuse. In addition, she requested that the landlord provide the name of the person investigating her complaint so that she could supply further information.
On 29 September 2020, the resident emailed the landlord to advise that she was being supported by the CAB and was experiencing difficulty using its complaint form as it restricted the number of characters that could be entered.
Following contact from the resident regarding her complaint response, this Service on 6 October 2020, contacted the landlord and requested that it respond to the complaint.
The landlord acknowledged this Service correspondence on 7 October 2020 and advised that it had not considered the resident’s concerns through its complaint procedure. It advised that it would register the resident’s complaint.
The landlord spoke to the resident regarding the complaint on 13 October 2020. The resident advised that she had to move for safety reasons and that as the landlord had failed to act until November 2019, she was liable for the rent arrears.
The landlord’s internal communication on 15 October 2020 noted that the named member of staff stopped working in the tenancy specialist team in July 2019.
On 19 October 2020, the landlord internal communications noted that the arrears for the former property were £3776.16. The reason for the debt was that the tenancy commenced on 8 January 2019 but the first universal credit (UC) payment started from 5 June 2019. It noted that it had not received any rent payments from the tenancy start date to the date of the first UC payment.
The landlord responded to the resident’s complaint on 22 October 2020. The key findings were that:
1. It had received the complaint on 6 October 2020 regarding the rent arrears and the handling of the management move.
2. It confirmed that it was informed on 29 April 2019 of the domestic abuse and had requested a police disclosure.
3. It had informed the resident that she was liable for the rent payments and that it could not agree to a move unless a payment arrangement was in place.
4. The resident had advised that she was not in work or in receipt of UC.
5. On 10 July 2019, following information from the police, it had approved the management transfer.
6. A bidding number was provided and the resident was advised that she could bid on the local authorities housing list.
7. It had kept the resident informed and it did not have an empty property available until the one that became available on 22 October 2019.
8. As the management transfer was approved in July 2019, this fell within the three-month standard.
9. It could not agree for the rent arrears to be waived.
10. It had not identified any service failures, so the complaint had not been upheld.
The resident called the landlord on 25 November 2020 to advise that she was unhappy with the complaint response.
On 12 December 2020 and 5 January 2021, the resident contacted this Service to advise that she had escalated her complaint to the landlord but she had not received its complaint response.
This Service contacted the landlord on 11 January 2021 requesting that it respond to the escalated complaint.
In response, the landlord informed this Service that it had received the resident’s escalated complaint and that it would be providing its complaint response.
The landlord called the resident on 4 February 2021 to discuss the escalated complaint. It confirmed that the complaint was received on 25 November 2020, apologised for the delay in its response and that it would be responding within 20 working days. The resident informed the landlord that her finances were out of her control, she was a survivor of abuse and that by March 2019/April 2019 she had moved out of the tenancy as a result of domestic violence. The resident requested that the landlord waive the rent arrears due to the time taken to find her alternative accommodation.
The landlord’s internal communication on 9 February 2021 noted that the resident was staying with family and friends after the police advised her not to return to the tenancy and that she was advised to attend the Council’s HPU if she could not continue to stay with family and friends. It had not discussed with her terminating the tenancy whilst the management transfer was being approved and that the police had provided the supporting information on 2 May 2019.
Furthermore, the request for a management transfer was made on 3 May 2019 and was approved on the same day on the basis that the arrears were reduced. On 11 June 2019, it received information regarding the financial abuse and coercion and the rents team were notified as they were considering possession action. On 12 June 2019, a further management transfer request was made regarding the financial coercion and this was approved on 16 July 2019 irrespective of the rent arrears. The Council had assessed the resident’s housing application and placed her in the emergency band for rehousing, however the resident wanted to move outside of the local authority area.
It also noted that the Housing Benefit (HB) was paid from 8 January 2019 to 25 February 2019. The HB ceased as the resident’s income was too high. The resident provided her areas of choice on 18 July 2019 and that it consulted with the South London Available Homes Team who did not have any available properties. The North London Available Homes Team confirmed that the resident was on their list on 28 August 2019 and on 19 August 2019 the resident began registering with the East London Available Homes Team, who assisted the resident with their online bidding system on 29 August 2019. The tenancy sustainment service was involved with the resident but the resident did not engage with them.
The landlord’s internal records note on 11 February 2021 that it had carried out a review of the rent account. The resident had made contact on 3 April 2019 to advise that the money she had saved to pay the rent from the tenancy start date had been stolen. A review of the system shows that the rent account was not set up until 3 April 2019 even though the tenancy started on 8 January 2019. The rent verification was completed on 12 June 2019 which coincided with the commencement of the UC payments, as the UC payments started from 5 June 2019. A repayment plan for the arrears was in place for the former arrears at £18 per month since June 2020.
It also noted that it was suggested that a referral was to be made for discretionary housing payment (DHP) support for the former tenancy debt from 8 January 2019 to 4 June 2019. It also considered whether an abatement should be applied for the former tenant arrears due to the delay in setting up the rent account for the period 8 January 2019 to 2 April 2019.
On 16 February 2021, the landlord called the resident to inform her that it had made a referral to the HPU for assistance with clearing her rent arrears. During the conversation, the resident informed the landlord that she had applied for the DHP and she would keep the landlord updated regarding the outcome of the application.
The resident called the landlord to chase the complaint response on 19 February 2021.
The landlord provided its final complaint response on 22 February 2021. It apologised for the delay in providing its response. The key findings were:
1. It makes allocations of its properties in accordance with its allocations policy and management transfers are approved based on evidence from police and other agencies.
2. Management transfers will be processed within five working days. If the management transfer is approved, the case will be placed in the urgent band and automatic bidding will occur to identify the first available property.
3. It became aware that the resident was a survivor of domestic abuse on 29 April 2019 and it received information from the police on 2 May 2019.
4. It provisionally approved a management transfer on 3 May 2019 on the basis that the arrears would reduce.
5. On 11 June 2019, it received information that the resident was the victim of financial abuse and coercion. On receipt of that information, it approved a management transfer, irrespective of the rent arrears.
6. On 22 October 2019 it identified and offered a suitable property.
7. It considered that there was a delay between 11 June to 16 July 2019 before it acted on the report of the resident’s financial circumstances. Therefore, it waived a month’s rent from the arrears and awarded £100 discretionary compensation.
8. The arrears had accrued from the start of the tenancy on 8 January 2019 and the first UC payment was received on 5 June 2019. The resident was responsible for the payment of rent from the beginning of the tenancy. The resident had made contact on 3 April 2019 to advise that the money saved for the rent payments had been stolen. Following that call, the rent account was activated. It offered a compensation award of £100 for the delay in the account being activated.
9. It recognised that it had delayed registering the complaint from 20 August 2020 to the date it was registered on 6 October 2020. It awarded £100 for this delay and £50 for its delay in responding to the escalated complaint.
10. It made an overall compensation award of £821.75. This is broken down as: offset of one month’s rent and service charge £471.75 and £100 compensation for one month’s delay in failing to act on resident’s financial circumstances; £100 for the delay in setting up the rent account; £100 for its failure to register the formal complaint and the poor communication and £50 for its delay in responding to escalated complaint.
11. It advised that it had learnt from the complaint and would be reviewing its requests for a management transfer on a more frequent basis to ensure that there were no delays in rehousing vulnerable residents and undertake checks to ensure that accounts for new tenants were set up in a timely fashion.
On 1 March 2021, the resident contacted the landlord to request compensation for the distress caused by the landlord’s action and that between May 2019 to November 2019 she was without a home and requested compensation for the lack of a safe address. In addition, she advised that she did not want the compensation payment credited to her rent account as she was paying off the arrears at £18pcm and that she should not be liable for the arrears due to the severity of the abuse.
The landlord responded to the resident’s communication on 23 March 2021, referring to its conversation with her on 18 March 2021. It signposted the resident to its insurers regarding her request for compensation for stress, emotional and mental distress advising that it would be best dealt with as a personal injury claim rather than through its complaint procedure. In addition, under the terms of the tenancy agreement, the resident was liable for the rent payments. Its complaint review had identified service failures and that it had awarded compensation for that. It was unable to waive the rent payments for the period that she was not living at the address and that the rental payments would be due even if the management transfer had been approved earlier.
It confirmed that the compensation payments would be paid to the rent account in line with its compensation procedure when there are arrears on the rent account. Furthermore, the complaint had exhausted the complaints procedure as its formal response had been sent on 22 February 2022 and it signposted the resident to this Service.
The resident remained dissatisfied and escalated her complaint to this Service.

Assessment and findings

It is clear from the resident’s submissions that she has been distressed by the landlord’s actions. The resident’s feelings are duly acknowledged and it is not disputed as a survivor of domestic abuse, the situation would have been stressful for her.
However, the Ombudsman’s role is to consider the landlord’s response to the resident’s concerns and to the formal complaint and consider whether its response was reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.

Request for the rent arrears to be waived.

Under the terms of the tenancy agreement, the resident is obliged to pay the rent for the property.
From what can be seen, the resident signed for the tenancy on 8 January 2019 and the landlord was responsible for setting up the rent account to enable the resident to pay her rent. The landlord experienced system problems and the rent account was not set up until April 2019 at least three months later. The landlord has been unable to provide a clear explanation for its delay in setting up the rent account, other than advising that it initially experienced system problems relating to a previous rent account. The landlord has not explained why its monitoring systems did not alert it that the rent account was not set up, neither is there any evidence that it spoke to the resident regarding her obligation to pay rent until she contacted the landlord at the beginning of April 2019 to advise that she had been unable to pay her rent as the money had been stolen.
The landlord reviewed its management of the resident’s rent liability. Once the rent account was activated in April 2019 and it was aware that the resident was not working and not entitled to benefit, it took action to ensure that the resident was entitled to the appropriate support. It made a referral to the HPU for support with the rent and before it could make an application for DHP, the resident had advised that she had done so. These were appropriate actions to take to help minimise the resident’s rent liability. However, the landlord also considered an abatement for the period 8 January 2019 to 4 June 2019. The available evidence does not provide information on the reasons that the landlord did not pursue this course of action which is a short coming as this would have provided information on the factors that it considered in coming to its decision regarding the resident’s rental liability.
In its complaint review, the landlord acknowledged that it had failed to activate the resident’s rent account for at least a three-month period until she made contact in April 2021. It stated that it had learnt from the complaint and it had put mechanisms in place to ensure that new accounts were set up on a timely basis. However, it considered that the resident was still liable for the rent payments and offered a compensation award of £100 for its delay.
In considering whether the landlord’s offer of compensation is reasonable, the Ombudsman has taken into account, the landlord’s compensation policy and this Services’ own Dispute Resolution Principles: be fair, put things right and learn from outcomes.
Looking at the landlord’s failure to set up a rent account within a reasonable time frame, the landlord has said that the resident is responsible for paying the rent from the tenancy start date. Whilst this is correct, the landlord also had a responsibility to set up the rent account, which would have enabled it to take earlier action to prevent the resident’s arrears arising. Therefore, the landlord’s offer of compensation of £100 for its delay in setting up the rent account does not represent reasonable redress for this service failure.

Request for a management move

The landlord acted appropriately and reasonably when it assessed the resident’s need for a management transfer. In accordance with its allocation policy the resident was placed in the urgent band of rehousing and the landlord informed the resident that if she could not remain at the property, she could contact the HPU to obtain alternative accommodation. This enabled the resident to obtain alternative accommodation if she could not remain with family and also provided reassurance that she had been awarded a priority for rehousing.
The landlord obtained confirmation from the police on 2 May 2019 regarding the domestic abuse and its first assessment approved the management transfer on the basis that the resident reduce the rent arrears. This was in line with its policy that before a management transfer can be approved, an arrears payment plan should be in place. The landlord received confirmation on 11 June 2019 that the resident had experienced financial coercion and it reviewed the resident’s management transfer application. On 16 July 2021, it agreed a management transfer for the resident without any restrictions applied.
In its complaint response, the landlord acknowledged that there had been a month’s delay in reviewing the resident’s management transfer and agreed to waive a month’s rent (471.75) and awarded compensation of £100. This was in accordance with its compensation policy which recommends awards of between £250 to 700 in recognition of service failures which it has identified and resolved. This was reasonable and proportionate as the landlord has recognised the resident was impacted by its delay in agreeing the management transfer.
The landlord aims to rehouse residents under its management transfer policy within three months. In this particular case, the landlord has acknowledged that between April 2019 to July 2019, it approved the management transfer on the basis that the arrears be reduced. Once it agreed the management transfer in July 2019, the resident provided her areas of preference that she wished to move to on 18 July 2019 and advised that she did not wish to remain in the local authority area. In accordance with its allocations policy the landlord appropriately checked the availability of accommodation in the various regions to see if it there was suitable accommodation available for the resident that it could offer her.
The available evidence shows that there was no suitable accommodation available in August 2019. The landlord in its complaint response advised that the resident was offered the first suitable property that became available in October 2019 that matched the resident’s requirements. Looking at the available evidence, the landlord has accepted that it delayed by one month in responding to the police disclosure on 11 June 2019 that the resident was a victim of financial coercion. The management transfer was approved in July 2019 and it made an offer of alternative accommodation in October 2019, just within the three-month period. Whilst the landlord’s allocation policy recommends that offers of permanent accommodation should be made within a three-month period, it recognises that on occasions this may not be possible and sets out the steps that the landlord should take in those circumstances.
Looking at the landlord’s overall handling of the management transfer, the landlord has recognised that there was a month’s delay in approving the management transfer. Once it was approved, it checked the availability of alternative accommodation for the resident and made her an offer of permanent accommodation in October 2019. The landlord has acknowledged its delay and offered an overall compensation award of 571.75 which represents reasonable redress for this.

The related complaint

The landlord operates a two-stage complaint procedure with complaints answered within 10 working days at its first stage and 20 working days at the second stage.
The resident’s representative made a complaint to the landlord on the resident’s behalf on 7 July 2020. When a response was not received, the resident completed the landlord’s online form to make a complaint. The resident contacted this Service in October 2020 when she did not receive a response to her complaint. This was not appropriate as the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code sets out that landlords are expected to have systems in place to ensure that complaints are registered and complaints responses provided within ten working days.
The landlord registered the resident’s complaint on 7 October 2020 and responded to the resident on 22 October 2020. This was just outside its published service standard of 10 working days.
The resident escalated her complaint on 25 November 2020. The landlord took over two months before it contacted the resident on 4 February 2021 to discuss the complaint. The resident chased the complaint response on 19 February 2021 and the landlord provided its final complaint response on 22 February 2021. This was inappropriate as it took nearly 60 working days for the landlord to provide its complaint response.
In its review of its complaint handling, the landlord awarded a compensation payment of £100 for its delay in providing the complaint response from July 2020 to October 2020. In addition, it awarded £50 for its delay in providing its complaint response.
The landlord’s award of compensation reflects its delay in assessing and progressing the resident’s complaints at both stages of the complaints procedure.

Determination (decision)

In accordance with paragraph 52 of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for the rent arrears to be waived.
In accordance with paragraph 53 (b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was reasonable redress in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s request for the management move, which in the Ombudsman’s opinion resolves the complaint satisfactorily.
In accordance with paragraph 53 (b) of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, there was reasonable redress in the landlord’s handling of the related complaint, which in the Ombudsman’s opinion resolves the complaint satisfactorily.

Reasons

There was an unreasonable delay in the landlord setting up the resident’s rent account, which did not come to light until the resident contacted the landlord in April 2019 regarding her rent liability. The landlord has not explained why it failed to set up the rent account when the resident accepted the tenancy.
The landlord assessed the resident for a management transfer and in its review of the complaint it recognised that there was a delay in agreeing the management transfer for the resident. It awarded a payment of compensation for this.
The landlord failed to respond to the resident’s complaint made by her representative in July 2020 and by the resident in August 2020. The landlord also delayed in responding to the resident’s escalated complaint. The landlord apologised and made an award of compensation for this.

Orders

The landlord to write to the resident to apologise for the service failure identified in this report.
The landlord to pay the resident compensation of £363.98 (one month’s rent, less the £100 already awarded)
The landlord should confirm compliance with these orders to this Service within four weeks of the date of this report.