Summary: Mr X complains the Council failed to recognise his requests for his tenants housing benefit to be paid to him. This meant the tenant fell into significant arrears which the Council has refused to backdate. The Ombudsman intends to find fault with the Council for failing to properly consider Mr X’s request and for failing to follow its own policy. This caused Mr X to incur financial debt. The Council has agreed to reimburse Mr X the money he would have received if there had been no maladministration. The Council has also agreed a financial payment for distress and a service remedy.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council ignored communication about his tenant not paying rent. This meant the Council paid the tenant benefits when it should have been paying this to Mr X to recover the unpaid rent.
2. Mr X complains the Council’s failure to act has cost him a significant amount in unpaid rent.
3. Mr X also complains the Council has not recognised the impact its failure has caused.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. 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

6. I considered Mr X’s complaint and information he provided. I also considered information from the Council.
7. I considered comments from Mr X and the Council on a draft of my decision.

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What I found

Council policy

8. The Council had a policy in place to ensure that landlords who had tenants claiming housing benefit could be paid the housing benefit directly should the tenant fall into rent arrears.
9. The Council’s policy said that when a tenant has been in rent arrears for eight weeks or more, the Council can pay the housing benefit directly to the landlord.

What happened

10. Mr X rents out a property to a tenant, Miss Z, who claims housing benefit from the Council to pay the rent.
11. The Council has a policy that if a tenant claiming housing benefit for their rent falls into rent arrears for over eight weeks, the housing benefit can be paid directly to the landlord.
12. In October 2021, Miss Z fell into rent arrears for Mr X’s property. Mr X’s representatives contacted the Council in December 2021 to advise Miss Z was now eight weeks in rent arrears.
13. Mr X’s representatives contacted the Council several times over the three months. Each time they contacted the Council they advised the rent arrears and asked Miss Z’s housing benefit be paid directly to Mr X. They did not receive a response from the Council until Mr X raised the issue with his MP.
14. The Council finally responded to Mr X’s representatives in February 2022. The Council said there had been an issue with the emails it received not being marked as urgent and not responded to. It agreed to suspend Miss Z’s housing benefit and make payment to Mr X going forward.
15. The Council apologised for the delay in responding to the requests made by Mr X, However, it declined to backdate it and directed him to claim it back from Miss Z or his insurance.
16. Mr X complained to the Council. He felt the Council had not followed its policy and had failed to pay him the money he should have received if the Council had responded to his request in a timely manner.
17. The Council’s final complaint response said it recognised it had not processed and responded to Mr X’s request in a timely manner. It agreed to pay the housing benefit to him in the future, but that it could not backdate the payment.
18. Mr X remained unhappy and bought his complaint to the Ombudsman.

Analysis

19. The Council’s complaint response has already accepted that it did not respond to Mr X’s request for nearly three months. The Council then agreed it would pay the housing benefit directly to Mr X going forward.
20. The Council said it paid the housing benefit to Miss Z in good faith that she would pass it on to Mr X. However, the Council had a procedure in place to pay landlords where tenants fell into rent arrears. This was the case with Mr X and Miss Z.
21. I am satisfied that if the Council had responded to Mr X’s requests in a timely manner, he would have been eligible for payments from the eight week of rent arrears. He also would have been eligible for a right to review for the time between December 2022 and February 2022. As the Council did not respond to him and only granted the request from February 2022, he was not able to request a review for this time.
22. It was the Council’s maladministration that caused Mr X not to be eligible. Therefore, it should have backdated the payments to ensure it remedied the injustice caused to Mr X because of its maladministration.
23. The Council’s failure to do this caused Mr X further distress and caused him to use his saving and incur overdraft and credit card charges in order to pay his mortgage.

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Agreed action

24. Within 4 weeks of the final decision the Council has agreed to

• Write to Mr X and apologise for the fault identified above
• Reimburse Mr X the costs he would have received from the eighth week of Miss Z’s housing arrears. This amounts to £2294.
• Reimburse Mr X the costs of his overdraft and credit card charges.
• Pay Mr X a further £200 in recognition of the distress caused to him by the Council’s maladministration.

25. Within 12 weeks of the final decision the Council has agreed to

• Review whether any further requests like Mr X’s were missed and identify what steps the Council can take to ensure that this does not happen again.

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Final decision

26. I have now completed my investigation. I find fault with the Council for failing to properly consider Mr X’s request for housing benefit to be paid to him on behalf of his tenant. I also find fault with the Council for failing to remedy the injustice caused by its maladministration.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman