Overcharged rent by housing association

dtj1990

Morning all,

Just want to see if anybody has any past experience/knowledge they can pass on please.

I was speaking with our neighbours (housing association flat) and it seems that i am paying £250 more a month rent than all of the rest of the flats in our block (6), all of the flats are the same size and we have all been there roughly the same amount of time.

I have confirmed that they do not receive housing benefit so i am not sure this is common practice that my flat should be more expensive than the rest of the block. I am going to query it with the housing officer but i just wanted to see if anybody here knows of anything similar.

theartfullodger

And when asked, then wrote, housing association about this what did they said?

AFAIK there is nothing unlawful about charging different rents, as long as for unlawful discrimination reasons

bouicca21

theartfullodger wrote: »

And when asked, then wrote, housing association about this they said?

AFAIK there is nothing unlawful about charging different rents, unless for unlawful discrimination reasons

Corrected that for you.

dtj1990

Thanks for coming back to me, just seems odd that everybody else in the block is on the same rent and mine is much higher.

[Deleted User]

It seems odd to me too, but sometimes some properties are let on an affordable rent basis, some on a social rent basis. Social rent rates are lower. Why specifically your flat should have a higher rent than others, I don't know but you'll have to ask.

gary83

How long have you been in the flat for? Presumably you’ve been happy living there & didn’t think you were paying £250 a month more than the market value? You signed a contract agreeing to rent that property at that price, if you’re no longer happy with that just because you’ve found out what other people are paying then move out.

If you’d asked around and discovered everyone else was paying more than you would you have been offering to increase your rent in line with theirs?

Cakeguts

Did the block used to belong to the council?

SallyDucati

gary83 wrote: »

How long have you been in the flat for? Presumably you’ve been happy living there & didn’t think you were paying £250 a month more than the market value? You signed a contract agreeing to rent that property at that price, if you’re no longer happy with that just because you’ve found out what other people are paying then move out.

If you’d asked around and discovered everyone else was paying more than you would you have been offering to increase your rent in line with theirs?

If it was a private rental I would agree, but as it's housing association I would expect them to all pay the same rent if the flats are identical.

dtj1990

I've been in there for 6 years, i have always felt it was expensive in comparison to other Housing association flats in the area. We are looking to move out in the next couple of years.

I haven't 'asked around' it came up in conversation and in all honesty the figure they are paying sounds about right for what the property is so I am enquiring as to whether they have made a mistake or whether it's common practice for the same flats to be priced differently on housing association.

dtj1990

I have raised the query with the housing association but it takes up to 5 days for a response. I have spoken to a few people this morning who thinks it is strange as housing association/council rents tend to be the same if the flats are the same.

dtj1990

Cakeguts wrote: »

Did the block used to belong to the council?

I don't think so, they were built by this housing association maybe 30 years ago.