Housing Association vs Council

Keruge

I have been trying to sort out a problem for my brother for may years and thought I would have one last crack at it.

My brother was in temporary housing facility the Local Council paid his rent,  he was then put into social housing some years ago and paid a week's rent as a deposit.

His deposit was shown as a payment in Housing Association statement, the Council pays his rent directly in arrears, confusingly they make random payments sometimes 3 weeks, sometimes 4 weeks and sometimes 1 week.

My brother asked me to look into it when he got a letter saying he was in arrears, I got him to request a full statement.  In the beginning the balance of the account would drop to being in credit by the initial amount of the deposit.

At some point a year or two later balance stopped reducing to the amount of the deposit, I don't remember the amount I think it was a few pounds less each week.

I called the Council about it and they said it might be because the HA had not told them in time of the annual increase in rent.

It seems that this happened on several occasions because the amount dwindled down to use up all of the deposit.

HA's are not obliged to protect the deposit in a Government approved scheme as private landlords are and so I imagine this happens to a lot of people.

Now his HA is merging so he asked me to sort it out before the merger.

My questions are

Do Local Councils pay the rent from the day the person moves in (considering they were paying his rent before so any delay would have been done on his previous place)

Who is liable for this, the Council or the HA?  The HA say he is entitled to have his rent paid in full, the Council say it is the fault of the HA for not informing them in time.

Savvy_Sue

I think you need to ask the council about their policy on paying historic arrears.

So let's say rent increases by £50 wef 1st April, but HA doesn't tell council until 1st May, what is the council's policy on paying that £50 due for April? If they say "we only pay from the date we're told about the increase" then he's on shaky ground. That would surprise me, but it's a long time since I worked for a HA.

However, I'd also suggest that the tenant has a responsibility to inform the LA if rent goes up, rather than waiting for it to filter through from the HA. Could he do this in future?

If he has additional needs which make dealing with offialdom difficult, then you could ask for support from the HA, to ensure information is passed on promptly, and to ensure he understands what's going on. In our HA, when certain tenants needed to reapply for housing benefit, the Housing Officer would phone and visit until that was done!

Keruge

Thanks Sue

The thing is he has nothing to do with his rent, it is paid by the Council to the HA,  both of which are expected to carry out their work with professional skill and care.  

The one person who is NOT liable is my brother, if he were a tenant of the PRS I would agree he had some duties or if he suddenly won the lottery (assuming he could afford a ticket) then he should inform them immediately.  The thing is that debt anxiety is a massive trigger for him and this arrangement to pay direct was forced on him (for good reason) to protect him from having to worry about the roof over his head.

My feeling is that if the cause IS the HA then they should be liable.

However, I am not entirely convinced that the mistake is all at the hands of the HA.

Savvy_Sue

Does he have a dedicated Housing Officer at the HA? And do you have power of attorney or other authority to speak to them? Or does he have an appointee? That's where I'd start. Unless the letters advising him of the arrears say different, and I don't mean the general arrears dept, but they may (should?) advise vulnerable tenants to contact x for support.

If no dedicated HO, ask at the HO who deals with vulnerable tenants, and bend their ear.

I agree there's likely to be fault on both sides.