Social housing trust overcharges tenants by £479k

Social housing trust overcharges tenants by £479k

0:05 AM, 27th October 2023, About 7 months ago 2

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More than 180 tenants of a social housing trust have been overcharged by nearly £500,000, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) says.

Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) has admitted its failure to set rents correctly and vowed to reimburse the affected residents.

The trust, which owns around 2,600 homes in York, Leeds, Scarborough and Hartlepool, has been found non-compliant with the Rent Standard by the RSH.

The Rent Standard ensures that tenants have fair and affordable rents and was introduced in April 2020.

Exempted from the Rent Standard

According to RSH, JRHT made two major errors in setting its rents – firstly, it wrongly assumed that 89 of its units were specialised supported housing, which would have exempted them from the Rent Standard.

And it did not re-register fair rents for up to 400 tenancies, which resulted in exceeding the maximum fair rent.

Karen Doran, the RSH’s director of regulatory engagement, said: “Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust’s failure to set rents correctly has led to tenants being overcharged.

“It is now working with us to make sure it charges rents correctly and puts things right for the tenants who have been affected.”

Detailed review of rent setting

JRHT self-referred to RSH and is working with external advisors to resolve the issues and is carrying out a detailed review of rent setting across all of its homes.

It will identify and reimburse the tenants who have been overcharged and ensure its rent policies comply with requirements.

A JRHT spokesperson said: “JRHT have recently undertaken a proactive review of all the rents we have charged our residents in recent years.

“During this review we have discovered that we have incorrectly categorised 89 properties as specialised supported housing which resulted in the 1% rent reduction not being applied between 2016 and 2020.

“In a separate issue, we also found that as a result of not re-registering fair rents, the maximum fair rent has been exceeded on at least 183 tenancies which means that residents have been overcharged.”


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Comments

Old Mrs Landlord

10:42 AM, 27th October 2023, About 6 months ago

I wonder what sort of action a similar mistake by a private landlord would have triggered - as much as a £30.000 fine per property perhaps?

JeggNegg

10:50 AM, 28th October 2023, About 6 months ago

Is this yet another case where an Oops! Sorry is given by an inefficient organisation, and that is good enough!
we all make some mistakes in our lives but it would seem this mistake was identified internally but had occurred over a few years.

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