Rent Corrections
At the end of the summer our external auditors raised a concern about the way the Council calculated its rent charges dating back a number of years.
As a result of this work the Council has identified that some of our tenants have been overcharged rent, while some have been undercharged.
The Council has proactively referred itself to the Regulator for Social Housing and has contacted our tenants by letter apologising for the error.
We are now in the process of calculating any refunds owed. This amount needs to take into account any rent paid for using Housing Benefit or Universal Credit and any outstanding rent arrears.
We apologise for the error and wish to reassure our tenants that our housing team and Customer Service officers are there to support them.
The Government has guidelines for calculating social housing formula rents, using a set formula and at this stage we believe the Council did not apply this guidance as it should have, and based rents on an average capital value for each bedroomed sized property, rather than the individual capital value of each property.
We will continue to work with our auditors, the Regulator and our tenants to ensure correct rent charges are in place and that anyone facing financial hardship has the support they need.
Tenants do not need to contact us, we will contact our tenants. But anyone who is worried about rent charges or wishes to speak to a member of our team please email rentcorrections@middevon.gov.uk or call 01884 255255.