Ombudsman rebukes Newham for leaving resident with unaffordable rent arrears

A woman who was left with rent arrears after receiving wrong advice from the London Borough of Newham suffered maladministration causing injustice, local government ombudsman Tony Redmond has found.

He said both ‘Miss Thornton’ and her landlord sought advice from Newham about the local housing allowance rate for the home concerned, but were misinformed because “at least one officer failed to check the correct LHA rate for a property of its type in its location”.

This error had left Ms Thornton obliged to meet arrears she could not afford to pay.

The ombudsman recommended Newham to pay Miss Thornton £899.60 to make up the rent shortfall plus £250 for her time and trouble.

She had been living in temporary accommodation provided by the council with her four-year-old daughter and moved into the property concerned on the basis of this wrong advice.

Newham admitted to Mr Redmond that it gave wrong information because an officer believed the accommodation was in a different borough.

The officer thought the property was in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, and so eligible for the outer east London LHA rate, when in fact it was in neighbouring Redbridge and so eligible only for the less generous outer north east London level.

It offered to move Miss Thornton to alternative affordable accommodation through its bond scheme.  This helps homeless people in temporary accommodation by guaranteeing to landlords their deposit for private accommodation if the tenant leaves the property having caused damage to it.

But Mr Redmond said this was not a suitable remedy because she would “still be contractually liable for the rent as a result of the assured shorthold tenancy agreement she had entered into with her landlord”.

Miss Thornton and her daughter also did not want to face the additional upheaval and expense of a second move of home, he added.
Mr Redmond dismissed the council’s claim that the landlord and Miss Thornton should have been aware of which borough the property was in and so which rate applied.

“It was the council’s responsibility to give accurate advice, and the fact that neither Miss Thornton nor her prospective landlord identified the error would seem to indicate that they had a reasonable expectation that they could rely upon what they had been told without scouring the document for potential errors,” he said.

He also urged Newham to remind its officers to check the Valuation Office Agency’s website to seek correct advice on LHA rates.