Council fined over woman's rent increases

A council has been ordered to pay a woman £3,060 for charging her unaffordable rent while she was in temporary homelessness accommodation.

An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found Slough Borough Council (SBC) had failed to check if the woman - known as Ms X - could afford the accommodation and did not tell her of rent increases.

The council accepted it was at fault and offered to pay the difference between Ms X's housing benefit and the rental charge between February and March 2024 but the ombudsman said that was not enough.

SBC apologised and said it had "updated staff training to highlight the importance of affordability checks".

Ms X was placed in a one-bedroom flat by the council when she was homeless in October 2023.

She was charged £184.10 a week, which was the local housing allowance - the maximum amount of benefits a person can claim for private rented accommodation.

The rent increased to £455 per week in February 2024, and then to £525 in April 2024.

The council then refused to give Ms X permanent two-bedroom accommodation because she had accrued "significant rent arrears".

She went to the ombudsman after the council failed to uphold her complaint.

The ombudsman said Ms X's income was less than the difference between her housing benefit and the rest of her rent, so "on the balance of probabilities, the temporary accommodation was unaffordable for Ms X and therefore unsuitable".

"Ms X should not have had to make any payments towards her rent and should not have any outstanding amounts on her rent account," it said.

SBC was ordered to repay Ms X £2,760 for the rent payments made and to reduce her rent account balance to zero, as well as pay £300 for the "avoidable distress and uncertainty".

A council spokesperson said: "We acknowledge we failed to do the proper affordability checks on the temporary accommodation, and this led to Ms X being unable to pay the increased rent and then go into arrears.

"We apologise to Ms X for the upset and uncertainty caused and we have written to Ms X with our apology."

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