A South London woman fell into rent arrears after a council miscalculated whether she could afford an increase, and her landlord added an extra £100 a month to the agreement.

Image credit: iStock

A watchdog investigation found Wandsworth Council's mishandling of the woman's case led to her signing a tenancy she could not afford.

The council agreed to pay the woman, named Ms X in the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report, £1,000 for the 'financial inconvenience' she was caused. The ombudsman found this to be a suitable remedy for the injustice she experienced.

Complaining on her behalf, a solicitor also claimed she had missed out on an offer of accommodation as a result of the errors, but the ombudsman agreed with the council's assessment that its mistakes did not cause her to miss out. Ms X submitted a homelessness application to the council in August 2022, after she received a section 21 eviction notice from her private landlord. The council accepted it had a duty to prevent her homelessness and negotiated with the landlord, who agreed to increase Ms X's rent to £1,100 per month to allow her to remain in the bedsit.

Ms X confirmed the rent was affordable and the council closed her case in September after making the verbal agreement with the landlord. She signed the new tenancy agreement later that month, however at that point the landlord had changed the demand to £1,200 per month. The ombudsman said the council should have made a more formal written agreement over the rent increase to avoid it increasing.

However the other issue that pushed Ms X into rent arrears was that the council had failed to consider whether she was subject to a benefit cap. This meant the council calculated that she would have more income than she actually did.

A housing action group complained to the council in November 2023 that the rent increase was unaffordable, and the authority had failed to consider if Ms X was affected by the benefit cap. The group said she had been left without enough money for basic supplies and had fallen into rent arrears as a result.

The council accepted it had made mistakes while assessing Ms X's homelessness application, including missing important information. It agreed to pay the rent arrears of £1,894, cover the ongoing shortfall in rent and give her £1,000 for the inconvenience she had been caused. The authority later confirmed it had accepted the main housing duty towards Ms X as well, placed her in band B on the housing waiting list and offered her temporary accommodation. She has also now moved into a permanent one-bedroom property.

The report said: "The council has accepted faults were made in the assessment of Ms X’s homelessness. The council did not consider or discuss the benefit cap with Ms X during the suitability and affordability assessment. This is fault and led to an unaffordable rent increase being agreed."