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Council overcharged 5,000 tenants after rent change input error
A local authority in the North East overcharged more than 5,000 tenants on their rent because of a data inputting error.
Darlington Council has apologised and notified the Regulator of Social Housing after 5,241 tenants were overcharged a total of £220,000 over a 10-month period.
The issue arose after a 2.70% rent increase agreed to take effect from April 2020 was accidentally entered into the council’s IT system as a £2.70 increase.
Tenants have been offered full reimbursement for the overcharged sums or the amount has been added as credit to their rent accounts.
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The overcharge represents an average of 81p per household per week, or around £40 in total.
Of those affected, 1,300 were paying rent directly, with the rest paying through housing benefit or Universal Credit.
Darlington Council is working with the Department for Work and Pensions on the issue.
The authority will not take a financial hit from the incident, as the overcharged rent had not been budgeted for in the Housing Revenue Account.
Kevin Nicholson, cabinet member for health and housing at Darlington Council, said: “We have identified that some council tenants were overcharged after a 2.70% rent increase agreed by councillors in February 2020 was inputted into the system as a £2.70 increase.
“This is a regrettable error and we apologise to all those affected.
“They are being fully reimbursed or offered the option of adding the credit to their rent account for this year.”
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