Decision Report 201800052

Summary

Mrs C complained that the housing association unreasonably failed to inform her of future service change when they offered her a tenancy. Mrs C signed a tenancy agreement for sheltered accommodation run by the association. Shortly after moving into the accommodation she was advised that the service provision was likely to change due to changes to funding provided by the local council. Mrs C complained that the association was aware of this change when she was offered her tenancy agreement.

We found that the change to funding provision was confirmed three working days before the offer of tenancy was made to Mrs C. A plan on how to communicate the new circumstances was agreed on the same day the offer of tenancy was made. Mrs C signed the tenancy agreement two days later. Given the short timeframe between the confirmation of change of funding, the initially unknown impact on what the future service provision would look like, and the need for the association to communicate the change to staff before tenants and prospective tenants, we found that the actions of the association were reasonable. We did not uphold this aspect of the complaint. We noted that, in recognition of the upset the situation had caused, the association had agreed to make a donation to a charity of Mrs C's choice.

Mrs C also complained that a letter addressed to her was unreasonably opened by a member of staff. In their response to the complaint the association advised that, as they did not have evidence that the letter was addressed specifically to Mrs C, they could not uphold the complaint. In the course of our investigation a copy of the letter was provided which showed that it was addressed specifically to Mrs C. We upheld the complaint, though as the association had already revised their decision, upheld the complaint and apologised, we made no further recommendations.

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