Decision Report 201708458

Summary

Mrs C complained that the association unreasonably communicated with her regarding her rent and rent arrears. We considered that, while the association was clear in the amount and frequency of payments, an element of their communication had been unreasonable and we upheld this aspect of Mrs C's complaint.

Mrs C also complained that her request for joint tenancy was unreasonably refused. We note that legislation states that a landlord must consent to the alteration of the tenancy unless they have reasonable grounds for not doing so. The association explained that they had refused the joint tenancy request as they had served a notice which warned that they may seek eviction and explained that the rent account was currently in arrears. The notice referred to was valid at the time and the association offered a reasonable explanation to explain their grounds for refusal. Therefore, we did not uphold this aspect of Mrs C's complaint.

Recommendations

What we asked the organisation to do in this case:

• Apologise to Mrs C for failing to reasonably communicate with her in relation to her rent and rent arrears. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/information-leaflets.

We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.

Amendment

When originally published (20/11/2019), this summary included the line: "We considered that, while the association was clear in the amount and frequency of payments, elements of the communication had been unreasonable and we upheld this aspect of Mrs C's complaint."

This has since been changed to: "We considered that, while the association was clear in the amount and frequency of payments, an element of their communication had been unreasonable and we upheld this aspect of Mrs C's complaint."  We apologise for this error.