Around 1,000 have come forward for Crawley rent refunds

Around 1,000 people have contacted Crawley Borough Council about refunds after being over-charged for their rent.
Crawley Borough Council has been arranging refunds for tenants inadvertently overchargedCrawley Borough Council has been arranging refunds for tenants inadvertently overcharged
Crawley Borough Council has been arranging refunds for tenants inadvertently overcharged

In November, the council revealed that some 1,700 tenants had been overcharged by about eight per cent since 2014, with £3.5m in refunds expected to be handed back.

At a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (December 15), leader Peter Lamb said every tenant – or former tenant – had been contacted twice with 61 per cent responding so far.

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Mr Lamb said many of them had chosen to leave the money in their rent accounts – presumably to ensure they would be covered ‘if something happens later down the road’.

Responding to a question from Zack Ali (Con, Gossops Green & North East Broadfield), he confirmed that one family who had been evicted before the over-charging came to light had been offered a Crawley Homes property.

Mr Lamb added that the council was working to ensure that anyone who had lost out due to the error was ‘put back to where they should be’.

The over-charging happened after the rent system changed from a 48-week year to a 52-week year.

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Speaking in November, deputy CEO Ian Duke explained that it started when Universal Credit was introduced.

Before then, tenants paid their year’s rent over 48 weeks rather than 52 to give them ‘rent holidays’ during the summer and at Christmas and Easter.

This had to change when Universal Credit came along, to make sure the rent system and the credit system could work together properly. 

Mr Duke said: “All the actuals were done right – but there is a separate calculation on our housing system called Target Rent, which is something the government insists on because they are trying to keep rents consistent across each region.

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“When we made the change, the Target Rent figure wasn’t changed to the 52-week year rent.

“What that meant was that the new rent was set at 52 weekly payments but at the 48-week rate, which meant that there was an eight per cent increase.

“It was simply that one change which has accrued over time. It was just not seen.”

A report to the meeting noted that the cost of the refunds would have an impact on the amount of money the council could invest in future housing stock in 2021/22.

Details will be shared in the budget monitoring report for the third quarter.