Housing provider found to have overcharged hundreds of tenants

Shipley-based housing association, Incommunities, has overcharged a “significant” number of its tenants according to the Government’s Regulator of Social Housing. (RSH)

In a notice published today – 12 July – the RSH concluded that Incommunities Limited has breached the Rent Standard.

Following a self-referral, RSH found Incommunities had set rents incorrectly for hundreds of tenants.

It says the housing association had wrongly classified some of its homes as supported housing. It also set some of its rents incorrectly on re-let, and did not cap rents on some of its homes in line with requirements.

As a result of those errors a significant number of tenants have been overcharged.

RSH says Incommunities has committed to an external investigation into its rent-setting and is developing an action plan to ensure errors are rectified and to minimise the risk of any repeat.

It adds: “This work will identify the full scale of the errors and the number of tenants who have been overcharged. The affected tenants will be reimbursed by the provider.”

Maxine Loftus, director of regulatory operations, said: “Incommunities’ failure to set rents correctly has resulted in tenants being overcharged.

“We will work with Incommunities to make sure it puts things right for its current and previous tenants.”

An Incommunities spokesman said: “We always want to do the right thing and are absolutely committed to correcting the situation and putting processes in place to prevent this happening again.

“We remain committed to delivering the required improvements we have set out in our two-year plan.”