A council has discovered that it has been overcharging its tenants by £1.4m over the last six years - and has now decided to pay them back
Following an emergency meeting of Mansfield district council housing committee this week, the council acknowledged that more than half of its 8,500 tenants had been overcharged.

The council promised that it would pay back the money in full. Some tenants could be re-paid as much as £300 for the error.

Head of housing Sue Jenkins told Housing Today that the blunder occurred because of an excessively complicated points system for rents based on the details of each property's attributes. She said that contractually the correct rent was paid, but added: "There was a discrepancy between the level of rents that should have been charged and the level that was actually charged."

The gaffe was spotted after a number of tenants complained that they were being overcharged. A full stock survey two years ago revealed that discrepancies started six years ago. "A number of anomalies came to light," said Jenkins.

"We have acknowledged that people have been overcharged and repayments will be made as quickly as we can."

Chair of housing Kath Tait said: "We as councillors have told tenants about the anomaly and that they might have overpaid and underpaid rent. I would appeal to tenants to just be patient and we will sort it all out."

The council plans to replace its points system with a simpler system.

Source

Housing Today