The error led to severe emotional distress and nearly resulted in the resident’s eviction.

The Housing Ombudsman launched an independent review into the landlord’s rent recovery practices, citing serious failings in how it managed the resident’s account and handled her complaints. As a result, Housing for Women has overhauled its record keeping, staff training, and complaint handling procedures.

Initially, the landlord told the resident she owed over £10,000. After the resident challenged the figure, the amount was revised to £2,000, and the landlord indicated it would take legal action. Just two days after Christmas, the resident received a notice seeking possession — a formal court document initiating eviction proceedings.

When the landlord failed to respond to the resident’s complaint, she turned to the Ombudsman for assistance. Despite the resident providing evidence that she had made the disputed payments and requesting access to her online rent account, the landlord pressed on with legal action. The resident said the experience left her “struggling to cope” and had a significant impact on her mental health.

The Ombudsman stepped in under its powers to investigate a complaint in the absence of a final response, after the landlord failed to engage or comply with a notice of complaint handling failure.

Following the Ombudsman’s intervention, Housing for Women has implemented new processes, safeguards, and staff training to ensure improved management of rent arrears and complaints. The landlord has revised its complaints procedure to align with the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and to encourage a more empathetic, person-centred approach.

In its Spotlight report on “attitudes, rights and respect,” the Ombudsman highlighted that the tone landlords use with residents can significantly affect service outcomes. In this case, Housing for Women’s tone was found to be dismissive and lacking in compassion, with no evidence that the resident was offered support or access to information.

The landlord attributed the failures to one staff member who was being performance managed at the time and was later dismissed. It also acknowledged a lack of oversight from senior management and insufficient understanding of rent processes within its finance team.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “Throughout this case, the landlord took an adversarial and heavy-handed approach, despite the resident expressing how the legal threats were affecting her well-being.

“This case exemplifies the imbalance of power that can exist between landlord and resident, and it nearly resulted in an unfair eviction. While residents must meet their obligations, landlords must act with empathy, especially when their decisions could have life-changing consequences.

“I welcome the extensive changes Housing for Women has made, particularly to its record keeping and alignment with the Complaint Handling Code. This case is a reminder of the importance of regularly reviewing arrears management and ensuring staff understand the resident’s perspective—especially given the ongoing cost of living pressures and high demand for affordable housing.”

In response to the Ombudsman’s findings, Housing for Women issued a learning statement outlining the issues identified and the steps taken to prevent future failures:

Key failures identified:

• The resident’s vulnerability was not taken into account.
• There was no senior management oversight of the case.
• The resident’s complaints were repeatedly ignored.

Actions taken:

• Introduced a new complaints policy and procedure aligned with the Complaint Handling Code.
• Developed a compensation policy with clear staff guidance.
• Created standardised templates to support appropriate and consistent complaint responses.
• Delivered comprehensive staff training on the new complaints processes.
• Implemented regular reporting and monitoring of complaints, with oversight from senior management and the Board.
• Updated the rent arrears procedure to include specific provisions for vulnerable residents, including requiring senior sign-off before issuing a Notice of Seeking Possession.
• Established quarterly meetings between the Head of Housing & Customer Service and the Head of Finance to ensure rent payments are correctly allocated.

Housing for Women concluded that the lessons from this case have strengthened its approach to complaints and arrears management, ensuring a more customer-focused and accountable service moving forward.