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Landlord ‘fully reimburses’ residents £648,000 in overcharged rent after RSH investigation
Your Housing Group (YHG) has revealed that it has “fully reimbursed” residents who were overcharged a combined total of £648,000 in rent following an investigation by the English regulator, which yesterday withdrew its regulatory notice for the landlord.
The 29,000-home landlord was found to have breached the Rent Standard in June 2022 after the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) concluded that it had overcharged tenants.
An investigation was launched after a self-referral by Warrington-based YHG. The historic breaches occurred between April 2016 and March 2020. The residents were reimbursed in the early part of last year.
The breaches included a failure to apply the required 1% annual rent reductions on 254 properties in five extra-care schemes, as well as 48 general needs properties.
YHG also incorrectly set rents on re-lets for 780 social rent general needs properties and did not cap 128 secure rent properties in line with requirements, the judgement said.
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It was also found that YHG did not set rents in accordance with the rent policy statement on general needs properties that were re-let for affordable rent.
However, the regulator said yesterday that the issues had been “resolved” and that it had withdrawn the regulatory notice on YHG.
In a statement to Inside Housing, Jacque Allen, who took over as chief executive of YHG in 2022, said: “Every resident who was overcharged has been fully reimbursed and whilst we remain extremely sorry that this happened, we are pleased to confirm that the matter is now fully resolved.
“We’d like to thank the Regulator for Social Housing for the support they provided throughout to ensure a resolution was reached for all the customers who were affected as quickly as possible.”
YHG currently has a G2/V2 rating with the English regulator.
In February 2020, the landlord was downgraded to G2 due to a “lack of clarity about its strategy” and “material shifts in plans”. The regulator also flagged “evidence of under-investment in its existing homes”.
At the time, the landlord said: “YHG fully accepts the regulator’s judgement and we will continue to engage positively with them. We are proud of our V1 status for business viability and we will continue to work hard to retain it.
“We are disappointed that our governance rating has been amended to G2 and although this is still a compliant position, we intend to take all actions necessary to provide assurance to the regulator, with a view to restoring our G1 status at the earliest opportunity.”
29/02: This story was updated to add detail to the timeline of the breaches and make clear they related to the period 2016-2020 and to make clear the reimbursement took place last year.
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