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Yorkshire-based housing association hit with regulatory notice after £3m rent overcharge
A 15,000-home landlord has been hit with a regulatory notice by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) after it was found the association had overcharged residents nearly £3m for rent over a decade.
In a note published today, the English regulator found that Beyond Housing, which operates across Teesside and North Yorkshire, was non-compliant with the Rent Standard after incorrectly classifying general needs accommodation as intermediate rent since 2010.
The error affected 486 properties that originated from Coast & Country Housing, which merged with Yorkshire Coast Homes to form Beyond Housing in 2018.
Previously, a Beyond Housing spokesperson told Inside Housing that the mistake affected just over 1,000 households, as multiple families had passed through some of the properties.
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Residents have been found to be overcharged a total of £2.89m over the period,
In its judgement, the RSH said Beyond Housing was not compliant with the Rent Standard. It also said the association was not compliant with the legislative requirements of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016.
Under the act, social housing providers in England were ordered to reduce rents by 1% each year between 2016 and 2020, which blew a massive hole in the sector’s finances.
The regulator was first alerted to Beyond Housing’s breach in March 2022, when the landlord self-referred after becoming aware of the issue. An external review followed and hundreds of properties were identified to have been misclassified prior to the first time they were let and that this was never rectified.
The judgement said that work is ongoing to fully understand the impact on current and former tenants, including evictions that took place during this period.
When discovered, Beyond Housing carried out a programme of actions, including establishing the level of overcharge for each tenant and starting a scheme to reimburse them, local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions.
The association has also reset all rents in question to the correct levels, as well as improved its auditing and validation of rent-setting and annual rent charges across all of its homes.
Rosemary Du Rose, chief executive of Beyond Housing, said: “The regulatory notice comes following an audit of certain rents within one of our legacy organisations and we immediately informed the regulator and appointed independent experts to verify the findings.
“We are contacting all the relevant customers, to apologise and ensure they are fully refunded as quickly as possible. We accept the findings and continue to work with the regulator to ensure that the required action plans are completed as quickly as possible.”
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