Hundreds of council house tenants overcharged in Mid Devon

Error has seen around 1,200 social housing tenants overcharged

Hundreds of social housing tenants have been overcharged by a Devon council, which has referred itself to a watchdog over the error.

Mid Devon District Council said an external audit had revealed it had mistakenly overcharged around 1,200 tenants and undercharged more than 1,600.

All affected residents have already been contacted by letter apologising for the mistake.

The council says it has “no intention of claiming back any money as a result of these historical underpayments”, while it was in the process of working out refunds for tenants that had been overcharged.

Refunds are complicated because some tenants may pay their rent with the assistance of housing benefit or universal credit, or may be in arrears, but the council hopes to have more details about what will happen within the next eight weeks.

It has referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing and is working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions.

A spokesperson said: “The government has guidelines for calculating social housing formula rents, using a set formula and at this stage we believe the council did not apply this guidance as it should have, and based rents on an average capital value for each bedroomed sized property, rather than the individual capital value of each property.

“We will continue to work with our auditors, the regulator and our tenants to ensure correct rent charges are in place and that anyone facing financial hardship has the support they need.”