Biggest Birmingham 'exempt' housing provider Reliance ordered to compensate vulnerable tenants

Two vulnerable tenants were left living in dire accommodation with minimal support by the city's biggest provider of 'exempt' supported accommodation, Reliance Social Housing. The pair were 'pressured' into signing contracts, and complaints about repairs, a blocked drain pumping out raw sewage and lack of facilities went unheeded for weeks, a report by the Housing Ombudsman found.

The behaviour of the support workers involved and the firm's failure to accept anything untoward had happened suggested the issues in this case were not isolated and were 'systemic', the watchdog. Reliance Social Housing CIC was ordered to pay a total of £5,600 in compensation to the pair as a result of their actions.

They were also ordered to set out how it planned to improve. The company said today it accepted the ombudsman's findings.

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The firm is responsible for housing more than 11,000 people across the city, many of them vulnerable. It has been at the forefront of the recent explosion in provision of 'exempt' supported housing that has made Birmingham a national hotspot, drawing in vulnerable people, ex-prisoners, addicts, domestic abuse victims and people with mental illness to live in shared homes across the city with minimal supervision and support.

Last year the firm reported its turnover had rocketed to over £114 million, mostly via enhanced housing benefits paid to it on behalf of tenants. As a non-profit regulated provider, it passes on most of its income to profit making managing agents and support companies who they bring in to offer accommodation and support, often of very variable quality.

Reliance has come under fire in the past for the quality of some of its provision and it was named in Parliament by Ladywood's then Labour MP, now candidate, Shabana Mahmood for failing tenants. She told the House of Commons debate in 2022: “It seems to me that Reliance think they are too big to fail, that they’ve got Birmingham City Council over a barrel and they can essentially hold us all to ransom and therefore get away with utterly outrageous behaviour.”

The firm does not meet basic governance and financial compliance standards set by the Regulator of Social Housing after a ruling in 2021. Despite changes in leadership and board members, it is still not compliant.

In the two linked ombudsman complaints - the tenants were living at the same property - the regulator found multiple issues. It was a four bed property in Edgbaston and was an inappropriate place for their support needs, the ombudsman found.

One of the tenants suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and also had autism, ADHD and other disorders; the other had multiple mental health and physical issues. In an inspection in June 2022, the council's exempt accommodation team found ‘‘there were clear failures in the management of the building’’ and the residents ‘‘were not being adequately supported.’’

The firm failed to respond to multiple complaints from tenants, including a claim that the gas supply used for cooking, heating and hot water had been off for days on end, a blocked drain caused raw sewage to flood into the garden, and there had been no working fridge-freezer for a month. Residents had also complained they had no wi-fi as they were promised, while one tenant said they were never given the code to their bedroom to enable them to secure it, so was 'too scared to leave the room'.

Ms Mahmood took up their case after tenants produced two separate licence agreements for the same room in the house, one blank and signed, the other complete and signed. "She said this demonstrated poor record keeping or potentially fraudulent activity by the landlord," said the report.

Concerns about the level of support being provided - described by the tenants as 'sporadic' and usually no more than a one hour support session a week for all four of the house's tenants together - triggered an investigation by the housing benefits team. As a result of their inquiries, the council declared it would recover £3,198 paid to the company for one tenant. In the immediate aftermath the company issued an eviction notice to the tenant and attempted to get them to pay the money claimed back. They said it was the tenant's fault the housing benefit was rejected because they had 'failed to engage with support sessions'. In fact, the council had cancelled the housing benefit because the company could provide no evidence of any support.

Even after multiple exchanges, the tenants were still being failed. A blocked pipe meant raw sewage was pumped out into the back garden for days on end, and it took the landlord weeks to resolve, at the height of summer 2022.

The company had denied wrongdoing and claimed the support offered to the tenants met the definition of 'more than minimal' as required by law.

The exempt supported housing issue - as exposed by Birmingham Live

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The report highlighted how one of the vulnerable tenants asked for support to go through the occupancy agreement in full before they signed it so they were clear about what they were signing. In exchanges on text and in person, both presented in evidence, the landlord repeatedly failed to provide the full agreement for the tenant to read, insisted the tenant signed it anyway, and warned services and support would not be provided until they did so.

The regulator concluded: "Given the nature of the messages, the Ombudsman would have expected the landlord to have recognised that these were threatening, insensitive and lacked empathy.

"In such cases the landlord would be expected to apologise to the resident and take steps to prevent further incidents occurring, including addressing the content of the text messages with the support provider, but it failed to do so. That the landlord could have had sight of what were clearly inappropriate and threatening messages and to have not identified any issues with them represents such a comprehensive failure that it could be indicative of a systemic issue within the landlord."

And they added: "Given the seriousness of failings identified in respect of this element of the resident’s complaint, the understandable distress and upset caused and the lack of fairness shown to the resident, a finding of severe maladministration has been made."

SHOUTOUT - If you are living in exempt supported accommodation in the region, I'd like to hear from you, in confidence. Email jane.haynes@reachplc.com

Reliance was ordered to pay Tenant A a total of £3,850, including £1,000 for failures around the signing of the occupancy agreement; £1,000 for failing to respond to concerns about repairs and facilities; £1,000 for failures in providing support. The second tenant, referred to as Tenant B, received £1,750 compensation including £500 for their distress and inconvenience over the lack of support, and £700 for the time and trouble caused by poor handling of complaints about the suitability of the house and the tenancy agreement.

Commenting on the ruling, Shabana Mahmood said she was delighted at the outcome for the tenants. "In black and white over 38 pages of investigation, Reliance Housing has been found to have engaged in severe maladministration on five accounts. The ruling raises some serious questions about the systemic issues in Reliance that go back several years, and those acting for Reliance since 2018 should explain their part in this case.

“I fear that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the treatment of tenants in exempt accommodation across Birmingham.

“For too long, exempt housing providers have run roughshod over our communities, cramming vulnerable tenants into badly-run hostels and HMOs, turning tight-knit communities into the wild west. It’s right that Reliance should apologise to my residents, and I’d ask them to extend that apology to our entire city.”

Reliance Social Housing CIC statement

Reliance Social Housing acknowledges the findings of the Housing Ombudsman in relation to complaints made by residents living in the same property in 2022 and have taken the relevant action, they said. "The ultimate responsibility remains with Reliance Social Housing as the landlord and whilst the delivery of the scheme is outsourced to managing agents, we enforce the same high standards we hold ourselves accountable to." They said it 'terminated contracts with managing agents who did not meet its standards' and a new complaints process was now in place.

"The welfare and interests of all our residents is of paramount concern to Reliance Social Housing, and it takes all such matters seriously. We use theses unfortunate events as learning opportunities to strive for better services for our current and future residents."