MID Devon District Council has apologised after mistakenly charging some of its tenants too much rent in the past.

External auditors raised concerns at the end of the summer about the way the council calculated its rent charges “dating back a number of years”.

The council has since found it historically overcharged some of its social housing tenants and undercharged others.

Most people affected by the calculation error were charged too little, the local authority said.

The council is “now in the process of calculating any refunds owed” for tenants charged too much rent.

It has reassured people charged too little that it has “no intention of claiming back any money”.

The council said that at this stage it believes it did not apply government guidance as it should have around calculating social housing formula rents.

Instead of basing rents on the individual capital value of each property, it based them on “an average capital value for each bedroomed sized property”.

“Our housing staff have already contacted every tenant affected, by letter, informing them of the issue and apologising for the mistake,” a spokesperson said.

“It is our intention to refund any overpayments tenants have made and all of our tenants will receive a further letter outlining any discrepancies in their rent accounts and detailing the next steps within the next eight weeks.

“Tenants do not need to contact us, we will contact you if you are affected, but anyone with concerns can call our customer services team if they wish.

“The council does not intend to claim back any money as a result of underpayments and would like to reassure tenants that any higher rent charges will not come into effect during an existing tenancy agreement.

“We also need to ensure before making any refunds the council considers how much of an individual’s rent payments have been paid by Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, or may be in arrears.”

The council added it has proactively referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing and said it is “working closely” with the Department for Work and Pensions.

Leader of the Council Councillor Luke Taylor said: “It is rare to uncover an historic anomaly within such a prescribed calculation as the rent formula.

“However, when such issues come to light it is down to the administration of the day to see that actions are taken to address them.

“We recognise the effect this may have on our tenants while we work swiftly to resolve this mistake and are sorry for any distress that this causes.

“We welcome the action our auditors have taken in spotting this error and are reassured by the immediate steps council officers have taken to contact our tenants, who will understandably be concerned by this news.

“Anyone owed a refund will be contacted by our team, you do not need to contact us, and we want to reassure all those affected that we will support them with any changes to their rent charges.”